Top magazine loves Ashlawn School

In an article which begins, ‘Hooray for free education! We round up the secondary schools giving the independents a run for their money...’, and Ashlawn is in its list of 20.

The majority are in the south of England, with Ashlawn being one of the few from further north, along with one in Northumberland and one in Scotland.

In the Advertiser’s report on Rugby scoring well in the Halifax’s Quality of Life survey we highlighted how our mix of schools has few equals – and Tatler makes a similar point.

It introduces Ashlawn to its readers thus: ‘Rugby is full of good senior schools - Rugby School, obviously, plus boys’ grammar Lawrence Sheriff and girls’ grammar Rugby High. But the school that really has us excited is Ashlawn...’

Head Lois Reed said: “As a high performing Teaching School we are fortunate to have experienced and successful leaders, creative innovators and qualified trainers to facilitate developmental opportunities to suit every professional development need.

“We are delighted to have become a school of choice for parents both in and beyond our catchment area and this is predominantly due to the outstanding quality of teaching and learning, the exceptional rates of progress and the high levels of attainment and achievement that are consistently made by our students each year.

“We have always been cautious about seeing selection in terms of a simple binary; to select or not. Our experience has been to champion the third way of partial selection which seeks to benefit all.

“For those students and their parents who appreciate and would benefit from an academic grammar school education then this can be possible in a comprehensive, inclusive and mixed-gendered context.”

Tatler’s Guide to the Best State Secondary Schools 2017 featured feedback from parents who praised the communication between school and home, the quality of the facilities - ‘a complete wow’ in one case - and that the staff showed ‘huge pride’ in being part of the school.

It also highlighted how well the bilateral system worked and that though a large school, ‘no one gets lost’.