In January 1974, Terry Ellis was appointed headmaster of the William Tyndale Junior School, located in Islington between the gentrified area of Canonbury Square and several large council estates.
"[6] Frank Musgrove, a professor of education, has described the Tyndale experiment as "implement[ing] a fair selection of sociologically inspired clichés in the repertoire of advanced diploma courses for serving teachers.
[1] Severe disciplinary problems arose that the staff were unable to solve, including gambling away of lunch money, fire-starting and throwing full milk bottles into the infants' playground from the roof of the toilets.
[1][4] Annie Walker, a part-time remedial reading teacher, led a protest by the minority of staff who objected to the changes, and issued a circular to parents; many parents, particularly of academically able children, withdrew their children or refused to allow them to continue from the infant school in the same building, so that the number enrolled fell sharply, eventually to 55 from 230 in 1973.
[1] The ILEA endorsed pupil-centred teaching and many 'experimental' schools at the time were in London, and under Ellis's predecessor Alan Head, Tyndale had been noted for team teaching, but the authority allowed heads considerable autonomy and had increasingly replaced inspection of primary schools with support for teachers and self-evaluation;[1] the affair revealed a general reluctance of local education authorities to set policy and problems dealing with inadequate teachers.