WHAT? WHERE?

Queen’s College London (QCL) is right in the heart of Zone 1 – literally a stone’s throw from Oxford Circus – and occupies four merged townhouses on Harley Street. A girls school of 420 pupils aged 11-18 (Y7 – Y13), what you see on the outside belies quite how much there is behind the modest Georgian façade.

The school celebrated its 175th anniversary last year and has quite the story to tell. QCL was the first school in the country to give girls an academic qualification, and has a glittering alumni that includes trailblazers like author Katherine Mansfield, Dorothea Beale, founder of Cheltenham Ladies’ College & St Hilda’s College, Oxford, cellist Jaqueline du Pré and Dame Anna Wintour.

With three classes of 22-24 in each year group, this isn’t tiny, and yet the girls I spoke to told me that you quickly get to know your entire year group – some of which have a head start having attended Queens College Prep School, a few minutes up the road in Portland Place. If you’re a newbie you won’t be the odd one out though – around 50% of girls at Queen’s College Prep take up places at Queen’s College, London and they make up about a third of the year 7 cohort.

FACILITIES

The four-storey building feels traditional and a little Mary Poppins on the ground floor, set around a wide corridor lined with wide dark wood doors and chintzy Morris wallpaper that’s beloved by the girls. Dig out some of the historic photos of the building and you’ll find parts of it unchanged, like the tiled floors, circular feature window, stairwell lanterns and plasterwork (and the strong girls club vibes).

That said, it doesn’t feel stuffy, the classrooms are bright and light. Ascend one of the two main staircases to the first floor and the quirks of joining four buildings together begin to show with multiple smaller staircases. Getting around the school alone, together with the programme of PE, gymnastics, dance and an afternoon of games every week, keeps them more active than your average urban senior school. Your daughter will be fit!

The building seems to flow well despite its quirks, with year groups based in form rooms on ascending floors by age, and departments occupying offices rather than specific classrooms on each floor. Have a problem with your history homework and you head to the office shared by the history teachers, rather than their classrooms.

The teaching spaces vary in size and layout with both grouped tables and rows of desks, and most have natural light. As you move up the building and year groups, the classrooms become increasingly modern and grown up, with the fourth floor classrooms walled internally with glass panels.

There are seven science labs, a library with a Junior and Senior side, a computer suite (though all girls have a Microsoft device from Y7) as well as two art studios, a hall with stage and lighting used for assemblies and drama, and multiple drama and music rehearsal and teaching spaces.

CREATIVE (MUSIC, DRAMA, ART, DT)

Music and drama are both popular, with 50% of girls learning an instrument and their dulcet tones can often be heard drifting along the corridors from the spaces given over to teaching music or drama. There are endless opportunities to have a go from the informal concerts in the cosy performance space downstairs right up to the biggies – the Michaelmas, summer and Carol concerts, the Big Brass blow out, charity Big Sing event with a different theme each year like Disney and Jazz. A joint brass and dance trip has taken performers to Greece and St Lucia in the past.

Singers travel too. Last year’s destination for the College Choir was Belgium and the Netherlands. The Chamber Choir will often join professional singers to perform in various London venues, many of them walking distance away. The school has four brass groups, two wind, two percussion, three choirs, a concert band, a student run Performing Arts Club, and a pop band, “Banned”.

Music on the curriculum is pretty wide ranging, with a dedicated teaching space kitted out with keyboards as well as Sibelius, Garage Band, and Logic pro to create music in any medium that takes your fancy.

There’s a mega production every year alternating between a play and a musical – last year’s Annie was performed at the Shaftesbury Theatre to celebrate the school’s 175th anniversary, with 100 pupils from all seven year groups taking part, either on stage, backstage or in the orchestra. Then there’s house drama as well as year group assemblies to put together. All the girls here dance, with at least one session a week and a big show every year in March.

Art is taught in two dedicated classrooms – the larger of the two occupies a bright and airy studio under a high glass roof where there’s plenty of space to create, and evidence of this all over the school walls, be it photography, collage or portraiture. No doubt there are many talented artists, but the girls I chatted to tended towards drama and music.

