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community SCHOOL community SCHOOL
I
t’s not often you find steel-toed-capped
boots on the uniform list for your
11-year-old when they start secondary
school. But then milking and lambing
aren’t on most curriculums, either.
The fact that Hadlow Rural
Community School will be offering
both this term, not as a soft option for
youngsters otherwise disengaged with
education but as part of a traditional,
highly academic state-funded prospectus,
is one of the more surprising outcomes
of the Coalition’s free schools policy.
Hadlow was among the first wave
of 174 free schools that opened within
two years of former education secretary
Michael Gove giving parents and others
the right to take control of education
for 11-16 year-olds in 2010 – and this
new academic year it will see double
the number of students trooping into
classrooms temporarily lodged between the
sheep sheds and the animal handling unit
at the heart of Hadlow College in Kent.
They’ll be expected to knuckle down
to maths, English and science like any
other pupils preparing to take their
options for GCSEs in two years’ time. But
continue his studies so he can work with
farm machinery or in the dairy industry;
or 13-year-old Megan Hannan, who’s
been inspired by older students at the
college to think about becoming a vet.
According to her dad, Hadlow College
principal Paul Hannan, his older students
are the best recruiting officers for further
education, particularly to courses that
lead to careers in the land-based sector.
“It’s a big campus – 1,000 acres –
and we could have lost the school in
it if we’d wanted to, but we wanted
it to be part of the college so pupils
could aspire to be there,” he says.
And who wouldn’t want to be? One
hundred per cent of graduates left Hadlow
to walk straight into a job this summer –
many of them head-hunted before they’d
even received their results. Ninety per
cent of all its students go on to further
land-based studies or a career in the rural
industries, an achievement recognized in
an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted inspection result
in 2010, which partly inspired the launch
of Hadlow Rural Community School.
Directly funded by the Department
of Education, it was the first of what
promises to be many more free schools
with a leaning towards land-based studies
that could profoundly shift attitudes to
careers in the sector. Hadlow itself has
long-term plans to open at least one
other and it’s been asked to advise on
similar bids by colleges elsewhere.
“When we had our inspection in 2010
and got outstanding our chair of governors
at the time said ‘What do we do now?’”
recalls college vice principal Lynda Brown.
The college was already working with 14
to 16-year-olds on day release from schools,
but by then it was too late to influence their
exam choices – choices that could have
led to them pursuing a land-based career.
“There are misunderstandings of
what land-based is about, particularly
the level of science required, and we
wanted to acquaint young people with the
potential in the sector at a younger age,”
says Lynda, who also chairs the Hadlow
Rural Community School governors.
“With food security and climate change
a real priority we need highly skilled
people in these jobs, but I think young
people’s view of vocational land-based
education is that it’s a second choice –
that’s a parental perception as well.”
Fellow governor, George Jessel, who
farms 1,200 acres near Ashford and
presides over a diversified business
of industrial lets, storage and a
restaurant, puts it more bluntly.
“I want people to say ‘Wow’ those people
are doing a worthwhile job. I want to get
involved with that,” he says, “If these
children express an interest in genetic
modification, plant breeding, science
that leads to a veterinary course or get
involved in lab work that leads to curing
cattle of bTB, it’s all on their doorstep.
“I do not want the countryside left in
aspic, nor do I want it to be emptied. I
want it to be a living, breathing space.
I want these kids to think ‘I don’t have
to commute to London to get a job’.”
Using the countryside as one giant
teaching resource cuts both ways. Not
only does the school send pupils out onto
the estate with college lecturers where
they find a purpose for the maths, English
and science they’ve been drilled in all
week, but teachers also use the farmed
environment to inspire children in what
they might otherwise consider to be stuffy
subjects. Even having the English literature
class interrupted by loud bleating from
the lambing sheds gave the romantic
poets a new dynamic this spring.
“Young people really want to do these
vocational qualifications and suddenly they
see why English, maths and science are
so important,” says Lynda. “At the other
end of the spectrum, we would look to see
them not just take a vocational qualification
but perhaps run an A-level programme
through the school alongside of that. That
way we would attract some of the more
qualified young people into the industry.
“But if they don’t go into agriculture
we have still done our job. That’s where
the USP of the school is – keeping
young people engaged and progressing
on to the next level of education.”
With 85 per cent of rural industries
either SMEs or micro businesses, another
key aim is to equip them early on with
the skills they need to build a successful
rural enterprise. Assistant head Marie
Herbert’s BTEC business studies class
has already produced at least one outline
proposal for a dealership in used tractors.
But while the majority of the original
70 pupils had some family connection
to rural industry, Hadlow’s land-based
bias is not the only reason parents
choose to send their children there.
“For those who come from a
land-based background it’s because of
that,” says Paul Boxall. “But the other
reason is because it’s small – the class sizes
are a maximum of 20, which is unusual.
A lot of children have come from small
rural primary schools and the parents
want to continue with that ethos.”
It is, in fact, one of the most frequent
reasons children and teachers give for
liking the school. And that won’t change
when it moves to the new permanent
buildings going up now alongside
the Hadlow College equine unit.
It will be equipped for a maximum of
330 students with everything you’d expect
at a new inner city secondary modern
– with one notable addition. There’s a
shaded area on the plans pinned up on Paul
Boxall’s wall and it’s marked “Boot Room”.
Inaclassof
theirownA trailblazing free school set up in the grounds of Hadlow
College in Kent is inspiring children as young as 11 to consider
a career in agriculture. Sue Scott went to visit.
by then they’ll also be familiar with soil
tests, milk yields and lambing percentages
with a certificate in land-based
studies under their belt.
“Ask any of the pupils and the first thing
they’ll say is they enjoy the land-based
studies more than anything else,” says head
teacher Paul Boxall, (pictured above) for
whom, after a career spent in large urban
schools, Hadlow is quite literally a breath
of fresh air. He’s been on a steep learning
curve himself since taking over in April.
“We took the whole school to the
Kent County Show this summer – it
was eye-opening seeing the college
students showing cattle and sheep but
it felt very comfortable,” he says.
He’s comfortable too about the
food tech classes where children bring
freshly shot rabbits and pigeons to be
skinned and gutted for the pot and is
unapologetic about having to extend
the school day twice a week to cram
in extra studies, so pupils don’t have to
sacrifice core learning time for what
some would see as non-essential lessons.
He couldn’t disagree with those people
more. “We are trying to stretch and
challenge children in both vocational and
academic study. Our emphasis is on high
aspiration because some of our students
will not be following on into a landbased
career. But it sets them up for whatever
choice they want to make,” says Paul.
For many of the first intake of pupils
now going into their second year at the
school, their minds are already made up.
Students like Charlie Baseley (see picture
on left), who jumped at the chance to
join, despite having to move at the very
start of his GCSEs. He’s now studying
for a Level 2 City and Guilds Certificate
in General Agriculture and is planning to
There are misunderstandings of what landbased
is about, particularly the level of science required
Winning pupils at Kent County Show
Megan Boxall with
Jasmine Ballinger in
the livestock barn
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