Holland Park School

[Taxwolf]

Interesting reading for current or ex pupils or their parents. I am glad former students are coming together to speak out, including my DC.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/08/the-trauma-stays-with-me-ex-pupils-of-london-school-tell-of-toxic-and-abusive-environment?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

None of that is news to any parent who has had to beg the school for pastoral support to help manage teenage trauma the school itself has caused. Good on those brave kids for speaking out.

(Not that pastoral support was ever forthcoming. )

What would you advise someone to do if something similar is happening at the school they used to attend (asking for a friend if you see what I mean)

Fiona Millar of the Guardian did a piece about the toxic working environment for teachers at Holland Park. It is quite a high profile school so I guess more interesting than some. The ex pupils initiative seems to have come out of that.

The Guardian have run critical pieces about that school before.

Maybe lobby the LEA or the Governors. If enough people speak up, they will have to listen.

I was a serial complainer when my DC were at the school but while many people grumbled, few would actually challenge what was going on.

Comefromaway I'd ask around and see what kind of experiences other parents and students had and are having. It's much more difficult for them to dismiss you as merely a troublemaker or a misfit if you have even a small group.

I worked in a school just a mile or two down the road from HP that was very similar. Outstanding on paper, loved to shout about that, but toxic work environment, overpaid superhead and kids with SEN or mental health issues scraped under the rug like dirt. Cheating in exams. Cheating in baseline assessments ('You can't give that child that high level, it won't look like they've made any progress when they get to year 9' despite work clearly meeting criteria for high level)

It genuinely took me ten years to get over my time working there. It was like being in a fish bowl. I shopped them to the exam boards for cheating and later found out that several colleagues who had also left had done the same. They got away with it.

Just spotted this other recent thread on the same topic:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4317476-Holland-Park-School

There’s currently a petition on Change calling for a QC chaired inquiry into the treatment of students at HP.

I had no idea about the inappropriate relationships between pupils and staff which occurred during the time I was an HP parent.

My DC showed me a recording of a teacher screaming and shouting and a screenshot of a kid whose picture was displayed on the plasma screens as a ‘wanted’ poster for the crime of getting D grades in his exams. It makes my blood run cold.

I know someone who worked there. They didn't stay long!

My kids are in the school. I greatly regret sending them there (will whip them all out when they finish GCSEs - no way are they staying for 6th form). It's a revolving door for teachers - the school recruit fresh-faced new graduates and burn through them at a pace of knots! No consistency for students whatsoever. Great kids, great teachers but a toxic culture which means very few enjoy their experience.

It is well known amongst teachers in London that it is a toxic place to work. They like to employ newly qualified teachers so they are on the lowest pay grades. They then work them into the ground and treat them terribly.

They are then quite happy when teachers leave as they replace them with more newly qualified teachers, back on the lowest salaries.

SLT are paid well and spend their days doing walk about of the school and terrorising and criticising lessons.

a screenshot of a kid whose picture was displayed on the plasma screens as a ‘wanted’ poster for the crime of getting D grades in his exams

My kid told me about those at the time. The plasma screens were all around the school, so these "wanted" posters (styled like old cowboy posters) could be seen by everyone. Honestly, just that alone is enough for an investigation.

More on the toxic environment at HP
schoolsweek.co.uk/chair-of-governors-at-toxic-holland-park-school-resigns/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Education%20-%20Friday%2024%20September%202021&utm_term=Education

Looks like they have now forced out the Chair of Governors in an attempt to brush all this under the carpet.

She was previously head of Education at RBKC (the borough the school is in although it’s been an academy for a while). Interesting she’s gone, sounds like a major conflict between the school and governing body.

Those links should be required reading for all those parents currently looking at schools for secondary transfer. On paper (Ofsted, E Bacc, A8, P8) Holland Park would appear to be a great school and is very popular with a particular breed of W London parent (certainly at my child's primary). But in the end how much are these types of parent willing to sacrifice for bragging rights and a clutch of top GCSE results? Surely not their child's mental health? Or maybe they are!

That’s a good point @staringattheceiling

Unfortunately it was my DD’s 5th choice as the others around here were even more dire. Unless you go to church, your choices are very limited. She left the school 6 years ago after GCSEs and it’s only in the last couple of years of Uni and starting to work that she has regained some confidence and has less anxiety.

Incidentally, I come from Notting Hill and several contemporaries who went to the school under the old regime, have suffered from mental health issues they blame on the school - drug use and bullying was rife.

It looks like the HT is leaving. Hopefully, things will go in the right direction now.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/29/headteacher-to-leave-top-london-school-facing-safeguarding-allegations

TBH I think he is retirement age. He will probably launch himself as a consultant. I hope they don’t put Chappell up for the role. The two of them are a double act.

Unless you go to church, your choices are very limited. She left the school 6 years ago after GCSEs and it’s only in the last couple of years of Uni and starting to work that she has regained some confidence and has less anxiety

I recognise this. Unless you are Catholic, or rich enough to go private, or have some kind of pull somewhere, there's not much choice at all in the area. We put HP on the list because it was literally the only non-Catholic state secondary school within any sort of plausible catchment area.

As for the head leaving - that shouldn't let him off the hook. He's an absolute disgrace.

And the top members of the "leadership" team - a bunch of out-of-control bully boys in Hall's image, for the most part - are culpable as well. Chappell and Wilson are the Crabbe and Goyle to Hall's Draco. (Except at least Draco was redeemable.)

Hall needs investigating, prosecuting if necessary, and a very close look at his assets. He shouldn't go out with a party and a gong.

It is absolutely a myth that HP is the only option for non-Catholic secondaries in the area. What about Kensington Aldridge - Sunday Times Secondary of the year in 2018? West London Free School? Ark Burlington Danes or Chelsea Academy - both may be church schools but have at least half their places set aside for non-church goers? All within easy commuting distance for residents of RBKC. Not to mention the options in Hammersmith and Fulham.

@staringattheceiling

It is absolutely a myth that HP is the only option for non-Catholic secondaries in the area. What about Kensington Aldridge - Sunday Times Secondary of the year in 2018? West London Free School? Ark Burlington Danes or Chelsea Academy - both may be church schools but have at least half their places set aside for non-church goers? All within easy commuting distance for residents of RBKC. Not to mention the options in Hammersmith and Fulham.

If you knew anything at all about the area, you'd know that there are (or at least were) plenty of places in the neighbourhood which are on the very edges of all the available school catchement areas, so it's hard getting a place. My DS only got into HP (which I bitterly regret) because he was in a primary school which Hall later cut off for not being the "right" demographic for him (ie rich, white, would otherwise go to private school). It was literally the only local school that was available at that time - he started secondary before KAA opened, though I'd send any kid to KAA in a heartbeat. I knew other local children in his year that were left without any secondary school place at all. So not a "myth".

In addition, a non church going child who doesn’t attend certain feeder schools and lives close has no chance of Chelsea Academy. Since Mr Hall and his lackeys decided to redraw the catchment area (I was one of the few who objected) no North Kensington children can attend HP unless they get in on Art Aptitude.

Aldridge has a good reputation but you have to live in catchment and within that relatively close.

According to the RBKC secondary admissions brochure KAA offered to a distance of 0.698 miles to out of catchment applicants in March last year, and that distance would have been considerably further by September.
According to their website Chelsea Academy offered to a distance of 1.56 miles for non-feeder school applicants by September

All the original offers at Chelsea were to church places and the feeder schools. There is movement on the waiting list but no child from North Kensington would get in unless they went to a C of E church in the Deaneries. Incidentally that excludes CofE kids that worship elsewhere, other Protestant churches and other Christians, Orthodox for example.

KAA has a waiting list for all years with some children literally living next door. Only 12 places went to out of catchment applicants on offer day. KAA have taken an extra class for the last couple of years above the published admission because of the pressure on places but I don’t think that can continue

I know of children in North Kensington who live in a school ‘black hole’ and were not offered any school in the Borough.

Neither of those schools was available to my daughter when she applied and Holland Park was her 5th choice and the only offer she had. She was offered an art aptitude place although at the time we fitted the then distance criteria.

I sat on appeals panels in the area for many years and to say that all children in the area get offered a school of choice or any local school is untrue. Some families are always in difficulty purely because of location.

to say that all children in the area get offered a school of choice or any local school is untrue. Some families are always in difficulty purely because of location

Exactly.