Queenswood School

Queenswood is a community where girls achieve outstanding results, both in and beyond the classroom. The opportunities for growth and development for boarders and day girls are extensive, exciting and fun. Most importantly, Queenswood girls are happy – and happy girls are successful girls.

There is no doubt that Queenswood girls excel academically. The grades they achieve at GCSE are consistently around one grade higher in every subject than would be expected at an average independent school. Or, as the Good Schools Guide puts it, Queenswood is ‘at the pinnacle of Hertfordshire’s value-added tables’. This is something of which we are immensely proud. Likewise, they thrive in our truly progressive Sixth Form, and proceed to a wide range of prestigious courses at top Universities.

In the future, our girls will be leaders in their chosen fields. They will need to be able to try, and fail, and try again with a positive attitude. These are qualities that Queenswood girls develop through their time here and take with them for the rest of their lives.

This is a dynamic learning community where the girls’ interests, happiness and wellbeing are the first consideration at all times. Our girls are at the heart of everything we do, and we know that they feel valued and enriched by the experiences they share here.

The Educational Home for the Daughters of Wesleyan Ministers opened in Clapton, London in 1869 then transferred to Clapham Park, London and closed in 1893, only to re-open as Queenswood School on 23 September 1894, with 23 girls. The first headmistress, Marion Waller, was the daughter of the school’s founder Dr David Waller.

The name Queenswood derives from a lecture by John Ruskin (1819-1900) “Of Queens’ Gardens” published in 1865 in Sesame and Lilies and so does the school motto, in hortis reginæ (“In Queens’ Gardens”). Ruskin’s ideas on the education, power and place of women in society formed the basis of the school ethos.

In 1897, Miss Waller became engaged and resigned her post. Ethel Mary Trew took over and stayed as Headmistress for nearly 50 years. She was a great champion of Ruskin. Her ideas are clearly expressed in the symbolism of the school crest:

“And what shall be said about that lamp of knowledge and owl of wisdom that, with the lyre of music and song, complete the school crest? The lamp of knowledge burns brightly enough; such varied forces feed its flame that every girl, no matter how untalented, may add to its brilliance. The owl’s wisdom not only makes good pupils, but also good citizens, strong reliable women, fair wives and mothers.”

In 1925 Queenswood transferred to its present location at Sheepwell House in Hatfield. Here girls studied Horticulture, Botany and Nature Study. They wore white chantung silk dresses from Liberty’s of London, in imitation of the white water-lilies from Sesame and Lilies and they walked:

“... in Queens’ gardens where such blooms as Gladness and Joy, Flora and the Graces flourish is the gift that Queenswood has brought...”.