Taunton School is celebrating after receiving an outstanding Inspection report across the board from its Nursery through to Sixth Form.
The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), equivalent to Ofsted in the state sector, judged Taunton Preparatory School as “Excellent” in the quality of the pupils’ academic and other achievements and “Excellent” in pupils’ personal development – the two areas the new inspection framework focusses on. The Inspectors judged the Senior School as “Good” and “Excellent” respectively. Excellent is the highest rating available as schools are rated on a scale from ‘Unsatisfactory’, ‘Sound’, ‘Good’ to ‘Excellent’.
The inspection focused on educational quality and compliance and judged the School to be fully compliant with all statutory regulations and requirements. Taunton School, which educates 1,000 pupils, received just 24 hours’ notice before the arrival of 18 inspectors for the rigorous three day inspection in March.
The process required lengthy preparation examining regulatory information provided by the School, a formal inspection in School, surveys with parents and students, as well as interviews with staff, Directors and students.
On the Prep School, the Inspection report stated that pupils’ attainment is often well above national age-related expectations. It reports that pupils’ progress rapidly and states: “All groups of pupils demonstrate exemplary attitudes to learning.” It continues that pupils are “highly motivated to learn and succeed” and “exhibit great delight in finding out more.”
Inspectors agreed that the School fully meets its aim to challenge, inspire and nurture pupils to achieve in a global community and rapidly changing world. Inspectors also found that pupils demonstrate outstanding self-confidence, exhibit notably strong moral understanding and are extremely respectful towards others.
In the Senior School, the Inspectors found that results at GCSE and IGCSE are above the national average and worldwide norms. It stated that in 2016, results were significantly stronger than in previous years. Results at IB have been higher than worldwide norms and BTEC Extended Diploma (Level 3) in Sport and Exercise Sciences achieved excellent results.
“Pupils have excellent attitudes to their learning” the inspectors stated and “outcomes for pupils in the co-curricular programme are outstanding”.
The report continues: “Pupils demonstrate high levels of self-understanding for their age and make intelligent and thoughtful choices.” It states that they value their friendships with peers from other parts of the world.
Lee Glaser, Headmaster, said: “This is an extremely good report across the board and shows that we have a lot to be proud of and excited about at Taunton School. I would urge every parent to read Inspection reports when choosing a school as they are the only real independent and objective comparison tool available. We are very excited about this latest accolade, following two excellent independent reviews by The Good Schools Guide. I am grateful to the whole Taunton School community including passionate academic staff, hardworking students, caring parents and a strong management team who are focussed on continuing plans to further improve the life changing education that we offer at Taunton School.”
ISI are an independent, government-approved body which provides objective inspections to safeguard the quality and effectiveness of the education, care and welfare of children in schools. Taunton School and all other independent school inspection reports are available to view on the ISI website. http://www.isi.net/reports/ or read the full reports here: Nursery, Pre-Prep and Preparatory and Senior and International.
