St. Mary's School, Hampstead

I am delighted to welcome you to St Mary’s School, Hampstead, a school that provides a sense of belonging to each and every girl from Nursery through to Year 6. We pride ourselves on our family-feel and the sense of community and ethos that are so tangible as soon as you walk through the front door. Every individual is valued and known, allowing the girls in our care to develop and flourish. We firmly believe that a happy child will naturally become a successful child and we therefore take academic rigour and our varied curriculum as seriously as we do our pastoral care. We aim to instil four key qualities in our pupils: we encourage the children to be risk-takers in their learning, their play and their extra-curricular pursuits. We teach the girls to be resilient, not to fall at the first hurdle, to “fail” well and to understand that it is from their mistakes that they will learn best. The girls at St Mary’s are respectful of each other but also of themselves, underpinned by a strong sense of value and worth of every individual. Finally, we ask them to be reflective on their faith, their behaviour and their academic work. We are a school proud of our Catholic heritage spanning over more than 150 years. Part of our ethos is to welcome girls and families of all faiths and none; everyone has a place here. Our St Mary’s Way is the spirit by which we live: to treat other people as you would like to be treated, to do your best to be your best, to be honest and truthful, to listen to each other, to be kind and helpful, to forgive, and to share. Unashamedly an all-girls’ school, I see the benefits of such a setting every day as the calm and focused environment allows the girls to be themselves, to take risks, and to think big. As our pioneering founder, Mary Ward, wisely said, “There is no such difference between men and women that women may not do great things.”