Holland Park parents announce potential legal challenge against its move to join United Learning

Parents at a high-profile school, whose governors are proposing to transfer control of it to England’s largest multi-academy trust, have set out the basis of a legal challenge against the move.

The Holland Park School Parents Collective (HPSPC) are threatening to launch a bid for judicial review against its governing body’s in-principle decision for the school in West London to join the 75-academy United Learning Trust(ULT).

The parents, who have taken advice from barristers, are arguing that the choice to join ULT, which was made subject to “due diligence”, was illegal on the grounds that the community had not been consulted, and because the board was not properly constituted at the time it was made.

The detail

Holland Park, a large comprehensive which is sometimes described as the “Socialist Eton” and which had been led by one of the most highly-paid headteachers in England, has been in public turmoil since last year, when allegations surfaced that it suffered from a “toxic” working environment.

Much of the single academy trust’s board changed last September, with Jane Farrell appointed as chair of trustees and four other directors – all of which, as does Farrell, have multi-academy trust links – arriving in that month. In November, the Ofsted-outstanding secondary was handed a Notice to Improve by the government. This stated that governors should consider joining a MAT.