"You won't find another school like this in the country," says headteacher of Oakham's Catmose College Stuart Williams.

He's talking about the physical building, a school that he helped design in the mid 2000s, but he could just as well be speaking about almost any other facet of the place. From academic achievements to its extracurricular offering and special education needs provision, Catmose is at the top of its game. 

Rated as outstanding again in March this year by Ofsted inspectors, the comprehensive school has been the leading state school in the region for many years. It is heavily oversubscribed each year, and currently has 60 families on a waiting list this current academic year.

Ofsted inspectors rated the school at the highest level in each of the four areas assessed and described it as 'remarkable' with an 'extremely ambitious' curriculum and creating 'memorable experiences' for all. 

Mr Williams has been in charge for 17 years and says every part of the school works together to support pupils to achieve.

He said: "It really is a very personal bespoke school designed around a particular ethos and culture and the two then knit together really well. I've never worked in a school building that works so well.

"What we do here is support our local community. We are not selective. We don't have a really weird catchment area that is really specific. We run it straight so that over 80 per cent of our intake is a Rutland intake. 

"We are a community school, and we get to know our families very well. That's why the sibling link is important to us. If they come to us, it is right that their siblings can come to us. We get to know our families so well, and for some of our families, we are the only service who has offered that continuity."

Despite having a national average intake, the results at Catmose are well above average. Currently 82 per cent of students pass GCSE English and maths, in comparison to the UK rate of 68 per cent. 

He says attendance is important and tells parents that if their child attends each day they will do well. 

Mr Williams grew up in a terraced street in South Liverpool in the 1970s. He describes his family as 'poor' and the backdrop of his teenage years was an economic recession which saw many out of work. 

It was, he says, the comprehensive school system that changed his life and showed him its possibilities. At his comprehensive school (which was also attended by Beatles legend John Lennon) he rubbed shoulders with children whose parents had academic careers and it was a science teacher who convinced him he should go to university to study computer science and physics. He went on to do his teacher training and he describes loving teaching from day one and never regretting his decision to enter the profession.

In the 1990s he taught at Northampton School for Boys under the leadership of Sir Bruce Liddington, an educational trailblazer who turned round the fortunes of the Northampton school before going on to work for Tony Blair's government and helping to roll out the academies programme.

After the boys school, Mr Williams taught at Brooke Weston City Technology College in Corby, another outstanding school, where he worked as the vice principal under another head who would go on to be knighted, Sir Peter Simpson. 

He got his first headship at Catmose College, while he was still in his 30s. 

He acknowledges his part in the school's success – he says he had been like a 'magpie' and taken ideas from other schools he has taught at – but says it goes well beyond him. 

He says: "I think stability matters, but I don't think it's all down to the head. If you have a constant churn of heads that's not great for any organisation – it would be like in a company, if you get a new boss every year, that's not great. 

"I do think you need a great staff and a great team that sits behind you. We've had the same chair of governors for 10 years and that makes a huge difference – you have people who are invested in the community.

"I always think a key point of my job is making sure we employ the right people. So, I am involved in appointments. I meet every single person we appoint, and I think that it's really important that we know they are going to buy into our culture and ethos. We support them really well. Most staff have a link, so they bring their children here – my staff included.

"We talk about if something is not good enough for our own children, why would it be good enough for anyone else's child and that's really a very strong touch stone.  

"We talk about equal value; we talk about trusting our students – students and staff can access our building from 8am in the morning until 5pm. 

"I think what great schools have is that academic rigour but also that real wraparound support for students – within the performing arts, the creative arts, sport, music, drama. Duke of Edinburgh is a real passion. Those things come together here. They are core." 

Students are given the opportunity to get involved with extra curricular activites, like Joshua, who has become involved in Osprey Conservation. (Photo: Catmose College)

Many schools are having to make cutbacks, reducing support staff and removing any extras, but there appears to be none of that austerity at Catmose. The school has plenty of specialist support staff, five special needs coordinators, and he has ensured there is enough mental health support for children who may have suffered from social anxiety after the pandemic. Every Wednesday afternoon the curriculum is of the student's own choice and they can choose from a vast array of activities both on and off site. 

Mr Williams says that is because he runs a 'very tight ship' looking at the finances on a regular basis. The school is part of the small Rutland and District Schools Federation, an academy trust, which includes his school, the nearby primary and sixth form Harington School. 

He says: "We are not a big academy trust, where some of our funding goes to fund the central trust. All of our funding stays within our schools. We have three schools in Oakham and we get good economies of scale. 

"We are a bottom up trust. The schools are driving the trust behaviour and not the other way round. The schools run the trust, the trust does not run the schools. 

"My own view is you need schools to be autonomous and to be able to make decisions that can benefit their local community and as soon as you get to a point where decisions are made by either a remote local authority, or a remote central government, or remote trust they lose touch with what their community needs. What you will see in a lot of the great schools is there is a real understanding of their community and they are able to adapt quickly when the community needs change."