Polam Hall School in Darlington broke with decades of tradition when it converted from a fee-paying school to a free school this academic year. Alexa Copeland met with headteacher John Moreland to discover how the transformation has affected everyday school life

SET in 20 acres of carefully tended lawns and mature trees, Polam Hall School makes for an impressive sight.

Looking more like a country hotel than the functional flat-roofed secondary schools most of us are used to, Polam Hall underwent one of the biggest changes in its 167-year history this September when it joined the free school revolution.

Originally built as a grand residence for a prominent merchant in the 1790s, Polam Hall later became a Quaker ladies finishing school and remained a girls school until 2004 when it became co-educational.

And if that was a significant moment in the school’s history, then its conversion from a fee paying school into a free school is surely equally, if not more, monumental.

It means that for the first time in decades, any child living in Darlington and beyond can attend Polam Hall regardless of wealth or status.

This transition has inevitably led to a huge growth in pupil numbers – up from 260 in 2013 to 633 this academic year – and is something that headteacher John Moreland says has contributed to a “tremendous buzz” about the place.

He adds: “During breaktimes and lunchtimes, with the movement through the building, there is a fantastic buzz. I describe it that way because it is a positive, purposeful buzz rather than a droning irritating noise; it is a very exciting, full-of-potential kind of buzz.”

The influx of pupils has obviously impacted on class sizes, bringing Polam closer to the national average of 25-pupils per class, and as the school continues to grow, more forms will be added to each year group.

By 2020 it is expected that Polam will have the capacity for 880-pupils, with three form groups in each academic year from years 7 to 11.

The sixth form is expected to eventually cater for up to 56 students and work will begin in January on building four new classrooms and a new science laboratory.

The reception area has already undergone extensive refurbishment resulting in the creation of two new junior classrooms and the school’s main entrance was reconfigured in the summer to allow access for more traffic.

Mr Moreland says that the existing pupils have "thrown themselves wholeheartedly" into the transition process and are appreciating the benefits.

These include bolstered sports teams and school plays now being performed in front of packed-out audiences. And despite the move away from the independent system, Polam still offers 60 boarding places.

However, these places now cost less than half the price of the boarding fees under the previous system, a fact that Mr Moreland says benefits all Polam pupils as they relish the opportunity to forge lasting links with overseas students.

Seventeen new staff members were taken on in September 2014 to cope with the school’s expansion and Mr Moreland says that many teachers came from state secondary schools so are well-used to dealing with larger class sizes.

He says that the biggest challenge facing existing staff is adjusting from an independent school inspection system to Ofsted. The first Ofsted inspection is expected during the 2017/18 academic year and Mr Moreland said: “That is one thing that has been impacting on staff. But if anything, I have to say that gearing staff up for the Ofsted inspection is making them better teachers.”

So the future is certainly looking bigger for Polam Hall, which, says Mr Moreland, would not be the case if it had remained independent.

“It was a choice, but the future would have been very different if we had decided to remain as an independent school”, he said, explaining that it would not have been possible for a school of Polam’s size to continue offering independent education all the way through from school ages four to 19.

He continued: “This strategic decision was about whether or not we wanted to retain the four to 19 education, which the free school route offered as an opportunity, or become just a partial age-range which meant, to use the expression; ‘chopping off the head or chopping off the tail’ and offering education from three to 13 or 11 to 16-year-old or some combination of those.”

And it is also fair to say that by becoming a free school, Polam has returned to the ethos of its Quaker roots by removing financial barriers and allowing many more children to take advantage of its services for generations to come.