Holland Park School

Education at Holland Park

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Holland Park School philosophy was to ensure large student numbers (over 1,900) 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). Nowadays, the banding system is divided into 4 bands, each with 3 levels inside them.

In 1970, streaming was completely scrapped in favour of total egalitarianism. Another aspect of egalitarian thought was that many school traditions were dropped and in the 1970s there were no awards for academic achievement, in order not to demoralise low achievers. Dr Rushworth, who became head in 1971, 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.

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 an 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-1960s 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.

School organisation

When the school opened in September 1958 it was divided into eight houses. The eight houses were originally called Addison, Fox, Hunter, Macauley, Maine, Newton, Norman and Wilberforce. The house system has been retained, though there have been changes to the number of houses, and their names. There are currently five houses: Anderson, Baker, Bennett, Chappell and Seeley. The earlier approach of naming houses after historical figures has been replaced by the approach of naming them after people, mostly governors of the school or teachers, who "mark a way of being that the school considers worthy and noble".

When the school first opened the entire school assembled on only two days a week, in 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-1960s, one of two deputy heads, was required to dispense summary justice on boys presented by Prefects.

School publication

In the 1960s into the 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. 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.

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

School crest and colours

The school's crest is blue and black.

School building and land history

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. On this land, seven particularly grand houses with large gardens were completed in 1817. Throughout the 19th century, and until the Second World War, they had a series of notable occupants. At one time in the 19th century the approach road was known as Dukes' Row, because two of the houses were occupied by dukes: the Duke of Argyll and the Duke of Bedford, while a third was occupied by the Earl of Airlie.

Of the seven great houses on this part of the Phillimore estate, only Thorpe Lodge (home of Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England, from 1904 until his death in 1950) still remains. It is a protected historical building that serves as an ancillary space for the school.

When plans to build the school were revealed in 1956, local residents formed an action group to stop the building, among its members was the future poet laureate John Betjeman, who worried about the trees; the naturalist Peter Scott, who claimed the children would frighten away nightingales; and the High Commissioner of South Africa, who feared that his garden parties would be ruined. The Kensington Post was inundated with letters from residents who feared that the school would "reduce Campden Hill to Earl's Court". The lobbyists were unsuccessful and the demolition began around 1957 and the first comprehensive school opened in 1958. It was officially inaugurated a year later by Lady Norman.

In 2004, planning for a new school building began. Although the proposals were hotly debated, with a major concern among critics being the sale of the school sports grounds to a property developer, as a way to fund the project, the new school building opened in 2012.

Headteachers

Notable former pupils

Holland Park School timeline of events