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A truly outstanding education opens doors, hearts and minds. That is exactly what we aim to do at South Hampstead, one of the UK’s leading schools. We welcome girls aged 4 to 18 from across London and focus on enabling all our pupils not just to succeed, but to thrive – intellectually and personally.
Excellent academic results place us comfortably amongst the country’s top schools, and our pupils leave us for some of the most prestigious universities in the country and worldwide – but there is so much more to an education here than the girls’ headline achievements.
South Hampstead is a forward-looking school, empowering girls to prepare for life and work in a rapidly changing world. We place great emphasis on bringing in the outside world, engaging with the local community and fostering a culture of kindness and curiosity. Throughout their time here, pupils benefit from a huge range of academic enrichment opportunities – lectures, competitions, charity work, expeditions – that combine to ignite a genuine joy in learning.
Our success is underpinned by a solid bedrock of pastoral care and personal development opportunities. There are over 140 different co-curricular clubs and activities to choose from. We are well known for our excellence in the arts and pupils participate in dozens of different sporting activities, many at team and club level, in state-of-the-art sporting facilities.
To get the best sense of what a South Hampstead education can offer, we warmly invite you to one of our Open Days to meet our pupils and staff. We look forward to welcoming you.
It's a privilege for us to teach girls as they move from childhood to young adulthood and start to contemplate their future. The task of cultivating enlightened, responsible citizens of the 21st century is one we take seriously. It starts with our curriculum.
With life beyond South Hampstead on the horizon, we follow a curriculum that equips each girl with the means to develop her intellectual abilities as well as her personal and social values. Students are able to explore a deep and expansive body of knowledge, and to discover their strengths and interests via a broad, balanced range of academic, cultural and aesthetic subjects.
Among the mix of subjects in Years 7, 8 and 9 are Critical Thinking, Design & Technology, Drama, Philosophy & Religion, Latin and either French, German, Mandarin or Spanish. In Years 10 and 11, students begin preparation for GCSEs in earnest. Core subjects are supplemented by one language and one humanity. Girls then choose an additional two or three options from Ancient Greek, Art, Computing, Design & Technology, Drama, Geography, History, Latin, a second language, Music, and Philosophy, Religion & Ethics. All girls continue with PSHE (Personal, Social & Health Education) and Physical Education, and have designated time for private study.
The arts have long enjoyed a golden age at South Hampstead. Many of our former pupils have gone on to forge successful careers in the creative arts, as professional musicians, renowned actors, theatre directors, prize-winning artists and authors.
The Senior School provides the ideal environment for the creative to thrive, from the physical surroundings to workshops with poets, writers and artists-in-residence to the regular concerts and performances. In the bright, new building designed by the award-winning Hopkins Architects, in the Hampstead Murals by Gillian Ayres that adorn the atrium, and in bold works of modern art that embody the colourful, quirky and pioneering spirit of the school, there is an inspirational backdrop to everything that happens in the Senior School.
In the four art studios, specialised facilities give girls full rein to experiment across the fine arts spectrum, from film-making and sculpture to life-drawing and ceramics. Collections of their finished work, as well as occasional visiting exhibitions, are showcased in a dedicated gallery space. Trips to Japan, Florence, New York and the Venice Biennale help fuel students' knowledge and ideas. Follow the Art Department on Instagram for a snapshot of the girls' work.
In music, the Senior School offers a real sense of ambition as well as fun. All girls, regardless of their experience, are encouraged to flourish as musicians. It starts in Year 7 when girls get the chance to compose digital music and explore unusual instruments with a free half term of lessons from our brilliant visiting music teachers. By the time they reach Year 11, more than half our students play at least one instrument to Grade 5 or higher. Opportunities to perform come thick and fast through dozens of choirs, orchestras, ensembles and chamber groups. Our hugely gifted Music Scholars regularly perform at lunchtime recitals and teatime concerts, and frequently win local and national competitions. Our Grade 1 Challenge gives Sixth Form musicians the opportunity to teach their academic teachers to play an instrument from scratch – an edifying experience for pupils and staff alike.
Drama has always been strong here – and it's just as much about performing behind the scenes as on-stage, from lunchtime ‘theatre tech' clubs and masterclasses with external practitioners to auditioning for starring roles in major, ambitious productions. Speaking up and speaking out is encouraged from the earliest years: we have an in-house debating coach and a strong track record in a range of public speaking competitions.
We are proud to be a busy, buzzing school with a lot going on. Alongside every girl's timetable of lessons there is a busy calendar of talks, trips, clubs and community activities that complement her formally-taught subjects. They are not just optional extras – we see them as critical to academic and life success.
The range of clubs and societies lets each girl create her own programme of activities before, during and after school. From Debating and Doctor Who to Symphonic Orchestra and Space Society, the options give everyone the chance to have fun and excel. We actively encourage girls to try their hand at new things and engage with people from other year groups, as well as launch and lead societies themselves. Read our co-curricular booklet for an overview of the range and depth of clubs and societies on offer over the course of the year.
Our Speaker Series events aim to open minds for both pupils and parents, and we've been helped with an array of inspirational and influential guests. Recent high-profile speakers have included Professor Alice Roberts, Dame Stella Rimington, former director-general of MI5, and Michael Gove, who was duly quizzed in characteristic South Hampstead style! During lockdown, we hosted a virtual event, inviting Dr Pragya Agarwal and Angela Saini to speak to our pupils, staff and partner schools about racism and unconscious bias, while alumna Katya Adler joined us live from Brussels via Zoom.
We open hearts, too, with a flow of opportunities for community and charity work within school, coordinated by the student-led charity team, as well as the friendly (and rather competitive) House events. South Hampstead girls have an outstanding record in the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, too, learning a great deal from participating in the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards.
Physical activity is as much a part of learning here as any academic subject. We aim to engender an attitude of sport for life and sport for all in every South Hampstead girl, grounding our PE provision in an ethos of inclusive excellence.
We want every girl to find their sporting niche. And there is plenty of choice from the dozens of different sporting activities on offer at the school's impressive on-site facilities and four-acre sports ground nearby. There is a premier league cricket pitch available, numerous netball and tennis courts, a dance studio and fitness suite – and girls train for cross-country on nearby Hampstead Heath.
A to E team participation means that girls of all levels get to compete. Cricket and football, two of the fastest-growing women's games, are key sports for us, along with netball, cross-country and gymnastics. But girls enjoy the whole spectrum of other sports and activities, from athletics, British Military Fitness and dance to trampolining, yoga and Zumba. ‘Sports for All' weeks encourage pupils to try new sports such as handball, rugby and acroyoga. All girls recently ran (at least) a mile as part of our Girls Run the World GDST challenge, collectively smashing our 1,000-mile target.
Excellence is nurtured with regular competitive fixtures, specialist training coaches and our Going for Gold programme for our most talented sportswomen competing at county, regional and national levels. Sporting successes are celebrated at our annual Sports Awards evening, with prizes presented by inspirational guest speakers, including Olympic medallists. And the standards keep going up. This year's Sports Day, despite record temperatures, saw more than a dozen records broken, testament to our growing focus on sports and the impressive breadth and depth of talent that is emerging.
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