Head transformed school’s fortunes

When Malcolm Ramsey was moved from a school in Whitstable to take charge of Towers in 2002, he didn’t know what to expect.

The Cliftonville resident had transformed the fortunes of his previous school and was tasked by education bosses with doing the same in Kennington.

The Faversham Road site was in special measures at the time, and was in serious need of a facelift.

“I didn’t apply for the job, the local authority wanted me to sort it out,” Mr Ramsey told the Kentish Express in 2017.

“Everything about it was poor – it was being run by supply teachers and it took three or four years to turn it around.

“Turning a school around is like trying to do the same with a battleship – it takes a long time and a lot of hard work.”

About 30 years earlier, Lady Brabourne – who died in 2017 at the age of 93 – officially opened the school in 1967.

She joined the first head teacher Geoffrey Foster at the ceremony, who, like Mr Ramsey, had switched from another coastal school to take up the position.

Teachers welcomed their first 90 children before the summer holiday in 1967, but their first full year began that September.

When Mr Ramsey took the helm in 2002, he became the school’s fifth head, earning a good with outstanding features rating from Ofsted in 2008.

He said: “I had the greatest time of my life at Towers and we got the best results the school had ever achieved.”

Mr Ramsey retired in 2011, but his legacy lives on through the Ramsey Centre performing arts and sport building, which opened that year.

■ Memories correspondent Steve Salter is away

Long-serving teacher Pauline Pratt receives retirement gifts from ex-head Geoff Foster

Ashford MP Damian Green and Malcolm Ramsey opening the Ramsey Centre in 2011

The Faversham Road school pictured during its first year in 1967

The B Block pictured during extension works in the mid-1970s

Pupils, staff and governors in the new reception area in 2002