The Henrietta Barnett School is London’s most sought after and most oversubscribed grammar school. Admissions is fiercely competitive. More than 2,000 girls sit the first round entrance test in verbal and non-verbal reasoning in September. Only the top 300 are called back for a second round test in Maths and English. Only 93 Year 7 places are available. This makes it the most oversubscribed secondary school in London. For comparison, Tiffin Girls’ School assesses a similar number of candidates for 180 places, in line with the boys’ grammar school Queen Elizabeth’s, which has 180 places available at 11+.
Important dates for 2019 entry:
Application Deadline: Tuesday 17th July 2018 5pm (school specific) and 31 October 2018 (CAF application form)
1st Round test: 4th September 2018
2nd Round test: October 2018 (tbc)
Why is the Henrietta Barnett School so popular? It is the only girls’ grammar school in London, and also happens to be London’s highest ranked state school in terms of GCSE and A-Level results. For example, in 2016, Henrietta Barnett was the only state school in the top 10 London schools ranked by the % of A*s at GCSE-level, coming in 9th place just ahead of City of London School. At A-Level, three London grammar schools made it to the top ten, with Henrietta Barnett in 5th place, Queen Elizabeth School in 6th place, and Tiffin Girls’ in 8th place.
But do take into account its level of selectivity when looking at these results. For a school choosing only the brightest 93 out of 2,000 highly tutored and ambitious applicants, how hard is it to produce a large share of A’s and A*’s at A-Level? Keep in mind that its private competitor North London Collegiate School achieves even better results after selecting about 100 pupils out of about 800 applicants. Of course, NLCS pupils will also benefit from better resources and smaller class sizes. But it is important to keep in mind that Henrietta Barnett does not offer exactly the same as a private secondary school. Class sizes will still be large and the school will not have the same staff ratios, although as state schools go, it still has impressive resources, also thanks to generous donations by parents.
The school is truly super-selective, with a recent information request revealing that only 31% of girls reside in Barnet, and only 2% live close to the school in Hampstead Garden Suburb, causing some anger among local residence. The school has applied for grammar school expansion. If approved, the plans would see the secondary school enlarged to a five-form entry by 2020 and would also increase the size of the sixth form. The school has 774 pupils but these plans would expand it to 1,050 students. Local residents are currently being consulted on the proposal.
Henrietta Barnett School also offers 50 additional places for external pupils to join its Sixth Form. All students study 4 A Level subjects in Year 12 and continue into Year 13. The school offers a wide range of new subjects including Economics, Government and Politics, Psychology and Further Mathematics.
There is an hour each week devoted to Global Perspectives, part of the Cambridge Pre-U qualification. Topics covered include genetic engineering and medical ethics, the religious-secular divide, the economic role of women and global climate change. As well as giving students an opportunity to discuss issues of global significance outside their A level specialisms, the course also develops students’ skills of analysis and critical thinking. University destinations are impressive, as you would expect. In 2016, 18 girls got into Cambridge (7 of those into the medical school) and 11 went to Oxford. A further 8 went to Imperial College. King’s College, UCL, Bristol and Warwick are also common destinations.