Analysing the impacts of free schools on neighbouring schools in England
- Date
- 25th June 2026 10:30 am to 11:30 am
- Venue
- Online
- Book now
About this event
In this latest talk in the Research Excellence Series, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is pleased to welcome Dr Rob Higham, Professor Jake Anders and Dr Golo Henseke, from the Free Schools Project Team at University College London (UCL) Institute of Education (IOE). The team were winners of last year’s ONS Research Excellence Award – People’s Choice Award.
In this session they will discuss the analysis of the impacts of free schools on neighbouring schools and students. They will examine mechanisms through which free schools may impact on their neighbours, including in terms of free schools’ academic quality, whether student enrolment in neighbouring schools changes with a free school opening and whether neighbouring schools perceive new competition and respond by taking any new actions.
They will then analyse whether the opening of a free school is associated with any improvement or deterioration in student attainment in neighbouring schools. Finally, they will analyse whether the opening of a free school is associated with any increase or decrease in social segregation in the surrounding local area and, if so, potential reasons for this.