Salisbury School has what it needs to be great, says new head

11:41am Wednesday 18th April 2007

By Paul Dicken

SALISBURY School began the summer term with a high-profile new headteacher and wholesale management package on Monday, delivered by private company Edison Schools, to steer the school through major development work.

These developments will see £8.8 million spent on transforming the school from its current split-site layout into a single site school by 2011.

The job of taking the school forward over the next three years was given to Edison Schools after the council advertised for new leadership, following the departure of former head Martin Rainsford.

Chair of the school governors, Martin Cocks, said: "The challenge for the governing body was to find a replacement. There are particular needs for the school as it is just in the beginnings of development and transformation into a single school - it's quite a busy time."

The contract, which will cost £300,000 a year for a three year term, is to provide what Peter Lewis, the council's director of education, children's services and leisure, called "a package of support and leadership for the school", to ensure the capital project at the school is well-managed and performance issues are addressed.

New headteacher Trevor Averre-Beeson said: "Well, it's a very exciting project really. That's the best way I can describe it. From our point of view, Salisbury School has got all the ingredients in it to be a fantastic school."

Teaching guru Mr Averre-Beeson gained high recognition for his work at Islington Green School after working as headteacher there for five years. He was appointed at the school when it was in special measures and in a poor state, in 2001.

He said: "It was excluding 350 children over an 18-month period. We turned that around to a school that didn't exclude children. It was over-subscribed by the time we left."

Mr Averre-Beeson left Islington Green to become a teaching consultant and was descibed as a "visionary and transformational leader" in a 2003 Ofsted inspection report.

He will be joined by two colleagues from Islington Green, Angela Gartland and Jessica Ward, who will be principle leaders in addition to senior staff currently at the school.

"It is about recognising good behaviour, with a clear set of sanctions when things go wrong," he said.

Salisbury School, which has a site off Nightingale Road and another off Turin Road, was itself in special measures around three years ago, but has steadily improved.

Attainment on entry to the school is considered low, with many students coming from areas associated with high levels of social or economic disadvantage.

The new single-site school will be at the Turin Campus, while the council and the governors will retain overall control of the school.

"This is the kind of partnership that the Government is seeking, to get innovation and initiative into schools. Local accountability is retained, not giving control of the school to a private company," he said.