Holland Park School is a unique and extraordinary school.
We are a non-selective comprehensive school in inner West London, and we pride ourselves on the diversity of our 1,300 students and our ambition for everyone in our school to achieve their very best.
We believe that every child only gets one shot at education, and this is it. Over the course of these five or seven years, they have the power to shape their future. These years determine whether they get the place at the university of their dreams, whether they make it into the college or onto that apprenticeship they’ve been eagerly looking at, and will shape the person they become as an adult.
It is vital then that you and your child choose a school that has ambition for everyone; a school in which their creativity and confidence can flourish and which encourages the values of respect and kindness which will prepare them for later life.
The academic outcomes at Holland Park School continue to be well above average both at GCSE and A-Level: we were the top-performing school in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea at A-Level in 2023, and second at GCSE.
We are fortunate to be able to learn in fantastic state-of-the-art buildings with specialist facilities including high-specification science labs, DT workshops, a Food Tech kitchen, Art studios and Drama and Music rooms.
We also place a great deal of emphasis on the wider aspects of education and enrichment we can offer, and we are proud of our offering of more than 60 enrichment clubs and activities, alongside a richly planned programme of trips and visits to enable them to develop cultural capital and leave us as well-rounded, active members of society.
I have worked in a wide range of schools in my career: as headteacher of Burlington Danes Academy I knew what London comprehensive schools needed to become thriving, successful places where happy students relish learning and achieve highly, and as Director of Secondary Academies for United Learning I took that vision across the country and helped to transform the experience of students across a wide range of schools.
So when I say that Holland Park is an extraordinary school I do not do so in empty words. I know how schools work, and know that it is all to easy to be lost in the magnificence of the school’s building and its prime central location; to resort to sweeping generalisations about the diversity of its students in ethnicity, linguistics and economics. I have so enjoyed getting to know this school since I took on its leadership in April 2023, and am enormously proud to work in a school in which students are ferociously determined and ambitious to succeed: where teachers take pride in teaching their very best lessons, and where students are engaged in their community and their world, involved in an astonishing array of activities, sports, and clubs, and where parents take an active and committed interest in the school’s success.
Holland Park School is a wonderful and particular institution: I encourage you to visit us and find out for yourself.
DAME SALLY COATES
Executive Principal