On 15 June, Alistair Lexden was guest of honour at the annual awards ceremony of a remarkable college belonging to the Independent Schools Association, of which he is President. CATS College in Canterbury prepares students from Britain and around the world for higher education; many of them win places at Russell Group universities with which the College is closely associated.
In recent years young people from some 70 different nations have benefited from the high quality teaching in small groups and impressive pastoral care in modern boarding houses which are the College’s great strengths.
In congratulating teachers and students, Alistair Lexden highlighted the sustained progress that the College had made during the last seven years under its Principal, Jonathan Ullmer MBE, who is about to move to the headship of Haileybury Almatz, an offshoot of the well-known English school in Kazakhstan.
Student numbers at the College have doubled; a £12 million building and refurbishment programme has been completed; new development plans have been drawn up to carry forward the story of success, underlined recently by the Independent Schools Inspectorate which rated the College as excellent in every area.
Alistair Lexden also looked back to the College’s origins, unveiling a plaque to commemorate its 65th anniversary. At the end of the ceremony he congratulated each of this year’s 200-odd successful leavers alongside the Lord Mayor of Canterbury, Councillor Rosemary Doyle, who had worked in Conservative Central Office at the start of her career.