Loughborough High School

Fais Ce Que Dois, Advienne Que Pourra (Do What You Must, Come What May) has run beneath the crest since the school opened in March 1850, and the motto still fits. Loughborough High School is a selective independent girls' school that asks a great deal, and by its own account is the oldest academic girls' school in the country. Around 523 students aged 11 to 18 study on the tree-lined Burton Walks site, one arm of the wider Loughborough Schools Foundation. Head Fiona Miles leads a school that ranks among the strongest academic performers in England at both GCSE and A-level, with an All Steinway music faculty, a cadet force that keeps winning England-level trophies, and day fees from £29,180 a year. Entry is by examination at 11 and by interview and GCSE grades at 16.

Founded in 1850, Loughborough High occupies a set of elegant nineteenth-century buildings on Burton Walks, a short walk from the town centre and Loughborough University. It is one of four members of the Loughborough Schools Foundation, alongside the boys' Grammar School, Fairfield Prep and a nursery, which means older students share some teaching and productions across the road with Loughborough Grammar while keeping a single-sex school day of their own. That arrangement gives the place an unusual balance: a small, close girls' school with the co-curricular reach of a much larger campus.

The character is academic and purposeful rather than pressured. Lessons are well structured, with classroom behaviour calmly and skilfully managed, and the co-curricular life that surrounds them is genuinely broad, with more than 140 activities on offer. The Christian foundation is inter- and non-denominational and worn lightly: assemblies, form periods and the celebration of a range of religious festivals shape the week, and families of all faiths and none are welcomed rather than screened. Four houses, renamed in 2025 to honour women connected with the school (Andrews, Bristol, Charnock and Hartley), organise competition and pastoral belonging under student House Captains.

The school is also evolving gently at the edges. Since September 2025 a proposal for a small weekly boarding house and a modest rise in numbers has been working its way through the inspection process, and the age range is set to extend to accommodate older students. The core, though, is settled and confident. This is a school that expects effort, rewards curiosity, and does not mistake ambition for anxiety. With a roll of roughly 500, it is small enough that students are known as individuals and large enough to sustain a serious programme of music, sport and drama.

Academic results are the headline here, and they are strong across both phases. At GCSE, Loughborough High School ranks 200th of 3,895 schools in England for results, placing it in the top 5.1% (ranked against all schools in England with published GCSE results, state and independent). On the FindMySchool overall measure, which blends those results with inspection quality, it sits 171st of 3,887 and third in Leicester. These are proprietary FindMySchool rankings built from official data.

The grade profile behind that ranking is emphatic. Around 55% of GCSE entries were awarded a grade 9 or 8, the top two grades, and more than three-quarters (77%) reached grade 9 to 7. For a fully selective intake that is the expected direction of travel, but the depth of top grades, rather than a scatter of comfortable passes, is what marks the school out and sets up the sixth form that follows.Students here consistently achieve well in public examinations.

Sixth-form performance is stronger still. The school ranks 91st of 2,562 in England for A-level results, the top 3.6%, and on the blended overall measure 77th of 2,561, comfortably first in Leicester. At A-level, 62% of entries earned an A* or A, against an England average nearer 24%, and 87% reached A* to B, against roughly 47% across England. In plain terms, a student here is more than twice as likely to leave with the top grades as the typical A-level candidate. Those results, achieved across a wide subject spread, are what carry students into competitive university courses.

Teaching is knowledgeable and briskly paced. Teachers create positive, supportive relationships and typically provide appropriate levels of challenge, using questioning to encourage students to think more deeply. The broad curriculum is built to feed intellectual curiosity rather than simply to drill for examinations, and a substantial part of the upper school reads beyond the syllabus through the Extended Project Qualification and subject societies.

Students with additional needs are supported by the Learning Support department, which runs an open-door service under a Head of Learning Support and screens early for dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties, with small-group and individual sessions and reasonable adjustments during entrance assessments. There is also a dedicated English as an Additional Language programme for students who need it, with needs identified early through screening on entry and continual monitoring. The most recent inspection was honest about the limits: while students with special educational needs make good progress from their starting points, on occasion their specific needs were not fully taken into account in lessons, and the school was asked to share effective practice so that challenge and support are consistent across every department. Parents of a child who needs closely tailored teaching should ask how that work is progressing.

The sixth form is the school at its most ambitious. Around 28 A-level courses are offered, including subjects many schools drop, such as Classical Greek, Latin, Russian, Italian, Philosophy, Food Science and Nutrition, and Music Technology, and students can add the Extended Project Qualification to stretch into independent research. Tutor groups are deliberately small, at roughly 10 to 14 students, and the cohort has its own Sixth Form Centre as a base.

