WHAT? WHERE?

This bijou girls’ school in north London for ages 2-16 has long been considered a nurturing and academic school by local families, and currently occupies a smart detached three-storey Georgian building in an affluent residential road in Belsize Park. From humble beginnings as one room above a Greek bookshop in Tufnell Park in 1985, the school has steadily grown and has just announced big plans – it’s set to introduce a Senior School to age 16 starting with Year 7 in Sept 2024, Year 8 the following year and so on. Within five years The Village School for Girls (previously The Village Prep) hopes to outgrow its current site and find additional Belsize Park space for its cohort of 2-16 year olds. But the ethos will remain small, with a plan to keep year groups at no more than 15 pupils each.

The Village School for Girls is part of Chatsworth Schools, a group of 16 primary and secondary single sex and co-ed schools mostly in the UK but also in the Middle East. Known for its homely, family vibe, it gets the job done with girls heading off to the likes of Channing, City of London, Francis Holland, South Hampstead and Highgate.

First impressions are of a bright, cheery and unpretentious environment with its jolly yellow walls and blue sofas. The welcome is warm and friendly and the whole place is low key – teachers mostly dress casually and the walls are adorned with artwork and photos from recent trips. This ethos carries over to the girls who are super relaxed, happy to chat and quick to hug their favourite teacher as they pass in the corridor. Many schools describe themselves as a big family, but The Village School for Girls really nails that hallmark.

The Village School for Girls prizes the Eco Schools Green Flag award it won in 2019 and does much in its actions and teaching to reinforce sustainability. The Eco Team runs parallel with the School Council with representatives from each year bringing in initiatives to cut down on single use plastics and theme lessons in everything from art and science to RE.

FACILITIES

For a Zone 2 London school, the outside space is great – half an acre with a full size netball/football pitch on the playground and a multi-use hall/theatre at the end of the garden. This summer the school has completed the first phase of an ambitious investment project which involves a completely new adventure playground and Early Years garden for a modern outdoor classroom and veg beds for a gardening club. It’s plenty big enough for the 70-or-so girls at breaktime who spend their free time playing netball, football and larking about – friendships evidently go across year groups, with prefects being the big sisters who round up the younger girls ready for class at the end of break. Most head outside for break, but some prefer the cosy library, a welcoming space with loads of books and reading nooks.

/SPORT

From September, local dance school Alyssa Fleur will be engaging the girls in a variety of dance styles for their weekly lessons and running after school clubs twice weekly. This feeds into the school’s love of drama and its many productions – more on which below.

They undertake PE on site, then rugby, athletics, ultimate frisbee and orienteering on nearby Hampstead Heath. A broad offering of team sports is introduced in Key Stage 2 with the opportunity to play in league and friendly fixtures in netball, football, rugby and cricket throughout the year. The school has an association with the Saracens Rugby and London Mavericks Netball for coaching with elite athletes, training with a pro American football league team (Taylor Swift eat your heart out) and the opportunity to watch professional matches as well as playing mini matches at the stadium. Lucky ones might even be picked to take centre stage, handing over the ball to officially start a match. The Village School hosted a Chatsworth Schools rugby tournament at Saracens’ StoneX Stadium in spring 2024 and are planning to make this an annual event.

Swimming is only taught in Years 1-3 with one term per year of lessons at the nearby Rec Club in Hampstead, so those with aspirations to be the next Rebecca Adlington will need to pursue this outside of school hours.

/CREATIVE ARTS (MUSIC, DRAMA, ART, DT)

The Creative Lab is the home of favourite teacher ‘Mr Mo’ (short for Mowforth) who has the girls creating all manner of art with materials from his Aladdin’s Cave of a supply cupboard, including working with paint, pencils, clay and textiles. It’s a light and bright space with windows to the front and back of the school and while a little tired around the edges, it has everything they need – a large table to work at and an enthusiastic leader.

