ISA Awards 2025: Finalists announced
We are delighted to announce the Finalists and Highly Commended schools for the ISA Awards 2025.
Click here to see the shortlist.
The Awards recognise excellence and innovation demonstrated across the independent sector. The 15 individual award categories allow us to celebrate the breadth of achievements across the diverse range of schools within our Association. Our membership has grown to 770, which is reflected in the strength of entry numbers this year.
Finalists have showcased the outstanding impact on the students that they educate in a variety of fields. Judges have also awarded Highly Commended honours to schools that were not shortlisted, but whose work is deemed worthy of special recognition.
Rudolf Eliott Lockhart, Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Schools Association (ISA), added:
“This year we had another fantastic set of entries. The Awards shine a light on some of the many fabulous ways that ISA schools bring the very best out of their pupils. That the shortlist includes both familiar names as well as some of our smaller and newer schools, is a clear indication of the diversity of our ISA family, and the value of schools being able to use their independence in different ways to meet the different needs of the children in their care.
The judges had a very tough job selecting finalists and highly commended schools from a field of such high-quality entries. Whether or not your school was shortlisted this year, I hope you can feel proud of what you’ve been able to do in a challenging year, and I hope that we can celebrate the achievements of all our schools at the ceremony in November even as we announce the winners.”
The number of entries reflects the commitment of educators to celebrate excellence and innovation and to use this to inspire best practices not only across ISA, but throughout the education sector as a whole.
The Awards allow our finalists and highly commended to promote their achievements both to existing and prospective parents, and the wider community, by providing schools with national publicity and the chance to proudly promote this via their own marketing platforms.
This year saw a relatively wide variety of entrants, reflecting the strength in diversity of our membership. The shortlist includes both proportionately large and considerably smaller schools; and included both hybrid and virtual settings.
The Awards were also proof that your schools certainly does not have to be a specialist in the particular category, be it SEND, mental health, or other areas of education, to place among the finalists. If you are an ISA Member, we hope to see your school represented in the Awards next year.
The ceremony will take place alongside the ISA Autumn Study Conference. We strongly recommend representing your school there, especially if you are a finalist. For more details and to book your tickets, click here.