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St Swithun’s School reaccredited as a HPL World Class School |
St Swithun’s School in Winchester is celebrating after being reaccredited as a High Performance Learning (HPL) World Class School for a further three years.
The award recognises schools at the forefront of educational thinking with exceptional outcomes for students. St Swithun’s is part of an elite global community of schools from Dubai to Mexico who routinely share best practice and support each other.
During the process, HPL described St Swithun’s as ‘a truly exceptional school that others look to for inspiration’.
The accreditor also commented that the school has ‘students who are exceptionally articulate, confident and reflective, and who demonstrate a deep understanding of themselves as learners and of the characteristics required for success’.
The prep school was praised for developing ‘exemplary practice in student-led and enquiry-based learning including expanded opportunities beyond the iPQ in year 6 to include collaborative projects from Years 3 to 5’.
In the senior school, the curriculum and co-curricular opportunities, including the academic enrichment programme, were highlighted as exceptional. The accreditor stated that ‘these thoughtful and thought-provoking opportunities are ensuring that the students recognise that ‘collaboration is very important’ and that they are ‘encouraged to think for themselves’. Parents also recognise that their daughters are especially confident, curious and ‘very positive communicators with adults’.
“The HPL ethos, #everybodycan, is at the heart of what we believe. Students might not have attained high performance yet, but they know that purposeful practice and embracing, and learning from, mistakes will lead to success in the long run. We love this positive mindset."
Jane Gandee, St Swithun’s headmistress.
Life at St Swithun’s is underpinned by the HPL philosophy that everyone can be a high performer. The philosophy involves the systematic and explicit encouragement and empowerment of students to develop the ways of thinking and ways of behaving that will equip them for success both in school and beyond. “We firmly believe in the importance of giving girls the opportunity to take a risk, try something different and find their voice.”