Michael Armstrong and Lesley King, Schools within schools: the Countesthorpe experience. Introduced by Patrick Yarker
FORUM - Print ISSN 1474-7685 - Online ISSN 2047-7171
Volume 68 Number 3 (2026)
Michael Armstrong and Lesley King, Schools within schools: the Countesthorpe experience. Introduced by Patrick Yarker
pages 53‑64
DOI: 10.3898/forum.2026.68.3.05
Abstract
This article is republished from the spring 1976 number, FORUM 18 (2).1 It contextualises, justifies and evaluates aspects of the ‘Team’ approach, a way of teaching at Countesthorpe Community College, the pioneering state 14-18 comprehensive in Leicestershire.2 The ‘Team’ approach involved dividing the student body into smaller cohorts (hence ‘schools within school’) so that members of each cohort might be taught by a dedicated team of staff who took on pastoral as well as academic roles, with the academic role reimagined. The approach was designed to assist in reconciling student autonomy and the self-direction of studies – a cardinal element of the school’s conception of education – with the equally important need to engage all students with a common curriculum. The authors note how unreformed academic and pastoral structures inhibit such a reconciliation. Their article looks at practical and theoretical issues, teacher expectations of students, and the demands placed on teachers by having to adopt a more generalist rather than a specialised approach. It also offers a first-hand reflective account of one teacher’s work with a particular student.
To cite this article
(2026) Michael Armstrong and Lesley King, Schools within schools: the Countesthorpe experience. Introduced by Patrick Yarker, FORUM, 68(3), 53-64 . https://doi.org/10.3898/forum.2026.68.3.05