In the middle of the room is a piano and carpeted area for the girls’ weekly choir lesson and at the far end it’s science, with a couple of group tables, a microscope and science books. All of these activities share the one room but aren’t ever used at the same time. It’s scheduled for an upgrade with improved STEAM opportunities in science and tech. It lacks the bells and whistles of larger schools with their Bunsen burners and grand pianos, but the quality of the work on the walls – and the results – speak for themselves.

The school’s hall has a new projection system as well as a modern lighting rig and everything that’s needed for the ambitious productions put on by every year group each year – Matilda and Not so Wicked being two recent shows.

The uptake in music is high – over 70% learn at least one instrument and the school has two choirs: Lower/Middle School and Upper School. There are aspirations to start an orchestra, perhaps teaming up with the boys from the head’s former school, Hereward House.

LITTLIES

The Early Years classrooms overlook the playground, each with their own covered terrace for outdoor and messy play, leading into multi-use spaces with playing corners, grouped desks and interactive whiteboards, offering plenty of variety to their day. Activities across a typical day might include a Dough Disco (dancing to build core muscles), reading with an older girl and maths taught predominantly through movement and activities rather than sat at a desk. There’s tons of space for the max 15 per class and with a TA alongside the teacher, it’s easy to see why kids here feel loved and heard, as well as making leaps of progress academically.

ACADEMICS

Parents rejoice – the school has a no homework policy, which means that from Year 3 girls are given time at school for independent study, going up to two periods a day from Year 5, rather than take work home. It means the girls should be able to leave school at 4.30pm having finished their homework and been to an extra-curricular club. This changes a little towards the end of Year 5/early Year 6 when the girls are preparing for 11+ but broadly they can flop on the sofa and chill out when they get home from school.

There’s no streaming here – you don’t need to with so few girls – but activities are differentiated and everyone gets individual support when they need it. There’s specialist teaching in sport, music, drama, art and science and the other lessons are in your form room. Spanish is taught from Nursery through to Year 6, with Latin introduced in Year 5 and French in Year 6. At the moment years 4 & 5 are joined because of the numbers of children and next year it’s likely that 5 & 6 will join as one form, but with activities differentiated by ability and splitting off for core lessons.

The hope is that if more girls stay on for Year 7 and beyond in future years, that the school will be liberated to a point from the shackles of 11+ prep and can focus on a wider breadth of learning and personal development in the Senior School whilst still Prepping girls ‘The Village way’ that want to leave at 11 for the 11+ process. Both pathways are equally possible. And already the girls’ learning goes beyond the curriculum, with them offered lessons in Latin, History of Art, Culture, Current Affairs and Entrepreneurialism, with all of these stepping up once those pesky exams are out of the way. The results of which are pretty impressive – as well as the top drawer destination schools, scholarships are won every year. In 2023 it was four – totalling more than a quarter of the year group, and they tend to be spread across academic, sport, music and dance.

PASTORAL CARE

Every girl in Year 6 is given a position of responsibility, be it librarian, head girl, sports captain or house captain and you really get a sense that they take ownership here, taking their roles seriously and looking after the little ones (and bossing them about a bit like all big sisters do). When things aren’t going swimmingly, there’s the form teacher as a point of contact but the family vibe here means little goes unseen and the kids and teachers all know each other really well.

Girls are told to have three people in mind who they can talk to about their concerns, then there’s a worry box to leave notes in. One wall bears photos from the annual team building trip with teachers photographed slathered in mud alongside kids tackling an obstacle course. They’re all in it together. The deputy, Cora Reilly Bolsom, is the mental health lead and is super approachable – the much-loved (and hugged) aunt of the family. There are also older girls around to chat to – a few alumni come back in gap years to support in classrooms and sports – ‘once a Village girl’ they say.

THE HEAD

Kirstie Hampshire joined The Village School in Sept 2023 from nearby Hereward House School, and her positive, down-to-earth, open-door style has been welcomed by parents. Girls are nurtured in small classes surrounded by exceptional facilities and Hampshire regards the school’s size as its greatest asset, giving the girls the sort of one-to-one support that will accelerate their learning in an environment where they feel comfortable to try new things without fear. Indeed, every Friday the assembly is run by the girls as a sort of informal talent show in which children as young as six will get up and read a poem or play an instrument to a warm reception. Pastoral care and wellbeing are at the heart of the school and girls come across as happy and well-rounded.

