On his retirement, former head of Harrow Barnaby Lenon went on a tour of schools in England that achieve outstanding results, in many cases with disadvantaged pupils. He has written a book about the lessons he learned...

For 35 years I taught largely in independent schools. In recent years I have been involved with both independent and state schools. The two sectors are in competition but have much to learn from each other.

Independent schools have the advantage of more income per-pupil, state schools have the advantage that they can attract applicants without the impediment of fees.

In recent years, heads and trustees of some state schools have been to visit independent schools and learn from them. When I became the chairman of governors at a state school I decided to do the same thing in reverse.

First I went to see charter schools in the USA and then went to interesting schools in England, especially those that get outstanding results with disadvantaged pupils. After a visit to the Department for Education at Oxford University I started to read the research coming out of universities and think-tanks (a vast amount) and my reading led me to a number of conclusions:

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