The Queen's School

Since April 2024, Joanne Keville, previously deputy headteacher. She has taught geography at Queen’s for 25 years and has also been responsible for the professional development of staff.

Entrance by assessment: in reception by observation; higher up, pupils are invited for a taster day with gentle assessments but ‘the essence of the whole child’ is looked at.

Year 6 pupils are automatically offered places for year 7. Their

In 2024, two to Oxbridge and four medics. Around 80 per cent to Russell Group universities. Nottingham, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores, Durham, Lancaster and Oxford Brookes all popular in 2024. Girls do a wide range of courses including biological

In 2024, 64 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 52 per cent A*/A at A level (77 per cent A*-B).

All the junior classes we saw were full of animated, engaged girls. In reception (where there was a large igloo made from milk bottles relating to a project on polar bears), girls were excited by their newly-built space station (a space suit hanging

A SENCO oversees learning support via one-to-one sessions with her or through liaising with individual teaching staff. We spoke to a couple of students who had been diagnosed with dyslexia early on (both about to go to very good universities to read

Lots of orchestras and choirs in lower school, including a very professional year 5 and 6 choir (finalists in Songs of Praise competition and many others). Opportunities to perform in public locally and across the UK. Drama is popular and thespians

Lower school sports include all the usual ones plus extras such as cricket and football. Head of lower school is keen for girls to develop their sporting skills from a young age but in a gentle way. The annual biathlon – running and swimming –

The senior school’s beautiful, stylish and imposing main building (built in 1878) is set in small gardens, perched on a hill, overlooking the hockey and lacrosse pitches over the road. Inside (and there are lots of add-on buildings) it feels

In the lower school, assemblies are linked to social and emotional issues. Form teachers are the first port of call for those in need. Head of lower school says that while teachers need to know when to intervene, she is keen for the girls to develop

A clear mobile phone policy is a really important part of modern schooling. This school has provided us with their policy.

Parent body described as friendly and ambitious, most dual income families. Good comms via parents’ evenings, reports and Firefly VLE (the portal parents use to track their daughter’s progress). Staff are keen to reinforce that the school operates in

A wonderfully empowering environment in which girls flourish academically but also personally, with bountiful opportunities on offer to pursue extracurricular passions and interests of every variety.