The School Council is really engaged in school life – Hampshire wants the girls to see that their view matters and they can enact change (this has included plant-based Monday meals and a new school scarf made by a local group that employs people who are unable to get work). Teachers are courageous and exciting in their approach to teaching and girls have meaningful learning experiences that go well beyond the curriculum and enable them to fulfil their potential.

The Village School’s Senior School opened in September 2024 with a founding Year 7 class and will grow an age group a year to Year 11 in September 2029. Year 7s are currently in the existing building and eventually there will be a new site. Girls thrive academically and those that wish to move on after the 11+ do so successfully with individualised support, but the school now also caters for girls who wish to remain for the secondary years.

QUIRKS

The school has its own nomenclature for the year groups – confusingly Pre-Prep isn’t the usual Reception-Year 2 but Nursery, rising to Lower, Middle and Upper school at the top end. Sticking with the standard system, in Year 6 there’s a few big ticket items – a three-night bushcraft trip and the Village Business Awards. This sees the girls given a (real money) £150 investment by the school to research, design and create their own products, present a business plan, and sell them at a school fair with any profits going to the local charities where they volunteer (that’s amounted to £11,000 since 2010). Another quirk – the girls are avid ‘ploggers’ combining jogging on Hampstead Heath with litter picking. Then they count and analyse the rubbish using graphs to practice their fieldwork skills. There’s the Chronicle board – like a noticeboard school magazine that anyone can contribute to based on themes on anything from pandas to Rosa Parks. Finally, one of the school calendar highlights is Grandparent’s Day, featuring Maypole dancing and a whole school Strip the Willow. Village to the core.

WRAP AROUND CARE

School starts at 8.45am before a daily assembly, then the day runs to 3-3.45pm depending on the year group with clubs going to 5.30pm. These include choir, chess, debating, coding and gymnastics as well as less conventional offerings like skateboarding, fencing and inventors club. Drop off is 8.15am and while there’s no breakfast club there’s an 8am option on Tues and Weds mornings, so you may need a nanny or obliging grand parents – or boss! – if you need to clock onto work by 9am. The school runs holiday clubs on site and with its own staff, so kids can spend time in a familiar environment on camps themed around both sports and academia. Recently they have joined forces with a local boys’ school for the holiday camps, which looks set to be repeated.

SEND

There’s a SENCO in-house and speech and language specialists who can come in if needed. With such small classes, one-to-one support is standard though if girls need it they can have sessions outside of class time to catch up or get focused attention.

MOBILE PHONE POLICY

Mobiles are kept in the school office and returned at the end of the day. With regards to other tech, the school has a suite of iPads for 1-1 use during lessons.

TRANSPORT

The tube, local buses or the pavement!

FEES

Nursery costs from £5,830 full time, rising to £6,970 for Reception to Year 6 and an extra £340 a term for lunch and £190 to cover the cost of dance and gymnastics.

WORD ON THE GROUND

The girls love the food, which is all cooked in-house, raving about the vegan, veggie and meat options alongside a pasta, jacket potato and salad bar, even though there’s a saintly one sweet pudding per week. They also adore their teachers and happily chat about them to school visitors. Parents are equally enthused by the Village vibe, organising movie nights, parent talks and even parent and staff socials.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Girls who might be wallflowers elsewhere will be brought out of their shell by the super nurturing environment and the countless opportunities to perform and take charge.

Not for: Kids who want to blend in with the crowd, or alternatively let off steam in a way that might challenge the rule book, could struggle with the attention here. Very little goes unseen and behaviour expectations are high.

Want to see it for yourself? Check out here for more info. The school has regular Open House events with the next ones being Mon 9, Wed 11 and Mon 16 September, or you can book an ad hoc school visit. Our next Open Day is Sat 16 November, 10-12pm.

The Village School for Girls, 2 Parkhill Rd, London NW3 2YN.

The Village School for Girls, London

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