St Paul's Girls' School

Ranked first in England for GCSE results and second for A-levels, St Paul's Girls' School sits at the very top of the country's academic order, and it has done so quietly, without the fanfare some of its rivals prefer. Founded in 1904 by the Worshipful Company of Mercers, the school occupies a Queen Anne Revival building in Brook Green, a short walk from Hammersmith. It is an independent day school for around 824 girls aged 11 to 18, non-denominational in ethos despite a Church of England foundation. Liz Hewer took over as High Mistress in September 2025. Day fees run to roughly £37,000 a year, with means-tested bursaries reaching up to the full amount. Entry at 11 and 16 is selective and intensely competitive.

St Paul's has never marketed itself as an exam factory, and the paradox is that it produces exam results no factory could match. The culture here rewards genuine intellectual appetite over grade-chasing. The school frames its ethos through four values rather than a Latin motto: seriousness in scholarship paired with fun in spirit, high expectations held with warmth, and a belief in both individuality and collaboration. That combination shows in the daily texture of the place, where a girl is expected to work hard and to argue back.

Inspectors described an atmosphere of mutual respect running through the community, and noted that pupils are not afraid to make mistakes, with academic risk-taking encouraged and celebrated by confident teachers. That willingness to be wrong in pursuit of being right is the engine of the school. Girls arrive already able and leave genuinely fearless about ideas. The broad, stimulating curriculum is built around shared values of identity, diversity, boldness and ambition, and those words are not decoration; they show up in how girls approach their work and one another.

The building itself carries the school's history. Designed by the architect Gerald Horsley and constructed between 1901 and 1904, it opened when 54 Paulinas, as the pupils are still known, first enrolled in Brook Green. The Mercers' Company had set out to create a girls' school of the highest type, splendidly endowed and equipped, and Princess Mary, later Queen consort, inaugurated the school in April 1904. Gustav Holst was appointed Director of Music in 1905 and stayed until 1934, composing here and shaping a musical tradition that endures to this day. Later additions, the Music Wing of 1913 and the Science Block of 1933, mark the school's twin commitments to the arts and the sciences, a balance St Paul's still refuses to choose between.

That balance runs through the school's roll of former pupils, which reads as a survey of British achievement across science, letters and the stage. Rosalind Franklin, whose work on X-ray diffraction was central to the discovery of the structure of DNA, left in 1938. The actress Rachel Weisz, an Academy Award winner, was here in the 1980s. More recent alumnae include Cressida Cowell, author of How to Train Your Dragon, the chef and Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers, and Lucy Moss, co-writer and director of the musical Six. The breadth is the point. This is a school that has produced crystallographers and comedians in roughly equal measure, and it treats both as evidence that it is doing something right.

The headline figures are unambiguous. At GCSE, St Paul's is ranked 1st of 3,895 schools in England for results, placing it in the top 0.03% and making it the highest-performing school in England at this level. That is a proprietary FindMySchool ranking built from official results data, measured against every school in England with published GCSE results, state and independent. The overall FindMySchool ranking, which blends those results with an inspection score, also places the school 1st of 3,887, and it sits 1st within Hammersmith and Fulham. In the most recent cohort, 94.7% of GCSE entries were awarded grade 9 or 8, and 98.5% reached grade 7 or above. In practical terms, almost every paper sat here earns a top grade.

Numbers this high can start to feel abstract, so it helps to translate them. A grade 9 is the level above the old A*, awarded to only a small fraction of entries nationally, and at St Paul's it is close to the norm rather than the exception. The school achieves this without narrowing the curriculum to safe subjects, and girls sit a full spread of sciences, languages and humanities on the way to those grades. The consistency matters as much as the peak: the school does not simply produce a handful of stellar results and a long tail, it lifts an entire cohort to the top of the grade range.

Sixth-form outcomes are barely a step behind. St Paul's ranks 2nd of 2,562 schools in England for A-level results, the top 0.1%, and 1st of 2,561 on the blended overall measure, again the strongest position in its borough. At A-level, 67.0% of entries were graded A* and 88.7% reached A* or A, against an England average of 23.6% for A* to A. Widen the lens to A* to B and the school reaches 95.7%, roughly double the England average of 47.2%. These are results that give students a genuinely free choice of destination, and they are consistent year on year rather than the product of a single strong cohort.

Depth, not drilling, defines the teaching. The school recruits and retains highly skilled teachers with strong subject expertise, supported by professional development that lets pupils take academic risks with confidence. Class discussion is central, and the school has deliberately built oracy into the curriculum so that girls learn to argue a case and defend it aloud. Highly developed speaking skills follow directly from that decision, and the effect carries into interviews, debates and eventually university seminars.

