Exceptional Schools Award

The Exceptional Schools Award exemplifies the excellence and uniqueness of outstanding schools, including the quality and consistency of teaching that Ofsted now expects. The quality standard is based on the attributes and practice of the best schools nationally. It includes a 360 online survey of stakeholders that provides a unique insight into the effectiveness of the school’s provision and informs school improvement planning and a timeline for achieving the Award.

Who is this for:

The quality standard is for all schools that are currently outstanding or aspire to become outstanding. Schools can access the ESA at three levels from developmental to accreditation level.

What are the benefits:

You can use the quality standard for self-evaluation and developing your practice in order to demonstrate excellence through achievement of the Award.

360 outcomes to inform school improvement planning and a timeline for achieving the Award
Exemplification of consistently outstanding standards of teaching and learning
Promoting and sharing exceptional practice by providing case studies for the Exceptional Schools website
National and regional networks to enable you to work with other exceptional schools
The opportunity to participate in the audit of other outstanding schools

How is it delivered:

The quality standard takes the form of:

a hard copy of the standard and exemplars that will help guide you towards the Award
access to online Best Practice Network materials and school case studies
a 360 degree online survey for all stakeholders of the school against the quality standard
a report generated from the 360 that will confirm the exceptional qualities of your school and provide insight into any areas that you might want to improve
a self-evaluation against the quality standard plus a small number of your existing documents to form the basis of the submission for accreditation
a case study which showcases your exceptional practice
an audit visit to verify that the standard has been achieved
a report generated from the 360 that will confirm the exceptional qualities of your school and provide insight into any areas that you might want to improve

How do I apply/find out more:

You may wish to read through our frequently asked questions, or please email your questions to esa@bestpracticenet.co.uk or call Chris on 0117 920 9209.

Other resources:

ESA order/information request form

It was incredibly useful as a discussion tool for the SLT and led to considerable debate about how effective our provision is and helped us identify some areas for improvement.

Headteacher, Deer Park School, Gloucestershire

Even carrying out the initial review of the standards as an SLT led us to make changes to our school improvement plan

Headteacher, Hungerford Nursery, West Berkshire

We have undertaken surveys before but this was more thorough and included stakeholders so it gave us a broad perspective.

Headteacher, The Chalfonts Community College

We were pleased at how positive our stakeholders were about the school but there were some interesting differences between groups of stakeholders that we are looking at more closely.

Harefield Junior School, Hillingdon