When Harrogate High School held its autumn open evening on Thursday, there will have been some parents present who needed to be won over. 

After 10 years of being rated ‘satisfactory’ by Ofsted, and then another 10 years rated ‘good’, the school was downgraded earlier this year to ‘requires improvement’ – the third-best out of four ratings.

But speaking to the Stray Ferret ahead of the open evening, headteacher Sukhraj Gill said the thorny subject of the school’s Ofsted report was not one he was going to duck. He said: 

“It’s the first thing I talk about on parents’ evenings – it’s not an elephant in the room for me. On paper, we’re ‘requires improvement’, but we are improving.” 

Mr Gill arrived at Harrogate High in January 2022 and had been in post little over a year when the Ofsted inspectors came the following spring.

A graduate of the University of Warwick, he completed his teaching qualifications at the University of Cambridge and taught maths for over 20 years in West Yorkshire, including a decade at Bradford Academy (then rated ‘good’), where he was vice principal. 

He said: 

“Before I started this job, people said to me ‘Harrogate High? That’s the worst school in Harrogate’. I heard all those descriptions of the school before I even set foot through the door.

“That just tells me that these students need good-quality education, and good-quality people who value them and can help them grow and move on to their next destinations. 

“I’m not saying I’m anybody special, but I think I can bring a bit of experience and strategy.” 

He came to Harrogate High at a time when the school – like many around the country – was still reeling from the covid pandemic. The school had lost its sixth form, and a lot of students – even those from secure, well-off backgrounds – were displaying the traits of social disadvantage: disorganisation, lack of focus, and persistent absenteeism.

Mr Gill, who is the school’s third headteacher since the last Ofsted inspection in 2017, said: 

“At that time, we [already] had some turbulence among the teachers and leadership here. We own that – we’re not going to hide from that. But we’re part of the Northern Star Academies Trust, and they were all over that, hiring a school improvement officer and replacing the senior leaders here. I was the last piece, as the headteacher.” 

But the changes didn’t stop at new staff. The Ofsted report highlighted several areas where the school, which has around 750 students, needed to improve, and Mr Gill is introducing best practice strategies to effect the necessary changes. 

One criticism of the school was that the implementation of the curriculum in some subjects was not as effective as in others, so he has developed a teacher toolkit, which lays out the different phases that every lesson must feature. 

Ofsted also pointed out that some staff didn’t not use the school behaviour policy consistently, so Mr Gill has created scripts for teachers to use in the most common situations. 

Another observation was that the personal development curriculum was not planned to the same level as subject curriculum planning, so the school identified its core values under the acronym CARES – courage, aspiration, respect, equality and self-control – which permeate school life. 

The watchword is consistency – in expectations, behaviour, lesson structure and planning. Mr Gill said: 

“This is an evidence-based approach, and it’s effective for all students, even high attainers. If you have consistency in learning, language, the way teachers teach, it helps students make an impact quicker.” 

Read more:

• Harrogate school to create city farm
• Harrogate High School ‘requires improvement’, says Ofsted
• Ofsted says Boroughbridge High School ‘requires improvement’

Beyond the classroom, there is a wide range of extracurricular activities, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards have been reintroduced, there’s a farm twinning project with Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and there are even plans to create an urban farm at the school at some point over the next three years. 

For the more academically minded, Mr Gill says the curriculum was built “from the top down” rather than from the bottom up, and is delivered with high expectations. 

The overall mission is to be a school for the community which supports every child regardless of background, says Mr Gill: 

“My experience of working in inner cities is good for Harrogate High School, because this is effectively an inner-city comprehensive school – even though Harrogate is a town. This is a true comprehensive school. We’ve got affluence and high attainers, and we’ve also got some real disadvantage, and that’s not always appreciated by the wider community.” 

The data reinforces the point. Harrogate High School has the highest percentage of children with special educational needs and disability (SEND) of all the mainstream schools in North Yorkshire. Nearly 30% of children receive free school meals, compared with 15% across the county and around 24% nationally. Mr Gill said: 

“We’ve got children here who are looked-after children, we’ve got children who are young carers for parents who are drug abusers, we’ve got children who we feed breakfast to, because they can’t get it at home. But we’re an inclusive school. We won’t let any child down.” 

Whether Mr Gill is successful in his mission could be measured in various ways, but he says his mindset has never been based around his personal success – it’s always about the students. He said: 

“When you make a difference to students who need the difference made, that brings the greatest sense of fulfilment. 

“I’m a very spiritual person – I do a lot of meditation – and I’ve always thought we’re chosen to be here, at this point in time.” 

