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South Hampstead High School, London

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South Hampstead High School details

Address:

South Hampstead High School
3 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SS

Telephone:

020 74352899

Fax:

020 7431 8022

Email:

senior@shhs.gdst.net

Website:

www.gdst.net/shhs

Authority:

Camden

Gender of entry:

Girls

Age range:

4-18

Number of students:

835

Affiliation:

GSA

Gender of sixth form:

Girls

Last inspection:

November 2003. Read the full inspection report.

General information

Headteacher: Jenny Stephen, appointed in 2005.

Staff: 64 (men 18, women 56).

Motto: "Mehr Licht" ("more light").

Background: South Hampstead High School aims to provide an excellent academic education while fostering individuality, creativity and intellectual vigour. It is one of the highest-achieving schools in the UK and while it has high expectations of its girls, it also wants them to have fun. Mandarin and philosophy have been introduced to the broad curriculum, which also includes Japanese and theatre studies. Good performance at A-level means all sixth-formers go on to higher education. Music is central to school life. Most pupils take individual lessons in singing or musical instruments and perform in numerous choirs, orchestras and bands. The music department organises regular tours. Girls team up with local boys' schools for a number of concerts and theatrical productions. The school has its own theatre and produces one play each year in a modern foreign language. Four acres of fields provide room for a range of sports from athletics and hockey to football and cricket. Some pupils study dance. There is a wide range of extracurricular clubs which vary from year to year according to interest and have recently included jewellery manufacture and keeping rabbits. The school's location offers plenty of opportunity to visit galleries, museums and historic places. There is an annual activity week in Devon for first-years and a yearly trip to the first world war battlefields. The modern languages department runs exchanges and visits or work experience abroad for sixth-form linguists. Girls have also made expeditions to Peru, West Java and Namibia.

Alumni: Fay Weldon, novelist; Joanna MacGregor, pianist; Helena Bonham Carter, Angela Lansbury, actors; Julia Neuberger, rabbi and social reformer.

Streaming/setting: In mathematics and languages, Year 7 and Year 11 and science in Year 10 and Year 11. Usually, school policy is to avoid any academic streaming.

Approach to discipline: Pupils are expected to respect others and the school community.

Uniform: Blue and yellow school uniform, all pupil up to sixth form are expected to follow uniform regulations. There is no uniform in sixth form.

Homework: Average 11-year-old, 9 hours a week; 14-year-old, 11 hours; 16-year-old, 4 hours.

Higher education: 100% (9 Oxford 6 Cambridge).

Special needs: Both junior and senior departments have special needs co-ordinators who liaise with staff and outside agencies to support the individual needs of pupils. There is a full-time nurse and a school counsellor.

Inspection: November 2003: This is a school that has significant strengths and celebrates many successes. In the Junior School, pupils reach high standards in English, maths and science. In the Senior School, standards are high overall. Throughout the school, pupils' behaviour and attitude to study are very good, often excellent in the Senior School; pupils are willing and effective learners. The quality of teaching is good in the Junior School and very good in the Senior School. In both schools there is effective provision for pupils' personal development. The head teacher, senior management team and staff are highly committed. The inspection revealed that in the Junior School, curriculum, assessment, provision for pupils' spiritual growth and formal monitoring require further development. In the Senior School, the accommodation has several unsatisfactory features which the school has plans to improve when money becomes available, the consistency with which some of the school's policies are implemented, as in registration and assessment, and post holders' job descriptions need attention.

Feeder schools: St Christopher's, Hampstead; St Mary's; St Christina's RC Prep; North Bridge House, Regent's Park; Sarum Hall.

Girls' age range: 4 to 18.

Over-subscribed: 3:1.

Percentage admitted according to academic ability: 100.

Senior girls: 668.

Senior girls 11-18: Y.

Average class size (juniors; under-11): 24.

Average class size (seniors; 11-16): 23.

Average class size (sixth form): 12.

Principle admission ages: 4yrs; 7yrs, 11yrs and 16yrs.

Bursaries: Music, Other.

South Hampstead High School Statistics

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