School which was forced into arms of England’s largest academy trust now facing crisis

Holland Park School in West London has announced departure of its fifth headteacher in four years, while NEU staff members put together an explosive letter warning of "unsustainable" situation under United Learning Trust.

 

A school which was handed to England’s largest academy trust in the teeth of a fierce community campaign now appears close to crisis, Education Uncovered can reveal.

This follows the announcement of the departure of its fifth substantive headteacher in four years, and with teachers warning, in an explosive letter to the school and trust’s leadership, of “unsustainable” workload pressures and staff shortages.

Holland Park School, in Kensington and Chelsea, West London, was the subject of intense local controversy during 2022 after its board, whose members had been parachuted in by the Department for Education, voted for it to join the United Learning Trust. The transfer was then pushed through by ministers after the campaign, which had been backed by the local authority and MP, lost a legal challenge.

Last Thursday, it was announced that Samson Olusanya, Holland Park’s headteacher only since last September, would be leaving to lead a school in Enfield, North London. The school described this as “disappointing,” in its letter to parents.

But in the meantime, a letter in which National Education Union members at the school warned of “unsustainable” staffing issues and a raft of other problems has been leaked to parents. This lifts the lid on a situation which parental critics of the transfer will see as vindicating the concerns they had.

ULT’s high-profile former director of secondary education, Dame Sally Coates, has now announced that she is to come out of retirement to lead the school for the third time, in response to these developments.

Mystery is also currently surrounding the school’s finances, with Holland Park’s last accounts before it joined ULT showing it to have had reserves of nearly £4 million, but with staff now complaining of pressures on its budgets and official figures for the academy putting its “revenue reserve” at only just over £1 million.

The detail

In a letter to parents last Thursday signed off only as from “Holland Park School,” it was stated: “We are writing to inform you that Mr Olusanya will be leaving the school to take up a post as Headteacher of a school in Enfield.

“We are disappointed by his decision but we wish him the very best for his future…we appreciate that parents and staff will be frustrated by another change in leadership and we share that frustration. We will ensure, however, that the progress that is underway at the school does not slow and that the school remains the calm and purposeful place that it has become.”

However, the number of leaders who have been in place since Holland Park’s longstanding position as a single academy trust first came up for official discussion underlines what for the community remains an intense sense of instability.

Colin Hall, its long-serving headteacher who had been one of the best-paid academy leaders in England on £280-£285,000 in 2020-21, was announced as retiring in September 2021, after claims emerged that the school suffered from a “toxic” working environment.

Two other headteachers then served during 2021-22, a further three including Dame Sally Coates on an interim basis in 2022-23, with Dame Sally then in charge during 2023-24 before Ms Olusanya took over last September. Two of these seven headteachers were only temporary cover appointments, meaning the school has had five substantive heads over the period.

This change at the top appears to have come against the backdrop of ongoing turmoil within the school more generally, according to parent sources and as now evidenced by a letter sent by NEU members at the school to Sir Jon Coles, ULT’s chief executive, Mr Olusanya and Ben Gordon, head of the school’s governors, earlier this month.

As many as 80 per cent of the school’s teachers are understood to be NEU members, with membership having been driven up during the campaign against the school’s movement to ULT.

NEU members’ letter raises multi-faceted concerns

The letter, dated March 11^th, is headed: “Staff letter of concern about management of Holland Park School.”

It begins: “We, the NEU group at Holland Park School, are writing to outline our collective concerns about the current workplace conditions at Holland Park School, where we fear an unsustainable culture is developing that threatens the effectiveness and long-term success of HPS as an educational institution.”

Some of this is related to a decision by ULT to change the school’s timetable of five one-hour lessons per day to six of 50 minutes, I understand. Although in theory this leads to the same amount of teaching for staff, in reality, this had meant an increase in workload around tasks such as marking and preparation, sources indicate, adding that ULT was told this in advance.

