The personal development of pupils at Berkhamsted School is "excellent" and academic achievement surpasses the results of maintained selective schools at A Level, according to independent school inspectors.

The team of inspectors from the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) conducted a two day, short notice visit of Berkhamsted School - comprising Senior Girls, Senior Boys and Sixth Form - and Berkhamsted Preparatory School, including Stepping Stones nursery, during November. The focus of the interim inspections was compliance with regulatory requirements.

Principal, Mark Steed, is pleased that the ISI reports confirm what he considers to be the key strengths of Berkhamsted School and Berkhamsted Prep: "Our pupils' attitudes to learning are excellent, high quality teaching contributes to their success, and the school offers a warm and caring community in which pupils thrive."

He added that the positive findings in both reports relating to the quality of pupils' achievements and their personal development are welcomed by the school, and come shortly after Berkhamsted Prep appeared on the Sunday Times' list of Top 50 Prep Schools for the first time.

Key points from both reports include:

Early Years Foundation Stage (Stepping Stones)

• The quality of provision is outstanding and offers a wealth of opportunities for all areas of learning in stimulating and word-rich surroundings. Planning is creative, encouraging children to think independently.
• Outcomes for children in the EYFS are outstanding. They are happy in their surroundings, eager to get involved in their activities and are able to apply themselves wholeheartedly.

Berkhamsted Prep

• By Year 6 (pupils) reach high standards particularly in mathematics, English and science. Results in national tests at age eleven over the last three years for which comparative data are available are excellent when compared with the national average for maintained primary schools.
• Pupils' attitudes to learning are excellent.
• They have great success in a wide variety of activities from sport, music and drama to national maths challenge and poetry writing competitions.
• High quality teaching is a contributory factor to pupils' success. Teachers are caring, supportive of the pupils and each other and hard working.
• Pupils are happy, polite, helpful and well behaved. Their personal development is excellent.

Berkhamsted School

• Throughout the school, pupils progress well. They are articulate and confident, expressing themselves fluently both orally and in writing.
• Pupils achieve widespread success in many activities, ranging from drama and swing band to sport and academic competitions, in all of which standards are high.
• Pupils' success is underpinned by the hard work and commitment of staff, and by good teaching
• Both pupils and their parents value the exceptional range of extra-curricular activities.
• The pupils' excellent personal development helps create a warm and caring community where they feel secure and show a mature and responsible attitude to learning.

Mr Steed acknowledged the Board of Governors' and his own concern at the shortfalls identified by the inspectors in regulatory record keeping procedures relating to staff appointments. "We were able to address these concerns very quickly by completing the task of setting up a centralised register of staff appointments, giving us a more robust means of capturing and monitoring information on the full and part time staff working across all three of our campuses."

Berkhamsted is one of 40 independent schools selected under the pilot phase of a new approach to school inspection by the ISI. This gives the school a week's notice of the two day inspection visit, and requires supporting documentation to be provided to the inspection team on the day of notification. Mr Steed describes the new approach to inspection as a positive experience: "Its main advantage is that it's all over and done with so quickly and there's no time for an impending inspection to hang over the school like a cloud. The impact of the interim inspection falls almost exclusively on senior management, with little effect on the day-to-day operation of the school."

The full reports are available to view via the link below:

ISI Inspection