A miracle at Halyard High

A MIRACLE happened in Luton last week. A bunch of teenagers from a notorious sink school passed almost ALL their GCSEs.

Last year, just 48% of kids in Halyard High managed five or more passes. But this year it DOUBLED to 93%. And that’s not all.

Pass rates for those which included English and Maths TREBLED to 48%. The number of A* results shot from 2% to a stunning 39%.

What happened? Two words: Pete Birkett. And the answer to England’s education problems lies in his incredible story.

He ran Barnfield College of Further Education in Luton with much success, and wanted to see if he could run a school as well.

Under the new City Academy programme he was given control of two: Halyard High and the equally-dire South Luton High.

Under the local authority’s (mis)management, both were categorised as ‘failing’. The sort parents move house to avoid.

Mr Birkett renamed them Barnfield West and Barnfield South. Crucially, he was given total freedom from bureaucratic control.

He introduced a new uniform, bought it for everyone and made it compulsory. Bullying fell, he found, when pupils dressed the same. The school bell, normally a signal for chaos, was abolished. Teachers decided when to dissolve class, clawing back lost authority.

Breakfasts were laid on from 7.30am. About half of the school turned up for them. Fairly quickly, an ethos of discipline emerged.

Evening and Saturday classes were laid on. Teachers, told for years they were ‘failing’, also had a second chance. It all worked. For the first time since anyone can remember, not one pupil in either school left without any GCSE passes.

Neither school is notorious now. Word has spread, and they’re over-subscribed. It’s not money that transforms a school. The budget Mr Birkett had stayed the same. It’s how schools are run that makes a difference.

The Barnfield experiment shows sink schools can be transformed: not in five years, but two- and-a-half terms.

All you need are the right people, and to give them proper powers. That’s what the City Academy scheme does.

It was probably Tony Blair’s best idea. But even next month, there will be just 134 City Academies out of 3,000 English secondaries. The rest are run by Local Education Authorities, who fiercely protect old powers.

Neither Blair nor Thatcher managed to unclench the LEA grip. It is the mission facing David Cameron.

To his credit, the Tory leader realises that Blair got it right. City Academies need to be expanded—fast.

Cameron says he wants to go one step further and allow people like Mr Birkett to open new schools, not just take over bad ones.

Choice is power, as our former Prime Minister realised all too late.

He wanted the poor to have as much of a choice in schools as the rich do. And here is the Tory opportunity. If the Tories learn the lesson of Barnfield they could aim for the goal that eluded Blair: the abolition of sink schools.

Meanwhile, it could give Cameron something he badly needs: a manifesto worth voting for.

FRASER NELSON is also political editor of The Spectator.