Royal Masonic School for Girls

A school founded in 1788 to care for the daughters of Freemasons who had fallen on hard times now sits inside 300-plus acres of Hertfordshire parkland, educating girls from age 2 to 19 in a single continuous journey. The Royal Masonic School for Girls, known to its community as RMS, is an independent day and boarding school in Rickmansworth, just inside the M25 and within easy reach of London. It runs a co-educational nursery, an all-girls prep, senior school and sixth form, with around 928 pupils on roll. Headteacher Kevin Carson has led the school since January 2017. The latest ISI inspection in February 2026 found every regulatory Standard met across leadership, education, wellbeing, social development and safeguarding. Day fees, boarding, scholarships and means-tested bursaries shape who can come.

The charitable instinct that created RMS still runs through it. The school was instituted in 1788 by Bartholomew Ruspini and a small committee of Freemasons to educate the daughters of brethren who could no longer provide for them. It moved to its present home in Rickmansworth Park in 1934, into buildings designed by the Brighton architect John Leopold Denman, and opened its doors to girls beyond Masonic families in 1978. That history is not decoration. The nursery is still named Ruspini House after the founder, and the prep is Cadogan House, so even the youngest children learn in buildings that carry the school's story.

Six words anchor daily life: inclusivity, courage, ambition, kindness, perseverance and integrity. These are not posted and forgotten. Lessons and assemblies frequently open with a reminder of one of them, and pupils were involved in choosing them. The result is a calm and purposeful environment where girls are encouraged to be ambitious while staff keep a clear eye on their wellbeing.

The early years set the tone. The youngest children, in the co-educational Ruspini House nursery, learn through play in a stimulating environment, with staff drawing out curiosity and imagination and developing fine and gross motor skills indoors and out. From there girls move into Cadogan House, the all-girls prep, where the day starts physically as well as academically. The campus is large enough that younger pupils begin each morning with a walk in the grounds to observe the weather, and learn to use a compass to navigate across a meadow, turning fieldwork into a daily habit rather than an occasional trip.

For a school within the M25, that sense of space and calm is unusual, and it gives RMS a distinctly unhurried, semi-rural feel only a short hop from the Metropolitan line and Chiltern services into central London. Girls move around the campus quietly and behave well, and relationships between staff and pupils are warm and respectful. It is a girls' school that feels confident in its own identity rather than busy proving a point.

RMS spans three key stages, so its academic picture is best read in layers. The prep phase does not sit the published key-stage-two assessments in the way state primaries do, so there is no comparable primary ranking to report; the prep is best judged on the broad foundation it lays before girls move into the senior school. That foundation is unusually deliberate. In prep, mathematics is taught through visual representations, practical resources and trial-and-error so that girls build genuine reasoning rather than rote answers, while in science they hypothesise and test ideas to deepen understanding. Languages start early, with Spanish in the early years and French and Mandarin added in prep, so girls arrive in the senior school already used to stretch.

At GCSE the school performs strongly. In the most recent results, 36% of grades were at grade 9 or 8 (the old A*), and 54% were at grades 9 to 7 (A* or A). On the proprietary FindMySchool ranking, built from official data, RMS holds the number-one position among schools in its Rickmansworth area and ranks 258th in England for GCSE attainment, placing it well above the England average and inside the top 10% of schools in England. Leaders have deliberately shaped GCSE choices to balance academic stretch with wellbeing, reviewing which subjects girls take so that the load is challenging without being punishing.

At A-level the standing is solid rather than spectacular, which is honest to report. A*-A-B grades accounted for 68% of entries, with 13% at A* and 24% at A. Measured against the England average for A* to B of around 47%, that is a clear margin ahead. The proprietary FindMySchool A-level ranking, again drawn from official data, places RMS second in its local area and 371st in England, above the England average and within the top 25% of schools in England. The gap between the elite GCSE ranking and the strong-but-lower A-level ranking is worth flagging for families thinking about the long game, and it shapes part of the verdict below.

