School owes so much to pioneering head

Back in May the town lost one of its most respected and pioneering school founders, the original headmaster of The Towers School in Kennington – Geoffrey Foster OBE, who passed away aged 91.

Mr Foster achieved many groundbreaking goals for the new school, both prior to its opening in 1967 and into the mid-1980s before his retirement in 1985, when he received his OBE for services to education.

During his reign he developed the school into one that was the envy of many in the area, having a say in how the school looked and the facilities it contained. It was the first time that many modern additions had been incorporated into a new school in the town.

Throughout the 1970s, Mr Foster was the driving force behind further developments and extensions at the school such as a new art block, a new humanities suite and an extension to the craft area to include a woodwork and metalwork department.

Even the separate B block was extended and the sports department extended with a new gym area.

Whatever the changing curriculum required, the school had it – all thanks to him. In recent times, the school has gone from strength to strength and has been further extended and updated in line with current curricular needs.

One recent head, Malcolm Ramsey, picked up on Mr Foster’s success and succeeded in bringing the school into the 21st century.

Mr Foster and his wife Jessie were even invited back to the school in recent times – a heartening trip down memory lane for the former head.

This week’s Remember When looks back to the 1970s, when a building programme progressed to further extend the school.

Do you have any photographs or slides that you would be willing to lend me, to enable them to be scanned and featured in the Kentish Express?

Write to me: Steve Salter, Kentish Express Remember When, 34-36 North Street, Ashford TN24 8JR, email me at rememberwhen_kmash@ hotmail.co.uk or follow me on Twitter @SteveKMAshford.

Or you can also leave a telephone message for me with brief details by calling 01233 623232.

Ashford’s Towers School, circa 1976/77, and the steelwork for a new gym and sports department starts to take shape alongside the swimming pool and sports hall, left, and the music department, right

The B Block, in the background, is seen in its original format and during works to extend it and provide an enlarged craft department known as CDT (craft design and technology).