William (7) and Vassall (9) arrived in London from Jamaica in the 1950’s. Like all children they went to their local school which wrongly thought William, being the bigger of the brothers, was the elder. He was put in the class for 9 year olds and, having never been to school before, struggled. Soon he was put in the remedial class where the teacher concentrated on keeping order and taught William nothing.

Not surprisingly, given his low starting point, William found secondary school tough and when he was 16 ended up with one “O” level. However, William liked school. He was happy and wanted to be a teacher but he needed 5 “O” levels to go to 6^th form. He decided to re-sit his exams, convinced he had the talent inside him to succeed academically. Then he met teacher Ray Sanders who also believed in him and helped him to get his exams. William went on to become a teacher and then Headteacher of a failing school. He used his experience of being seen as a failure, and mixing with others who found learning difficult, to transform the school and make it one of the most successful in the country. His name is Sir William Atkinson.