Ballakermeen has become the first school on the Isle of Man to earn the prestigious Investors in People Gold Award. The Douglas school is the largest on the Island with over 1500 students and more than 200 staff. Ballakermeen first gained IIP status in 2002, following up with the Silver Award at the last review. Assessor Michael Lynch has now concluded a further full investigation over several days, scrutinising documents and interviewing large numbers of staff. To gain the coveted Gold standard the school needed to score more than 165 points across a wide range of assessments: it was actually awarded an outstanding result of 177. The Assessor identified 22 separate areas of strength and his extensive and detailed report praised leadership at all levels and the ‘can do’ attitude of ‘highly motivated members of staff that were obviously proud to work at the school and appeared to be totally committed to ensuring that students that attended the school received a first class educational experience.’ Mr Lynch found ‘strong evidence’ in a number of areas of ‘clear strategy focus, excellent learning and development support, strong and efficient working practices and performance measurement which were very much in line with advanced organisational thinking and support for high level performance.’ Less than one per cent of organisations in Great Britain have reached the necessary standard of excellence that Ballakermeen High School achieved in order to gain this award. Headteacher Adrienne Burnett was delighted with the result. ‘I am immensely proud of my school, its students and staff,’ she said. ‘We are very happy that all the hard work of so many people has been recognised in this report. I was especially pleased that our strong links to our community and our excellent corporate responsibility through charitable activities were noted, as well as our core business of learning and teaching. ENDS