St Margaret's School, Hampstead

“150 girls and every one outstanding”. St Margaret’s is a small community and from the moment a girl walks through our front door, we want her to have a sense of engagement with her education, with her friends and with her teachers. In class sizes averaging 11 in the Junior School and 15 in the Senior School, this is a realistic expectation.

Our girls are successful academically, with 73% of girls’ GCSEs graded A* or A in 2008 and 2009, helping us to top the Sunday Times’ Small Independent Schools’ league tables for 2008/9 and 2009/10. Our most recent Inspection report described our girls as having ‘Outstanding Personal Qualities’, and it is this that we are most proud of. We work hard to encourage our girls to explore their world through programmes such as our ‘125 Things to do Before you Leave St Margaret’s’ scheme. They take part in more activities than might be typical for a young girl because we can make sure that everyone ‘has a go’, be it rowing, presenting at a ‘Young Scientists’ Evening’, or taking on a proper part in a school production. We develop our girls’ self-esteem by encouraging them to try things they might not have, and by supporting them with personal attention. We can achieve these to a greater depth than might be normally possible through small classes and a cohesive staff body who share longer-term responsibility for their girls, fostering a trusting, productive environment. Our size is our strength.