Teaching at RMS is built on subject knowledge and detailed feedback rather than spectacle. Teachers plan tasks to engage girls and give them detailed written feedback alongside time to reflect on it, so pupils understand both what they have done well and how to improve. In the senior school and sixth form, teachers routinely involve girls in assessing their own work, which keeps motivation high and ambition realistic. Relationships between staff and pupils are positive, and that warmth translates into effort: girls apply themselves and make good progress.

The curriculum widens steadily as girls move up. Spanish starts in the early years, French and Mandarin arrive in prep, and Latin is added in the senior school. At GCSE the choices stretch beyond the core into computer science, astronomy, creative iMedia and health and social care, with leaders reviewing options regularly so the curriculum matches girls' aptitudes and interests as well as covering the essentials. Across the visual arts and music, older pupils combine traditional technique with current digital tools to produce high-quality work in art, photography and textiles.

Support for girls with special educational needs is a genuine strength. The school has identified 172 pupils with SEND, twelve of them with an education, health and care plan, and the provision is led with close specialist input. Staff are trained to spot needs early through observation and assessment, and where it helps they put one-to-one support and resources such as writing frames or devices in place, so girls with SEND make good progress.

One honest caveat sits inside the teaching picture. The school has 145 girls who speak English as an additional language, and most make good progress, but support for less confident English speakers is applied inconsistently in some senior and sixth-form lessons. The school has been asked to make those strategies more consistent, and families for whom English is a second language should ask directly how that is being addressed.

Internal progression is one of the quiet advantages of an all-through school. Girls move from Ruspini House nursery into Cadogan House prep, and on into the senior school, without the cliff-edge of an external eleven-plus, building skills designed to equip them for the next phase. Entry into the sixth form is by attainment rather than guarantee: girls typically need a clutch of strong GCSEs, including grade B or above in the subjects they wish to study at A-level, and the sixth form also recruits externally.

For school-leavers, university is the dominant route. In the most recent leavers' cohort of 70 students, 81% progressed to higher education, with a further 4% taking up apprenticeships and 3% moving into employment. The sixth form's destinations programme, branded futures, is unusually practical: alongside subject guidance it teaches student finance, payslip deductions, networking and professional self-presentation, with weekly futures Fridays bringing in outside speakers and impartial one-to-one careers support. Girls leave with a clear sense not just of what they want to study but of how the adult world of finance and work actually operates.

Oxbridge is a small but real part of the picture. In the most recent year, six students applied to Cambridge and one secured and took up a place. Recent leavers have gone on to competitive courses including medicine at Imperial College London and degree-level routes into law, which gives a sense of the ambition in the cohort even where the headline Oxbridge numbers are modest.

RMS is selective but not forbidding, and entry runs through several clear gates rather than a single eleven-plus crush. The main entry points are the nursery and Reception in the early years, Year 7 at 11-plus, and the sixth form at 16-plus, with occasional places at 13-plus into Year 9. Senior and sixth-form entry involve the school's own assessment and an interview, and sixth-form candidates are expected to meet GCSE requirements in their chosen subjects.

Because RMS is an independent school, it sets its own admissions and does not draw on a local authority catchment, so the distance-based priority bands that govern state schools do not apply here. That changes how families should think about location. Rather than measuring proximity against a last-distance-offered figure, the practical question is travel time and whether boarding makes the daily commute irrelevant. You can use the FindMySchool map to plot your home against the school and weigh the journey, and the saved-schools shortlist to line RMS up against other Hertfordshire and north-west London independents.

A defining feature of admissions here is financial access, which is unusually generous for a school of this kind and is covered in full below. The short version: scholarships reward talent, and means-tested bursaries, including a full-fee award, exist precisely so that ability rather than income decides who benefits.

