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Spread across five buildings in Surbiton, this fantastic girls-only school also has a 39-acre sports facility a few miles away and a boathouse on the Thames. It’s an excellent all-rounder with a ‘Nourish to Flourish’ charter for wellbeing, national success in sports and trips that range from yoga and surfing in the South of France to tours of Peru, South America and Barbados.
Academic results are impressive, but pupils are also encouraged to learn outside the classroom, challenge themselves and develop a can-do attitude. About 90 per cent of leavers go on to Russell Group and top 10 universities, and careers education is exemplary. Inspire, encourage and empower are the buzzwords here and, judging by the young women we met, Surbiton is doing something very right.
Where is Surbiton High?
Set in leafy Kingston upon Thames, this school is a distinct entity while also forming part of a cohesive community with its two preparatory schools –
Surbiton High Boys' Prep School and
Surbiton High Girls' Prep School. This allows pupils to reap the benefits from the rich resources and superb facilities of a multi-property campus and whilst home to a sizeable number of pupils, the school doesn’t feel overwhelmingly large. Surbiton station is only an eight-minute walk away, and trains whisk pupils back to Wimbledon, Southfields, Barnes and Victoria station. In addition, the school operates 10 coach routes, all linked to a tracker so that parents can plan their drop-offs and pick-ups to perfection despite the unpredictability of urban traffic.
Headteacher at Surbiton High
In post since 2018, Rebecca Glover is a strong chief with experience across both state and private sectors. She is effusive about the opportunities for girls to learn in an environment where they can be purposeful, unselfconscious, make-up-free and fully focused on learning. She acknowledges that perfectionism and high performance can be a major stress in a single-sex environment, but says that pupils here have huge amounts of individual care in place to support them. Combine this pastoral spotlight with a headcount of over 1,000 and you get a haven of nurturing opportunity that can ‘find everyone’s niche’ says the head. ‘You can be a hockey player, a tennis player, or an academic – we are a one-stop-shop’. Academically too, size equals flexibility – and the curriculum is tailored to meet the needs of every pupil, whether they are taking eight GCSE’s or eleven.
There are ambitious plans afoot at Surbiton High with an £8 million update to the science buildings and a café for Years 9, 10 & 11 both on the cards over the next few years. But ambition is par for the course here; the staff body are ‘genuinely ambitious for each and every pupil’, remarks the head, and ‘girls become the best version of themselves’. But it only falls into place because, she tells us, as well as being a ‘high-energy, high-octane place’, Surbiton High also prides itself on delivering the crucial core of ‘fun, happy and caring’.
Admissions for Surbiton Senior School & Sixth Form
Girls sit an entrance exam in English and maths in the autumn term before admission, followed by an interview with senior staff early in the spring term. It’s intended to be a calm and friendly process that gets the best out of each candidate. Unsurprisingly, this is a popular school, with at least five applicants for each place at 11+ and at least two per sixth-form place and waiting lists for every cohort. Girls from the prep do get an automatic spot here and the vast majority take it, so those coming from elsewhere are advised to plump for Year 7 entry as there are very few places higher up the school.
Siblings don’t gain automatic entrance, but the school will endeavour to admit pupils from the same family if they meet the criteria. For sixth-form, girls need a minimum of six grade 6s at GCSE.
Academics and destinations
Girls are set for maths and languages from the get-go – and as a thoughtful extra, forms are arranged by postcode so that new girls can get to know locals in their year group. All pupils are screened for dyslexia at the start of every academic year (an excellent initiative), and a specialised learning support team is available to assist students with everything from mastering English as an Additional Language and exam technique to dyslexia itself. The library is at the heart of the heart of the school, both physically and metaphorically – and although everyone has access to their own iPad, written work remains the priority.
Languages are front and centre with all Year 7’s learning French, German, Spanish and Latin before selecting two to take forward to Year 8.. There’s no option blocking at GCSE so pupils can study whichever subjects they like, and the same is true for A-Levels (where there’s a whopping 32 subjects on offer).
Results here are excellent, with an average value added of +1 at both GCSE and A-Level, but this isn’t a hothouse. There’s a tangible focus on a bespoke education that produces confident, bright, and rounded individuals – almost all of whom go on to Russell Group universities. Those that don't tend to head to the most prestigious colleges and universities for the arts subjects. But, as the head of careers and sixth form (who has supported students here for two decades) told us, it’s all about ‘whatever is right for the child’ – and she offers excellent guidance to ensure that pupils have the best possible chance of securing the right place for them.
Co-curricular at Surbiton Senior School & Sixth Form
Sport is fantastic here, with pupils picking from a Super Eight that includes netball, hockey, cricket, football, gymnastics, rowing, tennis and skiing. Most training takes place a few miles away at the Hinchley Wood Sports Ground, and teams are varied and plentiful – everyone can represent the school if they wish, and Saturday fixtures regularly involve A-F teams. Several pupils go on to perform at national level, including one girl who played at Wimbledon this year. Pursuing areas of strength is a recurring theme here: from Year 10, girls choose their own PE pathway for their weekly lessons from the Competitive, Artistic or All-rounder options. The rowing programme is, according to the head, ‘the largest in the country’, with 220 rowers regularly training out of the old BBC boathouse in Teddington. A few are already sporting GB colours with several more in line for selection.
Drama is awesome at Surbiton High, with incredibly professional annual productions staged at a nearby West End-sized theatre in addition to year-group plays, drama clubs and an annual dance show. Music is equally slick, with more than 300 individual lessons taught each week at Surbiton High (this is one of the biggest teaching departments in the school) and timetabled lessons for all girls in Years 7, 8 and 9.
It’s clear that staff genuinely understand and indeed champion the role of co-curricular activities in education, and there is an almost unimaginable array of clubs, clinics, activities, mentoring and trips available for the students at Surbiton High – the co-curricular handbook is a weighty 116-page tome with opportunities ranging from broadcasting and enterprise to life drawing and sport.
School community at Surbiton Senior School & Sixth Form
Surbiton High School’s motto ‘May Love Always Lead Us’ is at the core of all the Surbiton schools, and pupils and parents alike buy into the ethos of empowering every pupil to find their strengths, celebrate success and build lifelong relationships. The overarching aim is to develop confident individuals, and all pupils are encouraged to ask for help whenever they might need it. Three full time counsellors and two nurses ensure that specialist care is available on tap, and both online and on-site workshops are regularly on offer to parents and staff.
The seven houses are a big part of life at Surbiton High. Named after female pioneers (Fonteyn, Austen, Curie, Parks, Nightingale, Pankhurst and Teresa), they form the backbone of year-group integration, while numerous inter-house competitions see pupils compete across curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities and learn leadership and teamwork skills.
On Fridays (or FAB Fridays, as they’re known), lessons end early and house groups take turns to staff the tuck shop, hold bake sales and raise money for their own house-chosen local charity.
The parents’ association is very active, organising family-friendly events to raise money both for the school and local charitable causes – and the whole school charitable annual donation total often exceeds £50,000.
And finally....
A high-functioning and seriously motivated environment, Surbiton High is a centre of excellence in a leafy suburban setting. Girls are given choice and challenge, encouraged to be self-aware, guided to discover their strengths and supported to succeed on their own terms – both inside and outside the classroom. The sixth form block expertly bridges the gap between school and university and better prepares girls to soar beyond Surbiton.