Ashmole School had a long history of developing its governance and leadership to an exceptionally high standard enabling the school to operate very much as a self-reliant organization. The school became grant-maintained in 1993, then converted to Foundation status in 2000. The school, therefore, has a long history of being responsible for its staffing, its admissions policy, and its buildings and grounds. This determined business-like approach to providing a high-quality educational service led the Head Teacher and the governors more than ten years ago to propose the complete re-building of the school buildings, condemned as unsatisfactory by two previous Ofsted inspections. The project, which the Head Teacher and the governors managed themselves, involved the selling off of 6 acres of a brownfield site within the school grounds to fund a completely newly built secondary school building with all the latest facilities. The project was cost-effective the building was built on time and to budget.
Ashmole School’s performance in terms of attendance and examination results at all key stages has been for many years outstanding. It is a particular strength of the school and, as such, has gained a well-established reputation for providing the very best in educational performance. The Head Teacher is a National Leader of Education and has worked previously with the London Challenge supporting the improvements in three London schools. The Head Teacher was also a former School Improvement Partner working with improving schools in Hertfordshire and Enfield. He is a coach for newly appointed Head Teachers and has coached two schools in the North London area to be outstanding.
Ashmole Primary School is in a unique geographical location in London having 28 acres of grounds. It proposes to take full advantage of its physical environment by creating an educational campus of outstanding educational establishments within its grounds, all of which are close to each other. The Academy already is an eight-form outstanding 11-16 secondary school with a large and outstanding Sixth Form of 370 students. The main 11-16 school has all purpose-built accommodation. The Sixth Form has recently benefitted from a state-of-the-art Sixth Form Centre. The Academy seeks to develop this trend further by providing a private nursery school, funded by the Academy, and a sponsored Free School primary school on its site. It seeks to maximize the educational advantages of all the buildings and the physical environment of the site. It will be an educational campus of an outstanding nature servicing the local community with many of its children, pupils, students, and parent/carers living within walking distance of the campus. The campus will have the benefits of the various institutions being within walking distance of each other, enabling the effective provision of resources, school improvement, teacher training, and facilities to be maximized.
Ashmole Primary School considers it important to have an onsite nursery class to establish a strong foundation for the Ashmole experience. As a private setting, the 26 place nursery would also give parents access to wrap-around care beyond the core 15 hours of funded early education. In due course, we may extend this offer to disadvantaged 2-year-olds.
