The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) is the Government approved inspectorate responsible for the inspection of Association independent schools. Schools in the Associations are ranked among the best in the world and educate more than half a million children in 1,200 schools. We see inspections as a valuable experience, as they seek to improve the quality and effectiveness of schools’ education and care.
Inspections are carried out at short notice – usually only 1 day. The inspection teams are led by professional reporting inspectors with many years’ experience, who are supported by team inspectors such as heads and senior teachers currently working in independent schools.
February 2022 School Inspection
We are delighted to be able to share the team’s findings with you officially now that the final report has been published. You can download a copy of the report at the bottom of this page.
This was a ‘Regulatory Compliance’ inspection that comments purely on our compliance with the Independent School Standards Regulations (ISSRs). There are more than 500 regulations with which the school must comply and the inspectors look at all of them. There are eight categories that are examined, which are:
- Quality of education provided
- Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
- Welfare, health and safety of pupils
- Suitability of staff, supply staff and proprietors
- Premises of and accommodation at schools
- Provision of information
- Manner in which complaints are handled
- Quality of leadership in and management of schools
With Regulatory Compliance inspections, each main category is graded as either ‘met’ or ‘not met’. Each of the individual regulations in each category must comply to receive an overall ‘met’ for that area. We are delighted to report that we were fully compliant and that every one of the 500 or so regulations was met. No further action is required as a result of this inspection.
With just over a day’s notice, this type of inspection provides us with a useful evaluation of our provision as it reports on current practice without the ability to put in any special preparation. This means that we were inspected through a snapshot of the school as it normally is, as seen by a team of independent and highly experienced professionals.
As there are no judgments from the inspectors in Regulatory Compliance reports, in many ways our report is a little dull! However, 100% compliance is unusual in our sector and this achievement represents a great deal of hard work and attention to detail by the whole of our team, and our thanks go to our hard working and excellent staff who clearly impressed these experienced inspectors.