SPORT

There’s quite a bit of timetabled sport for the girls here and it doesn’t tail off for the Sixth Form, as it does in so many senior schools. Every girl has dance and gymnastics plus PE up to four times across the week, then an afternoon of games as well as the countless sports clubs – fencing, football, netball and dance among them.

On site there’s a gymnastics hall and the main hall for dance and gym, then for the rest it’s off to Marshall Street Leisure Centre, Moberly Sports Centre or Paddington Recreation Ground, all a walk or short bus ride away. So, no jolly hockey sticks here – or lacrosse for that matter. And the girls don’t swim as part of the timetable, though there is a swimming club and a house swim gala.

QCL didn’t always have a fierce sporting reputation, but the school has worked hard to turn that around and now Queens College are notching up more win than losses – there were 70 matches alone during the autumn term that I visited, with netball, football, basketball and athletics among the most popular sports across the year.

The school’s greatest sporting passion? Cheer. Holder of the title of the LDCA Academy Cheerleading League, QCL has won every competition it’s entered this year and has more than 75 girls competing across three squads in cheer leading. Go Queens! Coming next will be the school’s own fitness suite, which beat suggestions of a photography room and a cookery space for the refurb of a former changing room on the site. Priorities ladies!

ACADEMIC

This year’s stellar A Levels are on the back of a steady ascendancy in results as the school levels up with the hot competition of the London girls day school scene. A Levels this year were 28% A* and 63% A* and A, meanwhile GCSEs were 24% 9s, 52% 8s and above and 74% 7s and above. But the whole ethos here is very much not about the numbers, but about creating an environment where girls feel happy and valued and only then will they fulfil their potential.

QCL very much offers a gentler alternative to some of the more academically pushy environments – evidenced by policies like the 30-minute limit on homework for younger years. That said, the academic offering is robust, with more science labs here than drama rooms (seven!) and free periods for the older girls most definitely spent studying and not loafing.

There’s a challenge programme for scholars that includes workshops and talks and every summer, the entire school comes off timetable for the Academic Festival, which has talks, workshops and activities centred around a theme with previous ones being India, Fashion or Space.

Streaming happens in maths from the start, then in Latin from Y8 (you can take it for GCSE or drop it at that point) and English from Y10. The other languages on offer are French, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin and every girl must take one language at GCSE.

PASTORAL

There’ i’s a massive focus on happiness and support. It comes through when you speak to the teachers as well as the students and the entire basement is dedicated to it. Down here is the Thrive Centre (the school values spell it out – tenacity, happiness, resilience, integrity, versatility, excellence) where there’s a chill out space with bean bags and books to retreat to at any time, as well as the SEN support to help those pupils with recognised needs, but also anyone who would like some help with a piece of work. Skye, the school cat can also be found here, no doubt staying out of the way of Jasper, the school dog.

In terms of parental points of contact, if you’re worried you can reach out to the head of year, head of pastoral, the school counsellor Katie, your form teacher, Libby the nurse, email worry@qcl or contact the Whisper online service if you want to stay anonymous.

There’s a student parliament for those who want their voice heard (the SLT responds to each point raised at parliament every fortnight) and six prefects meet the head every Friday to express the students’ voice (his eyes and ears on the ground, he tells me!).

THE HEAD

Richard Tillett, Queen's College, London

Richard Tillett has been in the role since 2017 and is an approachable and genial character but with an efficient air of someone is isn’t going to humour you if you’re wasting his time. His pervading focus is on wellbeing (before his education calling, he worked in mental health for the NHS), and he believes in treating his staff with kindness and empathy in the belief that this will trickle down to the rest of the school.

He is resolutely not trying to be a St Paul’s Girls’ or City and wants to replace academic competitiveness with pride in what you do. The school’s history and character is a great strength and something he embraces – his office has proper stately home vibes with its mahogany bookcases and antique upholstery and he teaches a unit on the history of the school to the Y7s – but he doesn’t want to dwell on the trad.

