Open all
Our view
Academically ambitious and renowned for doing a fantastic job of preparing children for the pick of London’s top senior schools, Devonshire House stands out in the crowded Hampstead prep landscape. It sits within the Dukes Education group yet retains a distinctly individual character, partly due to its three-site set-up, each with its own atmosphere. Children track their progress physically as they move from one building to the next, which gives a tangible sense of growing up within the school.
Where?
Bordered by Belsize Park to the south and the sprawling woodlands of Hampstead Heath to the north, this big, busy prep just off Hampstead High Street attracts a diverse crowd of internationals, expats and local families. As Devonshire House is spread across three sites a few minutes’ walk apart, space is, of course, at a premium, but they’ve done brilliantly with it. The nursery and middle school share three handsome Victorian villas on one site; lower-school pupils, meanwhile, move to their own site around the corner for a brief change of scenery, while upper-school pupils are in another building nearby. Every Friday, the whole school gathers in the local church for assembly – a powerful reminder that despite the split sites, this is very much a tight-knit community.
The buildings – all former houses – are packed with charm, with wood panelling and scholarship boards in the library, original fireplaces in some classrooms and even a pretty walled garden with a special nature area for minibeast hunting. On the nursery and middle-school site, there’s also a full-size netball court and five-a-side football pitch, plus a newly renovated ultra-sustainable, all-wooden adventure playground for the early years.
Head
Head Henry Keighley-Elstub took up the post in September 2022 from his previous role at Pembridge Hall. Warm, affable and hugely energetic, he’s a historian by background and started his career at Ludgrove, before stints at Wetherby Prep and Cothill House.
Mr Keighley-Elstub talks about Devonshire House’s four pillars: pupils (‘they are charming, funny and confident’), facilities, forest school (‘the children are outside a lot’) and the parent community, which he describes as ‘very special’. Sadly for the school, he’s off to pastures new next summer, taking up the headship at nearby boys’ prep The Hall School. We await news of his successor.
Admissions
The most popular entrance point is the nursery, which is always highly oversubscribed (places are first come, first served, with siblings given priority). There are plenty of open mornings where parents are offered a pupil-led tour of the school and an opportunity to meet the head – and prospective pupils pop in for a ‘getting to know you’ session before being offered a place. Reassuringly, there’s no need to register at birth (which certainly helps take the pressure off), but registration at least a year in advance is still encouraged.
There are no assessments for entry into reception, but pupils looking to join the school at 7+ take part in a fun taster day so the school can get to know them. ‘We like mavericks and we like quirky,’ says Mr Keighley-Elstub. At 11+, there’s a more formal round of assessments, with a significant number of children arriving from state primaries, overseas (supported by the school’s new EAL programme) or families working at the US Embassy.
Academics and destinations
Parents praise Devonshire House’s incredibly supportive teachers, who do an excellent job with extremely motivated children. Reception pupils move up from the nursery into spacious, newly renovated lower-school classrooms, with plenty of play-based learning, before making the seamless transition upstairs into Years 1 and 2.
The move to Year 3 marks a clear shift, as pupils head over to the new site (‘we treat Year 3 like a new school,’ says Mr Keighley-Elstub) and specialist teaching starts in music, French, PE, technology and drama. By Year 4, all subjects are delivered by specialists, with English and maths sets introduced to stretch and support pupils, and inter-disciplinary projects – such as combining an English study of The Woolly Mammoth with art mask-making – bring learning to life. There’s been a big push on STEM subjects of late; expect plenty of robotics, VR headsets, a 3D printer and heaps of blended learning, which sees pupils in Year 7 and 8 tapping away on their own iPad in lessons.
A team of SEND specialists is on hand to help children with a wide range of different academic abilities, including dyslexia and dyspraxia, mostly delivered in class or small groups. The school has also just launched a brand new Flash Academy EAL programme, which supports pupils with their English-language skills right from beginners’ standard and is a big draw for incoming international families.