Pastoral care is a strength that the school clearly prioritises. Behaviour is calm and orderly, with girls moving around the campus purposefully, and the anti-bullying policy is implemented so effectively that bullying is rare; older pupils are even trained as anti-bullying ambassadors who staff drop-in clinics for younger girls. The behaviour approach is restorative rather than purely punitive, with staff taking time to understand a girl's needs before any sanction.

Emotional support is woven into the physical environment. There are quiet spaces for girls who need to reflect, listen to music or eat away from the bustle, a school counsellor, and staff trained specifically to build self-confidence. Spiritual life is handled inclusively rather than through a single faith: pupils use a multi-faith prayer room for discussion and reflection and a dedicated mindfulness garden for quiet contemplation, fitting for a school whose values lead with inclusivity. Relationships and sex education is developed with parents and supplemented by outside speakers covering women's health, consent and online safety, so girls understand how to take care of themselves and when to seek help.

Safeguarding sits at the centre of all this. The latest inspection found safeguarding effective, with well-trained staff and governors, close work with local authorities and the police, and pupils taught clearly how to report a concern, including anonymously. An independent listener visits the boarding houses regularly, the medical centre is suitably equipped, and internet filtering and monitoring are tested for robustness, so the digital and physical safety of girls is handled with the same care as their lessons.

Co-curricular life at RMS rests on four clear pillars: sport, the performing and creative arts, an inquiry-led STEM and enrichment strand, and a strong thread of service and leadership.

Sport benefits from the space and the facilities. There is an indoor heated swimming pool and a sports centre with a fitness suite, dance studio and squash courts, set in grounds large enough for the full range of pitches. The core games of gymnastics, hockey and netball run through the prep and senior school, and for older girls the PE programme deliberately widens into yoga, Pilates and high-intensity interval training, with the explicit aim of building lifelong habits rather than just team results. Clubs add climbing, running and trampolining for girls who want to push further, so a pupil can chase competitive fixtures or simply find a sport she will keep up for life.

The arts are visible everywhere. The prep school hall at Cadogan House has professional theatrical lighting and sound for productions, and music runs from class orchestra up to ensembles directed by senior students themselves. Across art, photography, textiles and design and technology, older girls combine traditional technique with current digital tools to produce high-quality pieces, and the school has a strong creative confidence that shows in the work on display. Performing arts is woven into lessons too, with role play in the early years building the speaking and listening skills that later carry into drama and presentation.

STEM and enrichment are pursued through curiosity rather than competition alone. Astronomy is offered as a GCSE subject, and clubs span chess, an astronomy and philosophy society and more, while the sixth form offers an Extended Project Qualification, an in-house certificate in professional cookery and A-levels stretching to further mathematics, government and politics, visual arts and Mandarin. Sixth-form girls can also study for a qualification in English as a second language, a sensible fit for a school with a sizeable international intake.

Service is the fourth pillar and a direct inheritance from the school's charitable roots. Girls fundraise for a partner school in Ghana and a local disability charity, and pupils in the prep host members of the Watford Social Centre for the Blind for singing and lunch. Entrepreneurship runs across the school, with girls in specific year groups managing real budgets and marketing products, and learning about banking, borrowing and how debt affects credit scores. Leadership opportunities are plentiful: sixth-form prefects lead assemblies, direct musical ensembles and run societies on subjects from medicine to women's rights, while boarding-house prefects support younger boarders with their academic work.

Fees at RMS are charged per term and rise with age. In the senior school, day fees run at roughly £7,755 to £7,790 per term, rising to about £8,015 per term in the sixth form, which works out at an annual day cost broadly in the high £20,000s. Boarding is charged on top of the day fee: weekly boarding adds around £5,575 per term and full boarding around £6,570 per term. Prep fees are lower, with annual day charges from about £15,939. These figures reflect the most recently published 2024-25 schedule, so confirm the current year's fees with the school before you budget.