Entry to Year 12 is selective but well signposted: places rest on interview, reference and GCSE results, with a minimum of five grade 6s including Maths, English and Science, and typically a grade 7 in subjects to be continued at A-level. The school's own Year 11 students progress on the same academic basis, and the sixth form also recruits externally, so a proportion of each Year 12 arrives from other schools. Some teaching sets are shared with Loughborough Grammar in a co-educational sixth-form partnership for certain subjects, which widens the range of options a small cohort can sustain.

Beyond lessons, sixth formers take on leadership through the Primary Partnership Programme in local primary schools and the chance, every other year, to take a production to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The tone of the sixth form is one of guided independence: students are given real responsibility, but within small tutor groups where their choices, applications and wellbeing are tracked by staff who know them well.

Destinations are consistent with the results. In the most recent published cohort, around 70% of leavers went on to Russell Group universities, and seven students secured Oxbridge places, three of them to read Medicine. Medicine and the health sciences are a notable strength: roughly 11 of 19 medicine-related applicants went on to courses spanning medicine, veterinary science and dentistry, a pipeline that reflects the school's strength in the sciences. Named destinations in recent years include University College London, the University of Sheffield, the University of Nottingham and Queen Mary University of London.

A well-planned careers programme sits behind these outcomes. The school's futures department and PSHE careers provision are well planned and effective in preparing students for the next stage, and the small tutor groups mean university and course choices are guided closely rather than left to chance. The clear message to parents is that the strong grades are translated into strong destinations rather than left to look after themselves. Families weighing options can use the FindMySchool local hub to compare where similar schools send their leavers side by side.

Loughborough High is academically selective, and entry is competitive. The main intake is at Year 7, by written entrance examination usually held in early January, with occasional places at Years 8 to 10 through a separate examination a few days later. Offers typically follow within about two weeks of assessment. Sixth-form entry, as above, is by interview, reference and GCSE grades. The school runs an Open Taster Day in the summer term and an Open Morning in September; because dates move each year, confirm the current schedule with the school before planning a visit, and register early, as popular entry points fill quickly.

As an independent school there is no catchment in the state-school sense; instead the school draws widely on its own bus network (more on that below), so distance is a matter of a manageable commute rather than a fixed boundary. The Christian foundation places no faith requirement on admission: the ethos is inter- and non-denominational, and the intake reflects the mixed community of Leicestershire and its surrounds. Reasonable adjustments are made in the entrance assessments for students with identified learning needs, so a diagnosis of, say, dyslexia is not in itself a barrier to sitting the examination. Families comparing the cost of a place against travel and sibling arrangements will find the fee and discount detail set out clearly below.

Pastoral care is a clear strength and was judged effective at the most recent inspection. Safeguarding is rigorous and well embedded, with a designated safeguarding lead who provides regular staff training, thorough recruitment checks, and systems that ensure concerns are acted on promptly and in partnership with local agencies. Attendance is monitored closely, and students report being able to raise concerns with trusted adults.

Wellbeing has its own rhythm in the week. A dedicated Health and Wellbeing programme runs on Tuesday afternoons and enrichment on Thursdays, and the PSHE curriculum was praised for helping students develop a deep understanding of respect and tolerance, supported by a thorough relationships and sex education programme. Students also learn democratic responsibility in a practical way, electing a school council and choosing prefects. Policies to encourage positive behaviour and deter bullying are understood and respected by students rather than imposed on them, and the small scale of the school, with roughly 500 students, means individuals are known rather than lost in a crowd. One administrative point has been flagged for tightening: verification of all references for new staff should be clearly recorded in the central register, a records matter rather than a concern about the care children receive.

Co-curricular life is where a small school punches well above its size, with more than 140 activities running each week and four pillars that genuinely stand out.

Music is the flagship. Loughborough High has been an All Steinway School since 2015, teaching in a purpose-built music faculty with two recording studios, a Recital Hall and a partnership with Coach House Pianos. The ensemble list is long and serious: a Concert Orchestra and Symphonic Orchestra, Big Band, Concert Band and Symphonic Wind Band, chamber groups from string quartets to wind quintets and piano trios, a Flute Choir, Brass Ensemble, Senior Tabla and the JamFest guitar group. The annual Spring Concert fills De Montfort Hall in Leicester with a Spring Concert Choir of more than 300 voices, weekly Lunchtime Live recitals keep performance routine, and the year ends with Al Fresco, a two-stage festival-style event. For a musical child, the ceiling here is high, and the Music Scholarship Programme exists to bring in and develop real talent.

