At 9.15am on Monday morning this week I would have taken that suggestion very happily as we got the call every school loves to receive (!) informing us that we are to be inspected by ISI (Independent Schools Inspectorate) within 36 hours. Being a School Inspector myself and knowing all too well what was coming, my staff and I set about preparing the school for a Regulatory Compliance Inspection. This differs from an Educational Quality Inspection as it does not deliver an actual graded assessment e.g. Excellent, Good, Sound or Unsatisfactory - it simply gives you a pass or a fail! As always, the staff and boys applied themselves superbly, and while the final judgement is not for public knowledge until the report comes out in several weeks, I am happy to say that we were delighted with the overwhelmingly positive comments that we received from the inspectors about all of our pupils and staff. We now await our inspection report to share with you.

On this note, I would like to thank so many of you for filling in the school questionnaire that ISI request before they enter into any school. Seeing so many positive responses to our pastoral care, academic provision, school ethos, activities, etc. was quite humbling and reminds me how lucky I am to be leading such a wonderful school community. From myself and my staff, a huge thank you.

Well, that was most of my week taken up! Thankfully, the staff and pupils kept everything going as per normal and we have had our share of success which you will read about in the Sports section regarding our swimming team’s triumph on Sunday and from Mr Hogg in our chess report. I hope you can forgive the slightly abbreviated version of my words today and that the pictures we have in our news of the week do more than make up for it.

Have a lovely weekend.

Justin Spanswick