Northants, Leics &amp; Rutland

WHAT, WHERE?
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Leicester High School for Girls (LHS) is an independent day school for girls aged 3-18 years. Originally built around 1826 and used as a hunting lodge for the Duke of Portland. Running since 1906 it was originally known as Portland House and changed its name to Leicester High School for Girls in 1985.
It’s a bijou plot of 3 acres, set back from the busy London road. Once inside, you&#8217;re met by a neat cluster of buildings surrounded by large, leafy trees adding to the overall warm and welcoming feel.
There&#8217;s currently 311 girls in total (capacity 400), 90 in Juniors (Reception and EYFS) and 174 in Seniors and 47 in Sixth Form. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in performance; academically LHS is one of the highest achieving schools in the county partly down to its small class sizes and nurturing environment.
A Christian ethos is at the heart of this small school but pupils from all faiths are welcome and reflects Leicester&#8217;s cultural diversity (they&#8217;ve also put in a reflection/prayer room). Girls come mainly from the local area but it&#8217;s handy for those living in Kibworth, Market Harborough and Northamptonshire. LHS is also member of the <a href="https://gsa.uk.com/">Girls&#8217; Schools Association</a> (GSA).
FACILITIES
Compared to some larger schools, LHS three-acre town location means its facilities are more modest, though the girls don&#8217;t want for anything. They have a snazzy new music studio, science labs, computer suite and recently refurbished tennis and netball courts. The outdoor play area for the Juniors has been well thought out, with several different play areas including an onsite &#8216;spinney&#8217; which also works as an outdoor classroom area.
SPORTS
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Like most small schools, LHS make the most of what it has on site and use other facilities nearby for the rest. While you wouldn’t send your child here to win any sporting accolades (academics is the big draw here!), there&#8217;s plenty to keep girls happy sports-wise. Trampolining and cricket take place on site, they have outdoor netball and tennis courts (but don&#8217;t take part in any tournaments) and play rugby and football indoors. Other sports are done in The Roger Bettles Sports Centre down the road and the Juniors head to Parklands Leisure Centre (a short bus ride away) for swimming lessons. Manor Road Sports Centre in Oadby is used for badminton and basketball as well as sports days so they manage to cover the basics.
MUSIC
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The Davé Family Music Centre opened in 2019 and was partially funded by two former students. Inside, it&#8217;s light, bright and airy and features an impressive organ, industry standard equipment including fancy keyboards fully loaded with Logic Pro X software (a nifty but expensive audio system) drum sets, electric guitars and three Yamaha U Series pianos for girls to channel their inner Alicia Keys. Alongside music lessons, there&#8217;s a wider range of extra-curricular opportunities for girls who want to develop their musical skills including choir, orchestra, the rock group or baroque trio plus individual music lessons. Once a year the Seniors pull together all their talent and put on a show; previous productions have included Oliver and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
DRAMA
There are both academic and extra-curricular opportunities for the girls and take part in the Schools Shakespeare Festival. Individual LAMDA classes are available too.
ART
The art department is fully tech’d up with the latest laser cutter, macs and digital design packages and the girls also benefit from a kiln, dark room and excellent printing facilities. Art is taught from Years 6-9 but is also available as an option at GCSE and A Level, alongside Photography at A Level.
SIXTH FORM
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At the top of the school, the class sizes become really small, some tutor groups with just six or seven students, so individual attention and a bespoke teaching experience can be given to each student.
Sixth formers have their own space within the school &#8211; a common room, study rooms and recently they&#8217;ve also added a reflection/prayer room to support the culturally diverse mix of students. The girls also offer mix with Y 12 and offer support with things like their UCAS application.
ACADEMICS
The school offers 20 A Levels including art, Spanish and even photography so plenty to choose from and enough for creative types. Science and Maths are by far the most popular subjects and it comes as no surprise that many girls come to LHS to pursue a career in the medical field.
Wanting to nurture the girls further, in 2010 a building dedicated to Science and Humanities was opened and it&#8217;s been put to good use with six science rooms &#8211; two for chemistry, biology and physics.
The flagship Computer Science Suite had a huge makeover in 2019 and is now a shiny lab featuring cutting edge technology. The machines have been upgraded and the room also boasts a full set of Inventor&#8217;s Kit along with 3D printers.
ACADEMIC RESULTS
leicester high school for girls review
It goes without saying, LHS is a strong performer when it comes to academics and it shows in their results which they smashed this year! 96% of all A Level students secured their place at their first choice universities including many within the Russell Group. Over 90% of all grades achieved by girls at LHS were A* to B, with 68% at A* or A and 100% success for the girls in securing their place in medicine.
Meanwhile, 58% of grades achieved this year at GCSE were at 8-9, with 35% at Grade 9.
LITTLIES
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Kids can start here the day after their third birthday and have their own self-enclosed building separated by a gravel pathway. It&#8217;s got a library, art studio, garden, activity room for &#8216;dress up,&#8217; a playground, a secret garden that&#8217;s used for outdoor learning and as well as their own computer suite. They follow the Cornerstones Curriculum which provides learning challenges throughout the academic year requiring children to solve problems and express their knowledge and understanding effectively. Once the girls get to Y5 they benefit from lessons in the Senior School to help prepare them for their move to Y6.
CO-CURRICULAR
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This year LHS updated their Enrichment offerings and activities have now been split into five themes; physical activity and sport, creativity and expression, STEM, environment and community and lastly, personal development and wellness. You can expect the usual suspects from musical groups to sports like badminton, running, rounders and cricket, to the more quirky including robotics, astronomy, gaming, cosmetic chemistry and even Mahjong.
Juniors also benefit from a range of clubs and activities at lunchtime (run by its own staff so always a known friendly face) or after school and can include anything from athletics to ballet, gardening to Tae Kwon Do. 