The other obvious measure of success will be the next Ofsted inspection – whenever that may come – but that doesn’t seem to faze him. He said: 

“We’ve put strategies into place and we’re now starting to see a culture shift. If Ofsted came in a year’s time, I believe we’d have a completely different report. 

“But we don’t work just to an Ofsted inspection – it only reflects a point in time. We work for the students. We serve our community. That’s who we’re here for.”

The BBC’s Antiques Road Show is set to come to Newby Hall this summer – sadly the show is closed to the public due to coronavirus.

In this Q and A  presenter Fiona Bruce answers some questions about the fun of uncovering hidden treasures and other memorable moments

What has been your personal highlight from working on Antiques Roadshow?

I feel incredibly lucky to have spent the last 13 years working on the Antiques Roadshow. I love doing it and I’ve had so many highlights from over the years. My personal favourite would probably have to be when a man of the cloth turned up with a painting, which he thought might be a Van Dyck. I looked at it – and I was making a programme about Van Dyck at the time – and I thought it had the look of the genuine article. And so we had it examined and my hunch turned out to be right. It has been proven to be the case and it is now being exhibited as a Van Dyck. I can’t imagine that will ever happen to me again in my lifetime and it’s definitely a highlight for me.

Why do you think the show continues to be so popular?

I think it’s amazing that the Antiques Roadshow is essentially the same as it has been for more than four decades and it’s still hugely popular. What makes it eternally popular is probably what I love about it – that we all hope that we could have something gathering dust on the mantelpiece or in the attic that either turns out to be very valuable, or has an amazing story. It happens week-in, week-out and you’d think that the well would begin to run dry and it hasn’t. We still find amazing things every week. You can never predict what will turn up once a visitor brought along a vanity set that had been on Donald Trump’s yacht. It was as tasteful and restrained as you might expect – that’s to say it was fabulously bling.

What is your earliest memory of the Antiques Roadshow?

I still remember watching Antiques Roadshow as a child with my parents, on a Sunday night, sitting in our 1970s living room. I gradually came back to it as an adult and then I was asked to present it which I had no idea was coming! I was absolutely thrilled. It’s not often that you get asked to work on a programme you’ve watched for so long and genuinely watch at home.

Read more: 

• Fascinating facts you may not know about the Roadshow
• Susan Rumfitt says Newby Hall is a “superb venue” for the show

Has any of the experts’ knowledge rubbed off on you?

I’ve certainly learnt more about antiques. I have my own collections. I have paintings. I collect things called “samplers” which are Victorian pieces of needlework usually done by children in a workhouse to show that they have a skill, which can be used in service, stitching household linen or that kind of thing. I think they’re very humble and very beautiful. But our experts are like walking Wikipedias! They’re incredible. And they just fish knowledge out of their brains, which is a marvel to behold.

What is the most surprising item someone has brought to a valuation day?

If I had to pick the most unusual thing that’s turned up in the time that I’ve been working on the show – could it be the man that turned up with an case full of loo chains, just a small sample of his collection? Could it be the man that turned up not once, but twice with a foetal membrane dried onto a piece of A4 paper that had belonged to his great-grandfather. It’s called a “caul” and it used to be a talisman against drowning and it used to have some value! Or could it be the lady who brought along a potty that had a picture of Hitler on the bottom and when you did a little “tinkle” into it, it played its own little tune. And because it was rare, I think it was worth over £1000 from memory.

What are your most memorable moments whilst working on the series?

Some of the most moving stories stick in my mind, many I will never forget, such as the man who brought along a set of GI medals from the Second World War. His story began with his finding a cache of love letters written to his mother by an American GI who had had an affair with her while his father was away serving in the Second World War.

The letters revealed that his mother had had a baby with this man and it became apparent to him that he was that child. He tracked down the GI’s family in Virginia who welcomed him with open arms and filled in the gaps. They told him that his father had agreed to forgive the infidelity and bring the baby up as his own – and indeed loved him as such all his life – and the American GI decided reluctantly to stay away so as not to make a delicate situation even more difficult. The GI’s descendants knew all about the baby being brought up in Britain and were thrilled to meet him at last. It was a very moving experience for all of them.

The man came to the Roadshow with his American GI father’s war medals, which the family had decided should go to his newly discovered son. As the man told me this story he was moved to tears – and who can blame him?

Fiona Bruce pictured outside Castle Howard.

 Is there anywhere that you still yearn to take Antiques Roadshow to?

New Zealand! We would find extraordinary things there; I’m sure from antiques belonging to British settlers to Maori culture.

 What are your hopes for the future of Antiques Roadshow?

That it continues to be as popular as it is now, continues to find extraordinary items and continues to have a place in people’s hearts.