Education Choices Awards 2026!

 A pioneering 'Windows and Mirrors' programme - developed with the SEED Project - places student and family voice at the heart of EDIB work, inviting families to share how they wish to be known and using those conversations to shape classroom practice. Student EDI Ambassadors contribute visibly to whole-school assemblies, while a dedicated Staff EDI Team ensures the school's approach evolves with the world. The result is a community built on empathy, representation and genuine collaboration between pupils, families and staff. 

With 28 nationalities, over 30 home languages, and 39 recorded ethnicities, this school embodies the diversity of south-east London and has moved well beyond policy into lived practice. From formally adopting the Halo Code in 2020 and training pupils as Halo Guardians, to a bespoke spiral PSHE programme covering microaggressions, privilege and intersectionality, EDIB is woven through every year group. An externally facilitated survey found 93% of pupils feel the school successfully supports diversity and inclusion, with 94% reporting their culture, faith and background are fully respected. 

Nine years of deep, sustained partnership with six local maintained schools - delivered through a flagship Saturday Club for disadvantaged Year 5 and 6 pupils, a literacy programme reaching 470 pupils annually, French specialist teachers seconded weekly into three partner schools and a science lending library offering both equipment and CPD. Over 360 pupils benefit from MFL provision each year, and several Saturday Club alumni have progressed to selective senior schools, including South Hampstead and UCS, supported through the independent school application process. 

King's College Wimbledon dedicates every Friday afternoon to partnership work, engaging over 1,500 pupils from 40 partner schools weekly - through Connect (11+ enrichment for 75 pupils), GCSE reinforcement classes, the Open Doors Project, a community production, and an annual arts festival. 

King's High School, Warwick has also created a pioneering new multi-academy trust - the first cross-sector partnership of its kind locally - bringing together an independent school, two primaries and a special school. Together the two schools demonstrate what partnership looks like at its most ambitious. 

Every bursary - worth £20,000 per year - covers not just fees but trips, music lessons, clubs and all enrichment activities, ensuring bursary pupils are fully integrated into school life on equal footing with their peers. Since the programme began, 66 places have been awarded, and every single bursary pupil has left with either a scholarship or a fully funded bursary to senior school, progressing to Westminster, Winchester, Charterhouse and beyond. Alumni credit the school with shaping their confidence, their character and their futures. 

As a state boarding school, Gordon's has built a bursary system through its Foundation that ensures no child is excluded on financial grounds - currently supporting around 60 pupils, funded through donations from organisations including the Worshipful Company of Girdlers and Buttle UK. Each Foundation Award is a genuine three-way collaboration between school, family and child, with funding organisations meeting recipients annually. Staff fundraise from their own salaries and give up half terms to raise money - speaking to a culture where bursary support is a whole-community commitment, not a departmental function. 

The community raised £36,157 for external charities in a single year, headlined by a pupil-led Restless Development Triathlon raising over £20,000. Charitable engagement is embedded through house charity votes, giving pupils ownership of causes, alongside Pre-Prep sponsorship of children through Project Gambia, a boarding Swimathon, Harvest Festival collections generating nearly 300kg of food, and support for neighbouring schools. The approach builds self-awareness, leadership and emotional intelligence alongside meaningful financial impact. 

Supporting 32 charities in 2025–26 and on track to raise £150,000, Shrewsbury has made charitable engagement a structural part of school life through a weekly Thursday volunteering programme - including a Refugee Homework Club, FoodBank PLUS and the Shrewsbury Hygiene Bank. Long-standing partnerships with the Shewsy Youth Club, FoodBank PLUS and Restart Africa develop genuine understanding rather than transactional giving, while individual pupil initiatives have included an 85km trek raising over £50,000 for conservation in Kenya and a Pink Run surpassing the distance from Shrewsbury to Paris. 

Pupil voice shapes daily life from Reception to Year 8 through termly sessions that have led to tangible changes across facilities, boarding provision and routines. A termly Food Council sees pupils work directly with the catering manager on menus, with a rotating cast of representatives ensuring as many children as possible contribute. Eco and Charities committees give pupils genuine leadership, while termly wellbeing questionnaires and open-access support ensure every child feels heard, valued and safe. 

