A SOUTH Cumbria independent school has received an excellent report from inspectors.

Windermere School - which was named Sunday Times IB School of the Year - has received extremely positive results from the Independent School Inspectorate.

The ISI is the body approved by the Department for Education for the purpose of inspecting schools belonging to Independent Schools Council Associations and reporting on compliance.

The first half of the report found the school to be fully compliant with all statutory regulations, including the boarding provision and the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Windermere School was awarded the highest possible grade of excellent for the quality of the education provided, the achievement of the pupils academic development and personal development.

Inspectors found "pupils of all abilities achieve highly across the school," achievements in outdoor pursuits are "exceptional," and the pupils demonstrate "excellent attitudes" and respond enthusiastically to the academic and adventure programmes.

Addressing the pupils’ personal development, the inspectors said “the pupils’ outstanding personal development leads to success in working together in challenging situations and in having a strong global perspective”. The personal development of boarders is "excellent, which in turn strengthens the whole school community.”

In the EYFS, inspectors saw that the youngest children demonstrate "excellent skills" in numeracy, language and understand the environment. In the junior section of the school, pupils were found to "progress rapidly", a curriculum which is built on very effectively for the IGCSE programme, where the independent study skills and self-motivation pupils need to succeed are rapidly developed.

The recent upward trend in the school’s examination results was also praised. The International Baccalaureate results are "well above the worldwide average", which represents a significant achievement given the school’s non-selective entry policy.

The report praised the pupils’ skills in outdoor pursuits, citing them as “exceptionally well-developed”, and highlighting that the school “draws well on its lakeside location”. Achievements in other fields, such as the arts, are also recognised, with the report mentions that Windermere School was the top-performing junior school nationally for speech and drama examinations in 2017.

Ian Lavender, the delighted headmaster of Windermere School, said:“There is no doubt that this has been an extremely good year for the school. We began with high rankings in the Times (19th) and the Telegraph (37th) for our sixth form results, and the award from the Sunday Times as the IB School of the Year followed some weeks later. Now we have the ISI report, which could not be better. I would like to thank everyone for their support and for helping us to achieve this position, in particular all members of staff, who have enabled us to achieve further recognition."