The Worst School in England

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The extraordinary story of an influential school that in its short life - 1870-1995 - progressed through an astonishing sequence of phases. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Established as a fee-paying grammar by the Grocers' Company Hackney Downs became one of London's leading schools achieving outstanding academic results.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>After a disastrous fire in 1963 the school converted early and successfully to comprehensive. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>During the 1980s for political and demographic reasons the school declined rapidly to become 'the worst school in the country'. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In 1995 after months of inspection disruption and protest the school was summarily closed by the government.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Distinguished alumni include Harold Pinter Steven Berkoff Sir Michael Caine artist Leon Kossoff entrepreneur John Bloom and former head of Mossad Efraim Halevy - giving rise to the sobriquet 'Jewish Eton'. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>This balanced history combines institutional records with former pupils' personal stories.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A popular micro-history of secondary education in London with vivid accounts of wartime evacuation anti-Semitism cultural achievement curriculum innovation classroom challenges and political conflict.</span></p><p></p>