As the Joint Headteacher of the West London Free School, Robert Peal (Br’10) continues to champion education reform and will undoubtedly leave an immeasurable impact on his students, the British education system, and the world around him. Through his love of history and understanding differences in cultures and people, Robert was the ideal Thouron Scholar.
“It would have been impossible for me to have spent a year studying in America without the generosity of a Thouron Award. The history teaching I received at Penn was superb, I particularly enjoyed seminars with Benjamin Nathans, Antonio Feros, and Thomas Sugrue, who kindly, and memorably, hosted seminars in his family home,” Robert recalls.
Growing up in Hampshire, Robert studied at Marlborough College and then the University of Cambridge, with a focus on History, at Sidney Sussex College before he became a Thouron Scholar. Upon his graduation from Cambridge in 2010, Robert went directly into his History MPhil programme at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I wanted to continue studying History, and was very keen to learn more about America through the direct experience of living there. Perhaps channelling my own experiences on a scholarship exchange, I wrote my MPhil dissertation on the experience of English migrants to America during the nineteenth century, and the curious non-appearance of an Anglo-American identity,” Robert shares. It was in Philadelphia that he was struck by the teaching bug that would lead to his prominent and purposeful role present-day at the West London Free School (WFLS).
A Home Away from Home
It would seem the additionally warm, wholesome, and familial connections gained while in the U.S. also helped strengthen Robert’s desires to shape the minds of future leaders, creators, and more of our time. “In addition to my studies, I spent Thanksgiving with the family of a Penn History postgrad in West Virginia, travelled to Mexico City, spent Spring Break skiing in Vermont with Rupert [Thouron], visited my Godfather for the first time in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and travelled on a road trip around the American South,” Robert recounts. Next to his recent marriage in 2023, the year abroad in the U.S. was one of Robert’s best in his life.
“Whilst in Philadelphia, I worked as a volunteer classroom assistant at the now closed down University City High School. This experience was crucial in convincing me that I wanted to work in education back home in England, and become part of the education reform movement which was beginning to take off there at the time,” Robert explains. He also credits Waiting for Superman as providing him with great inspiration as an aspirant teacher.
For him, gaining a deeper knowledge about the U.S. was only possible by living there and it inevitably has remained with Robert since his return to the U.K. 15 years ago. While he hasn’t had a chance to attend past Thouron Award events or tap heavily into the Thouron Alumni Network, Robert cherishes the lifelong friendships from his time spent in the U.S. “I met two other postgraduates — one history, one music — whilst at Penn who have remained lifelong friends. One, a composer who still lives in Philadelphia, was recently in London for the premier at the Wigmore Hall for a piece he had written. We spent a couple of days together, and I resolved that I must return to Philadelphia soon — something I have not yet done since the end of my Thouron Scholarship in 2011,” Robert states.
Creating a New Home for Education
After his year in the U.S. completing his MPhil at Penn, Robert returned home to begin teaching with Teach First — a programme that sends high-achieving graduates to work in some of the most disadvantaged schools in England. Interestingly, the programme was inspired in some part by Teach for America. For two years, Robert worked in a secondary school in Birmingham, through Teach First. He did find that time challenging and rewarding.
“I was frustrated with many of the ideas that were being uprooted at the school and taught in our teacher training, which clearly were not working in the classroom. So, I began writing articles for a now defunct magazine called Standpoint under a pseudonym,” Robert shares. Because of his writing, a new job opportunity landed in his lap to work at the think tank, Civitas, and also led Robert to write his first book, Progressively Worse: The Burden of Bad Ideas in British Schools (2014). While he did enjoy working in policy for education reform, it was not as immediate as being in the classroom and having more exciting education work on the ground. It was at this point in his career and life that Robert secured his teaching role at WLFS.
“The WLFS was one of the first Free Schools to set up in the U.K., inspired in part by the concept of Charter Schools in America. It was established in 2011, and I began work there in 2014. Its aim was to challenge the orthodoxies about how to teach, and establish a publicly funded, state school with evidence-based teaching methods, an unashamedly academic curriculum, and high standards of student conduct,” Robert explains. But that wasn’t the complete end of his work in policy — there was a year that he worked as a speech writer and policy advisor of Schools Minister, Sir Nick Gibb.
By 2019, Robert became Deputy Headteacher at WLFS and within two years he was Joint Headteacher. In his more than a decade at WLFS, the school’s progress has become a source of great enquiry. “Since 2023, the WLFS has each year been in the top one percent of secondary schools in the country for pupil attainment at GCSE (the U.K. national exams those aged 16). In 2025, students’ GCSE results placed the WLFS as the fourth best non-selective state school in England, out of over 3,000 schools. We were absolutely thrilled when WLFS was named ‘London Comprehensive School of the Year’ by The Sunday Times this year,” Robert details.
Surely, one could tell that Robert is deeply proud of his work in education and policy reform for education in the U.K., almost akin to a proud father — which he will be soon with his first child on the way! These accomplishments in career and life mean a great deal to Robert, as they should. His life is not totally consumed with work either. Robert enjoys cycling and cooking, but these hobbies might take a back seat next year when his first child is born.
The Work Continues
For Robert, the past 15 years have been exciting in English education because there is a real firmament of new thinking at play in classrooms. With it has come an overturn of well-intended, but misguided, progressive approaches from the 1960s. What Robert has been a part of, in his more than a decade as an educator, has replaced those antiquated approaches with more evidence-led ones.
“England has been moving up in the international league tables of education achievement, such as PISA and PIRLS. School reform in England is increasingly recognised as one of the U.K.’s most successful areas of public policy of the last two decades, both domestically and abroad. I am proud to have played a role in this movement, both through my writing and as a Headteacher of a pioneering Free School,” Robert states. Yet he is most proud of his students at WLFS — they are exceptional youth, who go on to attend the most prestigious universities in the U.K. and abroad. Regardless of the social systems at play and the life circumstances not stacked in their favour, Robert’s students persevere with guidance and support.
“Whilst working in public policy back in 2014, it became clear to me that the greatest impact one could have on the education sector was to lead an innovative school which was not just successful in its own right, but also an example for other schools to follow. WLFS has now become that — visitors from all over the U.K. [come] to see the school, as well as many from abroad (most recently, North Korea, Australia, Belgium, and Sweden),” Robert posits.
What is next on the horizon for him? He has a book with former Schools Minister Sir Nick Gibb, Reforming Lessons, that was published by Routledge this summer and was recently awarded the MBE for services to education in the King’s birthday honours list.
As for his students and a possible parallel with the continued growth and evolution of the Thouron Award, Robert has wonderful thoughts! “I frequently talk to the students I teach about my experiences in America, and would be delighted if one of them in turn gains a Thouron Scholarship. We have some very able pupils indeed — 13 admitted to Oxbridge this summer, from a diverse set of backgrounds [and] so I remain hopeful this may one day occur,” Robert proudly shares.
What Could Your Future Look like as a Thouron Scholar?
Learn more about the Thouron Award — one of the most prestigious and generous academic scholarships in the world, offering funding and cultural exchange between the University of Pennsylvania and U.K. institutions.
Applications for the Award are open from July to October for candidates from Penn and July to November for U.K. candidates.