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Withington Girls' School, Manchester

By Judith O'Reilly

Head teacher Janet Pickering is planning to learn Japanese after she retires next summer. She also wants to spend six months in Uganda working with orphaned babies and young children. Then there's the half-marathons to keep her fit and the visit to the Antarctic and the Galapagos Islands. Her retirement schedule is filling up rapidly. After 10 years as head of Withington Girls' School, you would think she deserved some downtime, but leisurely breakfasts and pruning the tea roses may have to wait a while.

Pickering is certainly going to be a tough act for a new head to follow. She leaves Withington the year it is awarded the accolade of The Sunday Times Independent Secondary School of the Year after topping the fee-paying schools' league table.

"This award is not about me. It's about the whole school and I am so proud for everybody," she says. "I've had the most amazing 10 years, but I believe it's time for a new head to come in with a fresh vision."

Vision is what Withington has always been about. In 1890, the school was founded by a group of Manchester businessmen and women including CP Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian, and Henry Simon, an eminent engineer, who wanted the same high-quality education for their daughters that their sons enjoyed.

The founders stipulated that the school should remain small, to allow for the individual development of each girl, that all girls should be taught the natural sciences, there should be more physical exercise and practical work than was usually the case in girls' schools and that no prizes should be awarded - in the belief that the pleasure of academic work should be its own reward.

The school is still relatively small and has never awarded academic prizes to its girls. Instead, all upper sixth girls receive the book of their choice in their final year to mark their contribution, while examination results have done the founders proud. This year, Withington is the highest-performing school in the country, with 97.7% of GCSE entries at A and A* and 98.3% of A-level entries at A and B grade.

"This is a real achievement not just for the girls who get A*and As but those who get Bs, because they're reaching their potential in those subjects, and getting their pupils to fulfil their potential is all any school wants to do," says Pickering.

Independent school inspectors are convinced of Withington's merits. The 2007 report by the Independent Schools Inspectorate described the school as "excellent", and a place where "pupils achieve very high levels of success and enjoy an educational experience that is very successful in promoting their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development". It added: "Pupils leave the school with secure, well-founded values to guide their future life."

Based in Fallowfield, a student-dominated suburb of south Manchester, the school is popular and girls come from within a radius of 20 miles with bus journeys that take up to an hour.

With 2.5 to three applications for every place, Withington is selective, but has a smaller pool to draw on than many of the top London girls' schools, where applications can be more than six to one.

Although there is no quota, about one-third of applicants at 11 tend to come from the school's own junior department, one-third from local prep schools and the final third from state primaries. More than a quarter of pupils come from families that are not of white British heritage, with significant numbers coming from Indian and Pakistani heritage and dual heritage families with smaller numbers from Chinese and Iranian family backgrounds.

Almost one-fifth of all 650 pupils receive means-tested bursary help with the £2,975-a-term fees in the senior school and the £2,220 in the junior school, excluding lunch. There are no fees for textbooks or exam entry. Pickering boasts: "Compared to southern fees, it's incredibly cheap."

To meet the conditions for bursary help, parental income has to be below £40,000 a year. Pickering says: "We could fill the school every year with full fee-payers but it wouldn't be the same school it is today."

For entry at 11, potential pupils for the 84 places are required to sit two English tests (to assess comprehension as well as imagination and flair in creative writing), two maths tests and, from next year, there will be a nonverbal reasoning test. Children are expected to be performing at level 5 (that is the level expected of a 13-year-old) and to demonstrate a depth of knowledge and understanding, the ability to reason, and to apply the knowledge they have.

Despite the rigour of the testing process, Withington does not operate a numbers game whereby the highest ranked applicants automatically get a place and a bad day can spell disaster. Last year, 160 of the 240 applicants were interviewed by the head herself, sitting alongside a senior colleague such as the deputy head, head of maths or head of English.

"At interview we're looking for a spark. It's where you can see someone who hasn't necessarily shone in the entrance exam, but we believe could really fly here," says Pickering. "The secret of our success is the quality of our girls - we can think 'We're going to take a risk on you because we'd love to have you'."

