Founded in 1893 by the Girls' Day School Trust. It occupies a single site on Putney Hill and has the bonus of unusually beautiful gardens. The main buildings are three large late-Victorian houses to which there have been important and attractive additions in recent years. Facilities are good and include a state-of-the-art library, a music ICT composition room, well-equipped science laboratories, technology and computing centre, sixth form centre, sports hall and art studios. The junior department is within the school grounds, but in separate Lytton House. Examination results are excellent. Tennis, netball, gymnastics and lacrosse are very strong, with courts on site. Pupils attend a local leisure centre for swimming and use of the multi-gym. Rowing is popular and the school has membership of Barn Elms Rowing Club. There is a very strong music department and a variety of orchestras and ensembles. It also has considerable strength in drama, dance and art, with many awards won. Several girls within the school are highly gifted at music and sport and they benefit from a curriculum which enables them to further their talents alongside their academic subjects.
Pupils: Total age range 4-18, 870 day girls. Senior department 11-18, 555 girls. Entrance: Main entry ages 4, 11, 16. Own entrance examination used; for sixth form entry, 6 GCSEs at least grade B (grade A in sixth form subjects). No religious affiliations or skills. Senior intake, 20% from state schools, many from own junior school (enquiries to l.carmichael@put.gdst.net).
Academic and music scholarships, up to 50% fees, awarded on entry at 11; academic, music, art, drama and sport scholarships at 16. GDST bursaries awarded primarily at 11 and 16. Parents not expected to buy textbooks; music tuition extra £155-£205 per term.
Headmistress: Dr Denise V Lodge, in post from 2002. Educated at Bury Grammar School, and at Royal Holloway (botany and zoology, PhD) and London University (applied hydrobiology). Previously Headmistress at Sydenham High, Deputy Head at Sheffield High, and Head of Sixth and of Chemistry at Sir Roger Manwood's School, Sandwich. Teaching staff: 34 full time, 28 part time in the senior department.
GCSE: 104 pupils in Year 11, gaining at least grade C in an average of 10+ subjects. A-levels: 70 in Year 13, all passing in 3+ subjects, with an average final point score of 394.
100% sixth form leavers go on to a degree course (25% after a gap year), 18% to Oxbridge. 7% take courses in medicine, dentistry and veterinary science, 14% in science and engineering, 58% in humanities and social sciences, 14% in languages and 7% in other vocational subjects such as business management.
GCSE, AS and A-levels. 28 subjects offered (including theatre studies, government and politics, PE). Sixth form: Most take 4 subjects at AS-level, 3-4 at A-level; in addition, all take an enrichment programme; critical thinking offered as an extra AS-level. 41% took at least one science A-level. Vocational: Work experience available. Languages: French and Mandarin from age 11, Latin from 12, German or Spanish from 13 - all offered at GCSE and A-level. Exchanges to France and Germany; annual visit to Spain. ICT: Fully integrated into the curriculum, eg spreadsheets in maths and production suites in music. 200 computers for pupil use (11 hours a day), all networked and with email and internet access; full wifi accessibility on site. Large school intranet; fully searchable library database; online portal software enables mixed media approach, eg historical footage from Cold War or links to live arts performance.
Music: Over 50% of pupils learn a musical instrument; instrumental exams can be taken. Musical groups include 3 orchestras; 4 senior choirs, 1 junior; chamber, saxophone, jazz, guitar and recorder groups. Inter-house music festival. Success in national competitions. Choir tours. Drama and dance: Majority of pupils are involved in school and group productions. Recent productions include Daphne, Yerma. Art and design: Some 60 take GCSE, 19 A-level. Weekly life class; A-level course can include work in painting, drawing, design, textiles, sculpture, mixed media. Regular entrants to art school.
Sport: Netball, lacrosse, gymnastics, dance, badminton, tennis, swimming, athletics, aerobics, football, rowing. Tennis, lacrosse, netball, cross country, gymnastics and sports acrobatics teams successful nationally and athletics regionally. Regular county and south of England lacrosse players. Activities: Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Young Enterprise, sportleaders' award. £6000+ raised by school activities last year for charities. Over 20 clubs, including dance, trampolining, drama, Amnesty International, maths, ICT, science, astronomy, bridge and various sports.
Uniform: School uniform worn except in the sixth form. Houses and prefects: Competitive houses. Prefects and head girl elected by staff and girls. School councils. Religion: Non-denominational. No compulsory worship. Social: Visits to sporting events, galleries, museums, artists' studios and places of historical interest. Technology race and residential activity holidays are regular events. Overseas visits include language exchanges, music tours (eg New Zealand, New York, Lisbon, Barcelona), geography field trips (Iceland, Morocco); new links with China (including Shanghai), and an established exchange programme with India.
School aims to encourage pupils to be self-reliant and self-disciplined; number of rules is kept to a minimum but all are expected to behave with courtesy and tolerance towards others.
the Old Girls Association is run by Mrs S Cowie, c/o the school.
Virginia Bottomley (Conservative politician), Melanie Phillips (journalist), Emily Young (sculptor).
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