Inspection Report 2009

Ashford School was most recently inspected in February 2009. The following is an extract from the inspection report.

The school aims to promote self-reliance, responsibility, compassion and boldness, and to foster a sense of teamwork, the intellectual freedom to be creative, the confidence and enterprise to initiate and the resilience to cope with adversity. It aims to prepare every pupil for future life in an increasingly competitive and complex world. It is committed to developing ‘adventurous learning’.

The educational experience is good and consistent with the school’s aim of providing pupils with an all-round education. The academic programme is well balanced and complemented by a strong emphasis on co-curricular activities. The extensive range of opportunities enables pupils to flourish. Provision in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is outstanding.

Pupils of all ages are well educated. They achieve good levels of knowledge, understanding and skills in accordance with the school’s aims to help each boy or girl to develop independence of mind and spirit and to prepare them for future life.

The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils is good overall, while the social and cultural awareness of pupils in the senior school is outstanding. The school fulfils its aims in this respect, in particular in promoting pupils’ self-reliance, responsibility, confidence and compassion. Pupils’ development is well supported within a broadly Christian ethos. Children’s personal development in the EYFS is excellent.

The quality of the teaching is good overall and promotes the aims of the school well. It contributes significantly to pupils’ progress in all years. The use of assessment information has much improved since the last inspection, although the quality of marking is inconsistent in the senior school. Adults make a very positive contribution to children’s learning and development in the EYFS.

The overall quality of pastoral care and the arrangements for the welfare, health and safety of pupils of all ages are outstanding. The school is highly effective in caring for all pupils’ well-being and development in accordance with its aims.

Links with the parents and wider community are positive and constructive and they contribute well to the successful achievement of the school’s aims. In the preparatory school they are outstanding and in the senior school good. Much work has been done to develop local links since the last inspection.

The quality of boarding education is good. It successfully promotes the school’s aims. The committed and caring boarding staff make a significant difference to the lives of the pupils. The overseas boarders have become increasingly well integrated into the whole school community since the last inspection. Pupils feel secure and happy. Excellent relationships exist between boarders of all ages and they are particularly supportive of one another. Each boarding house contains a wide range of ages and senior pupils readily take responsibility for the welfare of the juniors. Relationships between the staff and pupils are excellent. The atmosphere within the houses is very friendly, open and relaxed.

The overall quality of leadership and management throughout the school is good and provides clear direction and high standards of education and care to enable pupils of all ages to succeed. The determination and strength of vision from the highest level of leadership are significant factors in enabling the fulfilment of the school’s aims. In the past three years, two preparatory schools have been successfully brought together, with a smooth transition to one school which has a clear sense of purpose and ethos and achieves its aims. Similarly the move to full co-education in the senior school is now complete and both boys and girls have been made to feel comfortable and valued.

In order to improve further the quality of education provided, the school should take the following steps.

• Develop teaching strategies to meet the needs of all pupils more effectively, in particular the most able in the senior school, and ensure these are rigorously and regularly monitored.
• Develop the support systems for older pupils with particular needs in the preparatory school.
• Strengthen the use of the new systems for tracking assessment and pupil progress in the senior school.
• Consolidate the development of the roles and responsibilities of subject leaders in the preparatory school and of heads of departments and pastoral leaders in the senior school.

All of the above points are well known to the school and form part of our development plan.

Click here to read the full report.