The Victorian building, still in use today, was originally Montem Street School. From 1911, the school was known as Tollington Park School, with the junior section reforming as Montem School in 1951 and the senior section becoming Tollington Park Secondary School. In 1981, Tollington Park merged with Archway Secondary to form the new George Orwell School. Its main site was on Turle Road, with annexes at Duncombe Road and on Highgate Hill. In 1997, the new Labour government, under
Tony Blair, had made education reform a priority. The 1997 Education Act strengthened
Ofsted's school inspection powers. Blair, an Islington resident, had not sent his children to Islington secondary schools. Ofsted carried out an inspection of all Islington's schools and recommended wide reorganisation to address perceived failings. As part of this, George Orwell school was recommended for closure, to be replaced by the new Islington Arts and Media School (IAMS), opening in September 1999. Initially, Torsten Friedag was appointed as a "super head" but quit after two terms. Richard Ewen was appointed as headteacher and improvements in the school resulted in a 2004 Ofsted report that read: "Islington Arts and Media school is an effective and rapidly improving school that provides a good quality of education and good value for money." ==Partnerships==