I COMPLETELY agree with Patrick Kelly (Letters, February 7). What justification can there be for a free school in York when so many of our schools are deemed to be good or outstanding?

As the free school group does not appear to have any specific new educational philosophy, one has to wonder whether the motivation is more about catchment area than the curriculum.

However, what if parents want a school that is not bound by the increasingly narrow national curriculum? A school without SATS; a school that preserves childhood; a school where children’s minds are not looked on as vessels to be filled, but rather as fires to be ignited?

York Steiner School offers all this and more, but receives no Government funding. If it gained free-school status it could offer this education for free, but how long would its unique educational philosophy survive before the Government decided to tinker with the curriculum?

So, “Free” schools, at what cost?

Tracey Lucas, Grange Garth, York.