Good Schools Guide Review

What the editor says:

It’s a very bespoke education with a genuinely imaginative approach,’ approved one parent. Some arrive in year 7 having done GCSE maths, others already Tolstoy enthusiasts and SPGS calmly adapts accordingly while encouraging new discoveries. SPGS does not follow the herd – with such an able intake, it’s free to forge its own academic path and does so with joy and creativity, underpinned by serious academic rigour.’

‘Teachers are ‘phenomenally enthused and engaged’, say parents and girls agree, telling us, ‘They are really proactive in providing help’ and ‘take their excitement about their subject outside the classroom’ into clubs and trips. Girls relish being ‘given the opportunity to explore and make mistakes’ through very open assignments (a year 8 biology task stipulated only that it must include a cheese sandwich) and teachers are ‘generally very open-minded about finding your own way to present your work’. We observed chatty, confident questioning in a dynamic year 10 physics lesson and insightful reflection in a year 11 poetry class. They ‘don’t micro-manage the girls’, observed one parent, ‘it’s not a school for the faint-hearted’.

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