The teachers’ letter went on: “Last year, staff were forced to acknowledge the critical financial deficit that has led to significant changes to staff timetabling. These financial circumstances are yet to be fully explained given that the financial position of the school, prior to joining United Learning, was so prosperous.

“The facts of the matter are that since the start of the current academic year, as both predicted and feared, these changes have made working conditions significantly worse for all staff members and have resulted in a poorer educational experience for students.

“We had to suffer great amounts of staff redundancies and an increased staff exodus, both in classrooms and on the school premises. These staff departures have not been adequately replaced and thus pressures on staff that have remained have increased exponentially.

“Furthermore, through this current year, several experienced and valuable staff members have left their positions and their classes have either been given to long-term cover teachers or trainees with little classroom experience.

“Full-time, fully-qualified, subject experts  - even in GCSE and A-level classes – have not been hired to replace these members of staff and there is no urgency to fix these teaching gaps within the current academic year.”

The letter then mentioned the change in timetabling specifically. It said: “The switch from a five-period day to a six period one was predicted to increase workload for teaching staff…the time demands on staff for increased lesson preparation, data inputting, examination marking, behaviour follow-up, split classes and bureaucracy have gone through the roof and many [teachers] are struggling to cope.

“The workload pressures and stresses are so vast and widespread that we are experiencing unprecedented cover lists on a daily basis, in turn causing worsening behaviour in the corridors and classrooms, in turn having detrimental effects on the quality of education.”

The letter then moved on to what appeared to be more generalised concerns around staff wellbeing.

It said: “For a long time now, there has been an unsustainable level of fatigue and discontent among staff: morale at an all-time low (especially striking considering the level of upheaval to the school over the past four years) and an increased amount of staff absence on account of deteriorated mental health.

“To make matters worse, there is little help and support being offered to create a genuinely compassionate school culture for those members of staff who need emotional, or developmental help: many have experienced it to be either bullying, dismissive or uncaring, and many are afraid to raise their concerns. The school currently feels a worrying place to work.”

The letter also took aim at behind-the-scenes service changes, and the state of the site.

It said: “The United Learning move to a ‘West London Cluster’ model for the ‘back of house’ staff has grossly misfired, with glaring issues affecting site, HR, finance and IT services that impact the day-to-day running of Holland Park School as an institution.

“The school site is deteriorating at a rapid rate, with essential facilities and equipment not being fixed and resolved quickly or successfully, because the significantly reduced site team are waylaid by the unfathomably high workload on their dockets.

“There have been worrying incidents of members of the public entering the premises without permission and entering areas of the school site which are prohibited, which threaten the safety of all those on the premises.

“Finally, from a GDPR perspective, the school – through a lack of a full-time IT team – has become increasingly vulnerable to data breaches, which puts all stakeholders at risk.

“We wish to reiterate that this is not as a result of a fault of individuals currently employed, rather that the workload on support and site staff is unachievable.”

The letter adds that staff had raised concerns before about the impact of ULT’s “restructuring” of the school, during two “town hall meetings” with Dame Sally, and with Mr Olusanya, during this and last academic years, but that these warnings had gone unheeded.

The letter called for “a full and urgent review into staffing needs” at the school, with increases in the numbers of site, support and teaching staff to follow; other changes including reducing class sizes which were “frequently over 30” and eliminating the practice of  more than one class being combined; and a “shift in culture from senior management,” away from “top-down” decision-making which saw some staff “experiencing intimidating or unpleasant treatment”.

The letter concludes: “Without these measures [being] taken in advance of the Summer term, we fear the most serious repercussions for staff, students and stakeholders alike.”

Parents obtained a copy of the letter, and it has now been widely shared in the community, I understand.

Staffing details

The staffing situation in the school does appear to be serious. Education Uncovered understands that, as of Monday this week, 48 lessons were having to be covered by teacher colleagues or agency workers because of the absence of staff. At least 13 teachers were believed to be off work. That would be one in seven of all teachers, based on the 86 teachers that DfE data shows were working in the school as of last academic year.

