Critical Hope or Principled Infidelity? How an Urban Secondary School in an Area of Sustained Poverty in England Continues to Improve

Abstract

This is the examination of how a secondary school in England, the Robert Clack High School, not only made the transition from failure to success “against the odds”, but sustained and enhanced that status despite changes in local demographics resulting in the school serving a significantly different ethnic community than was evident at the start of their improvement journey. The school is situated in an area of London that has consistently featured as one of poverty. Unlike some other schools which changed their student population in search of success, the school continues to serve its immediate local community which compromises almost mainly working class families. Although empirical research undertaken in the school demonstrates some evidence of ‘principled infidelity’ (seeming to follow external policy diktats whilst pursuing their own agenda) we conclude that the ethos underpinning the school’s sustained improvement is the concept of ‘critical hope’. This is an approach where the needs of young people in disadvantaged communities are recognised and addressed in order to provide them with the opportunity to control their destiny. The consequence is that the school has exceeded its prescripted expectations, continues to improve and has lifted both the students and the community’s aspirations exponentially.