Holland Park School

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Holland Park School
Established 1958
Type Comprehensive Secondary
Headmaster Colin Hall
Students c. 1500
Grades Y7 - Y13
Location Airlie Gardens,
High Street Kensington, London, United Kingdom
Colours Black and Blue
LEA High Street Kensington/Notting Hill Gate
Reference
Age Range 11 - 18
Website Holland Park School Homepage

Holland Park School was opened in London, UK, in 1958 and was the first purpose built comprehensive school. It became the flagship for comprehensive education, and in its heyday had over 2000 in the student body. It became known as the "socialist Eton"[1], and a number of high-profile socialists sent their children to Holland Park School, adding to its reputation as a liberal institution. Tony and Caroline Benn notably sent all 4 of their children to Holland Park School.[2]

Contents

[edit] Education at Holland Park

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Holland Park School philosophy was to ensure large student numbers (over 2000) with the idea that the resulting size would enable more subject choices for the students. Indeed, amongst the more typical foreign languages, both Russian and Spanish were taught.

In the early 1960s, each school year was divided into A,B,C,D, and E streams up until the 3rd year. As the groups were so large, they were again divided, typically into 3. Later the "A" "B" etc grading was considered to be bad for children's self-esteem, so "A" "B" and "C" were replaced by "H" "P" and "S" (Holland Park School).

In the 1970s, under the inspirational idealist Derek Rushworth, streaming was totally scrapped in favour of total egalitarianism. Another aspect of egalitarian thought was that many school traditions were scrapped and in the 1970s there were no awards for academic achievement, in order not to demoralise low achievers. Dr Rushworth nevertheless favoured high achievement in niche areas, and himself continued to teach Latin to children who requested lessons.

The theory was that poorly achieving students would perform better if not segregated, but rather immersed in an equal learning environment. Some argue that such and educational philosophy causes teaching to drop to the lowest common denominator, and in the 1990s the school began to revert to more traditional teaching practices.

Loyalists of the egalitarian approach argue that the experiment was never given a proper chance: Holland Park was the only fully comprehensive school in a borough where middle class parents tended to favour private schools. Therefore, by definition, it was a sink school and thus some argue that the comprehensive experiment was never fully realised. Critics counter that the school was on a downward spiral and "more of the same" would only have worsened the situation. They hold that the school's improved performance when it returned to more traditional values is evidence the comprehensive experiment was doomed from the outset.

Traditionally, relatively few lower school pupils progressed to the sixth form; rather, it was established practice for pupils to join the Holland Park sixth form from other London schools.

[edit] School Organisation

The school was divided into houses. The houses were named after famous social reformers and abolitionists: William Wilberforce (1759-1833), Charles James Fox (1749-1806), Zachary Macaulay (1768–1838), John Newton (1725-1807). Joseph Addison (1672-1719) wrote the famous play Cato about freedom and liberty.

Some houses had special additional badges for optional private purchase. Maine had a large circular badge with a background of the house colour and the scales of justice. Each house was also subdivided into tutor tets.

Only two days a week did the entire school assemble. Wednesday was house assembly, whilst the other two days were for tutor groups within the house setting.

[edit] School Publication

First issue of Andarkol magazine, July 1976
First issue of Andarkol magazine, July 1976

In the 1976-7 the school magazine was called Andarkol, formed from Holland Park School and was the name of the cartoon dog which appeared throughout.[3] The magazine contained poetry, music reviews, cartoons, as well as articles about school plays, sports and student-contributed essays on comprehensive education and the representation of the school in the press. Before Andarkol the school had a magazine called Feedback, which ended in 1974.[4]

Students now receive a booklet about upcoming events around the school every half-term.

  • Alpha (1958-?) [5]
  • Feedback (?-1974)
  • Andarkol (1976-1979)

[edit] School Crest and Colours

The school's crest is a fox holding a dahlia in its teeth. The crest was emblazoned on the breast pocket of the navy jacket, worn as part of the school uniform. The choice of a dahlia as the flower was chosen in homage to Lady Holland, the principal landowning family in the area, who had introduced the flower to England in the early 19th century.[6]

The school's crest is no longer on the uniform, which instead has an "@" symbol on the breast pocket. The school colours used to consist of a white shirt with a navy jacket. Now it is a black jacket with a light blue shirt.

