Independent Schools Association celebrate successes of Members with Awards ceremony
The Independent Schools Association (ISA) celebrated the successes of its Members’ schools with the ISA Awards 2021 on Thursday 11 November.
Outstanding local community involvement, excellence in Mental Health and wellbeing support and innovation in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, a new award for this year, were just some of the areas of achievement celebrated at the awards ceremony in Coventry.
The ISA Awards celebrate the breadth of excellence and innovation across the independent sector and commends the hard work of our Headteachers and their staff. Despite Covid-19 challenging schools for another academic year and beyond, the dedication towards providing an exceptional education to children has remained due to the perseverance and resilience from ISA Members and their schools.
The ISA Award for Excellence and Innovation in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion was a new honour introduced this year and went to Dwight School London. This award celebrated the promotion of inclusion across the school. Dwight School demonstrated a commitment to building an anti-racist culture for all pupils and engaged with the entire school community on a personal level on the issues of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
ISA Senior School of the Year was awarded to King’s High School Warwick. This award recognised how the school makes a positive impact to the educational outcomes of the children in its care. The efforts from King’s High, particularly the focus on wellbeing, community and learning marked a great response to the pandemic from the Warwickshire school. The offering of a range of programmes and activities aligned to these themes provided a solid foundation for a well-rounded but high attaining education in both Covid and more normal times.
ISA Junior School of the Year went to Heathcote Prep School in Danbury, Essex. Like the Senior School Award, this award celebrated positive outcomes across the school’s operations, from special educational needs, sport, the arts, curriculum, or the co-curriculum. Heathcote responded to the challenges of the past year by demonstrating exemplary teamwork and embraced technology as they trained staff to become Microsoft Innovative Educators. Heathcote have been deservedly recognised for their outstanding dedication and innovation by Microsoft and Pearson.
Chief Executive Officer of the ISA, Rudolf Eliott Lockhart, added:
“The ISA Awards 2021 was an opportunity to recognise some of the wonderful achievements of Members’ schools over the past year. The standard of entries was extremely high and the judges had a tough time with many fabulous schools just missing out on awards.
“The introduction of the award for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion reflects the work taking place across the Association to encourage the development of fully inclusive environments in schools and to ensure pupils can be champions for EDI both now and throughout the rest of their lives.
“After a difficult year for everyone, it was a pleasure to bring people together from across our Association to celebrate the different and remarkable ways that ISA schools provide for the pupils in their care.”The winners of the ISA Awards 2021 were:
ISA Junior School of the Year Award: Heathcote Prep School, EssexISA Senior School of the Year Award: King’s High School Warwick
ISA Award for Excellence and Innovation in Early Years: Emmanuel School Derby
ISA Award for Outstanding Sport in a Small School: Myddelton College, Denbighshire
ISA Award for Outstanding Sport in a Large School: Bournemouth Collegiate School
ISA Award for Excellence and Innovation in Performing Arts: King’s High School Warwick
ISA Award for Excellence and Innovation in Fine Arts: Rochester Independent College, Kent
ISA Award for Outstanding Provision for Learning Support: Frewen College, Sussex
ISA Award for Excellence in Pupil Personal Development: Moon Hall School Reigate, Surrey
ISA Award for Excellence and Innovation in Mental Health and Wellbeing: DLD College London
ISA Award for Excellence and Innovation in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Dwight School London
ISA Award for Outstanding Local Community Involvement: Leighton Park School, Reading
ISA Award for Outstanding International Involvement: Myddelton College, Denbighshire
For more information on awards, contact Jennie Quillen and for general media enquiries, contact Jaikuran Randhawa. If you would like to contact any of our winners for individual comments, please let us know and we can put you in touch.