Putney High gives students a role in shaping everything from the curriculum to the shape of the school day, with 94% of students reporting that staff value different views. The seven Artemis competencies - covering creative innovation, data intelligence, and inclusive citizenship - being introduced from September are a direct result of what students said they needed to thrive. An open-door policy throughout the school ensures pupils always have someone to go to, and when a club doesn't exist, students are encouraged to create and lead it themselves - as with the recent student-led aviation club.

South Hampstead became the first girls' day school to receive two ISI 'significant strengths', including for outstanding oracy provision - a rare accolade. Pupils spoke at the House of Lords about the power of an all-girls' education, staged a sell-out showcase debate on AI in education and championed their Think Global Act Local eco-initiative at the International Coalition for Girls' Schools UK conference. Student voice is embedded into the school's Beyond 2026 strategy, which includes a new oracy and critical thinking course for Year 7 and a first school-directed GCSE course - Scholarship through Speech - designed to equip young women with the confidence and skills to lead in a rapidly changing world.

A whole-term cross-curricular project - spanning English, history, geography, drama and wellbeing - centred on the Standing in This Place statue, developed in partnership with the National Justice Museum, sits at the heart of a genuinely embedded EDIB curriculum. The school's use of the No Outsiders scheme, EDI-focused reading rotating across classrooms, and inclusive non-gendered sport initiatives are backed by measurable impact: pupils' reported sense of belonging rose from 71% to 93% following a relational approach to behaviour management grounded in Master's-level research at Chester University. 

Five core values - Individuality, Learning, Compassion, Wellbeing and Innovation - provide a structural framework for EDIB that runs from timetabled lessons to whole-school events. Individuality Day invites pupils and staff to dress to express every dimension of identity; student-curated inter-faith assemblies across five religious traditions are themed around shared values such as charity and forgiveness; and a weekly Wellbeing Programme covers BSL, Black History Month, LGBT History Month and International Women's Day across year groups. Sixth Form DEI Captains, a thriving LGBTQ+ society, an annual Iftar and a Lion Dance through the corridors demonstrate that EDIB here is not an annual event - it is a living culture. 

Donhead's annual weeklong Art Exhibition showcases over 600 pieces from every pupil, with ambitious interdisciplinary projects - including Year 6 robots with working electrical circuits built from wood, foam board and recycled materials  displayed alongside community exhibitions at Wimbledon Library and local parks. An extensive co-curricular music programme includes twelve peripatetic teachers, six ensembles, weekly Singing Practice Assemblies and recent performances at Young Voices at The O2 and the Wimbledon Village Christmas lights switch-on. Creativity here is inclusive, ambitious and joyful - with musicians performing live during the Art Exhibition and pupils collaborating with visiting artists from Guyana on world music traditions.

Newton Prep's music programme takes pupils to Winchester and Chichester Cathedrals; a record 43 scholarships and awards were achieved in 2025, including across the creative arts; and a Year 8 production of Hamlet was reviewed by the National School Theatre Awards. The distinctive Prep Diploma for Years 7 and 8 combines Humanities and Art through thematic enquiry and real-world experiences, while an N'Oscars Film Night, Shakespeare productions and four Upper School recitals per term ensure every child performs. An Honorary Scholarship programme supports exceptional talent across music, drama, art, sport and academics.

 Roedean offers every Year 7 girl free instrument tuition within the curriculum, with students regularly performing at Glyndebourne and the Royal Albert Hall, joining the National Youth Choir and the National Youth Concert Band and appearing in the Brighton Festival Fringe. The school uniquely offers A Level Art completed in one year followed by a foundation year giving direct access to BA art courses, with former pupils going on to Central St Martins. Creative alumna Anabela Chan, jewellery designer to Rihanna, serves as the school's Creative Arts Ambassador, working with pupils across all year groups.

Tonbridge brings practising professional artists into its teaching team, operates an open-door studio policy with technicians available throughout the week and maintains two gallery spaces - the Old Big School Gallery and the Tunnel Gallery - used as live teaching environments with visiting artists and residency programmes. A themed "Nights at the Opera" season introduced pupils to major operatic repertoire through concerts, workshops and visits to the Royal Opera House, ENO and Glyndebourne. More than 40% of pupils learn at least one instrument, with ensembles ranging from chamber groups and jazz bands to a full symphony orchestra.

