Trophy bling

At the start of the academic year, one of our aims was to ‘fill our trophy cabinet’ – metaphorically and literally. You’ll see in the news section of the website just some of the fruits of this ambition. The cabinet in the corridor by the school office is heaving with bling of various sorts.

Our belief at South Hampstead is that if you have high expectations, pupils exceed even those. This sense of ambition was evident in the superb Lower School production of ‘The Trojan Women’. Putting on a Greek Tragedy with pupils as young as 11 was bold, but the visionary direction of Mr Alaru and the professionalism of the cast made this one of the best school plays I have witnessed.

This half term alone we took away 3 out of 7 prizes in the GDST Vex Robotics Competition; Tasneem in Year 9 won her section of the GDST Laurie Magnus poetry competition; three Sixth Formers were all prizewinners or Highly Commended in national essay writing competitions; we also had our best ever results in Biology, Chemistry and Physics Olympiads – including an invitation to represent GB in Beijing.

The sense of ambition (tempered with wonderful camaraderie) was also in evidence at Sports Day which saw 11 school records broken and many more hotly-contested events. We are developing real depth in both track and field at South Hampstead – several pupils were selected to represent Camden at the London Schools Athletics and the girls also achieved numerous podium places at the GDST rally this term. In other sporting news, Infinity won the London Cheerleading Final.

Our ambition for transforming Waterlow Hall remains just as strong. We are very nearly at the £1 million mark. We had our 48th Senior School concert of the year there last week – yet another superb performance – and look forward to providing our musicians with an even better stage once works are complete.

Thank you for all your support this year. A huge thanks to my dedicated colleagues who so often go the extra mile. And finally, thanks to your daughters who make our working lives such a joy. Have a wonderful summer.

Blog post by Vicky Bingham, Headmistress from 2017 to 2023.