Open all
Our View
This central London school is unique in being the only not-for-profit IB world school in the capital, offering the Middle Years Programme as well as the Diploma. A cosmopolitan pupil body, seriously state-of-the-art tech and a roster of innovative co-curricular make it stand out from the crowd too. And it’s hard not to get behind its mission of delivering a human-centred education to maximise the potential of every pupil.
Where?
The school sits on the corner of a tree-lined, café-filled street in Marylebone, in a red-brick mansion block with a 1960s extension. There is a warren of classrooms inside with whiteboard walls and tables for pupils to write out their thoughts all over the space. While there is no outside space, Hyde Park is a short walk away; pupils are escorted there at break- and lunchtimes, and it’s also used for outdoor learning. Several Tube stops are within walking distance, with Marble Arch just five minutes away and Bond Street 10 minutes. It’s easily accessible by bus, and pupils come from Kensington, Oval, Hampstead, Paddington and the City, with Marylebone locals walking to and from school.
Head
New school director Jeff Lippman took over the top job in September 2025. Mr Lippman is well qualified for the role; with three decades in education under his belt, he has worked in international schools in Brazil, France, Spain and the USA, and speaks three languages on top of his native English.
Admissions
There is a rolling admission process, with no deadlines in any grades at any stage of the school year. This, as well as the diverse cultural mix, makes it attractive to international families who move around for work. There are 36 nations represented at Halcyon. When it comes to selection, the school’s head of admissions tells us that they ‘look for reasons to accept kids’.
Academics and destinations
Key to Halcyon’s innovative approach is its paper-free learning environment. Everyone works on devices, with pupils taught how to use technology thoughtfully. AI has been embraced in a positive way; for example, pupils in Grade 6 used it to brainstorm ideas for their project to build a robot to help people who are lonely. We were also bowled over by the Grade 10 virtual-museum project, a social justice-themed museum which you tour on a computer, before reading the pupils’ work on the walls and listening to video documentaries. Interestingly, pupils who have struggled with handwriting and spelling tests in more traditional school settings thrive at Halcyon. ‘Take the paper away and they change quickly,’ says learning coach Jesi, who works closely with teachers and the wellbeing team. The library is also pretty much digital, with pupils able to order a book and receive it an hour later.
Pupils follow the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) from Grades 6 to 10, and the Diploma Programme in Grades 11 and 12. Class sizes are never larger than 16, and the whole school moves between classrooms for different lessons. There are no teachers’ desks; the ethos is very much about staff working alongside pupils.
From Grades 7 to 9, pupils have timetabled lessons to research a ‘passion project’ in preparation for the MYP personal project in Grade 10. Every week, two hours are also set aside for the Explorations Programme, an extracurricular module that includes topics such as robotics, coding, game design, digital art and drama. Pupils work collaboratively to produce a product, with an exhibition at the end of the year showcasing their creations. An extra hour a week of collaborative maths has recently been introduced in MYP, which sees pupils taking an inquisitive approach to the subject, often doing activities in Hyde Park.
Mandarin and Spanish are taught here, with French added in Grade 10. Pupils can also take a weekly first-language programme for an additional fee, and EAL support is on hand too.
Pupils in Grades 11 and 12 take all six subjects in the IB Diploma and results are impressive, with Oxbridge, LSE and Ivy League universities popular onward destinations.
Co-curricular
Sport is timetabled once a week in a three-hour block and takes place between the indoor hall and Hyde Park. Pupils do rugby, swimming, climbing and gymnastics. An after-school sports programme includes competitive basketball, volleyball and football, with fixtures during the week. There’s also a morning running club.
As part of the IB's arts subject grouping, Grades 6 to 9 rotate between music, drama and visual arts. In the MYP, pupils practise still-life and landscape drawing and painting in the huge, brightly lit art department, as well as studying artists and art movements, and visiting galleries. There's also a lovely library which doubles up as a flexible group work space.
There are two performance spaces for drama, with whole-school productions staged at a nearby venue; last year it was Marylebone Theatre, which might well become the go-to. Grades 6 to 9 can do LAMDA qualifications as part of the Explorations Programme. Music has a dedicated room that hosts the annual showcase for Grades 11 and 12 to perform for their IB. Visiting music teachers are found for pretty much any instrument that pupils want to learn one to one. There is a choir, but no orchestra.
After-school clubs and societies include Model United Nations, law society, medics society, student magazine The Halcyonite and sports. Trips include educational excursions within London and language-immersion trips abroad.
School community
Wellbeing is taken very seriously, with a team of five, including a school counsellor, who support pupils academically and socially. Mindfulness walks and breathing techniques are taught, and pupils are encouraged to ask for help so that, as the head of wellbeing puts it, ‘students feel safe to fail and to make mistakes’. There’s a really nurturing environment here – it feels like pupils know how to look after themselves and each other. Parents are very much part of things too; the Halcyon Parent Community meets weekly, and parents volunteer as chaperones for fixtures.
And finally....
An exciting school that takes an enlightened approach to education, encouraging its pupils to develop life skills as well as absorb knowledge in an innovative and holistic way.