Financial aid is where RMS leans hardest into its founding purpose. Scholarships are offered for academic ability, art, drama, music and sport at 11-plus and 16-plus, and occasionally at 13-plus, normally worth up to 25% of the fee and held for the rest of a girl's time at the school. Scholarships recognise talent; they are not income-tested. Bursaries are separate and means-tested, designed for families who could not otherwise afford the fees. The standout is the Cadogan Rose Bursary, a means-tested award covering 100% of fees from Year 7 to the end of the sixth form, sometimes with a further allowance for uniform, trips and extras. For ambitious girls from lower-income families, that single award can make an RMS education genuinely possible, which is the modern expression of the charity that founded the school in the first place.

Boarding at RMS is small and family-feeling rather than institutional. Around 70 girls board, accommodated in three houses on the main site, with full and flexi-boarding options so families can choose between living in for the term and boarding for a few nights a week. The houses are organised broadly by age group, so girls move through them as they grow up, and the school accommodates boarders from the upper years of prep through to the sixth form.

The culture is built around independence at an age-appropriate pace. Boarding staff structure the week so that study, socialising and free time stay in balance, and the accommodation is comfortable and well maintained, with space to study, relax and have privacy. Evenings and weekends carry a varied programme of activities, and meals are nutritious and varied, catering for dietary and cultural needs. Sixth-form boarders take on real responsibility, including cooking for themselves, as deliberate preparation for university life. An independent person visits the houses regularly so boarders always have someone outside the staff team to talk to. For families who travel, or who live far from north-west London, the flexi option is the practical bridge between a long commute and full-time boarding.

The school sits in Rickmansworth Park off Chorleywood Road, just inside the M25, with Rickmansworth and Chorleywood stations giving access to London Underground Metropolitan line and Chiltern Railways services, which makes a daily commute from north-west London and the surrounding Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire towns realistic. The campus runs nursery, prep, senior and sixth-form sections on one site, so siblings of different ages can attend together.

For nursery fee details, see the school website. Government-funded hours are available for eligible families; see our guide to nursery funding. Wraparound timings for the early years and the daily school day are not published in detail here, so confirm exact start and finish times, and any after-school care, directly with the school.

A-level standing trails the GCSE peak. RMS ranks in the elite tier and first locally at GCSE, but its A-level ranking, while still above the England average, sits in the top 25% rather than the top 10%. Families focused on the most competitive university routes should look closely at recent A-level outcomes and Oxbridge numbers, which are modest, before assuming the GCSE strength carries straight through.

Support for English as an additional language is inconsistent in the senior phase. Most girls who speak English as an additional language make good progress, but the strategies for less confident speakers are applied unevenly in some senior and sixth-form lessons, the one improvement point flagged at the most recent inspection. International families should ask specifically how that is being addressed.

Fees and access sit in tension. Day fees in the high £20,000s a year put RMS beyond many families, yet the bursary programme, including a full-fee award, is unusually generous. The practical point is that families on lower incomes should explore bursaries early rather than ruling the school out on the headline price.

Boarding is small in scale. With around 70 boarders, the boarding community is intimate, which suits girls who want a close, family feel but offers a smaller social pool than a large boarding school. Visit the houses and weigh the weekend and flexi patterns against your family's needs.

The Royal Masonic School for Girls offers something genuinely distinctive: an all-through girls' education, from a co-educational nursery to a sixth form, on a parkland site inside the M25, carried by a 1788 charitable mission that still pays for talented girls who could not otherwise afford it. Academic results are strong, led by an elite GCSE performance and first-place local standing, backed by warm and well-evidenced pastoral care and a co-curricular life that turns the school's space and history into real opportunity. It is best suited to families who want a calm, values-led, continuous education for a daughter from the early years onward, who value boarding flexibility and a strong service ethos, and who either can meet the fees or will pursue the bursary route. The main caveat is the gap between the school's elite GCSE results and its strong-but-lower A-level and Oxbridge profile: families chasing the most selective university destinations should test how far the sixth form delivers on the promise of the lower years.