HOLLAND PARK SCHOOL

'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, in its heyday served over 2000 students per annum, and became known as the "socialist Eton." 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.

Contents

Education at Holland Park

School Organization

School Publication

School Building and Land History

Notable Alumni

Notable Teachers

Holland Park Trivia

Notes

External links

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. Because 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" ('H'olland 'P'ark 'S'chool).
In the 1970s, under the inspirational idealist Derek Rushworth, streaming was totally scrapped in favour of total egalitarianism. Another aspect of the egalitarian regime was that many school traditions were scrapped and in the 1970s there were no school awards for achievement, so as not to outcast the 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 poor achieving students would perform better if not segregated, but rather immersed in an equal learning environment. However, some have argued that education dropped to the lowest common denominator. Nevertheless, in the 1990s and beyond the school began to revert to more traditional teaching practices.
Loyalists 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 argue the school was on a downward spiral and "more of the same" would only have worsened the situation—and that the school's improved performance when it returned to more traditional values is evidence the comprehensive experiment was doomed from the outset.
Relatively few lower school pupils progressed to the Sixth Form; it was established practice for pupils to join the Holland Park Sixth Form from other London schools.

School Organization

The school was divided into eight "houses" that were colour coded and each pupil wore a strip of the appropriate colour across the top of the pocket of the school blazer, thus:

★ Newton: Dark Blue

★ Fox: Green

★ Norman: Light Blue

★ Hunter: Red

★ Macaulay: Yellow

★ Maine: Purple

★ Addison: White

★ Wilberforce: Brown, later Pink
Notice that 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 Sets.
There was no daily routine of Morning Assembly. Only two days a week did the entire school go into Assembly. Wednesday was House assembly under the Head of House. The other two days were for Tutor Groups in the House setting.

School Publication

In the 1970's the school magazine was called ''Andarkoll.'' This name is an anagram of 'Holland Park' with the first letters 'H' and 'P' missing.

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 the library of Holland Park School.
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. The gate house, Thorpe Lodge, is still standing at the entrance from Campden Hill Rd and became an exclusive area for sixth form students in the 1970s. The original property also had its own apple orchard. Demolition began around 1957 and the first comprehensive school opened in 1958.
A half century later, there are two visions for what is the best future for the school and grounds. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's Planning Committee wishes to raze the current school building, replacing it with a 6-story hi-rise structure, 10 metres higher than any buildings in the area and with green gills to shield the windows from sunlight. They also propose to develop the school's South Playing Field with 95 luxury housing units and to cut down 59 old growth trees on the park-like school grounds. There is an alternative vision which would preserve the playing fields, the trees, make a smaller carbon footprint, and still improve the school, as well as giving the students a gym and swimming pool at half the cost of the Council's plan. As the school was built by the same architects who designed the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank and that has just been successfully refurbished instead of replaced, there is community support for leaning toward refurbishment rather than replacement.
In keeping with the history of quality education and forward thinking of the Holland Park School, it will be interesting to observe, in light of global warming, world-wide trends toward environmental preservation,and increased awareness of the psychological benefits of open spaces, how the conflicting ideas between proponents of an alternative vision and that of the Council Planning Committee will be resolved in 2007-2009.

Notable Alumni

★ Guy Burnet, actor

★ Derek Abbott, scientist ^[1]

★ Jenny Abramsky, director of BBC radio, ^[2]

★ Joshua Arnold-Foster, United Nations researcher, son of writer Mark Arnold-Foster

★ Hilary Benn, politician^[3], son of Tony and Caroline Benn

★ Melissa Benn, journalist, daughter of Tony and Caroline Benn

★ Oliver Bradbury, starred in ''Nobody's Hero'' ^[4]

★ Lady Emma Douglas^[5]

★ Omid Djalili stand-up comedian and actor

★ Yazz (Yasmin Evans), singer

★ Robbie Fields, owner of Posh Boy Records label^[5]

★ Flora Fraser, daughter of lady Antonia Fraser, writer^[5]

★ Prince Kadir Devlet Sultan Guirey, Prince of Crimea, descendant of Genghis Khan

★ Princess Selima Sultane Guirey, Princess of Crimea, descendant of Genghis Khan

★ Helen Handbury, philanthropist ^[8]

★ Angelica Huston, the Oscar-winning actress^[9]

★ Katerina Koneva, murdered by Andrezej Kunowski^[10]

★ The late son of John Mayall, musician

★ Alan Parker, PR magnate ^[11]

★ Children of film director Ken Russell

★ Polly Toynbee, writer

★ Emily Young, sculptor, daughter of author/politician Lord Kennet

★ Drummie Zeb aka Angus Gaye of Aswad

Notable Teachers

★ Dr Derek Rushworth, Headmaster, former Major in The Rajputana Rifles Indian Army, obtained his doctorate at the Sorbonne.

★ Andy MacKay, Music Teacher^[12], went on to become the saxophonist for the group Roxy Music.

★ Mike Walling, English teacher, was a winner on the TV show New Faces in the late 1970s. He had a comedy double act called "Walling and Lyle." His comedy career was set back after his partner Lyle died of a heart attack. He then built up his comedy career on his own. As well as a number of parts in TV commercials he has starred in the British television sitcoms ''Brush Strokes'' and ''The Smoking Room''.

★ Geoff MacDonald, History teacher, creator of satirical school newsletters.

★ Lord Scantlebury, Geography teacher

★ Terry Furlong, English teacher^[13]

★ Bertram Pockney, Russian scholar^[14]

★ Mary Marsh, head teacher who went on to become head of the NSPCC.

Holland Park Trivia

★ In 1973, the school snubbed the wedding of Princess Anne by working through the national holiday given to schools and giving children the day off later.

★ In 1970, journalist George Gale, then editor of ''The Spectator'', claimed that Holland Park girls were running a vice ring at the school.

★ 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.

Notes

1. Abbott biography
2. Abramsky biography
3. The Sunday Times (May 2006)
4. Information on ''Nobody's Hero''
5. Memoirs of Robbie Fields
6. Memoirs of Robbie Fields
7. Memoirs of Robbie Fields
8. The Times (Nov 2004)
9. The Sunday Times (Feb 2006)
10. BBC Report on Koneva murder
11. Sunday Times profile on Alan Parker
12. Andy McKay biography
13. Obituary of Terry Furlong (Head of English)
14. The Times (Aug 2004)

External links

★ Holland Park School website

★ BBC League Table for Holland Park School

★ TV Documentary

★ Sunday Times article (Aug 2006)