St George's School (Edinburgh)

Since 2022, Carol Chandler-Thompson, previously head of Blackheath High School (GDST) for eight years. Studied history, followed by a PGCE at University of Exeter. An experienced head, particularly in girls’ education, with 25 years working in leading girls’ schools under her belt. She began teaching history and lacrosse at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls, also overseeing the teaching of PSHE. Then moved to North London Collegiate as head of history and politics and later was part of the founding leadership team of NLCS’s first international franchise school, NLCS Jeju in South Korea.

A fast, energetic talker, bubbling with passion for girls’ education, she was quick to step out into the hallway to welcome us into her office. ‘I had my eye on St George’s for a while before I moved here as I recognised shared values that I really believe in,’ she confided – notably high ambitions and learning without ceilings for the girls. ‘Down-to-earth’, ‘approachable’ and ‘encourages girls to have a go’, parents told us, although a couple said she could have a ‘bigger presence’ and ‘make herself known more’. Looking forward, she’s keen to raise the profile of the school and move on from their ‘hidden gem’ status. She says she has found fellow Edinburgh heads and the local community really welcoming: ‘The children will say, “I really like your dress today, Miss”, which is a great start to anyone’s day!’

Married to Emma, an administrator at St George’s, they have a daughter in the junior school. ‘Edinburgh is such a fantastic city to make our life in, we love it and want to see our daughter grow up here.’ Home is in nearby Musselburgh with lots of beach walks and cycling at the weekend.

Entrance into the mixed nursery (age 3 to 5) via 'a play and meet the family’ session. Boys can stay up to end of P3 (usually younger brothers or teachers’ children). Junior school, up to P4, via a taster day, activities in class and ‘meet the family’. P4 upwards more formal assessment in the form of class observations. Big intake during lower school years (age 10 to 13).

Senior school (age 13+) is through formal assessment, interview and reports/references from existing school. Head says, ‘It’s always a holistic decision, we’re just as interested in a fantastic artist as we are in someone who has straight As.’ Sixth form places in high demand – applicants have interview with the head, plus school report and exam results or assessment.

No waiting lists but always busier towards the top end. Occasional delays getting into nursery as school operates a higher than normal staff-to-pupil ratio, which can mean up to two extra members of staff per group.

About 70 per cent move up from nursery to junior school; 95 per cent from junior to senior school. Vast majority stay on for Highers and Advanced Highers. Over 95 per cent of sixth formers go to university – Edinburgh, St Andrews, Glasgow, Durham, Manchester, UCL and Newcastle popular in 2024.

A few overseas - recently to Valencia to study dentistry, Vermont for liberal arts and Parsons School of Design, New York for photography. ‘Strong emphasis on tailoring your destination to your specific pathway, for example Bath for architecture,’ said a parent. A quarter choose STEM courses. Eight medics in 2024, two to Oxbridge. A trickle into graduate apprenticeships. ‘We’re happy to continue to give support and careers guidance even after they’ve left,' the school told us.

Learning through play is the motto in the charming nursery. Early literacy and numeracy gently introduced, with oodles of outside opportunities in leafy spaces around the school grounds including the ‘Fantastical Forest’. We loved that the teachers set up construction tape to protect ‘play in progress’ – no little person wants to come back next day and find the cleaners have demolished their fairy treehouse. Often operates with a better than required staff to pupil ratio.

‘Slow pedagogy’ ethos continued through junior school (up to age 10). But nothing slow about the P1 class we dropped in on. Learning about time, pupils were split into activity stations and so were busy creating clocks on the floor and doing worksheets that they didn’t even notice us. P1 have their own garden – an impressive amount of outdoor space for a city school.

Lower school (age 10 to 13) is ‘all about transition’, the school told us. ‘We can welcome up to 30 new families during this period.’ P6 are still taught in their classrooms, but with visits from specialist teachers. In P7 (called remove) they each get their own timetable with up to 17 different subjects and begin to move around. ‘We want them to try as many different things as possible.’ In S1 (lower four) the students make their first subject choices and choose their languages, and general science teaching morphs into biology, chemistry etc.

