Double Excellent for Kingswood School in ISI Inspection

Kingswood Senior School has secured an ‘Excellent’ rating following their ISI Inspection in October 2022, which reviewed the quality of pupil’s academic and other achievements and the quality of pupil’s personal development.

Mr Gordon-Brown, Headmaster of the Senior School and Principal of the Foundation commented “There is no better encouragement for a Headmaster than to know that parents, pupils and staff are all moving in the same direction for the same purpose. I firmly believe that the partnerships and relationships we nurture between home and school enable our young people to flourish in everything they do.”

He continues, “There is a line in the ISI report that stands out to me as particularly representative of the Kingswood Community: ‘Throughout the school, caring for others is part of the ethos.’ This speaks to the very heart of our values as a school and echoes the core of our educational mission at Kingswood, something you can read more about in our Strategic Plan.

I believe that the care that we have for one another at Kingswood is palpable and central to our identity as a school and I am delighted that this was recognised by the inspectors. As far as I am concerned, learning to care for our fellow humans is at the very heart of a moral education, and it is a privilege to lead such a community.”

As a reminder, the ISI is the inspectorate tasked by the Department of Education to visit independent schools to ensure regulatory compliance and evaluate quality of education. In addition to having a focus on matters of compliance, the Educational Quality Inspection (EQI) in October covered two broad areas of school life: the quality of pupils’ academic and other achievements, and the quality of pupils’ personal development.

The outcome of their inspection was that Kingswood Senior School has been rated ‘Excellent’ in both categories, which is currently the highest judgement possible.

Whilst the School is already proud of the quality of their outcomes and the opportunities on offer, it is hugely encouraging that the great work of the pupils, teachers and operational staff has been recognised. The full report can be seen here and some observations that particularly align with the wider school vision include:

• In regards to the pupils’ academic and other achievements, inspectors noted that the excellent examination outcomes are the result of ‘the pupil’s diligence, perseverance and excellent attitudes to study’ as well as the ‘very strong pastoral care’ and ‘consistently strong teaching’. The inspectors noted that ‘almost all pupils achieve significantly higher examination grades than expected at both GCSE and A Level’, almost always making ‘rapid progress across all subjects’.
• Kingswood’s great strengths extend beyond the classroom. The report describes excellent achievement in ‘a wide variety of activities’ and how the pupils’ successes in these areas result from the school’s ‘considerable investment’ in facilities and specialist staff, as well as the support given to pupils to ‘appreciate and fulfil with commitment the school’s aims and values’. Finally, the inspectors recognised that pupils are ‘highly confident and articulate’ with ‘excellent attitudes to learning’.

The second section of the EQI report focuses on Personal Development which again, is full of praise of both pupils and staff in this area.

Inspectors noted that pupils display ‘self-confidence, self-discipline, self-esteem, self-knowledge and resilience’. They were particularly impressed with their ‘mature and strong awareness of what is right and wrong’ as well as their ‘excellent appreciation of non-material aspects of life’. This is even more humbling, as the community in Kingswood School continually recognises the need to help others, in line with the Founder, John Wesley’s vision of ‘doing all that you can, as long as you ever can’.

Please visit www.kingswood.bath.sch.uk to find out more or to book a visit to our warm, welcoming and vibrant school.