Inspection Report 2008

Merchant Taylors’ has now received the formal report of the Independent Schools Inspectorate on the Inspection of the School carried out under the leadership of Dr Vivian Anthony, from 6 – 9 October 2008.

Inspection reports follow a standard format. After a factual introduction, they comprise three broad sections, following which, conclusions are drawn and any necessary recommendations made.

The three sections are:

·         Education

·         Care and relationships

·         Governance, leadership and management

In terms of Education, the Inspectors concluded:

"The quality of the educational experience provided is outstanding and fulfils the school’s aims and philosophy of creating a strong learning community in which breadth of achievement is valued equally with success at the highest level in examinations.”

The Inspectors particularly commended the, "stress on love of learning for its own sake, the ...activities which enrich pupils and the community both socially and intellectually... (and) the learning environment of considerable beauty.”

"The provision of extra-curricular activities is outstanding ... Sport ... is strong; facilities are excellent and all teams benefit from high quality coaching ... activities foster leadership skills, personal responsibility, independence and decision making skills ... preparation for the next stages in the boys’ lives is excellent."

The boys came in for particular praise. "Pupils’ learning and achievements are outstanding. They are highly self-motivated, eager to learn and show a considerable degree of critical and creative thinking... boys are exceptionally articulate and keen... Boys show a high level of independent thought and engage in excellent research...Pupils obtain outstandingly good grades ... and ... achieve individual and team success in many other areas, for instance in music."

One third of all lessons observed were ‘outstanding’ and in, "almost all lessons observed the teaching was empathic, multi-dimensional, varied and enriching."

‘Outstanding’ was again the key word in the section on the Quality of Care and Relationships. The report singled out the school’s tutorial system and its academic teaching:

"Expectations of good discipline are high and a very good standard of behaviour is the result."

It made special mention of relationships within the student body, underlining that the boys:

“Get on well with each other and the relationships across and within the age groups are warm and supportive. Senior pupils commented on how they ‘looked out’ for the younger boys in their tutor group. Boys take a pride in the achievement of others in and outside the classroom.”

The School’s relationship with parents and the local community is recognised as “outstanding”. It made particular mention of the thriving ‘Friends’ organisations, the website, our magazines (Taylorian and Concordia) and the high quality of our academic reports and was full of praise for the boys’ charitable endeavours.

The final section of the report concerned itself with Governance, Leadership and Management. The quality of governance is “outstanding” and in terms of management, MTS “benefits from excellent educational direction and leadership."

The report's Conclusion was that the school was outstanding:

"The outstanding quality of the education at the school is largely due to excellent leadership and the dedicated efforts of the teachers. They are generous in the time and effort given to ensure that boys develop essential and secure moral values, along with notable academic success. Boys’ achievements are exceptional."

The report’s sole Recommendations are that the School encourage the fullest possible dissemination of ‘best practice’, so that there is complete consistency in terms of the highest standards across the School all the time (in terms of marking and lesson delivery) and extend still further its system of professional development for the Faculty. It also recommended that the School’s leadership monitor pastoral delivery using a system similar to the one we already use for academic delivery.

Although it would perhaps not be sensible to place too much emphasis on a stray obiter dictum, Dr Anthony did say - when presenting the report to the Governors and Managers of the School - that in over two decades of Inspecting Schools - this was the best report he had ever written.

Inspectorial regimes come and go in this history of a School like Taylors’, but it is as least pleasing to hear Dr. Anthony reconfirm in 2008, what Stone noted about the School in 1602, “It made both good Schoolemaisters, and also good Schollers, diligently against such times to prepare themselues for the obtayning of this Garland” and what Charles Dickens, Jnr. reinforced in 1879, “Merchant Taylors’ School, is one of the best of the public schools of London, and has little to fear in any competition".