The curriculum is broad and unusually ambitious in its reach. Alongside the sciences and mathematics, the sixth form offers Latin and Greek, History of Art, Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Computer Science and Creative Technologies, so a student can pair Physics with Ancient Greek without either being treated as a soft option. Modern languages, English, Geography, History, Drama and Theatre, Art and Design and Music complete a slate that lets girls specialise hard while keeping intellectual company across disciplines. Subjects are taught by specialists to the top of the ability range, which is why so many girls leave ready for the most competitive university courses.

What distinguishes the teaching is less any single method than the assumption behind it: that girls can handle real difficulty and will rise to it if teachers hold their nerve. Because teachers know their pupils well, support is tailored to the individual rather than delivered in bulk, and mistakes are treated as part of learning rather than as something to be hidden. It is a demanding model, and it works because the staff and the students both trust it.

Oxbridge success is a settled feature rather than an annual scramble. In a recent admissions cycle, 98 applications yielded 46 offers, of which 44 were taken up, including 30 places at Oxford and 14 at Cambridge. That Oxford cohort represents an offer rate close to half of all who applied, an extraordinary conversion at that level of competition. Across all schools in England, St Paul's ranks 10th for combined Oxford and Cambridge success, and it is among the very strongest anywhere for Oxford offers in particular.

Oxbridge is only part of the picture. Recent leavers have gone on to Imperial College, UCL, Edinburgh, Durham and Bristol, and a substantial contingent crosses the Atlantic each year to universities including Brown, Yale, Stanford, Harvard and Georgetown. The pull towards United States institutions is a genuine feature of the sixth form rather than an occasional outlier, and the school supports applications to both systems in parallel. Medicine is a well-trodden route, with nine students taking up medical places in 2025, and law, engineering and the natural sciences draw strong cohorts too.

Of the 2023 to 2024 leaving cohort of 112, 69% progressed directly to university, with others taking gap years or pursuing overseas and creative routes that the standard measure records separately. Given how many girls apply abroad or defer a year for a specific course, the direct-entry figure understates the eventual destination profile rather than pointing to any weakness. For families weighing these outcomes, the local hub comparison tool lets you set them side by side with other schools in the borough.

Competition for places is the single hardest thing about St Paul's. At 11+, the school offers up to 115 places across five classes, and demand far outstrips supply. Assessment runs in three stages: a baseline adaptive test in October, written assessments in four chosen subjects, then subject interviews in November for those who progress. The school provides no practice materials and states plainly that preparation is not required, a deliberate effort to reward aptitude over coaching. A registration fee of £265 applies, and successful families pay a deposit of half a term's fees.

Entry at 16+ follows a similar shape, with an adaptive baseline test, written assessments in the four intended A-level subjects, and subject interviews. The school's own Year 11 students move into the sixth form subject to meeting requirements, and external applicants compete for the remaining places, so a strong candidate from another school has a realistic route in at 16 even though the 11+ intake dominates.

The Church of England foundation sits lightly on admissions. St Paul's is inter-denominational and non-denominational in practice, open to families of any faith or none, and religious observance is not an entry criterion. Families who value the historic Christian foundation and those who want a wholly secular education both find the school comfortable, because faith here is a matter of heritage and ethos rather than daily requirement. The FindMySchool map search can help you check travel time from a prospective home before committing to the process.

For a school this academically driven, the pastoral structure is notably open. Support systems for emotional wellbeing and mental health are easily accessed, pupils are involved in decision-making, and communication between leaders, staff and girls is genuinely two-way. Incidents of poor behaviour and bullying are few, and leaders analyse behavioural records to head off emerging issues before they take root rather than reacting after the fact.

Learning support is individualised. Girls who need it work to Individual Educational Plans, with weekly check-ins to review progress, and the department runs Working Breakfasts for students who benefit from extra structure to the day. That kind of provision matters at a school where the pace is high, because it keeps able girls who learn differently from slipping through the gaps. The wider St Paul's Programme threads resilience and enterprise through school life, so that wellbeing is treated as something to be built rather than merely protected.

Safeguarding was judged effective at the most recent inspection, with staff alert to risks, thorough recruitment procedures, and reliable systems for preventing and managing any child-on-child concerns. Girls are taught the importance of personal safety and know where to turn for help, which is the foundation everything else rests on.

Music is woven into the school's identity, and not only because of Holst. Rehearsals fill the Singing Hall and the Music Wing, and the Middle School Choir has taken the Richmond Festival Cup. Alongside it sit Young Voices, close harmony groups and full orchestras, and through the Jupiter Project the school sends instrumental teaching out to local primary schools, extending its musical reach beyond its own gates. For a girl who arrives already playing to grade standard, there is company and challenge; for one who wants to start, there is a route in.