One source told me that some higher set classes were now being taught in groups of 32 or 33 pupils, because of the lower number of teachers in the school, despite ULT having promised before it took over that it would be adding members of staff to tackle class sizes which had been in the high 20s.

They said some year 11 classes, in core subjects, were being taught in combined classes, being taught together in the hall, because “they do not have enough teachers”. I understand that in relation to some classes this may be a long-term arrangement, even to the end of the year, because of staff shortages.

Computer science, this source said, was a particular problem, with even A-level students going months without having a qualified teacher to teach them, and this also affecting GCSE classes. “I don’t know how they are going to do their A-level, without a teacher,” they said.

Financial situation

The staff letter alluded to Holland Park’s financial situation, before and after its transfer to the ULT. Concerns were raised at the time that what seems to have been a large level of reserves, built up by the end of its time as a single academy trust, would be swallowed up into ULT’s overall pot, potentially for use across its 90 schools.

An issue with the multi-academy trust system, which has been raised in the past, for example, by the Commons Public Accounts Committee*, has been how difficult it can be to trace financial goings-on at school level, given that the unit of public accounting is the trust itself.

However, some publicly-available information does seem to add to questions as to where Holland Park’s money has gone.

In its final set of accounts as a single academy trust, for 2021-22, the trust reported having reserves that were “available for the day-to-day operation of the school” of £3.915 million. That figure had in itself grown by £657,000 during that year, which was what was reported as the school’s “operational surplus for the year”.

So this appeared to be quite a healthy financial situation to leave to the ULT.

However, public data available for Holland Park via the government’s “Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool” shows that, by 2023-24, so in the first full year of its control by the ULT, its “revenue reserve” was only £1.06m, with an “in-year balance” listed as -£1.7 million.

I have asked ULT if Holland Park is benefiting from the reserves it had prior to joining the trust, and whether it could explain to me how that cash had been ringfenced for the school. But I have yet to have a response.

Further information from the school puts more context on its financial situation 

Again, I understand that ULT told the community in advance of the takeover that 15 extra teachers would be provided.

But in March last year, the school announced plans to reduce the teaching workforce by the full-time equivalent of just over 13 staff, with falling pupil numbers having placed serious pressures on its budgets, ULT argued.

In a document headed “Teaching Staff Restructure Proposal March 2024,” it was stated: “This proposal for a restructure of the teaching staff at Holland Park School is based on a strategic analysis of the curriculum model needed to improve efficiencies and ensure a balanced budget.

“The school’s funding position has been seriously impacted by declining pupil numbers in recent years with a shrinking roll resulting in pupil numbers below PAN in all year groups…a continued reduction in roll in 2024/25 will further reduce income and expenditure, notably [teacher] salary increases, will continue to rise in the next academic year.

“Longer term, the best way to secure the future funding and success of the school is to increase pupil numbers, and demand is expected to grow over time as the school improvements are recognised in the community. To this end, United Learning will support a marketing strategy to publicise the positive changes that have taken place…

“Without changes to staffing levels, expenditure is projected to exceed income by up to £1.7 million in the 2024/25 academic year…if nothing is done the deficit of £1.7m moving forward will continue to increase and the school will become operationally unsustainable.”

The document added that “most areas within the curriculum are currently overloaded in terms of staffing for 2023/24. We will therefore aim to make reductions.”

However, the NEU members’ letter would suggest a view that the school has become something close to “unsustainable” – the word they also used – as it is, with Holland Park not adequately staffed.

Brief analysis shows big drop in pupil numbers under ULT

On pupil numbers, my analysis shows that pupil numbers at Holland Park have indeed fallen substantially under ULT – and that the rate of decrease was higher than any other secondary in the borough in the two years spanning the takeover.

