The Heads of Drayton Manor

Mr. S. Allenby (1930-1946)

Mr. C. Emmott (1946-1950)

Dr. R. L. Evans (1950-1970)

Mr. C. J. Everest (1971-1994)

Sir Pritpal Singh (1994-2019)

Ms. Lisa Mills (Acting) (2020)

Background to the School

It is over 80 years since Drayton Manor opened in 1930 and we continue to build on the successes of the past to put the school in the best possible position for the next 80 years.

Perhaps the fact that we have only our fifth Head of Drayton Manor in all that time says something about the school and how it plans systematically for the future.

Good Schools Guide

The Good Schools Guide (link) sums up its review of Drayton Manor with the sentence… 

“An inspiring and exciting school that provides a truly outstanding education” 

and notes the school is vastly oversubscribed. It highlighted areas such as the schools’ academic strength, superb facilities, dedicated teachers, educational structure, student behaviour and the variety of different educational options available. 

Ofsted

In their report of 2012, Ofsted remark that: “The successes of the past, combined with this spirit, are what make the school’s capacity to improve so strong”. The full report can be found via the Ofsted link at the bottom of this page.

The spirit that Ofsted refer to is our “dedication to students’ well-being and success” and that staff are constantly supported and encouraged to seek ways to improve further.

Our community

The community deserves a great school on its doorstep and we believe Drayton Manor gives people in the surrounding area a sense of pride. One of our missions is to ensure our students are role models and members of the public and visitors to the school often compliment us on the exemplary conduct of our students.

Just one example of this is when one of our teachers was walking from one part of the school to another with a pile of books and was offered assistance by students on seven occasions. We are confident that this mentality of doing good things with no expectation of reward will go a long way to making our students ideal members of the community and serve them and the country well in the future.

What is also impressive about our students is how much they willingly contribute to running societies, coaching sports teams, helping with Open Evenings, Parents’ Evenings and many other events, and in many other ways.

Highly focussed

Drayton Manor is a calm and purposeful place where good manners and good behaviour are considered essential. We have no doubt that this moral education and the way it is combined with academic prowess is one of the main reasons that the school is so oversubscribed.

The school has very high standards and everyone knows what is expected of them and this helps create what Ofsted describe as “the extremely harmonious atmosphere”. This allows us to support individuals so they make outstanding progress. Our teachers have excellent subject knowledge and are adept at, not only preparing our students for examinations but for building their confidence so they are very well prepared for their future lives, whatever their chosen path.

If you were to visit Drayton Manor, you would see lesson after lesson where students are focussed on their studies and working in an orderly and thoughtful manner. In our Sixth Form for example, where virtually every student in Year 13 will go on to university, you would see a very high level of discussion reflecting the students’ mature approach to their study, their diligence and how seriously they plan their work.

The skillful way in which our teachers share their knowledge, experience and passion for their subjects, the stimulating curriculum and imaginative resources, and the fact that our students feel secure and safe in and around the school are factors that are all combined to ensure that they make outstanding progress. We teach in the region of 2000 lessons each and every week.

Appearance, Care and Consideration

The immaculate way in which our students wear our uniform, the lovely environment, with its handsome main building and other tasteful developments, all beautifully maintained - these are all further contributory factors to the sense of belonging those at the school have. A list of Premises Developments can be found under 'In This Section'.

The school’s systems and procedures are designed with intelligence and wisdom and thoughtfully embedded so they become second nature, thus ensuring the school runs very smoothly. Visitors often comment on this, saying that “everyone seems to know what they are doing” and that “everything works”. We believe this happens because of the trust engendered in those at the school by the integrity with which everything is done and which is such a prominent part of life at Drayton Manor.

Our ethos where “care, consideration, courtesy and integrity come above everything else” is encapsulated by the genuine trust and warmth of our students and staff and of course we back up the less tangible attributes with rigorous scholastic discipline while helping students along the pathways that suit them best.

At Drayton Manor we believe we have a pervasive culture of aspiration. After all, our vision is to provide the highest standard of education for all our students so they develop into mature and responsible citizens who will go on to make a significant contribution to Britain in a global context.

Drayton Manor’s contribution to the education system has been widely recognised and some of the ways in which this has been done can be seen in the link below.

Awards & Recognitions

One of the most gratifying aspects of this recognition has been the number of high profile visitors to the school. These include the Prince of Lesotho; Secretary of State of Education; Lord Speaker of the House of Lords; Lord Mayor of London; Children’s’ Commissioner for England; andLondon Schools Commissioner. A list of visits by Dignitaries can be found in the ‘About Us’ menu above.

We also host many international visits from parts of the world such as Norway, Germany, Canada, Japan and so on. These visits enrich life at Drayton Manor and we are determined to help our students broaden their interests and experiences as much as possible so they become really knowledgeable, rounded citizens who are confident to attempt any number of things. To this end, our extensive enrichment programme has core activities for each year group and students can add to these from many other trips, visits, clubs and opportunities.

This is one of the reasons the school has so much success in activities outside the classroom be they in sports, music, drama anddebating to name a few areas. Links on the right provide further examples of these achievements.

Teamwork

To provide all of this as well as high quality equipment, facilities, administration, financial management, and support for students and teachers requires a tremendous amount of team work and we are very grateful for all our non-teaching staff who work closely with our teachers and, in this way, do so much to make life at Drayton Manor productive and enjoyable.

Being an Academy, and having previously been a Grant Maintained school as far back as 1993, puts us in the best position to live up to the responsibilities we have by doing things the “Drayton Manor way”. The Governing Body has a wealth of experience and we have had a succession of very able Governors over the years who through their commitment to Drayton Manor have been such a part of what the school is today.

Maintaining the confidence of local people, and providing the constancy and scholastic atmosphere for students to have the best possible all round education, we see as essential. We teach demanding subjects which are highly valued and which have stood the test of time. Success in these subjects gives our students confidence, as well as the depth and breadth that will stand them in good stead in the future.

Finally here is what a Director from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust thought about the school following a visit to look at our Leading Edge work in 2013.

"Thank you so much for your warm welcome... on what was a truly inspiring visit. One of the pleasures of my current role is the opportunity to visit many schools across the country and to see outstanding practice in action. This was a very special visit and I was deeply impressed, by the seemingly limitless energy at Drayton Manor High School, by the cheerful engagement of the students and the happy and productive atmosphere."