South Hampstead High School

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.

At South Hampstead we believe that education should be a truly enriching experience, a gift for life. We want our pupils to develop some sense of the sheer size of the world and all there is to learn about it – past, present and future. We believe in the power of knowledge as a tool for thought and creative endeavour, and a source of lifelong inspiration and curiosity.

In and out of the classroom, we want our pupils to find their voice, spoken and written. We want them to explore the big questions, the searching questions, the difficult questions. Debate and discussion lie at the very heart of a South Hampstead education. We aim to create abundant opportunities for creative output and to encourage pupils to take risks. In our teaching, we do what we know works and put research and reflection at the heart of our professional development. Teaching is a noble profession and our staff are central to our success.

We aim to provide outstanding breadth of opportunity in our curricular and co-curricular programme and to open our pupils’ minds to a myriad of possibilities. We believe that involvement in school life is a key factor in our pupils’ happiness. But it’s not just about taking part; we aim to instil in pupils a sense of purpose, pride and determination and the belief that they can compete on the biggest of stages.

We aim to create a warm, tolerant and kind community where girls can be themselves and make friends for life. We want them to play their part in our community and in the community beyond South Hampstead. The 21st century is a time of unique opportunities and challenges; we have a critical role to play in preparing our young women to live and thrive, work and lead in tomorrow’s world.

Junior School
5 Netherhall Gardens, London NW3 5RN UK
Tel: 020 7794 7198
E.mail: junior@shhs.gdst.net