[edit] School Building and Land History

In 1808 William Phillimore (1748-1814), signed an agreement for the development of over 19 acres of land, which now is roughly occupied by Holland Park School and Queen Elizabeth College, north of Duchess of Bedford Walk. This contained seven particularly grand houses with large gardens. They were completed in 1817 after Phillimore died. Throughout the nineteenth century, and until the Second World War, they had a series of notable occupants. At one time in the nineteenth century the approach road was thought to be known as Dukes' Row, because two of the houses were occupied by Dukes: Argyll and Bedford and another, by the Earl of Airlie. The original intention was to create high-rise public housing, but subsequently after much local opposition, plans were advanced for what became Holland Park School which opened in 1958. Of the seven great houses on this part of the Estate only Thorpe Lodge (the home from 1904 until his death in 1950 of Montagu Norman, for many years Governor of the Bank of England) survives as and administrative building of Holland Park School and Kensington and Chelsea College. KCC and a local greek school are just some of the organisations that use the school after hours.

The school adjoins the famous Holland Park gardens in London. Prior to the building of the school a beautiful old mansion stood on the site complete with gate house, and apple orchard. The gate house, Thorpe Lodge, remains standing at the entrance from Campden Hill Rd and, in the 1970s, became an exclusive area for sixth form students. Local residents formed an action group to stop the building of the school, and its members included the future poet laureate John Betjeman.[7] These lobbyists were unsuccessful—the demolition began around 1957 and the first comprehensive school opened in 1958.

[edit] Headmasters

  • Allen Clarke (1958-1971)[8][9][10]
  • Derek Rushworth (1971-?)[11]
  • Margaret Pringle (1980s - 1990s)
  • Mary Marsh (?-2001
  • Colin Hall (2001-Present)

[edit] Notable Alumni

[edit] Notable Teachers

  • Dr Derek Rushworth, Headmaster, former Major in The Rajputana Rifles Indian Army, obtained his doctorate at the Sorbonne.
  • Lord Scantlebury, geography teacher
  • Terry Furlong, English teacher[29]
  • Bertram Pockney, Russian scholar[30]

Bel powely(Isabell powely)actress

[edit] Holland Park Timeline of Events

  • In 1970, journalist George Gale, then editor of The Spectator, claimed that Holland Park girls were running a vice ring at the school.
  • In 1973, the school snubbed the wedding of Princess Anne by working through the national holiday granted to schools and giving children another holiday in lieu.
  • In 1978, the Slits, an all-female punk rock group, performed at the school featuring on-stage masturbation as part of their act.
  • In 1980, the Skids Art-punk band performed a surprise concert in the playground outside the library.
  • In 2007, the school was featured in a news bulletin on ITV1's London Tonight commenting on the controversial plans to build a new school, set to cost £60 million.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Liverpool Daily Post (July 2007)
  2. ^ The Independent (Jan 2008)
  3. ^ Andarkol, issue 1, p1.
  4. ^ Andarkol, issue 1, p1.
  5. ^ The Telegraph (July 2007)
  6. ^ Guardian (August 2007)
  7. ^ Guardian (August 2007)
  8. ^ The Liverpool Daily Post (July 2007)
  9. ^ The Telegraph (July 2007)
  10. ^ Guardian (August 2007)
  11. ^ Guardian (August 2007)
  12. ^ Abbott biography
  13. ^ Abramsky biography
  14. ^ The Sunday Times (May 2006)
  15. ^ Information on Nobody's Hero
  16. ^ Memoirs of Robbie Fields
  17. ^ Memoirs of Robbie Fields
  18. ^ Memoirs of Robbie Fields
  19. ^ The Independent (Jan 2008)
  20. ^ The Independent (Jan 2008)
  21. ^ The Times (Nov 2004)
  22. ^ The Sunday Times (Feb 2006)
  23. ^ BBC Report on Koneva murder
  24. ^ Sunday Times profile on Alan Parker
  25. ^ Guardian (August 2007)
  26. ^ Guardian (August 2007)
  27. ^ Guardian (August 2007)
  28. ^ Andy McKay biography
  29. ^ Obituary of Terry Furlong (Head of English)
  30. ^ The Times (Aug 2004)

[edit] External links