The Totteridge Academy has been voted the top secondary school of the year by the prestigious Times Educational Supplement in recognition of the leaps the school has made in improving the progress made by its pupils.
When Chris Fairbairn became headteacher in 2016, Totteridge had the lowest progress score in the London Borough of Barnet and now it has the highest for local secondary schools.
Totteridge has an equally impressive record among 3,721 schools in England: it was placed 15th for maths progress, 30th for English progress and 43rd for overall progress.
On being appointed principal Mr Fairbairn – see above, holding the trophy at the TES School Awards ceremony – made a vow to parents that Totteridge would be the most improved school in London in the next five years.
Despite there being no progress rankings based on GCSE results during the time over the covid emergency – when pupils received grades – Mr Fairbairn fulfilled his promise.
The target he set signalled the strength of his commitment to improve the attainment of Totteridge pupils – and in 2016 he had asked parents and carers to take a picture of it on screen so that they could hold him to his vow.
In the summer of that year when the academy trust United Learning took over Totteridge and Mr Fairbairn was made headteacher, the school had achieved a GCSE progress 8 score of -0.45 with only 39 per cent of students achieving 5 GCSEs with English and Maths at C or above.
Since then, the GCSE Progress 8 score – which measures progress from primary school data to GCSE – has risen to +0.34 (2017); +0.41 (2018); +0.6 (2019); +1.03 (2022).
Progress scores in the summer of 2022 put Totteridge in the top 25 per cent for A level and the top 1.2 per cent for GCSEs.
After the 2023 results, Totteridge is number one school in Barnet for GCSE progress; in the top 1.2 per cent of schools in England GCSE progress; and 42 per cent of students achieved GCSE grade 7-9 in both English and maths.
Totteridge re-opened its sixth form in 2020 and last summer 32 per cent of A level grades were A* or A.
Under Mr Fairbairn’s leadership, Totteridge has almost doubled its intake – from 472 pupils to 910.
Much of the progress in teaching maths has been due to the inspiration of maths teacher Tom Knott who won the Pearson Teacher of the Year award in 2018 and who is now the school’s vice principal.
In 2022 Totteridge teacher Sajida Ali was crowned Secondary Early Career Teacher of the year at United Learning’s Best in Everyone Awards.
Totteridge has won a Green Heart Hero Award nomination for 2023 and in the World’s Best Schools shortlist for supporting healthy lives.
