Outstanding Strategic Initiative

Great Houghton School

Jane Lancaster-Adlam was appointed head for the restructuring of Great Houghton School as a privately owned independent setting. Assisted by Craig Gibbs, now joint head and owner, they developed a new strategic direction for the school, involving extending the early years provision to include pupils from the age of three months and also offering the option of pupils staying on from Y8 to Y11 to take GCSEs.

Over the last 12 months the school has appointed five new members of staff to add breadth to GCSE options. It has also developed a strong SEN team which includes a paediatric OT and speech therapist.

The school has increased its roll from 280 pupils in August 2010 to just over 320, with 125 pupils in the nursery alone. Fifteen of the current Y8 pupils have elected not to take CE and remain at GHS up until Y11.

It has linked up with the SNO!zone at MK to offer skiing as part of the curriculum, along with kayaking. Over the past two years the school has linked up with the Pilgrim Partnership in Bedford to offer GTP/linking with students within the state sector.

Kilgraston School

Kilgraston was formerly a convent school that became an independent trust in 2000. In January 2004, Michael Farmer took over as head and transformed the way the school was run, as there were concerns about its survival.

Pupil numbers were at an all-time low (208 pupils) and boarding was running at little more than 50 per cent capacity (87 pupils).

Due to financial constraints, physical changes had to be low cost. They plastered the school walls with pupils' work to liven up the surroundings and instil a sense of achievement in the girls. The walls and floors were redecorated to brighten corridors and common rooms, and café areas were formed from spare bedrooms in boarding areas.

A dining area was converted into a well-equipped new theatre (£60k). A development programme fundraised for new facilities: a new equestrian centre with provision for 20 horses and ponies, and a 60m x 40m floodlit arena for dressage and show-jumping.

Kilgraston has seen a 55 per cent increase in numbers and is now operating at full capacity with 340 pupils. The school has experienced an 80 per cent increase in boarding since 2004.

Winner: New Hall School

The principal and governors of New Hall School embarked on an expansion and educational plan in 2005, which was completed in 2011. The former convent school, founded in 1642, and is the oldest Catholic girls' school in the UK, opened its doors to boys for the first time, but retained five years of single-sex teaching by setting up a diamond-model school.

New Hall was the first girls' school to make this move (there are only five diamond-model schools in the UK) and is the only Catholic school of this type. The principal now advises governing bodies of other girls' schools about the move to co-education and diamond-model structures.

The roll increased from 580 (aged 3-18), to 1,150 by September 2010. In the two years to 2010, New Hall was reported as the fastest-growing independent school in the UK, with a 55 per cent growth in student numbers and a doubling of boarding numbers to 250 (during a period of decline of boarding numbers nationally).

The initiative was underpinned by a sound financial plan; successful expansion was achieved even though the school had to buy its site in 2005 and is wholly reliant on fee income.

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