Umalusi

St John's Prep has been evaluated by Umalusi which is the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training as well as the Independent Quality Assurance Association and has been accredited by both organisations.

St John’s Prep has been credited with a three-year accreditation which is the highest possible level attainable at this stage.

We are currently waiting for the process of full accreditation to take place.

Independent Quality Assurance Evaluation

St John’s Prep completed their formal, whole-school evaluation from the Independent Quality Assurance Association in 2007.  The three days went extremely well and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who were involved - from Brian Williams from Cornwall Hill who was our external mentor, to our own internal evaluation teams and those staff members who opened up their classrooms and lessons to the scrutiny of the inspectors, and finally to our two ‘behind-the-scenes’ ladies, Brigitte Taylor and Nikki Moore, for sorting out everything from flowers, eats and parent bookings to producing minutes with such little fuss and so timeously.

I would like to commend all our boys who behaved impeccably during the evaluation. The boys who participated in an amazing focus group went about this in a mature and professional way and we are very proud of them. We also thank close to fifty parents who gave up their time to be at our parent focus groups. Their enthusiasm, care and meaningful suggestions were extremely valuable and showed us just what a supportive parent body we have. Last but not least, my thanks go to Margot Long who helped me every step of the way. 

For me, the whole procedure proved itself to be a very constructive and affirmative one for St John’s. An official report has been written up and can be viewed via the IQAA PDF download [ 1.3 MB ]. It shows numerous areas where the school is prospering, such as in our Academic Programme, our facilities, the Leadership Programme and our Boys-in-Need Programme to name a few. Statistics from the questionnaires sent out revealed for example that 97% of boys are happy at school, and 97% of their parents agree. 100% of parents feel that the school has high academic standards.

However, the evaluation also revealed areas which need more attention.  Areas of concern from the findings of the boys’ and parents’ surveys and focus groups included sport, bullying, and theft and safety of possessions. These issues have been clearly outlined in the full report, together with lists of recommendations and suggestions for improvement.

At present all the issues have been addressed and are continuously being monitored.

Mr Patric Lees
Second Master