Tillett’s up for embracing modernity in teaching with academic risk taking, digital learning and life skills very much at the forefront (the older girls do work experience every Weds with organisations in education, fashion, finance, sport and more). He is – as you’d expect – a fervent advocator of single sex education for girls and believe that girls need to be educated without being inhibited by the judgement of boys.

On the agenda for him in the near future? More outdoor learning using spaces like Regent’s Park, as well as introducing a QCL’s own qualification among the GCSE options with an interdisciplinary outlook incorporating AI, critical thinking, climate change and more. In the longer term perhaps even acquiring more girls’ schools. Think big!

SIXTH FORM

Hanging out on the top floor is the Sixth Form Centre with it sofas, kettles, toasters and workspaces. The older girls are literally at the top of the school, loving their privileges of no uniform, a dedicated library space, and being able to nip out for lunch. They still feel very much part of the place, especially through the house system, with its competitions, ‘mingles’ across year groups and initiatives like each house decorating its own colour-themed Christmas tree to place around the school. They also get to use the school lift, a privilege looked onto by the younger years with great envy. It’s among the perks (alongside the school’s other attributes of course) that maintain a healthy retention rate – around 70% of II Juniors (Y11) stay on to I Seniors (Y12) .

WRAP-AROUND CARE

The school day starts at 8.30am, but pupils can arrive from 7.30am and grab breakfast in the Lower Common Room. The day ends at 4.05pm, after school clubs and homework clubs til 5.15pm. The wrap-around care is free of charge apart from the odd club like fencing.

MOBILE PHONE POLICY

All girls to Y11 have to lock their phones into Yondr Pouches for the school day but Y12 and Y13 are allowed access to their phones in certain areas of the school. Every year there’s a ‘Queen’s off Screens’ initiative including the Nokia Brick Challenge, where girls are challenged to swap their smartphones for a Nokia brick for a week.

QUIRKS

Like many schools with an illustrious history there’s idiosyncrasies, like the class names, which start at Class 3 for Y7, up to Y11 then it’s Senior College instead of Sixth Form.

At the Annual Gathering at the end of the summer term all pupils and staff wear a lapel flower which corresponds to their year group, with outgoing Seniors given an Iris pin badge to mark their transition into the Old Queens alumnae.

SEND

The head of support has an office and space for group sessions in the basement, then there’s the department offices with an open door policy. In addition, around exam time, the girls spoke of daily subject clinics which you can drop into for help.

ISI REPORT

The educational quality inspection outcomes range between Good and Excellent with Personal Development rated Excellent, and special mention of the girls self confidence and self esteem. The last inspection was in 2022, you can read he report here.

TRANSPORT

A school minibus isn’t really needed when you’re at the centre of London’s transport network and most families live within three miles of the school. The nearest underground stations is Euston Square, which is served by the Hammersmith and City, Metropolitan, and Circle lines, then there’s also Bond Street, Great Portland Street and Regent’s Park stations all within walking distance.

FEES

Fees are £8, 575 per term, with most trips and music lessons all extras.

WORD ON THE GROUND

The girls are a happy lot at QCL. It’s a nurturing and relaxed environment with plenty of friendships across year groups and no taboos around asking for help, be it academically or emotionally. They love the school food, served in the basement canteen that’s cleverly designed to be bright and fun with a glass roof and bright Perspex furniture, and has access to the only on-site outside space, a small courtyard dining area. Chicken katsu, bao buns, and falafel wraps are typical of the Gen Z offerings, though the Sixth Form can nip out for their lunch with the smorgasbord of Oxford Circus’ gastronomic delights on their doorstep.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

The vibe at QCL is very much a happy and nurturing one, with one big family making clever use of this quirky space right in the heart of London.

Good for: Families who have lofty academic aspirations but for whom the big players in the London girls school scene are a little daunting will love the less snooty vibe of QCL.

Not for: Avid swimmers may find that there’s not quite enough focus for them here to explore their passion, though the location puts them squarely in amongst plenty of London’s open-all-hours swimming pools.

Se for yourself: Be my guest. Email the Registrar, Ms Barbara Porter, at admissions@qcl.org.uk to arrange a tour of Queen’s College.

Queen’s College, London (senior school)

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