Senior school is where St George’s take an interesting tack, with GCSEs followed by Higher and Advanced Highers. Head calls it ‘the best of British’ – ‘GCSEs are tough and a much better grounding for Highers, they learn how to work in a balanced way and they seem much happier.’ Mixed views from parents, some calling it ‘a genius idea, others that it’s ‘bonkers’.

Many choose the HPQ as part of the GCSE programme, and the EPQ is offered along with Advanced Highers. ‘Encourages independent learning and prepares them for university’, we heard – in fact, the school is considering introducing a version for P7. Languages are a strength – the school was one of the first in the UK to offer Mandarin, and they also support students who want to sit a qualification in their own language.

STEM taught very well, we heard, with a healthy take up of maths and physics. ‘Maths underpins so much,’ says head. Computing is one of the fastest growing subjects in the school: ‘Lots of work with the 10 to 12 age group on coding,’ the school told us.

There’s heaps of academic enrichment, known as the ‘super curriculum’ – includes current event discussion groups, trips to Cern, global perspective programme, maths challenges, Cambridge essay competitions, space design events. We loved the CANSAT competition, which got a group of pupils designing a satellite in a tin can (which we got to hold in our hands) – the Scottish weather stopped the launch, of course, but they still managed to collect some data.

This is a high achieving school, where parents say the staff are ‘mind-blowingly amazing’ and ‘devoted’. One told us her child sent an essay in on Boxing Day and the teachers marked it and sent it back straightaway. Good to see the option choices timetabled around the girls’ requirements, not the other way around. ‘Quite often pupils join us in sixth form because they can’t do what they want to elsewhere,’ confirms the head.

There are six part-time Support for Learning teachers (equating to four full-timers), with a specialist in each section of the school: junior, lower (10-13) and upper. Includes two dedicated ESOL specialists. School is well-known for the quality of its provision across the board. ‘My daughter has ADHD and the school is phenomenal,’ said one parent. Mixture of timetabled lessons and one-to-ones, depending on need. All free apart from an intensive EAL course. ‘We have two level 7 assessors within school so no need to charge for ed psychs,’ adds school. Assisted technology, study skills, boosting academic confidence and self esteem all part of the package.

Music begins in nursery with a dedicated teacher, and there are 27 peris across the school teaching individual lessons in both singing and instruments ranging from tuba to piano. Loads of orchestras, choirs and masses of concerts from informal lunchtime recitals to full-blown carol service at St Giles Cathedral. Currently trying to build up the piping as there’s a shortage of female bagpipe players. Director of music focussed on increasing collaboration with nearby Merchiston boys’ school. Trinity and ABRSM qualifications on offer.

Two drama teachers cover the junior and senior schools, although one pupil felt they could do with ‘more drama teachers, more investment’. There’s a whole school play every year, with traditional delights such as Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a joint production annually with Merchiston. Sixth formers put together their own annual production which we are told is ‘much more risqué’!

Unusually for a girls’ school, the art department has quite a muted feel, possibly because STEM is such a big player. The quality of the work is spectacular – including the pieces on display across the four dedicated studios. Textiles are a high point, and we saw some impressively ‘aged’ books and scrolls worthy of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Teachers say, ‘the students are in here before us in the morning and we have to force them to leave at night, they love it.’ Serious artists do A level because of the portfolio opportunities.

Special shout out to the DT department. It’s not every girls’ school that harbours a thriving, thrusting engineering workshop including the prestigious Arkwright scholarship. ’That’s the advantage of a single sex education,’ says head. No pigeonholing here.

Heaps of after-school and lunchtime clubs, many of them pupil-led. Our favourite is the ‘Miseducation society’, which is apparently ‘everything you don’t learn in the curriculum’. Or how about the Potteresque ‘Potions Club’? Edinburgh is the home of JK Rowling after all. Plenty of community engagement too, with the school opening up their facilities to coding and filming camps, Badminton Scotland and tennis workshops with Judy Murray. Separate nursery and junior school areas for after school care which runs to 6pm.

