Head teacher’s delight at report

A secondary school has been rated ‘good’ by the education watchdog for the first time in 11 years.

Ofsted inspectors praised the strong leadership and pupils’ progress at the Towers School in Kennington, which was found to ‘require improvement’ in its last inspection in 2016.

Head teacher Richard Billings, who took over the school in 2014, says he is “delighted” with the outcome of the latest inspection.

“It is the first time the school has been rated good in 11 years,” he said.

“We are all celebrating and we are just so pleased to finally be recognised.

“We launched our new vision in January 2017, at the heart of which was a drive to increase expectations for all.

“Our curriculum was developed, we introduced new policies and procedures and shared our vision with students, staff and parents who absolutely took on board our high expectations.

“This vision was recognised in our Ofsted monitoring visit in 2017 when we were told that we had established a clear and ambitious vision for the school and inspired staff and pupils to raise their aspirations.”

Ofsted found Mr Billings and his senior team provide strong leadership, offering a “compelling vision for their school”.

In their report, inspectors said: “Since the previous inspection, the principal and his senior team have successfully promoted a new ethos within the school.

“Leaders’ thoughtful development of teachers’ skills is having a very positive impact on pupils’ learning.

“Pupils value the consistent approach that they experience across the school, which helps them to learn better than in the past.”

Of the five areas inspected, only the ‘outcomes for pupils’ category was found to ‘require improvement.’

The report added: “For the last two years, pupils’ outcomes at the end of Year 11 have been too low.

“From their different starting points, pupils have made progress that is below that of other pupils nationally.

“This progress has been especially poor in mathematics, particularly for pupils with below-average prior attainment.”

The Towers School was last rated ‘good’ in 2008

Richard Billings says he is delighted with the result

Joe Kinghorn waiting for clearance before taking off