Council offers £1m to struggling Holland Park School

By Hannah Neary, Local Domcracy Reporter

A town hall is offering a £1million loan to save a school from closure.

Kensintgon and Chelsea council is offering to lend Kensintgon Aldridge Academy  (KAA )£1m over three years to help manage the struggling Holland Park School.

The offer comes as the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) announced that the school could be transferred to United Learning – the largest multi-academy chain in the country.

Holland Park is a single academy trust secondary school with 1,300 pupils. Former students and parents included former Commons Speaker John Bercow and actress Angelica Houston.

Ofsted  recently gave it an ‘inadequate’ rating  after being judged ‘outstanding’ in 2015.

The school came under fire in Summer 2021 after complaints from former students and teachers alleged there was a toxic culture. A new governing body decided the school should be part of a multi-academy trust in January 2022.

In March 2022, the board of governors announced that United Learning Trust was  their preferred partner for the school. About 400 parents have been battling this decision and there have also been protests from students and parents along with recent teacher strikes.

A report by the council said that given its close proximity to Grenfell Tower, all of the children at Holland Park School were affected in some way by the tragedy in 2017 and the local authority has been rebuilding its connection with locals ever since.

It said: “Over the past five years the council has worked hard to evidence a different way of working with our communities, making a commitment to put our communities first.

“This has meant ensuring that our residents have a voice and that the council listen to what is said so that any service developments and or delivery is a collaboration. Rightly the community now expects to be treated as an equal partner in determining matters that impact them.”

The report said a partnership with KAA is likely to need less resources than other options “given the standing credibility with the community” and the council’s HR team would support the academy in managing staff.

It said: “Kensington Aldridge Academy is situated in Kensington. It is an Ofsted-graded ‘outstanding’ school, with strong governance and safeguarding practices and was also affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy.”

The council’s leadership team was due to decide whether to loan the money to KAA at a meeting on Wednesday.

The RSC will decide the best option for a partner for Holland Park on July 21. A final decision will then be made by schools minister Baroness Barran.

Pictured top: Holland Park School Picture Google Street View