Windsor Girls' School is rated strong for inclusion and leadership, and no area needs attention. In 2024 Ofsted said it required improvement. What changed.
Windsor Girls’ School has been graded “strong standard” for inclusion and for leadership and governance in its first Ofsted report card. Its other four areas meet the expected standard, and none is graded as needing attention. Safeguarding standards are met.
Two years ago the picture was different. Ofsted’s last full inspection, in May 2024, judged the school to require improvement overall, with behaviour and leadership both rated requires improvement (2024 report).
Inspectors visited the Imperial Road school on 22 and 23 September 2026. Ofsted published the report card on 19 October (Ofsted, Windsor Girls’ School).
The grades
| Area | Grade |
|---|---|
| Inclusion | Strong standard |
| Leadership and governance | Strong standard |
| Curriculum and teaching | Expected standard |
| Achievement | Expected standard |
| Attendance and behaviour | Expected standard |
| Personal development and wellbeing | Expected standard |
| Safeguarding | Met |
The new report cards replaced single-word judgements such as “requires improvement”. The five grades run from exceptional and strong standard down to expected standard, needs attention and urgent improvement. So the two reports cannot be compared grade for grade. What can be compared is what inspectors wrote.
What inspectors found
Behaviour is the biggest change. In 2024 inspectors found “inconsistencies in pupils’ attitudes to their learning” and said not all pupils got the help they needed to meet the school’s raised expectations. This year’s card says:
“Since the previous inspection, behaviour has improved significantly.”
It describes classrooms as “calm and purposeful” and says low-level disruption is “extremely rare”.
On leadership, the card says leaders “work collaboratively to improve the school at pace” and that their “decisive actions” are improving behaviour, raising achievement and driving up attendance. It adds that parents and carers “hold the school in very high regard”.
On inclusion, inspectors say leaders understand the barriers pupils face, including those with special educational needs, those who are disadvantaged and those known to social care. That work starts before pupils arrive, through partnerships with the middle schools.
The leadership team has largely changed since 2024. The headteacher, Ben Garner, was appointed in January 2025. The chair of trustees started in September 2024. The school belongs to the Windsor Learning Partnership, whose chief executive, Jane Davies, took up the post in September 2026.
Attendance is still the weak spot
Ofsted’s own figures show attendance improving but still well behind. In 2024/25, 35.0% of pupils were persistently absent, meaning they missed at least one session in ten. The national average was 23.4%. A year earlier the school’s figure was 42.9%, against 25.6% nationally.
Inspectors set the school two next steps:
- make sure the most effective teaching methods, including precise checking of what pupils have learned, are used across every subject
- keep improving attendance, so the gains last for the pupils and groups it is aimed at
Results
The card puts results close to the national average. The school’s Attainment 8 score in 2024/25 was 45.7, against 46.1 nationally. Inspectors say pupils “achieve very well in humanities”, where results are above average. In the sixth form, A level results are generally in line with the national average, while the small number of vocational students did less well.
The school takes girls from 13 to 18 and had 775 pupils at the time of the inspection, against a capacity of 864. It is one of the Windsor upper schools on the three-tier system, taking pupils from the town’s middle schools in Year 9.
What it means for you
- If your daughter is at the school: no area is graded as needing attention, so Ofsted will not carry out monitoring visits. Schools are normally inspected about every four years.
- If you are choosing an upper school for September 2027: the full card, with every section and the results tables, is on the Ofsted website. Our term dates page has this year’s holidays, including the two-week October break at the Windsor Learning Partnership schools.
Sources
- Ofsted, report card for Windsor Girls’ School, URN 141852, inspection 22 to 23 September 2026, published 19 October 2026, including the facts and figures used on inspection.
- Ofsted, inspection report, 14 and 15 May 2024.
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