Ash Green’s academy success story

I was a panellist on Radio Four’s Any Questions last night, in Bedworth outside Coventry. At the reception afterwards, I got talking to the pupils, teachers and even the local vicar of the school where the show was recorded. With so much gloom (and shambles) in Westminster, it was a heartening reminder of what is going right in Britain, aided by David Cameron’s government. I thought I’d share it with CoffeeHousers.

Not so long ago, Ash Green School was seeing a pathetic 3 per cent of its pupils achieve what is now called ‘Five Good GCSEs’ (5 GCSEs at A-Cs, including English & Maths). Now it’s 65 per cent. Success has many fathers but the pupils I spoke to afterwards credit this to the headmaster of three years, Andrew Clay, and his deputy headmaster of seven years, Michael Rennie. The school reached for Academy status in February. I got speaking to a 16-year-old pupil who told me that four years ago he was flunking exams – getting Ds and Es – and concluded he just wasn’t the academic type.