Headington School
Headington School is a leading day and boarding school for girls aged three to 18. Set in 23 acres just a mile from Oxford city centre, facilities include a state-of-the-art Music School, all-weather pitches and a purpose-built Theatre. A new Dance and Fitness Centre opened in 2015, increasing the already widely-varied sporting activities on offer. In 2016, a brand new Library featuring state-of-the art innovative technology including interactive tables capable of ten ‘touches’ at a time and ‘sonic chairs’ where girls can listen to music, lectures or vocabulary without speakers and without disturbing their neighbours was officially launched.
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Most recent facility updates include a new revamped and extended Sixth Form Centre which opened in early 2019. The new centre features a light, airy glass-sided learning space, the Cube, refurbished study and relaxation areas and refurbished café. Ground broke on a new Creativity and Innovation Centre, the Hive, which is due to open in September 2021. This will become the new home for Fine Art, Sculpture, Photography, and Fashion Textiles at Headington, as well as a hub for cross-curricular learning with a focus on sustainability, enterprise and technology. As well as state-of-the-art fully equipped workshops and learning areas, it will also house a floor-to-ceiling double height gallery area and a large lecture theatre.
An education at Headington prepares girls for every aspect of life. The School benefits from its location in the heart of multicultural Oxford, with girls regularly being able to challenge and stretch themselves academically in activities and events linked to the city’s two universities and the nearby Science Vale. Despite the School taking a broad academic intake, its results regularly place it among the top schools in the country, with girls going on to study at excellent universities in the UK and around the world.
More than 20 subjects are offered throughout the Lower and Middle Schools and that choice increases at A Level in the Sixth Form. In 2020, Headington added PE and Dance to the list of A Levels on offer while further additions for 2021 include History of Art and Photography. Alongside their studies, girls in Middle School study a Critical and Creative Thinking Skills course and, from next year, will have the option of working towards a Higher Project Qualification. In the Sixth Form, girls broaden their studies by taking Electives in areas which may be linked to or completely separate to their A Level subjects, for example cooking for university life, ‘slow fashion’ and sustainability, electronics or 19th century painting. Many also choose to do an Extended Project Qualification, which gives them the opportunity to carry out in-depth research on an area which interests them. Subjects chosen vary wildly, with recent examples including how Chanel’s designs empowered French women, whether obesity should be treated by the NHS and an examination of how artists influenced the way we see Catholic icons.
As well as offering an extremely broad curriculum, Headington offers an excellent extra-curricular programme, with more than 120 activities to choose from each week from Drama to Dance to Combined Cadet Force. Girls partake in a wide range of sports from Hockey and Netball to Fencing and Football, while our rowers are consistently among the best in the UK, bringing home hauls of silverware at every regatta in which they compete.
Pastoral care at Headington is superlative, with a network of staff supporting girls at every stage of their learning and development. This starts before girls even begin at school, with staff getting to know the girls before they join and continues as they settle in and begin to form friendships. Girls are encouraged and inspired to do their best, with building resilience, self-confidence and self-belief being an integral part of the School’s approach. Form tutors, Heads of Year, Heads of Section, Heads of House, Boarding staff, prefects and other members of her peer group are all part of the system to make sure that every girl feels safe, happy and supported. The School encourages broad friendship groups and fosters kindness and empathy, meaning girls look out for each other and support each other both when things are going well and when they are more challenging.
There are currently 47 different nationalities represented throughout the School, reflecting Oxford’s culturally and ethnically diverse make-up.
The School offers a wide range of different boarding options to suit different family needs, from full and weekly boarding to half-weekly boarding, alongside the community of day girls. This allows girls who may live slightly further away to cut down on long commutes during the week and to play a full part in Headington’s rich extra-curricular programme. It also provides a chance for girls to integrate further with the lively and welcoming boarding community while maintaining all important family time. Around one in four girls is a boarder, with numbers growing throughout the School. A relatively small number of girls join as boarders in Year 7, with more either joining the School or choosing to move to one of our boarding options throughout Lower and Middle School, up to the Sixth Form, where about half of the girls are boarders.
For those families who choose to take a day place for their daughter, the transport links are excellent. Girls travel to Headington from a wide area using a variety of transport options. The School is part of the Oxford Schools Bus Partnership, a network of 11 bus routes across Oxfordshire serving seven city schools. This is supplemented by school minibuses serving routes not covered by the bus partnership. There are also a wide range of public buses and trains which, together, cover Oxfordshire and neighbouring counties, while the Oxford Tube bus service to London stops directly outside the School.
Headington girls are intellectually curious, emotionally confident, kind and considerate to each other and to adults and go on to pursue careers in everything from Engineering or Medicine to Law, Economics or the Arts. Around 80 per cent of girls each year go to Russell Group universities and in 2020 around one in ten headed to Oxford or Cambridge universities.
The School has a strong focus on producing girls who are truly ready for the future, helping develop personal, academic and creative skills alongside supporting each girl to achieve excellent academic qualifications which will enable her to access the next stage of her education and thrive in the world beyond Headington.
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Visit WebsiteAdmissions contact details: admissions@headington.org01865 759861/872/113