The school's 'Learning Success' branding is a deliberate choice - removing stigma and embedding a belief that every child can flourish. A tiered intervention model developed through staff consultation and diagnostic assessment covers reading, phonics, maths, handwriting, typing and executive functioning, with 1:1 sessions rising from 22 to 33 per week. Measurable pupil progress - including a child moving from Priority SEND support to Scholarship Honours - sits alongside emotional wellbeing support through Zones of Regulation and Margot, the school's trained therapy dog. 

 Cranleigh's 'Support Cycle' runs from Year 5 to Sixth Form, with an open-door Learning Support Hub, digital learning profiles available to every teacher from day one and Sixth Form Peer Mentors who share their own academic challenges to model that seeking help is a sign of strength. Evidence-based pedagogy rooted in Rosenshine's Principles, strategic setting reviewed regularly to balance pace and ambition and a collaborative triangle between teachers, Learning Support and parents ensure support is proactive rather than reactive. The 2026 ISI inspection confirmed that leaders prioritise pupil wellbeing with equal weight to academic progress.

A selective state grammar school with around 100 pupils on the SEN Register, the Crypt ensures its pupils don't just access the curriculum - they excel within it. Individual Student Support Plans highlight strengths and interests alongside needs, so every pupil is seen and celebrated as an individual. Recent outcomes include an autistic pupil achieving A*A*A* and progressing to Oxford to read Engineering and Physics and SEN pupils regularly performing in orchestra, choir and first-team sport. A bowling event organised by the local authority for SEN pupils ended with the school team winning - with, as the submission notes, "much enthusiasm."

Sport at Aberdour is non-gendered, fully inclusive and built on the PAL® (Personalised Achievement Learning) approach - with football, rugby, netball, hockey and cricket open to all and thoughtful adaptations in place for every pupil regardless of ability or need. The submission's case studies ground the inclusive ethos in real outcomes: a child with autism, ADHD and dyspraxia developed confidence through gymnastics and adapted netball, while disability acrobatic pairs, including pupils with hearing impairments and mobility challenges, competed at the Acrobatic Gymnastics National Finals, with one pair achieving a silver national medal.

A RESPECT ethos introduced in 2019 ensures sport at Downsend is about character and participation as much as competition - with every pupil receiving a minimum of three hours of PE and games per week across twelve sports and girls' and boys' sport receiving equal investment, recognised independently in external reviews. The school's commitment was confirmed in April 2025 when it achieved the UNICEF Gold Rights Respecting Schools Award at the highest level, recognising the embedding of children's rights - including the right to play - across the entire school. 

A small school delivering outsized environmental impact:  ISO 14001  certified as part of the Berkhamsted Schools Group, holders of the Eco-Schools Green Flag with Distinction - with assessors describing the application as "astounding" - and home to an Eco Club open to children as young as four and an Eco Council that conducts weekly energy monitoring and writes letters to the Estates Manager requesting green roofs. Meat-free Mondays, school-grown produce in food technology, in-ground wormeries, windflower gardens planted in partnership with Amersham in Bloom and sustainability embedded in the curriculum through the 'Heatherton Plus' character programme demonstrate that environmental commitment is part of this school's DNA. 

Sydenham & Dulwich has held the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award every year since 2021, reduced food waste on plates by 45% through a pupil-led challenge and developed the first UN Climate Change Accredited teacher in London. From four-year-olds growing vegetables in the Eco Zone allotment to Sixth Formers pitching food-waste business solutions at the LSE, sustainability runs without interruption through every stage of school life. Pupils have marched through Sydenham High Street with protest banners, petitioned the Prime Minister and had a pupil-created video featured on Blue Peter's Green episode - these girls are not waiting to become tomorrow's leaders. They already are.

West Buckland's sustainability commitment is both infrastructural and cultural, built over more than a decade. Its 888 ground-mounted solar panels - believed to be the largest school-based solar installation in the UK - have reduced energy use by 36% and delivered cost savings of £148,507 within a comparable six-month period. Approximately 20 acres of wildflower meadow (believed to be the largest school-based meadow in the UK) and 4,000 native trees planted over 12 years have transformed the grounds into a rich ecological environment, while a student-led eco group, an annual Sustainability Festival engaging 500 students from across the South West and a three-day Teacher Sustainability Conference position the school as a regional hub for environmental education.