Welcome from the Headmistress

Welcome to Headington – a fantastic school community with a refreshingly global outlook, located in inspirational Oxford.

Whether your daughter joins our school at 3 in our Nursery, part way through Prep School, at the beginning of Senior School or perhaps in our Sixth Form, you can feel confident your daughter has started on a path which will help her succeed and flourish.

Headington is an environment where girls come first, always.

Why choose Headington? The answer will be different depending on your own family circumstances and the point at which you choose to join us but throughout the School, we are proud to offer academic excellence, with Headington consistently ranked in the top 100 UK schools, first-class specialist teaching at all levels, an impressive amount of choice in what and how your daughter will learn, flexibility and incredible facilities.

We think it’s a fabulous school but we don’t expect you to take just our word for it. A visit from ISI inspectors in January 2023 found the School to be ‘Excellent’ in all areas. You can read highlights from the Senior School report here and the Prep School report here.

With the Prep School just across the road from the Senior School, girls of all ages benefit from shared facilities and teaching expertise. Whether that’s our fabulous Forest School in the magical woodlands at our Senior School site, swimming in our 25m pool, sprinting their way to a photo finish at Sports Day or learning the rudiments of movement from our Director of Dance. It works both ways too, with older girls at the Senior School gaining leadership experience working with the younger girls at the Prep School. There are huge advantages to our all-through school and girls learn about what it means to be part of our community from a young age.

We offer a wide range of boarding options from age 11, including full, weekly, half-weekly and occasional boarding. Even if your daughter never spends a night in the boarding houses, she will be able to take advantage of the fact Headington is a school which never sleeps. Your daughter might join boarders for supper before a production or be invited for a sleepover with a friend. As well as a very generous range of clubs and activities after school, our boarding set up means you can drop off from 7.30 am and collect up until 6.00 pm.

We want your daughter to leave here ready for her future, whatever it may bring, and we will equip her with the skills she needs – both those learned inside and outside the classroom – to step forward confidently for the next stage of her educational journey.

As a single-sex school, Headington is an environment where girls come first, always. There’s no competing for access to sports facilities, lab equipment or computer rooms. Your daughter will be able to complete her formative years free from gender stereotypes and expectations. With no ‘girls’ or ‘boys’ subjects, she can focus on her strengths and interests, whatever they may be. We can also focus on the teaching methods which girls tend to respond to best, such as discussion-based and collaborative learning. And in pure academic terms, extensive research shows girls consistently achieve higher academic results at all levels in a single-sex environment.

We are incredibly lucky to have Oxford and its Dreaming Spires on our doorstep. It’s a truly inspirational setting, with countless writers, Prime Ministers, international leaders, Nobel Prize winners and Olympic medal winners boasting an Oxford education. Well-located with excellent road, rail and bus links, Oxford still manages to provide plentiful oases of green, packed with beautiful parks, nature reserves, woodlands and meadows.

We want your daughter to leave here ready for her future, whatever it may bring, and we will equip her with the skills she needs – both those learned inside and outside the classroom – to step forward confidently for the next stage of her educational journey.

Your daughter’s all-round development, her welfare, wellbeing and future once she leaves the School are central to our ethos. By creating a happy environment, learning is easier, more enjoyable – and leads to the excellent results your daughter deserves.

Mrs Caroline Jordan, MA Oxon

Headmistress
President – Girls’ Schools Association 2016
Vice Chair – Independent Schools Council 2018 – 2020