Drama runs on a similar scale. Productions are tiered by age, from the Lower Schools' Production for Years 7 and 8 up to the Senior Schools' Production for Years 11 to 13, with a Middle Schools' Production taking part in the Shakespeare Schools Festival at Curve in Leicester. The student-led New Directors' Season, run jointly with Loughborough Grammar, hands real creative control to older students, LAMDA tuition builds public speaking and performance skills through graded work, and sixth formers can take a production to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Sport spans 17 disciplines from netball, hockey and cricket to climbing, shooting and triathlon, played across the Quorn playing fields and the Parkin sports centre with its fitness suite. The Student Athlete Programme and Sport Scholarships support serious competitors, and a partnership with the Loughborough University National Tennis Association gives tennis players access to elite coaching on the doorstep, an advantage few schools can offer. That the professional tennis player Katie Boulter is a former pupil is a fitting emblem of the school's sporting reach.

Service and adventure are taken just as seriously. The Combined Cadet Force runs Royal Navy, Army and RAF sections plus a Corps of Drums, and its air cadets have won the Royal Air Squadron Trophy for three consecutive years, including 2026, with Flying Scholarships opening routes to solo wings and a private pilot's licence. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and a long-standing Voluntary Service Unit round out a programme that pushes students well beyond the school gates and into their local community.

The school's alumnae reflect that breadth, from the engineer Dorothée Pullinger and the historian Dorothy Hartley to the comedian and musician Rachel Parris, a reminder that a Loughborough High education has led into science, letters and the arts alike.

Day fees for 2026/27 run from £29,180 a year (£7,295 a term) in Years 7 to 9, rising to £29,980 for Years 10 to 11 and £30,780 for Years 12 to 13. A registration fee of £120 and an acceptance deposit of £500 apply for day pupils. From September 2025 the school offers a sibling discount of 10% for a third child and 15% for subsequent children, which softens the cost for larger families with more than one child in the Foundation.

Merit awards are focused rather than universal. The Music Scholarship Programme offers up to 20% fee remission for talented musicians, and Sport Scholarships are available for high-performing athletes. Additional costs are modest and itemised, including individual music tuition at £34.75 for a half-hour lesson and shared LAMDA lessons charged per session. Parents should ask the school directly about means-tested bursaries and the full basis of any award, since the published scholarship schemes are merit-based rather than income-assessed.

The school day is organised around the single-sex timetable, with midweek afternoons given over to the Health and Wellbeing programme on Tuesdays and enrichment on Thursdays. As a secondary and sixth-form school there is no primary-style wraparound care, though the co-curricular timetable keeps most students on site well into the afternoon.

Getting there is well organised. An independent bus network operated by Passenger Travel Solutions runs around 17 routes reaching across Leicestershire, South Nottinghamshire and South East Derbyshire, with buses arriving at and leaving from the main car park at the front of the campus and termly bus passes issued to students. That network is effectively the school's catchment, so families beyond the town should check which route serves their village before assuming distance is a barrier. Prospective parents can use the FindMySchool map to gauge a realistic commute from home and to shortlist the school alongside others they are considering. In practice, the reach of the bus routes means the school draws from a broad slice of the East Midlands rather than from Loughborough alone, so the effective travelling community is wider than the town itself.

Fees are substantial, and financial aid is targeted. At £29,180 to £30,780 a year, with merit scholarships in music and sport rather than broad means-tested support surfaced in public information, the school is a significant commitment. Families relying on bursary help should ask directly about what income-assessed assistance exists.

Consistency of challenge is the school's own improvement priority. The school's own improvement priorities are to strengthen the monitoring of teaching quality so that every student is stretched, and to share effective practice for students with special educational needs. Provision is good, but ask how tailored support plays out in individual lessons.

Boarding is proposed, not established. The school is working through approval to open a small weekly boarding house for up to nine boarders and to extend its age range, and it is expected to meet the required standards once the change goes ahead. Families interested in boarding should confirm whether it is actually running before counting on it.

It is a selective, single-sex environment. Entry depends on performing in a written examination or on GCSE grades, and the school suits a daughter who thrives on academic pace and a girls-only setting. It will not suit a child looking for a non-selective or co-educational day school.

Loughborough High School is a genuinely high-performing girls' school that pairs top-5% GCSE and top-4% A-level results with a co-curricular programme far larger than its roll would suggest. The All Steinway music faculty, the trophy-winning cadet force, the medicine and Oxbridge pipeline, and the shared reach of the Loughborough Schools Foundation give it depth that many bigger schools cannot match, and its pastoral care is warm and well run. It is best suited to an academically able, motivated girl whose family wants a selective single-sex education with serious music, sport, drama and service on offer, and who can meet the fees. The main caveats are cost and the honest, school-owned task of making challenge and SEND support consistent in every classroom; on results, care and opportunity, this is one of the strongest schools in its region.