Hugely popular CCF (and not just with the outdoors, sporty students), run jointly with Merchiston (lots of people in camouflage on our tour). Think weapon training and bivouacking out – they’ve even had a piper piping them into a mock attack. The school is big on outdoor education throughout, we heard from parents, with residential camps from P5 all the way up to Gold DofE in sixth form. As a very internationally minded school, there are also trips to US, Toronto, South Africa, Chile, Australia even Zanzibar and Nepal. The girls do most of the fundraising for trips themselves. ‘I nearly didn’t go because I was anxious about not having my phone and talking to my parents, but it was brilliant – I have so much more confidence,’ said one pupil. Among the many global partnerships are a teaching partnership with a school in Hong Kong and a digital partnership with a Chinese school. School is a regular recipient of the International Schools Award.

‘During the winter we order over 200 bacon rolls on a Saturday, so we know that’s how many girls are taking part in weekend fixtures,’ said the head of PE. We like the cut of your jib, St George’s and being famous for your bacon butties is no mean feat. St G’s prides itself on its inclusive spirit (regularly turning out a ‘fourths’ team) and the fact that the passion for exercise remains to the end of sixth form (no easy achievement with teenage girls). Unusually for a city school, it’s a hop, skip and an athletic jump to the middle of some plushily appointed sports facilities. Twelve full and part-time coaches deliver hockey, lacrosse, netball, tennis, athletics and cricket lessons. Plus, there’s rugby, football, spin classes strength and conditioning, badminton and curling. School also supports pupils who golf, fence and ride horses by offering them membership of their elite training programme. ‘We think sport and pastoral go hand in hand,' the school told us. Nutrition also taken seriously, with an external expert coming in to offer support to any student who requests it.

Think of a classic boarding school and St George’s wouldn’t be the first spring to mind. ‘A day school with boarding’ is how the school describes it – and with just 30-50 boarders, it’s certainly not a huge part of their offering. Full, termly, weekly, flexi and occasional all on offer from age 10+, with a 50/50 mix of Scottish and families and those from overseas (mostly Hong Kong and China). Three quarters hang around for the weekends, which are filled with sport on a Saturday morning and a programme of activities on Sundays devised by the students, including trips to nearby Murrayfield to watch international rugby and socials with the boys’ school Merchiston Castle.

The dorms are housed in two grand Ravelston villas, joined together by a cleverly disguised linking corridor. Not the smartest we’ve seen, but warm and homely. Sixth formers have their own swanky bungalow to help prepare them for more independent university living. ‘She loves the house parents and says the chef prepares their favourite food,’ said one parent.

Team of six for boarding house including head of boarding, housemistress, assistant housemistress and three resident and non-resident houseparents.

One of the big pastoral pluses of St George’s is its size. ‘Every child is known’ really applies, parents told us. Heads of year track personal, social and academic progress of students. Team of tutors meet weekly to discuss concerns. Six school houses. Special attention given to ‘crunch point lower school’ years when up to 30 new families can join. Lots of advice on appropriate language, mobile phones, friendship issues. Classes mixed up every year. Pupils reckon ‘there’s no bullying’.

School says there’s ‘less discipline, more helping’, particularly when it comes to showing girls ‘how to navigate a tricky stage’. No exclusions.

Student equality policy rather than a gender equality policy. Student voice is taken seriously and a theme that runs through the school. Dedicated student and staff groups focussed on diversity, equality and inclusion.

Pupils and parents are a diverse mix of Scottish middle-class. Plenty of doctors, lawyers, farmers, museum heritage and creatives, plus international families. A whopping 28 different ‘home’ languages are spoken including Russian, French, Ukrainian and a wide selection of religions. ‘I think it’s more diverse than people think,’ says the head. Pupils are refreshingly direct, confident and untrammelled by gender politics.

Free shuttle bus runs from Haymarket, otherwise (vastly subsidised) buses operate from Colinton, East Lothian, Portobello, Inverkeithlng, Southside and West Lothian.

Surveys are sent out to parents so they can meet their needs. Parent forum organises events, and school is trying out a WhatsApp group for relocating families to help them settle in.