Beyond 150

With signs of spring dawning, and our 150th anniversary approaching, the start of the year has been characterised by a deep sense of energy and anticipation.

The first half of the spring term has seen our girls combine impressive intellectual endeavour with a superb array of co-curricular activities – from this week’s Year 4 trip to York to the outstanding three-night run of Les Misérables in the Senior School. I wanted to build on this sense of energy by sharing some key themes which are emerging from the parental consultation conducted since I became South Hampstead’s Head. It has been such a pleasure to hear your ideas at our year group parent breakfasts and read your feedback on new initiatives such as South Hampstead Wrapped as we begin to formulate our plans for the next stage of our journey: Beyond 150. I think you will know me well enough by now to anticipate that a new strategy beyond our 150th anniversary in 2026/27 means evolution rather than revolution; there is much which we need to preserve at the heart of South Hampstead – such as the principles of joy and a love of learning for learning’s sake – as we continue to deliver the very best for our girls.

I would like to start by sharing the themes which emerged from the questions I asked you when I first joined: What do you love about South Hampstead? What would you change? If you could create something new, what would it be? You told me that you love the focus on ‘girl-centred learning’; that this is a school where girls can be themselves and are valued for who they are. Many families expressed how their children really love coming to school; you celebrated the ‘warm and encouraging atmosphere’ and our focus on ‘human values’. You also appreciated the school’s ethos and the way it centres around enabling your girls to fulfil their impressive potential. Your positive comments on the quality of teaching and the pastoral support were much appreciated by our staff.

This is a school where girls can be themselves and are valued for who they are.

In terms of areas which you wanted to change or create, a key theme was more emphasis on life skills: coding and AI, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and wellbeing concepts such as sleep and nutrition. Parents were very positive about the wellbeing projects we have already initiated, such as bringing the outdoors into our beautiful building and our plans for ‘greening’ the School. You were also very supportive of our broad co-curricular offering whilst emphasising the need to ensure Music and Sport continue to offer as wide a range of options as possible. All your feedback provided us with brilliant food for thought, helping us to shape our direction of travel and we are already implementing some of the many ideas.

In October, we welcomed a new coder-in-residence: Ms Satoskar is a Pure Mathematics PhD student at The London School of Geometry and Number Theory (a joint venture of Imperial College, King’s College London and University College London), enhancing our co-curricular offering for coding and other Maths-related challenges. In November, we officially opened our seventh floor garden oasis, which has inspired our student Eco committee to plan how to transform our roof terrace into an outdoor space for academic learning and other activities such as yoga and Pilates. To build on our entrepreneurship education, we are working with the London School of Economics to develop a new event for Year 9 pupils this year, whilst our Economics department is developing plans to improve our younger pupils’ financial literacy. A key academic focus for 2024/25 is the role that neuroscience and metacognition play in the classroom, encouraging students to be as reflective as possible about their learning, and understanding how to use teacher feedback in order to maximise their progress. This academic year has also seen the introduction of our first ever student learning community, a combination of Year 10 and Lower Sixth students who are working collaboratively with the Senior Leadership Team to prepare innovative presentations for the student body on strategies which can be deployed to enhance the effectiveness of learning.

Many of you celebrated the strength of our music provision; I know that the imminent and long-planned retirement of Dr Collisson, our Director of Music, is going to be a very emotional moment for us. However, I am delighted that, following a rigorous recruitment process, our current Assistant Director of Music, Miss Ellis, has been appointed as our Director of Music from September 2025; we can be very confident that music will continue to soar in her hands. As we continue to develop our sporting provision, we aim to strike the right balance between supporting our elite athletes whilst offering a breadth of opportunity at all levels, encouraging everyone to build healthy habits for life. To give the girls greater access to exercise options on site, we are in the early stages of exploring the feasibility of installing a fitness gym and studio for dance and other sports in our Senior School building. Beyond music and sport, our broader co-curricular programme – including our focus on oracy education – will remain a core element of South Hampstead life.

In summary, our strategic planning will be informed by central principles: the importance of excellence, intellectual inspiration and joyful development; our dedication to sparking curiosity, energy and innovation within all our girls; and creative thinking to ensure we offer your daughters the best possible foundation for the future. Thank you for sharing with me in this incredibly exciting journey towards South Hampstead’s next chapters. The prospect of marking our 150th anniversary together in 2026/27 is a very poignant moment indeed.