Award win is 'icing on the cake' for girls
A national award has been described as “the icing on the cake” by the headteacher of a girls’ school.
Adcote School, near Shrewsbury, has been named Senior School of the Year 2020 in the Independent Schools Association (ISA) annual awards.
It comes after the non-selective all-girls’ school, at Little Ness, won the ISA award for academic excellence and innovation for its prep school.
Headmistress Diane Browne said: “At Adcote we have completed a remarkable journey of self-improvement and this national award is the icing on the cake.
“We are beyond ecstatic that our determined march to exemplary standards has been endorsed in this way.
"Everyone in education knows what it is to be named as Senior School of the Year. We could not be more proud.”
The school has introduced new systems to improve both academic performance and the personal development of students.
These include new methods for tracking, assessing and measuring individual student progress and greater personalised learning.
Changes include a new tutoring system in the senior school. The old form tutor role has been disbanded and, instead, students are assigned a personal tutor to nurture their individual progress.
An enhanced programme of personal development has also been put in place to equip students with the life skills they need not only to tackle their exams successfully, but to face the challenges and opportunities of life. The programme has attracted awards success in its own right.
Last year more than 70 per cent of the school’s A-level results were A*/A grades, with 86 per cent of all grades being A* to B. All A-level students accessed their university choices. In GCSEs more than 50 per cent of the grades were at the highest levels of 7, 8 and 9 (A/A*).
Published performance tables measuring the academic progress of individual students between GCSEs and A-Level, also put Adcote at the top of schools in Shropshire and in the top 50 independent schools in England.
Throughout lockdown Adcote students have continued their normal timetable of lessons through virtual classes led by teachers online.
