Parents and students at one of England’s top academy schools, where the children of Michael Gove and former Commons Speaker John Bercow are pupils, are locked in a bitter dispute with ministers about plans for the school to be taken over by one of the country’s largest academy chains.
About 200 students at Holland Park school, west London, once known as the “socialist Eton”, are reported by a local council officer to have been involved in a “riot” inside the building two weeks ago in protest at plans for it to join the United Learning Trust, an academy chain that includes more than 80 private and state schools.
