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Our View
Spread across five buildings in Surbiton, this 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 several sports and trips that range from Iceland to Nepal.
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?
Set in leafy Kingston upon Thames, this school is a distinct entity while also forming part of a cohesive community with its two prep schools – meaning that pupils benefit greatly from the rich resources and superb facilities of a multi-property campus. 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.
Head
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.
Admissions
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.
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 in a lovely touch, 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 the academic year (a brilliant initiative), and a dedicated learning support team supports girls with everything from 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 at the fore.
Results here are excellent, 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.
Co-curricular
Sport is fantastic here, with pupils picking from a Super Eight that includes netball, hockey, cricket, football, gymnastics, rowing, tennis and skiing. The majority of 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. The school has a striking number of national athletes – we were lucky enough to see a pupil working with her tennis coach at a level that may have given Emma Raducanu cause for concern. 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.
Drama is awesome, 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 (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 – the co-curricular handbook is a weighty 116-page tome with opportunities ranging from broadcasting and enterprise to life drawing and sport.
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 local charities. Each house selects its own charity to support – and they often hit the £50,000 mark.
School community
The 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.
The parents’ association is very active, organising family-friendly events to raise money both for the school and local charitable causes.
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 outside the classroom and within.