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", 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.

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 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...
Read More