Rated Excellent in all areas (ISI December 2015)

I am delighted to finally be able to share with you our Independent Schools Inspectorate integrated inspection report from December. The most pleasing comments are summarised below, but do take time to absorb the whole report on our website as it is great to see how the inspection team recognised all the great attributes of the school.

Main judgements can be categorised from Excellent as the highest category, followed by Good, Satisfactory and then Unsatisfactory.

Our main judgements were:

• The school is highly successful in meeting all of its aims.
• The achievements of the pupils are excellent including outcomes in the EYFS.
• Extra-curricular achievements of the pupils are excellent and exceptional in the case of their choral music.
• Pupils benefit from an excellent curriculum.
• The standard of teaching is excellent.
• Pupils of all abilities, including those with SEND make excellent progress.
• The personal development of pupils is excellent.
• All pupils have outstanding social skills and develop a strong awareness of their own faith and a respect for the cultures of others.
• The school provides excellent pastoral care.
• Relationships are excellent throughout the community and standards of behaviour are high.
• The arrangements to ensure the welfare, health and safety of pupils are also excellent.
• The quality of governance is excellent.
• The leadership and management of the school are excellent.

I am sure that you can understand why I was so delighted back in December and how hard it has been to keep this all confidential. The full report is particularly complimentary about the social aspects of school life, including all of the areas that we take so much pride in. The good relationships between pupils, and between pupils and staff, and the mutual care and cooperative learning that is demonstrated between pupils are all singled out in the report and comprehensively praised.

What delighted me most was that at the end of the inspection there should be various recommendations for development and improvement and the inspectors struggled to find any. All they said was to continue developing the writing and the teaching of phonics in line with the school development plan which is already in progress – i.e. keep on doing what you are already doing.

I am delighted to say that our senior school, Reigate Grammar School, did equally as well with Excellent in every area of provision. The one area in which a judgement even beyond excellent is possible is for achievement. RSM choral singing was judged to be exceptional and so was the academic achievement at RGS, an accolade that is only achieved by the top selective schools in the land. Once again I thank all of you for your support and input into the questionnaire prior to the inspection. Read the Report in full here.

Marcus Culverwell