The leadership team at Meridian High School in Croydon has been shortlisted for a national education award, putting the south London secondary in contention for one of the profession’s most coveted team prizes.
Meridian is a finalist in the Leadership Team of the Year category at the National Schools Awards 2026. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the House of Lords on 4 December, when the school will discover whether its leadership has been judged the best in the country.
“Those barriers will not decide what pupils achieve”
Headteacher Amy Anderson said the recognition belonged to the whole school community. “A lot of our pupils face real barriers, and we decided a long time ago that those barriers were not going to decide what they achieve,” she said. “Everything we have built came from asking what each child needs to do well here.”
“Whatever happens in December, this one belongs to our staff, our pupils, and our families.”
Two in-house programmes at the heart of the award entry
The school’s award entry highlights two in-house support programmes for pupils with additional needs. Pinnacle supports learners with literacy and language challenges, neurodivergence, or social, emotional and mental health needs.
The Summit provision tackles behavioural issues by identifying unmet needs and helping pupils reintegrate into lessons, rather than relying on sanctions – an approach designed to keep more young people in the classroom and learning. It chimes with a wider London push on inclusion: the Mayor’s Inclusion Charter has helped drive school exclusions across the capital to half the national average.
Meridian reports that pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans now attend at rates nearly 10 per cent above the national average, while anxiety-related absenteeism has fallen.
The school has also been recognised as a Thrive Centre of Excellence for a second time, and is a Voice 21 Centre of Excellence for Oracy – marks of distinction for pupil wellbeing and the teaching of spoken language.
Enrichment brought into the school day
To widen access to enrichment, after-school clubs were moved into the school day after pupils said family commitments stopped them from attending. Key Stage 3 pupils now have a weekly personal development lesson and take part in three different clubs each academic year, ranging from musical theatre and songwriting to chess and trampolining.
The school funds an annual residential trip for Key Stage 3 pupils and has increased the number of school trips from 15 to more than 40 over the past three years. More than 80 per cent of pupils complete work experience placements through a careers programme delivered with the GLF Foundation and the Tasso Project.
Why the leadership prize matters
National awards for school leadership teams honour the groups working behind the scenes who set a school’s culture, coach its teachers and hold its standards. School inspectors place leadership and management at the heart of how schools are judged, and a strong senior team is widely seen as the engine room of improvement – shaping everything from behaviour policy to staff morale and, ultimately, what happens in classrooms.
At Meridian, that investment in people is reflected in the school’s own figures: 49 per cent of staff have been promoted since Ms Anderson became headteacher, and a similar proportion have completed or are working towards a National Professional Qualification.
Staff surveys show the share of staff who feel their wellbeing is prioritised has risen from 60 per cent to 98 per cent over five years – a transformation the school puts down to deliberate, sustained work by its leaders rather than one-off initiatives.
London schools on the national stage
The shortlisting continues a strong run for the capital’s schools in national education prizes, following a Dagenham primary school’s win of UNICEF UK’s top Gold award for children’s rights. London’s schools have also been bucking wider national trends, including a decline in GCSE language learning seen elsewhere in the country.
For Meridian’s leadership team, the wait is now on until December, when the House of Lords ceremony will reveal whether Croydon is bringing home the Leadership Team of the Year title.
