Camden News: Robbie Cathcart | William Ellis School | Highgate | Debt

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

Camden News - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 29 May 2008

Acting headteacher Malcolm Rose

‘Superhead’ chosen to lead school with £500,000 debt

Choice of ‘dynamic’ candidate seen as first step in a William Ellis renaissance

A “SUPERHEAD” has been hired by a Highgate secondary school as it battles its way out of its worst-ever financial crisis.
Robbie Cathcart, 49, will take over the reins at William Ellis School in Highgate Road at the start of September and join the fight to clear a £500,000 debt.
His appointment has been described as a key plank of the school’s planned “renaissance”.
One school insider said: “He is dynamic and will bring fresh ideas just at the right time. You might call him a superhead, but I’m not sure he’ll like being called that. He’s too modest for that.”
Mr Cathcart joins a school that has already been warned by Camden Council that if it cannot reduce the deficit – caused by a blunder over the ordering of a new boiler system – it could lose the right to run itself.
The boys’ school has long been regarded as one of the best in north London and is a first-choice favourite with middle-class families in its Hampstead and Highgate catchment area. It has suggested a series of measures to clear its debt, including increasing class sizes and cutting support staff.
Governors’ chairman Vernon King said: “At the outset of the appointment process the governing body were determined they would only appoint a candidate who was right for William Ellis. In today’s climate it is a challenge to attract candidates for headships and the governing body were encouraged that our advertisement generated a large field of applicants.”
Mr King added: “He [Mr Cathcart] has an aim that the school becomes a centre of excellence for boys’ education and this is a vision that can focus the energy of the whole school community to support the renaissance of the school.”
Mr Cathcart joins William Ellis from Loxton School in Redbridge, north east London, where four-fifths of students do not have English as their mother tongue in the family home. His school has been rated “outstanding” by Ofsted inspectors, in contrast with William Ellis, considered “satisfactory” – two rungs down the scoring system – in a recent report.
“One reason we made progress was that we simply got fed up with being at the bottom,” Mr Cathcart said in an interview earlier this year.
He takes over from acting headteacher Malcolm Rose, who stepped up when Richard Tanton resigned earlier this year.
Mr Cathcart, a viola player and pianist who graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, was one of seven candidates shortlisted.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: