'Excellent' ISI Inspection
I am pleased to provide a link to our Inspection Report, which was published at the end of last week.
The Inspection was carried out 26-28 March 2019 and combined a Regulatory Compliance Inspection with an Educational Quality Inspection.
Regulatory Compliance Inspections report on the School’s compliance with the Independent School Standards, and judgements are given as ‘met’ or ‘not met’. The report on the Regulatory Compliance Inspection can be found on Pages 5-7. All standards were met.
The Educational Quality Inspection focuses on the quality of the School’s work, and I am delighted that the School was awarded ‘Excellent’, the top grade, both for the achievement of the pupils and their personal development. The report for Educational Quality can be found on Pages 8-14.
The report is a strong endorsement of the pupils at KEHS: it recognises their love of learning, their independence, their success in the classroom and in extra-curricular activities, and their exceptional maturity in the appreciation of the non-material aspects of life. I am sure that a number of the comments made by inspectors will resonate with you and, like me, you will be tremendously proud of these remarkable young women:
“Pupils display excellent attitudes towards their learning and take a high level of responsibility for their studies.”
“Pupils’ excellent social awareness is evident in the ease with which they talk to and interact with adults and in their positive engagement with others in lessons and activities”.
They are described as “kind, compassionate and extremely thoughtful”.
The report also underscores the commitment of the staff to the pupils’ education highlighting, “well-prepared and high quality teaching, probing questions and high expectations” and noting that: “ in discussion, the pupils were keen to point to the tremendous support and constructive criticism provided by their teachers as key contributory factors to their academic success”.
The inspection process is very rigorous, comprising an extensive review of documentation, the analysis of parental, pupil and staff questionnaires, lesson observations, interviews with a wide cross-section of staff and pupils, and scrutiny of public examination results and pupils’ work. Inspectors aim to triangulate the information gathered to gain a clear insight into the School and the outcomes for its pupils.
Each Inspection Report is required to make at least one recommendation. The recommendation in this report is light touch, proposing that within the excellent outcomes for pupils, we may look to “share good practice across departments, so that pupils have greater opportunities to participate actively in lessons and to be further challenged”. We shall reflect on this recommendation as we construct the School Development Plan for the next two years.
Our next Inspection, a Regulatory Compliance Inspection only, should take place in three years (March 2022), with the next combined Regulatory Compliance and Educational Quality Inspection three years later (March 2025).
Ann Clark
Principal
