A school that fell from greatness

Its original building burnt down, but deeper changes than that account for the decline of Hackney Downs. Fran Abrams and Judith Judd report

This is the story of a how a school rose to greatness and fell from it into perhaps irretrievable decline. This is the story of Hackney Downs, where the young Harold Pinter once made the girls swoon as he played Romeo and where failure, disruption and uncertainty now top the bill.

But the story of this inner-city school, whose troubled recent history has finally led to direct action by ministers, is more than that. It is also the story of a rapidly changing area of London where teachers have strived to keep up with the pace and where the strain has begun to show.

Although there is a certain grim inevitability in the history of inner- city schools such as this, there could still be a happy ending. Some experts say that sending in the big guns, as Gillian Shephard did yesterday, in the shape of a new education "hit squad" to run the school, could yet lead to rejuvenation and relative success.

When the Worshipful Company of Grocers founded its school in Hackney in 1876, the area was a wealthy city dormitory populated by the merchant class. The railway had made the area easily commutable, and the guild members' sons needed an education. Forty-six architects competed and the result was a grand Gothic edifice enclosing a school with rigid discipline and a public school atmosphere. By the turn of the century it was reputed to be one of London's best secondary schools.

This eminence remained unshaken throughout the first half of the twentieth century: the school continued to take in the bright sons of the wealthy and to turn out highly qualified young men. But there were changes, even during those prosperous days. Jewish refugees arrived in East London from Eastern Europe and the population of the school changed with them.

Alfred Sherman, a pupil in the 1930s, was one such child. He went on to become the knighted co-founder of the right-wing Centre for Policy Studies. He wrote to the Times in 1992 to rail against the "comprehensivisation" of the school, describing it as a former flagship of opportunity for talented children, many of whom were very poor: "We East European immigrant Jews in particular benefited from this aspect of the opportunity society," he wrote.

The London County Council took over the running of the school in 1906, and in 1944 its name was changed from "The Grocers'" to Hackney Downs. The list of eminent old boys grew. The playwright Harold Pinter, who was inspired by a passionate English teacher, was there in the 1940s. Steven Berkoff, now actor, playwright and director, was a pupil in the early 1950s. (He has recalled the experience without enthusiasm: "I was perpetually caned ... the teachers were monstrous, all they did was shout and bully.") The actor Michael Caine is another old boy, as were the lawyer Lord Goodman and Lord Peston, now a leading Labour peer.

In 1963, a fire started by some stage lighting destroyed the school's central Victorian building. The building was replaced, but the character of the school soon shifted again, with the growth of the area's Afro-Caribbean community. In 1966 it took the plunge and went comprehensive.

During those years both Hackney and its neighbourhood continued to change with startling rapidity. The school abandoned its rigid traditions and became a buzzing hive of progressive ideas; the area hummed with the sound of reggae and ska. Hackney Downs became strongly Afro-Caribbean and, at one time, boasted a black literature department. Even this new state of affairs was not destined to last. The racial mix was constantly altering and in the 1980s the new populations were Bangladeshi, Turkish and Indian. At the latest count, the pupils of Hackney Downs spoke 27 different languages.

At the same time, the area was developing growing social problems. Unemployment was rising, pupils' home life was increasingly disrupted and it was becoming harder to motivate them. Many now come from the surrounding tower blocks, and the imposing Victorian houses are mostly in multiple occupation. Two thirds of pupils are eligible for free school meals, almost as many do not have English as their first language and many have been expelled from other schools.

In the mid-1980s unrest erupted among the staff and a series of national teachers' strikes affected the school badly. They walked out over asbestos removal, and closed the school for a year. Since then there has been little in the way of good news about Hackney Downs.

When Hackney took over running of the school from the Inner London Education Authority in 1990, the comprehensive was already on the "at-risk" list. The years that followed brought little improvement. In January 1993, the local paper reported that there had been running battles between Hackney Downs pupils and boys from a neighbouring school. The police were called; some pupils were said to be armed with bricks. There was talk of some kind of ongoing gang warfare and rumours of drug abuse. Later that year, in an attempt to make the school less aggressive, the local authority applied to make it co-educational. The Department for Education refused permission and the school was left without a first year intake because it had stopped recruiting in anticipation of the change.