WHAT ELSE?
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At LHS, girls are allocated to one of three School Houses and each one supports a local charity. The new Deputy, John Partridge is also Head of Pastoral Care and has introduced a new programme which includes Wellbeing Wednesdays where girls are encouraged to &#8216;check in&#8217; on themselves. Due to its small size, no girl will slip through the net here; class teachers play the main support role for Juniors meanwhile, Seniors are assigned a tutor group and supported by their form tutor and there&#8217;s also a school nurse.
There&#8217;s a strong sense of giving back to the local community at LHS; Seniors sing with the Leicester Philharmonic Choir at De Montfort Hall once a year and the school choirs entertain residential homes and hold a carol service at St James&#8217; Church. Meanwhile, Sixth Formers help out with free weekend &#8216;masterclasses&#8217; for girls from local primary schools. GCSE masterclasses are next on the agenda.
TRANSPORT
The school doesn&#8217;t currently offer a full bus service but there&#8217;s a morning taxi service from Fosse Park. It&#8217;s a few minutes from the train station so the older girls also have the option to commute in.
HEADTEACHER
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I liked Alan Whelpdale instantly &#8211; he’s about as far from that stiff-upper-lipped school master stereotype as you can get. The first one from his family to ever go to University, he&#8217;s also the first male Head in the history of the school and  has a very warm, friendly manner. He&#8217;s been at LHS for ten years now and moved from Durham High School for Girls where he was Deputy Head and also taught History &#8211; a subject he is still very passionate about.
He talks of &#8220;making memories&#8221; at school something he strives to do by encouraging them to be the best they can be by fulfilling their potential and making them believe there are no glass ceilings for the girls and believes that the positive impact of education will last a lifetime.
I loved hearing how Mr Whelpdale once rode into assembly on a hoverboard (after practicing all weekend in his village) and how you can often find him joining in with the enrichment classes.
He&#8217;s also keen to give parents more of a voice and a presence at the school in the wake of Covid. Whether that’s through social events or the now regular phone conversations he schedules with a few parents every term (in his own time btw).
QUIRKS
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LHS&#8217; small, homely feel is its biggest calling card. Everyone knows the girls by name and even the parents like to have a chat with the Head when they passing in the car park. One thing this school does that I&#8217;ve not come across yet is that Mr Whelpdale regularly invites successful women to engage and inspire the students. They&#8217;ve had everyone from Glenda Jackson (who also directed the girls in a scene from Macbeth) to Sarah Hunter, Captain of the women&#8217;s English rugby team who taught PE during her visit as well as the President of Malta and more recently Rebecca Ots &#8211; one of the few female Senior First Officer Pilots for British Airways.
MOBILE PHONE POLICY
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Y 6 girls can bring their phone in, but it must be given to the <span lang="en-GB" style="font-size: revert;color: initial;font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif" data-contrast="auto">Form Tutor at the start of the day. Y 7- 9 can keep their phone but it shouldn&#8217;t <span lang="en-GB" style="font-size: revert;color: initial;font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif" data-contrast="auto">be used during the school day without permission. Y 10 and 11 and Sixth Formers can use their phone at break, lunch and in their form/common rooms. <span style="font-size: revert;color: initial;font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif" data-ccp-props="{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:360,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}"> 
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WRAP AROUND CARE
Trying to juggle school drop off with your own commute? The school has before school care from 7.30am to 8.00am and after school care from 3.15pm-6pm. Girls in Y 1 &#8211; 5 can can attend after schools clubs and take part in further co-curricular activities plus, holiday clubs are also offered.
Seniors and Sixth formers can come into school from 7.30am and study in their own form rooms and then take part in Enrichment classes or stay for late supervision until 6pm.
FEES
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Foundation, Reception, Junior Year 1 and 2 £3330 per term. Junior Years 3, 4, and 5 £3725 per term and Senior Years 6-13 £4505. The school fees cover all of the costs of providing the day to day education and include lunch for the Juniors. The school offers a range of scholarships and bursaries for girls in Year 6 and above.
WORD ON THE GROUND
Those who know Leicester High School say that the girls grow in confidence. They work hard and appreciate the sense of support and the family feel. The school encourages ambition and excellence, and turns out happy and well-rounded girls into aspiring young ladies.
ISI Report
The last full ISI Inspection took place in 2022 and was rated &#8216;Excellent&#8217; in all categories. A copy can be downloaded<a href="https://www.leicesterhigh.co.uk/inspection-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> here.</a>
THE MUDDY VERDICT:
Good for: Parents that want a supportive, friendly all-inclusive school with a nurturing family feel that excels on the academic side. There’s a healthy mix of backgrounds here and a handy location if you&#8217;re travelling in from neighbouring Market Harborough and Northamptonshire. There’s a chance for every student to excel here and teachers know every girl individually and their families.
Not for:  The small campus may not appeal to everyone and definitely not for those who want a country idyll – the school is off a busy main road in the city. If you’re after a larger, all-rounder with lots of green/outdoorsy space or for your child to excel in sport, this one may not be for you.
Don’t take my word for it: Be my guest! The next Open Morning is taking place on Sat 30 Sept  but if you can’t make it or want to see another part of the school, no problem; prospective parents can book a private tour <a href="https://www.leicesterhigh.co.uk/joining-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here.</a>
454 London Road, Leicester, LE2 2PP. Tel: 0116 270 5338. <a href="http://www.leicesterhigh.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Leicester High School for Girls</a>
Did you find this useful? Read more of my School Reviews <a href="https://leics.muddystilettos.co.uk/national-school-reviews/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="here (opens in a new tab)">here</a>.

Leicester High School for Girls

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