Pupils Forced To Resit At Flagship Academy

The new UCL Academy in Swiss Cottage, North London

A flagship academy hailed as "the future of education" by Labour peer Lord Adonis has launched an internal review after the "majority of students" were forced into exam resits.

 The school's first year is being regarded as a flop despite the peer crowing about its future soon after it opened last year. Many of the children are having to retake their AS exams – their first year of A-levels.

Geraldine Davies, principal of the new UCL Academy in Swiss Cottage, North London has been forced to write a less than glowing estimate of the school's failing to parents.

The school is backed by one of the world's top universities- University College London- which has provided educational input.

The futuristic school was officially opened earlier this year by Lord Adonis, New Labour architect of the academy system of breaking schools away from local authorities.

Ms Davies described the results as "disappointment for some" and confirmed that staff are looking through the school's "performance data".

Among a list of steps designed to rectify the problem quickly is the bringing in of Christine Gilbert, former chief of education regulator, Ofsted. She will help raise standards among students.

The £26 million school has not published its exam results – as an academy it does not answer to local Camden council like state-run secondaries.

But Ms Davies' letter said: "We expect the majority of students will continue with their AS programmes at A2."

This effectively means pupils will carry on with less-demanding AS levels at a time when they are supposed to be working on full A-levels, the courses needed to secure places at university.

Ms Davies, head teacher for seven years at a school in west London, added: "The transition from GCSE to advanced study is never easy, and this was exacerbated for our students by the challenges of the building disruption in the first term."

UCL Academy opened four months later than expected after a subcontractor went into liquidation. The building was lauded as a school for the future, where classrooms are replaced with "superstudios".

Its first pupils were dubbed "pioneers" for enrolling at UCL Academy, where every student must learn Mandarin and where hours have been shaken up to accommodate a later start.

Insiders have suggested some pupils may not be ready for the university-style approach to secondary school education brought in by UCL.

UCL – this week named the fourth best university in the world – is responsible for the standard of teaching at the academy, which is funded by the government but run independently of the family of Camden Council state schools.

Its methods include "multi-use space" classrooms, where three separate lessons are taught in an open-plan room.

The school is split into Harry Potter Hogwarts-style houses named after constellations, which compete against each other for prizes and kudos throughout the school year.

The summer school bulletin revealed that "the annual tie-tying competition may well be won by Orion again, but if Equuleus have anything to do with it they will be wanting to maintain their success of being the house champions for 2012-2013".

Councillor Angela Mason, Camden Council's schools chief, said: "We understand the school's disappointment about its results."