When Liverpool college announced that it would swap its independent school status to become a state-funded academy, the Labour peer Andrew Adonis described it as “perhaps the single biggest breach in the Berlin Wall between the private and state sectors of education in recent decades”.
The headteacher leading the move, Hans Van Mourik Broekman, remembers watching year 3 classes doing athletics with the head of the prep school. “We both turned to each other and said, ‘There should be more children here. We can do this for more’,” he says. By September 2013 the high-profile private school had dropped its annual day fees of £9,675.
Broekman, who has been in education for 25 years, says that rediscovering the institution’s original mission was at the heart of the decision to convert. When it was founded in 1840, the school’s aim was to serve the city of Liverpool – not to be exclusive. Liverpool college ran night classes and vocational courses, and the son of a janitor at the school was one of the first people to win a scholarship to the University of Cambridge.
“When you allow class to become part of educational missions and enthusiasms you destroy something,” says Broekman. “It’s not bad to be an independent school, but it’s much more exciting to develop talents and aptitudes that exist in all young people, without regard to their ability [to pay].”
Prior to becoming an academy, Broekman was aware that many parents wanted their children to attend but were unable to afford the fees. Since the move, it has become the most oversubscribed school in the region. Pupils are admitted through random allocation, with some preference given to those who live within two miles. Some students continue to board, but they pay less than 50% of what’s charged by standard public schools, and their education is free.
The school is located in an affluent part of Liverpool, but within a mile lie some of the most deprived wards in the country. As expected, the demographic of pupils has shifted, with more students on pupil premium, in care and from ethnic minorities. The pupils’ ability and achievement levels, however, have remained the same as it has always been a mixed-ability school.
When Liverpool college became an academy and stopped charging fees, it needed to increase class sizes (from 20 to 25 pupils), but Broekman was determined to keep the small scale structure of the school. The site is made up of separate units that never have more than around 250 students in each.
Many of the pupils attend from year 1 to sixth-form. Broekman says this helps to make sure that teachers get to know pupils as individuals, which is crucial for them to achieve their full potential. The importance of a “human scale school” partly comes from Broekman’s own experiences. For much of his education, he attended an academically selective independent school run by monks in the US, which had less than 200 pupils. He thrived there and is keen to give children in Liverpool an education “centred on the diversity of individuals”.
The dutchman has also been firm that the school’s varied curriculum won’t change. As well as offering traditional subjects like classics, vocational courses are available, such as imagineering – a fusion of design and technology, computing and business studies. Broekman believes there should be more room for courses like this. In Germany and Holland, children have the opportunity to study rigorous vocational qualifications from a younger age and Broekman would like a similar system in the UK.
“[As a country] we’re totally fixated on who gets into Oxbridge,” he says. “Why do we frown so much on people who have technical and vocational skills?”
In the middle of the school day, every student takes part in a practical activity, such as debating, drama or chess. “[It’s about] acknowledging that kids have aptitudes in all sorts of areas,” he says.
The motto of the school hasn’t changed since it was founded more than 150 years ago – “not only the intellect, but also the character”. Broekman says that the school focuses on developing three key traits: purpose, passion and challenge. In one of the courses at the school, students look at a whole series of issues, such as “what might I become?”, under the umbrella of PSHE.
As a private school, Liverpool college had a lot more money to spend per pupil. So, how does it continue to deliver the same high quality education?
“It’s all built on the exceptional dedication of our staff,” says Broekman. “They’re still taking rugby fixtures, going on Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and organising plays. They’re working extra – that’s how we do it.”
One thing that’s increased teacher workloads is the presence of Ofsted. He is complimentary of the inspection body’s framework, which he says has helped improve teaching standards, but he believes a less prescriptive and bureaucratic model for school improvement needs to be devised.
“If we want extraordinary people to dedicate their lives to teaching then we’re going to have give them more curricular and pedagogical autonomy and do something about the workload,” he says.
Although the school had more freedom in the private sector, Broekman is clear that the standard of its provision has risen thanks to becoming an academy. “I strongly believe that there’s been a substantial improvement in the imagination and quality of teaching,” he says. “And the reason for that is the effort of the staff. We’re working twice as hard and it’s a better school for it.”