Drama matches music for ambition. Productions run in the Celia Johnson Theatre and an adjoining studio, and the programme reaches well past the school. Through the New Views scheme, students write plays mentored by National Theatre playwrights; LAMDA lessons bring professional directors in to coach; and the annual Colet Play is directed by senior students themselves. A Year 9 Directors' Forum introduces younger girls to the craft of staging a production rather than simply acting in one, and a Theatre Society, along with costume and theatre design clubs, gives the technical and design side its own following.

Sport is broader than the academic reputation might suggest. The school runs a Boat Club with a first-rate rowing facility, alongside netball, lacrosse, cross-country, fencing, cricket, athletics and swimming, using a modern sports hall with gym and dance studio, a swimming pool and a pavilion. There are teams for those who want to compete and clubs in fencing, karate, kickboxing, badminton and tennis for those who simply want to keep moving. Girls who want to represent the school find fixtures; girls who want to try something new find room.

The intellectual co-curriculum is where St Paul's is unmistakably itself. There is a Dissection Society for aspiring medics and biologists, a Motorsports Club that races a Formula 24 electric car, an App Development Club, a Science Society, a Finance Club and Maths Doodles for the mathematically playful. Debating fields junior and senior teams, the Literary Society and Cover to Cover book club feed the readers, and the Junior Feminist Society, Film Society, History Society and Chemistry and Sustainability Club give still more girls a room of their own. The St Paul's Environmental Action Committee gives sustainability a student voice, and quieter pursuits like chess, gardening, crochet and improvisation round out a programme that assumes every girl has an enthusiasm worth backing.

Enrichment reaches beyond London entirely. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award takes girls into the outdoors, while international partnerships, including internships in New York through Project Rousseau, extend the school's horizons abroad. Service runs through school life as well, with pupils volunteering in school and the wider community and developing leadership and a sense of contribution alongside their many technical and social skills.

Day fees are £12,414 per term for Years 7 to 11 and £13,409 per term for new sixth-form entrants, both inclusive of VAT and paid by direct debit. On an annual basis that works out at roughly £37,200 and £40,200 respectively, though the school charges termly and those yearly figures are an estimate. There is no boarding, so no boarding fee applies.

St Paul's puts real money behind access. Bursaries are means-tested and awarded on a sliding scale from 5% up to 100% of fees, with a combined household income threshold of about £150,000 gross and no minimum. Around 11% of the school population currently holds a bursary, and the school has stated its aim to reach 20%. A family that could never contemplate the headline fee should not assume the door is closed, because the bursary programme exists precisely to widen the intake, and awards at the top of the range cover the fee in full.

St Paul's is a day school; there is no boarding provision. It stands in Brook Green in Hammersmith and Fulham, well served by Hammersmith's Underground and bus connections, and the school runs two dedicated coach services, the SPG12 from North London and the SPG13 from Wimbledon and the south-west, to widen its practical catchment across the capital. Because girls travel in from across London and beyond, those coach routes are a meaningful part of daily life rather than an afterthought. Prospective families should confirm current start and finish times and open-event dates directly with the school, as these are set year by year, and the saved-schools shortlist feature is a simple way to keep St Paul's alongside your other options while you compare.

Securing a place is the real challenge. With up to 115 places at 11+ and demand many times higher, the education is exceptional but the obstacle is getting in. Families should treat entry as genuinely uncertain and keep strong alternatives in view rather than pinning everything on one outcome.

The full fee reaches beyond most household budgets. At roughly £37,000 to £40,000 a year, day fees are among the highest in the country. The bursary scheme is generous and means-tested up to 100%, but places on it are limited and competitive in their own right, so it is worth applying early and honestly.

The academic pace is relentless by design. This is a school for girls who are energised by hard intellectual work, not merely tolerant of it. A student who needs a gentler tempo may thrive more elsewhere, and parents should be honest about temperament as well as ability before committing to the process.

Relationships and sex education is a stated area to develop. The most recent inspection recommended that the RSE curriculum be more fully matched to pupils' needs, a point leadership has been asked to address. It is a refinement rather than a failing, but a fair question to raise at an open day.

St Paul's Girls' School is, on the results, the strongest school in England, and it achieves that without sacrificing the breadth, warmth and intellectual playfulness that make school life worth having. The teaching is specialist and demanding, the destinations are extraordinary, and the pastoral culture is more open than the academic reputation might lead you to expect. It is best suited to genuinely able, intellectually curious girls who will flourish under high expectations and want music, drama, sport and ideas taken as seriously as grades. The main caveat is access on both counts: entry is fiercely selective, and even for those who win a place, the fee or a competitive bursary is the gate to pass through.