To make matters worse, tension was building between the school and the local authority. The school's staff claim the authority has not shown any commitment to its future and that it has allowed it to become run down. They say there has been no real spending on its buildings since the mid-1980s and that pupils are forced to inhabit classrooms with leaking roofs.

In June 1993 the deputy head of maths resigned in protest at a lack of facilities in the department. The head of department, Mervyn Hinds, left soon after in controversial circumstances and the Hackney Black Parents and Teachers' Group, of which both teachers were members, leafleted parents telling them to remove their children from the school.

There were demonstrations by pupils, stones were thrown at other staff and about 60 boys were removed by their parents. In May 1994 inspectors from Ofsted, the new schools inspection body, arrived and found the school at risk of failing its pupils and in need of special measures. By the time the inspectors visited Hackney Downs, two-thirds of the staff were on acting or temporary contracts and half had arrived in the previous two years. The state of the building was poor and the science block appalling. However, the report noted that parents were loyal and staff well-motivated.

Staff prepared an action plan which was accepted, but the local authority had other ideas. In October, councillors voted to close it as 50 staff picketed the Town Hall and teachers booed in the council chamber. Their decision was ratified, after consultation, in March this year.

But in the nature of life in Hackney, things were changing again. This time it was the political scenery which was being moved, and a new Labour group took over the running of the borough. These new councillors took a more positive view of the school and in June they decided to keep it open.

But a year on from the Ofsted report, Gillian Shephard had too few indications that things were improving. Only 200 pupils were left in a school built for 1,000 and the situation could not be allowed to continue, she decided. Hence yesterday's announcement that Hackney Downs is to be the first school to be subjected to one of the new "hit squads", or education associations. No one is trying to pretend it will be easy, and the new team's job over the next 10 weeks will be to decide whether it is worth carrying on or whether the school should simply be closed.

So, is there now a future for Hackney Downs or not? Can the school be turned round? Peter Mortimore, director of London University's Institute of Education, sees no reason why not. Other comprehensives such as the newly-formed Phoenix School in Hammersmith, formed from the ashes of just such a failing institution, are doing well. "Given its history, given its inspection report and given the rather strange situation whereby the local authority opted for closure and changed its mind, it may be that this is the best way forward," he says. "My personal feeling in view of experience in other schools is yes, it is possible."

But until the Government sends an association in to the borough to cure its unemployment, its housing problems and its poverty, life is never going to be easy for the likes of Hackney Downs.

The must-do-better history of Hackney Downs

1876: Opened by the Worshipful Company of Grocers as a school for the sons of guild members living in the wealthy new suburb of Hackney.

1906: London County Council takes over running of the school.

1944: Name changed to Hackney Downs.

1963: Central building destroyed by fire.

1966: Becomes a comprehensive.

1986: Staff walk out in a dispute over the removal of asbestos; the school is closed for a year. Afterwards placed on the "at risk" list by the Inner London Education Authority.

1990: London Borough of Hackney takes over running of Hackney Downs from the ILEA.

1993: Hackney proposes recruiting girls to the school to make it less aggressive. The Department for Education turns down the application, leaving the school without any first-year pupils.

May 1994: Ofsted inspectors visit the school and find it failing to meet acceptable standards. They make favourable comments about the staff but say the school was in need of "special measures".

Summer 1994: Staff prepare an action plan for improvement, which is accepted.

October 1994: Hackney councillors meet to discuss closure of the school.

March 1995: Councillors confirm that the school will be closed.

June 1995: New Labour regime in the borough overturns the previous decision, decides the school should remain open after all.

July 1995: Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education and Employment, announces that she is "minded" to send in an education association and gives interested parties nine days to comment. On 27 July, education association is formally appointed to run the school.