My friend and colleague Peter Hollis, who has died aged 81, was a charismatic and revolutionary headteacher of Oaklands community school in Southampton from 1982 until 2006.
Under his leadership, a school without prefects, house points, prayers, blazers and, above all, without streaming, put pupils and a faith in their capacity for autonomous learning at the centre of its mission. An understanding that pupils who had learned how to learn would have the confidence and belief in themselves to succeed in life underpinned Peter’s steadfast organisation of the school through mixed-ability groups and according to principles of equality. It took a combination of toughness and imagination to achieve this.
