Shrewsbury School celebrates ‘Excellent’ inspection results

Shrewsbury School is celebrating the glowing results of two major inspections carried out by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI).

Shrewsbury has been assessed as “excellent” – the highest available category – in the ISI Educational Quality Inspection, which focuses on the quality of the School’s work.

And the ISI Focused Compliance Inspection has affirmed that the School is fully compliant in all respects with the highly rigorous regulations and boarding standards.

“The Inspectors’ findings and conclusions serve as a wonderful endorsement of everything that we are doing at Shrewsbury” said Headmaster Mark Turner. “They reflect extremely positively on the work of the pupils, staff, and wider school community.”

The inspection was one of the first of the new ‘no notice’ format introduced by the ISI in January, which meant that the School was informed of the inspection less than 24 hours before it began.

Mark Turner expressed his pleasure at receiving the official Reports following the intense three-day Inspection process earlier this year:

“We pride ourselves on the huge breadth and wealth of our academic and co-curricular offering to pupils at Shrewsbury School, and on the tremendous talent, commitment and expertise of the staff who deliver it. We are delighted that the ISI Inspection Team have recognised and endorsed the fact that we don’t just have pockets of excellence at Shrewsbury, but that everything we offer – whether it be in the classroom, on the sports field, in music, art, drama, debating and much else besides – is of the utmost quality. And indeed our pupils’ achievements in external competitions, in gaining academic distinctions and their success in sport, music and the arts are described in the report as being ‘exceptional’.”

The second of the two key focuses of the Educational Quality Inspection was the quality of pupils’ personal development.

“For us at Shrewsbury, this is every bit as important as pupils’ academic and other achievements,” said Mark Turner. “And it is perhaps more difficult to measure, relying as it does on getting a general ‘feel’ for the School and its ethos and observing how pupils behave towards one another and interact with staff.

“We are very proud – although not surprised – that the quality of pupils’ personal development was given the top rating of ‘excellent’. The Report comments in particular on how well the pupils get on with one another and how naturally courteous and respectful they are both of one another and of the adults who care for them. And it notes that pupils also demonstrate a keen awareness of their responsibility to the wider community. The final paragraph, stating that ‘Pupils mature into independent and self-motivated students during their time at the school so that they are not only well prepared for the next stage of their lives but also ready to make a most positive contribution to society’, is a ringing endorsement of everything that we set out to achieve at Shrewsbury.”