Abstract
The United Kingdom’s 2010 Academies Act further widened the school and State relationship with free schools, in particular, becoming a model separately identified as endorsing and celebrating the neoliberal ideology of competition informed by market principles. The main features of the model are described and complemented with illustrative evidence from Ofsted inspections and research strongly suggesting that, rather than delivering an informed and inclusive approach as claimed by the government, they in fact are socially divisive and serve only to further accentuate class structures and prejudice. It is concluded that they should be replaced by open access, non-selective and fully State owned and funded approaches based on principles of equality and ant-discrimination.