A school seeking to attract more pupils from Woking and its surrounding areas is celebrating a glowing report after a recent inspection.

Halliford School, which can be reached by several bus services to Shepperton, was visited by the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

Independent schools are inspected every three years and, following its last inspection in 2022 when the school was judged to be excellent in all areas, the inspection framework has changed.

One-word qualitative judgements have been removed, and inspections now simply determine whether a school meets the rigorous Independent School Standards Regulations. Halliford School was judged to have met these standards.

“The highest accolade came in Halliford School being awarded a ‘significant strength’”, said headmaster James Davies. “A significant strength is an area of provision that demonstrates a deep understanding of aspirations for students’ development of knowledge, skills, and understanding, with a demonstrably clear and highly beneficial impact for students.

“Such recognition is rare, goes well beyond what would typically be seen in other schools, and is therefore subject to rigorous quality assurance by the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

“We are absolutely thrilled that Halliford School was awarded our significant strength for ‘the development of pupils’ leadership skills, enabling pupils to articulate their opinions and ideas with confidence, contribute meaningfully to decision-making and play a substantial role in the school and wider community’.

“In a world where warm-hearted leadership can sometimes feel in short supply, our work in this vital area of education has been recognised in exceptional terms.

“Our students achieve exceptional value-added outcomes at both GCSE and A-level, and following meticulous scrutiny of our results, we are delighted that the report concludes that ‘GCSE and A-level results are consistently above national outcomes, particularly in the higher grades’.”

The school encourages first-hand visits; for more details see www.hallifordschool.co.uk