Upper-school pupils work towards the 11+ or 13+, and the school prides itself on its superb prep for both exams; there are early-morning maths and English surgeries during the autumn term, and the school will do whatever is necessary to get pupils ready for assessment season, whether that’s bi-weekly mock exams, interview workshops or pointers on how to manage stress during exam season (parents are sent very detailed reports on progress). Scholarship success is outstanding and senior-school destinations remain broadly local, with almost everyone going on to a top London day school – many to Highgate, St Paul’s, UCS, Francis Holland Regent’s Park and Mill Hill. Very occasionally, one or two set their sights on boarding.
SEND provision
With a focus on enabling pupils to remain at the heart of classroom life, whatever their learning challenges, the school has put in place a wide range of carefully considered support systems, from classroom routines designed to reduce cognitive load to targeted, small-group sessions to boost core skills and individualised plans. Communication between home and school is excellent – the school will even collaborate with external professionals who may already be working with families – and progress is impressive. As the school tells us: ‘We walk alongside each child, celebrating strengths, providing the right support at the right time and helping them flourish within our mainstream school community.’
Co-curricular
For a school tucked away on Hampstead’s residential streets, there’s an unexpected amount of outdoor space for pupils to use. The lower school boasts a full netball court, a dedicated climbing area and, running cleverly along one side of the boundary, an almost secret forest school, complete with hammocks between trees, a pulley system of sand buckets, slack lines, ladders and a treehouse platform for imaginative play. Over in the middle school, most PE lessons take place on the site’s small Astro, while the upper school has a netball court that doubles as a football pitch. Full use is made of what’s on the doorstep too, such as running on Hampstead Heath and coaching at Saracens Rugby Club’s StoneX Stadium, giving pupils access to professional-standard facilities. The big news on the sporting front is a brand-new partnership with Tottenham Hotspur: pupils can now join Devonshire House’s very own football academy, led by a full-time coach from the Premier League club.
Creative life is equally busy. Each site has its own music room, and the new head of music is on a drive to grow the number of pupils taking peripatetic lessons. Ensembles, choirs and twice-yearly concerts give even the youngest children performance opportunities (each site has its own multi-use hall), while older pupils sing in the local church during termly choral events and weekly assemblies. Pupils in Years 3 and 4 put on an annual musical, and Years 6 and 8 stage a fantastic end-of-year production. LAMDA is also an optional (and well-loved) extra. In the art rooms, pupils experiment with clay, printing and 3D design, supported by a much-used 3D printer.
Clubs mostly take place after school (freeing up lunchtime for pupils to run around and get a good dose of fresh air) and run the gamut from coding to ballet, chess and eco projects (older pupils dive into more technical pursuits such as F1 modelling and 3D design). Bookable on the day until 1pm, wraparound care keeps things flexible for busy parents, while holiday camps and a new extended-hours nursery provision are set to broaden options further.
School community
Despite the ethos of academic excellence, there’s a nicely relaxed vibe here. ‘We are not stuffy, and we don’t have rules for the sake of rules,’ says Mr Keighley-Elstub. Form teachers are the first port of call for any pastoral concerns, and there are worry boxes around the school for pupils to bring up any niggles. There’s also a counsellor from
Terapia on hand for children to speak to at any time.
A robust house structure fosters a competitive community spirit, and children enthusiastically get stuck into regular singing, sporting and quizzing competitions to snap up tremendously coveted house points. Siblings join the same house as their brothers or sisters.
Most families are broadly local and live in the likes of Hampstead, Highgate, Belsize Park and Finchley. It’s a relatively international and cosmopolitan community, but not a particularly transient one, with the majority choosing to stay in the area throughout their child’s educational journey.
And finally....
A true north London superstar, Devonshire House makes a compelling case for families seeking both substance and breathing room. The school’s lovely outdoorsiness adds something distinct in this part of the capital, and children grow up happy, grounded and exceptionally well prepared for their next steps.