At the end of last year, the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), who reports to the UK Department of Education, conducted an inspection of our Kensington campus and confirmed what we already knew – that our school and community is special. Following this, our Hampstead campus was also inspected by the ISI towards the end of term in May 2022. We are delighted to share that the inspectors found our Hampstead campus to be just as exceptional as Kensington and once again we’re thrilled with all the positive things they highlighted about our school whilst on their four-day inspection.

This ISI inspection involves two parts.  The first part reports on regulations in relation to the Independent Schools Standards all of which we are pleased to confirm are compliant.

The second part of the inspection is on educational quality, focusing on the two outcomes:

The quality of the pupils’ academic and other achievements is excellent.

  • Pupils demonstrate outstanding study skills; they display high levels of curiosity and develop string critical thinking skills.
  • Pupils have excellent attitudes towards their learning; they show initiative, independence and collaborate extremely effectively.
  • Pupils are highly articulate communicators.
  • Pupils show high rates of progress in their learning.

The quality of the pupils’ personal development is excellent.

  • Pupils display excellent social awareness for their age and make a positive contribution to the school and wider community.
  • Pupils demonstrate a notably strong appreciation of diversity and a pronounced respect for other cultures.
  • Pupils show high levels of self-awareness, confidence and resilience.
  • Pupils have a highly developed sense of responsibility for their behaviour.

Shirley Harwood, Principal at our Hampstead campus had this to say to all of Hampstead campus staff:

“A huge thank you to everyone. You should feel very proud of your achievements, which were seen and acknowledged by the inspection team. We should feel particularly proud of moving the academic quality from “good with significant outstanding features”, to “excellent” across all areas. Given the last three challenging years, that is a real achievement. Congratulations to all our teaching assistants, specialists and homeroom teachers.

Thank you also to all the facilities, IT and Admin teams for their, often unseen, work to ensure the school is run efficiently, to support the excellent teaching, learning and personal development & welfare of students, and that we meet all the compliance regulations and stayed compliant throughout.”

A great big thank you from us all at Southbank to our students for being so great, along with our teachers for their tireless efforts to maintain our exceptional standards of teaching and learning.

Read the full report here.