Thomas Cowley High School to join up with other academies

The Thomas Cowley High School in Donington is to join the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust.

The trust already oversees Spalding Academy as well as Bourne Academy and Giles Academy in Old Leake.

Thomas Cowley, which is for 11 to 16-year-olds and has over 600 pupils, will become part of it in September 2022.

It became an academy itself in 2012 and was rated ‘Good’ in its last inspection by Ofsted in 2017 with a new inspection due soon.

Thomas Cowley head Ian Dawson said: “There has been a clear agenda for single academy trusts like ourselves to seek out and join high performing multi-academy trusts. We are delighted to be able to join the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust. We feel that the vision and values of the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust align very closely with our expectations for the future of the school.

“We are very excited about the opportunities for the students, staff and the local community which will be brought about by joining a high performing multi-academy trust.”

Mrs Lucy Conley said “All of our current trust schools are performing extremely well, with the young people at Bourne Academy and Spalding Academy over the past years being able to enjoy their learning in Good schools that are both aspiring to Outstanding, with strong behaviour management and exceptional teaching and learning in these schools.

“Over the past two academic years, we have also been able to apply the same high level of standards at Giles Academy and this is what we now want for The Thomas Cowley High School too.

“I know that the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust ethos is one that the school will benefit from adopting, with our philosophy of offering exceptional non-selective mixed secondary school education to young people in Lincolnshire.”

“The next steps are for the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust leaders to continue offering interim support to The Thomas Cowley High School, until the school transfers formally into the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust by September 2022.”

“We have built up the leadership and operational capacity to work with this fourth school and our decision to lead The Thomas Cowley High School and what makes our schools unique is that you can travel between each one within around 30 minutes, which means that we can have a common approach to the leadership of these schools.”

“My vision and that of the South Lincolnshire Academies Trust has always been to offer exceptional non-selective secondary education to young people working within the highly selective area of Lincolnshire and this is something we feel the students at Thomas Cowley also rightly deserve.”