Pickering is an experienced interviewer and believes it is easy to see behind excessive tutoring. "It's very easy at interview to peel back the layers. They may start off giving very prescribed answers but we ask tangential questions and we always ask how they've prepared for the tests."

The school has three-form entry with classes of up to 28 throughout key stage 3. Because the girls are pulled from such a narrow ability range (from within the top 10 to 15%), the relatively large class sizes do not impede progress. The forms are further split for creative subjects such as IT, art, music and food technology. At GCSE, no class is bigger than 22 while at A-level, the largest class is 16 and are often much smaller. Only one girl takes Greek, for instance.

But it is not just the size of the class, the role of the teaching staff is crucial.

Pickering says: "They are genuinely enthusiastic and inspiring. They are vocational teachers with fantastic relationships with pupils. There is always something going on - the geography department goes to Iceland and Sicily, the history department goes to America, Russia and Normandy, and the French and German departments offer exchanges. Our teachers share their love of the subject beyond the classroom."

Inspectors agreed, describing the teachers' "impressive command of their subjects", their confidence in teaching materials and "detailed knowledge of what is required for pupils to achieve the highest grades in examinations". Lessons as a result are described as proceeding at a "driving pace".

Another key element in the quality of teaching on offer is the "close and warm" relationships between staff and pupils. Teachers have high expectations of the girls and confidence in them, and teachers and pupils both like and respect each other, which encourages "exemplary" behaviour.

Girls are described by inspectors as working with "great determination and diligence" and able to maintain high levels of concentration. They are articulate with high levels of critical thinking and the capacity to think creatively. But although results are outstanding, the school is no cut-throat competitive intellectual hothouse.

"What underpins the success of the girls is that they are happy. They are well-looked after, well supported and are given the opportunity to be themselves," says Pickering. "We operate in an atmosphere of friendliness and warmth in which everybody looks out for everybody else.

"The girls know people are interested in them and there is a recognition that we want them to do well. They are positively encouraged without there being a huge song and dance. The school is quite understated, quite modest about its achievements. It's unpretentious and it's the most relaxed school I've ever worked in or visited in any capacity."

As part of that approach, there are few rules and regulations, the uniform is relaxed and there are no detentions. "We have three Rs - respect for self, respect for others and responsibility for actions. We also have an overall expectation of working hard and playing hard," says Pickering.

According to inspectors, the girls absorb these school values from an early age and become imbued with the school "spirit and ethos", developing a "clear sense of right and wrong which becomes internalised and guides their conduct".

This ethos shapes their approach to the world outside Withington. The girls may indeed work hard, as their outstanding results testify, but they are keen to make a practical difference to the wider community. They raise about £36,000 a year for good causes including Amnesty International, Jeans for Genes, Comic Relief, cancer and heart disease research, the RSPCA, Vision Aid, Children in Need, Children with Leukaemia, the China earthquake appeal and Oxfam. An annual fashion show with 50 models and a 650-strong audience for instance raised more than £5,000 last year for two children's charities. Girls not only raise funds for, but work in, hospitals, schools and orphanages in Gambia, Kenya and Uganda.

Sixth-formers and teachers also lead science lessons on a Saturday morning aimed at gifted children from local primary schools. If all that wasn't enough, there is a high take-up of the Duke of Edinburgh's award scheme, Model United Nations and Young Enterprise, as well as clubs such as classics, Italian, fencing, mosaics and robotics.

There is a firm partnership between home and school, with parents keen to demonstrate their support at events. Pickering also describes a "fantastic" relationship with well-qualified governors. With a background in coeducation, she is a convert to single-sex education.

"Their enthusiasm is uncurbed and uninhibited. In assembly they will say 'I've done this' or 'I think we should do this'. They just go for it and talk about things in a way that at certain stages of development they would feel embarrassed to do. They will always have a go at things and enthuse about things. They work hard, make the best use of their talents and seize their opportunities.

"These girls would do well in any educational setting, but they progress at a tremendous rate here because there is an atmosphere of support in which they feel confident. When they leave us, they are articulate and ambitious, perfectly prepared for university and we know they are going to be fine with whatever life throws at them."

Pickering knows she will find leaving the school hard. "I can't imagine not being here. It will be a huge wrench - it's been wonderful."