Holland Park saw the roll fall from 1,391 in January 2022 to 1,269 in January 2024, official DfE data show. At a nine per cent fall, that is the largest drop of the six state secondaries in Kensington and Chelsea, where the change ranged from a 20 per cent increase for one school to drops of zero, one, two six per cent over the period.

It is true that the school was rated “inadequate” by Ofsted in June 2022, in the fall-out from Mr Hall’s departure, having previously had an “outstanding” rating under Mr Hall in 2014. That, and the controversy surrounding the takeover, might have been expected to make some parents less willing to choose the school for their child.

However, the change might also prompt the question as to whether a more locally-favoured alternative to ULT – both the local council and MP had backed the school working with its neighbour school Kensington Aldridge Academy instead, while NEU members went on strike against the ULT move – might have proven more popular with parents and thus helped stabilise its financial situation, alongside those reserves. 

Not all of the drop-off in pupil numbers over this period came through parents not choosing the school, however. As Education Uncovered revealed in July last year, Holland Park permanently excluded 11 pupils in 2022-23. Across the whole of the previous 11 years, only three pupils had been expelled, the DfE’s database shows.

Dame Sally Coates’ return

There is a final personal twist to this tale.

Dame Sally Coates, who served as Holland Park’s interim headteacher during two spells under ULT, is coming out of retirement to return as principal, as the trust seeks to stabilise the school.

In November last year, announcing her retirement to parents, she wrote: “When my husband, Serge, retired from his school in August 202x**, I promised him I wouldn’t be far behind and we could both look forward to time with our grandchildren…However, as you know, I then postponed my retirement twice in order to take up my interim role at Holland Park.

“The past 18 months at the school have been some of the most enjoyable of my career and it has been a genuine pleasure to work with the students, staff and families across the school. When I arrived here, I made no secret of the fact that I was appalled at much of what was going on in the school.

“I am very pleased with the progress that has been made over the past 18 months but there is still a long way to go. And now, with Mr Olusanya properly in place, it is time for me to finally retire and for him to take the school forward.”

However, on Monday ULT announced that Dame Sally would be returning once again.

In a letter to staff, Sir Jon Coles wrote: “Following our letter to you [about Mr Olusanya’s departure], we are very pleased to announce that Dame Sally Coates will be returning as Principal after Easter. We know that her appointment will be welcome across the School community and she is very much looking forward to returning to a role that she has greatly loved.

“Our expectations are that Dame Sally will remain in post until at least the summer of 2026, giving everyone the opportunity to solidify the progress that is already underway whilst providing an appropriate timeframe for appointing a permanent successor.

“Leon Wilson will continue to support the School as Regional Director and will work closely with Dame Sally and the Senior Leadership Team.”

ULT position

I have put points on all of this to ULT, including on the detail set out in the NEU members’ letter. But at the time of publication it had not responded.

However, one parent, who had complained to the school about the number of headships in recent years, following Mr Olusanya’s departure, received a response from Sir Jon Coles which sets out ULT’s position.

In it, he said: “When we took over Holland Park School at the start of 2003 [it was actually 2023], there was understandable concern about the level of turbulence and the recent poor behaviour of pupils. Dame Sally went into the school as Head shortly after we took it on to stabilise the situation, which I hope you would agree she did extremely successfully…We do of course understand your concern about another change of leadership. We regret Mr Olusanya’s decision to move to a new post but feel that Dame Sally’s return is the best possible decision for the continued success of the school.

“I can assure you that academic standards remain high and that mock results show that the school is heading for another year of strong performance [though sources have said results are worthy of more scrutiny]. The behaviour of pupils and the culture of the school also remain strong.”

Education Uncovered will continue to watch this case closely.

 

 

*The Public Accounts Committee said, in 2022, “we remain concerned over the accessibility of local academy financial information. Multi academy trusts are not required to publish accounts for each academy in the trust. This lack of transparency is detrimental to parents’ ability to hold their local academy leaders, and the Department [for Education] to account for the services they provide to pupils and their use of public funds.”

**This is how the date appeared in the letter.