| Motto | Floreat semper scola[1] |
|---|---|
| Established | 1958 |
| Type | Comprehensive Secondary |
| Headteacher | Colin Hall (HeadTeacher) |
| Associate Headteachers | David Chappell |
| Deputy Headteachers | Amanda Redfearn & Ross Wilson |
| Location | Airlie Gardens Campden Hill Road London W8 7AF England |
| Local authority | High Street Kensington/Notting Hill Gate |
| Students | c. 1500 |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Smith Jones Hirst Harris Seed |
| Colours | Black and Blue and Pink tie |
| School Years | Y7 - Y13 |
| Website | Holland Park School |
Holland Park School was opened in London, UK, in 1958. 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",[2] and a number of high-profile socialists sent their children to Holland Park School, adding to its reputation as a left wing institution. Tony and Caroline Benn notably sent all 4 of their children to Holland Park.[3]
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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 Latin, 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 late 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 late 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. His motto was "Everyone should know about everything," and critics saw this as leading to a dumbing down of the curriculum.[4]
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."
This viewpoint differs from some experience in the mid sixties when sixty or more fifth formers joined either the lower sixth on A level studies, or another thirty joined 6G that represented students on retakes of O levels or additional O levels, or Technical studies. These were joined by a smattering of imported socialists and academics such as the MP Roy Jenkins' son.
In their current web-site, the school treats it as mainly or entirely a parental responsibility that pupils should be "well-spoken".
The school was divided into eight houses, membership of which applied was a badge split in half, top half the colour that represents the house, and below black with the house name in white. A glance through the house names gives a strong impression of the school’s original ethos:
Only two days a week did the entire school assemble, this was within the Main Hall and four side halls, which opened out to form The Great Hall. House assemblies took place in the morning in the side halls with two halls alternating where they shared; whilst the other two days were for tutor groups within the house setting.
Thus pupils had the potential, in theory at least, for guidance from Form Teachers, Tutors, as well as their Class Subject Teachers.
There was a complete structure of Prefects, at the summit two head boys and two head girls, then headmasters/senior prefects, prefects, sub-prefects, and TSPs [Temporary Sub Prefects]. This separate organisation was particularly called upon when teaching staff took the decision to stop monitoring the substantial play-grounds, in the sometimes turbulent mix of social classes, religious and ethnic origins, and the heady mix of boy and girl in the 1960s. Mr Williams, in the mid 60s, one of two deputy heads, was required to dispense summary justice on boys presented by Prefects.
In the 1960s into the school is fully of dummies early 1970s the school magazine was called Octavo (the title being a reference to the number of houses at that time which numbered eight). In the 1976-9 period, the school magazine was called Andarkol, formed from Holland Park School and was the name of the cartoon dog which appeared throughout.[5] 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.[5]
Students now receive a booklet about upcoming events around the school every half-term.
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.[7]
The school's crest is no longer on the uniform, which instead has an "@" symbol on the left pocket cover. 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. The school tie consists of pink and black stripes. The Tie also has the "@" symbol.
In 1808 William Phillimore (1748–1814), signed an agreement for the development of over 19 acres (77,000 m2) 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.
There is a current proposal to redevelop the site and build a new sustainable school building that will make best use of natural light and deliver more efficient use of energy. However, the proposals are being hotly debated, with a major concern among many critics being the sale of the school sports pitches (for redevelopment) to fund the project. Critics include Tony Benn who referred to the scheme as "absolutely wrong, they're putting market forces above the children."[2]