Ian Johnson, former principal of Marlowe Academy

by Peter Barnett

Students starting the new school year at Ramsgate’s Marlowe Academy this week will find a new head teacher in charge.

Ian Johnson, who had been principal of Kent’s first Academy since it opened in 2005, left his post on Thursday last week.

In a short statement, the academy said: “Trustees of the Marlowe Academy have announced a change of leadership.

"Principal Ian Johnson has decided to leave his position with effect from September 1.

"Carl Wakefield, an experienced teacher and senior leader, has been appointed as interim principal of the academy.

"Ian Johnson has passed on his thanks to students, families, staff and trustees for the support they have given him over the last six years and wishes everyone every success in the future.

"Ian will be providing some consultancy services to Roger De Haan, the Marlowe Academy’s sponsor.

"Mr De Haan thanked Ian on behalf of the Trustees for his dedicated hard work on behalf of the academy over the last six years and said he was looking forward to continuing to work with Ian in the future.”

The sudden departure comes weeks after the academy’s GCSE results showed an improvement on last year’s performance. In 2010 they recorded 14% of candidates gaining five A-C grades including English and Maths; this summer it rose to 21%.

But it is still far short of the Government’s benchmark figure under its National Challenge initiative of 35% of candidates gaining five A-C including Maths and English.

Earlier this year Mr Johnson remained upbeat, despite his school being labelled one of the worst performing in the country when the league tables were published in January. The Marlowe Academy recorded the lowest score in Kent and the third worst in England.

Mr Johnson said then that while the results were “disappointing” he was confident the school would bounce back.
The £30 million academy opened six years ago and replaced the former Ramsgate School, which closed after it was put into special measures in 2003.

Last November Ofsted inspectors were critical of the academy and said it was under-performing in key areas.

However, when inspector Robert Ellis made a follow-up visit in May, he said: “The academy is making satisfactory progress in addressing the issues for improvement and in raising the pupils’ achievement.”