Holland Park School

Holland Park School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form in Holland Park, London, England. In 2013, it has attained academy status. Opened in 1958, the school became the flagship for comprehensive education, and at one time had over 2,000 students. A number of high-profile socialists sent their children to Holland Park School, and it became known as "the socialist Eton". The Labour politician Tony Benn and his wife Caroline sent all four of their children to the school.Education at Holland ParkIn the 1960s and 1970s, the Holland Park School philosophy was to ensure large student numbers 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. A similar philosophy and scale applied to other comprehensive flagships such as the other "Labour-party Eton", the Haverstock SchoolIn 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" . 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.