World Class School Quality Mark awarded to eight schools
Today, eight UK secondary schools achieved the status of ‘World-Class’ according to School Inspectors. The World Class Schools Quality Mark has put each school through a rigorous accreditation programme over the last six months culminating in today’s announcement.
Announcing the awards, Miranda Perry, Co-Director of World Class Schools Quality Mark, said ‘We are delighted to confirm these schools’ success, in recognition of the incredible hard work and dedication of their staff and the achievements of their students. They have consistently demonstrated their ability to develop world-class students able to compete and thrive anywhere in the world. We look forward to working with them to share their expertise with schools and colleges internationally.’
Ofsted – the UK’s school inspectorate – classifies school performance into four grades, from 1. Outstanding to 4. Inadequate. All eight schools had already been deemed Outstanding by Ofsted and were looking for a way to demonstrate that their schools had improved beyond Grade 1 since their previous inspections.
Responding to the announcement, Alan Gray, Head Teacher of the Sandringham School in St. Albans, said ‘There are occasions in life when something comes along that matches perfectly with your current thinking. The World Class Schools Quality Mark is a great example of this. We were already defining our next steps beyond ‘outstanding’ and ‘World Class’ was the obvious choice.
‘Being one of the first schools to be recognised with this prestigious award is a real privilege for us and one that we will embrace fully as an early ambassador for the programme. We hope that through this status, the quality of provision at English state schools is recognised on the World stage and supports our on-going drive to raise educational standards for all children, wherever they happen to live’.
