2222 Tatler Schools Guide 2020 tatler.comLONDONPUBLICST PAUL’S SCHOOL
Lonsdale Road, SW13 9JT
Website stpaulsschool.org.uk
Head Prof Mark Bailey, PhD,
since 2011; previously Head of
the Grammar School at Leeds
Pupils 986 boys: 950 day; 36
boarding Ages 13–18
Term Fees Day: £8,636; boarding:
£12,997 Oxbridge 31%
Registration Three years before
entry; £175 fee Admission ISEB
pre-test, CE, interview and previous
school’s report Alumni Sir Robert
Winston, neurologist and naturalist
Oliver Sacks, Samuel Pepys
PREP Head Maxine Shaw
Pupils 489 day boys Ages 7–13
Term Fees £6,904
Yes, it’s academic, diverse and
erudite but it is also friendly,
warm and relaxed. One seasoned
researcher was blown away by a
visit to this hive of incredible
industriousness and flourishing
intelligence. With an enviable
45 acres of grounds fronting the
River Thames and a prodigious
building project underway, it’s no
surprise that St Paul’s School has
11 applicants per available space
at 11+. But while this school isn’t
just for highly intelligent and
sporty boys, they really do need to
love learning – to be scholarly in
the true sense. As Andy Mayfield,
Director of Admissions, says,
Paulines must have three qualities:
‘Their brains must work quickly,
as lessons and information come
at quite a pace. Secondly they
need to enjoy the process of
learning, and thirdly they must
want to do lots of things within
school.’ There is a bewildering
amount for the boys to get
involved in. Each lunchtime they
have 100 minutes to enjoy clubs,
societies and activities. Anything
goes, it seems, from microbiology
to coding. Incoming High Master
Sally-Anne Huang will be the first
female Head in the school’s
history when she starts in
September 2020. She replaces the
universally revered Professor
Bailey (sadly due to retire at the
end of this academic year), who
embodies the ethos of St Paul’s –quietly spoken and unerringly
modest, this one-time England
rugby captain and Professor of
Medieval History at Cambridge is
known to referee the U14F rugby
team from time to time. He says,
‘I like boys who are funny,
challenging and just a bit
irreverent.’ He should have added
model citizens too, but he’s far
too modest.SOUTH HAMPSTEAD
HIGH
3 Maresfield Gardens, NW3 5SS
Website shhs.gdst.met Head
Vicky Bingham, PGCE, since
2017; previously Deputy Head
at Guildford High School
Pupils 670 day girls Ages 11–18
Term Fees £6,498 Oxbridge 21%
Registration By November of year
before entry; £125 fee Admission
London 11+ consortium entrance
exam and interview Alumnae
Helena Bonham Carter, Daisy
Lowe, Fay Weldon
PREP Head Caroline Spencer
Pupils 265 day girls Ages 4–11
Term Fees £5,309
‘This school is a dynamo!’ says one
particularly impressed individual.
Far from being the pressurised hot-
house one expects of a school of
this calibre (it’s rated within the
leading schools in the country, ac-
cording to league tables), it has an
atmosphere that echoes its motto:
‘More Light’ or ‘Mehr Licht’ (thepoet Goethe’s dying words). This
also happens to be the name of the
school’s very enlightened enrich-
ment programme, which spans
mindfulness, British sign language,
textiles and ceramics, Japanese,
electronic music production, phi-
losophy for life and song writing,
to name just a few of the elements.
In 2015, alumna Helena Bonham
Carter unveiled revamped facili-
ties, and students have broken in
the huge underground sports hall
and stunning art studios (with a
dark room, digital suite, a ceramics
studio with wheel and kilns). Not
to mention the immense four-acre
sports grounds and a premier
league cricket pitch only a 10-
minute walk away (a rare commodity
for an inner-city London school).
But that’s not all: there’s going to
be a new state-of-the-art concert
hall and performance space,
Waterlow Hall, with plans to open
the doors in 2020. Food is fantas-
tic, masterminded by ex-Ritz chef
Alex Bogatov, and there’s a ‘grab
and dash’ takeaway lunch if you
have a club to get to. There’s been a
big push on participation, espe-
cially co-curricular activities and
sports. Debating at this school is a
big deal, which is no surprise as
these are articulate girls with pro-
gressive ideas. ‘We are proud to be
a feminist school and girls here en-
joy sharing their ideas, speaking up
and speaking out,’ they say.UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE SCHOOL
11 Holly Hill, NW3 6XH
Website ucs.org.uk Head
Mark Beard, MA, since 2013;
previously Deputy Head at
Brighton College Pupils 620 day:
532 boys, 88 girls Ages 11–18
Term Fees £7,030 Oxbridge 15%
Registration By autumn of year
before entry; £150 fee Admission
School’s own exam or CE and
interview Alumni Tristram
Hunt, Julian Lloyd-Webber
and Ford Madox Ford
PREP Head Lewis Hayward
Pupils 350 day boys Ages 4–11
Term Fees £6,498
A results-driven but stimulating
curriculum; a liberal, international
outlook; high-achieving but indi-
vidual students. At this school, you
almost don’t need to bother with
the number crunching – it produces
a constellation of A*s, As and Ox-
bridge acceptances. Of more interest
is the ethos imbued in the student
body, which constitutes boys until
GCSE, and goes co-ed in the sixth
form. A recent school play was a
verbatim musical about mental
health – written and composed by
a student-teacher combo, the
script used recordings of conversa-
tions between pupils and those
whose lives have been impacted by
mental illness. Alongside choosing
from 20 A-level subjects, sixth
formers are given enrichment les-
sons, and a huge number volunteer
with the local community, or are
involved with charity fundraising.
The facilities straddle the fine line
between rock-solid achievement
and experimentalism, too: in
2018, the school opened the AKO
Centre, a library designed to sup-
port collaborative learning. Sports-
wise, new playing fields and a new
pavilion were recently unveiled.
‘UCS is a modern, fast-moving
and hardworking institution,’ says
one parent. ‘Its ears and eyes are
turned to the world, it is not insu-
lar in any sense. The school actively
engages with the community and
with the issues of the day. UCS
prepares its pupils well for the
world out there.’ ]UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE SCHOOL10-19-Schools-Guide-PublicLondon.indd 22 13/08/2019 11:57