The School Day

Please click here to read the Junior School Day

Senior School

The School Day begins with Registration at 8.30 am. 

All girls are expected to be in their form rooms, ready and organised for morning school, by this time. Breakfast Club begins at 7.40 am in the main dining room.
 
After Registration, there is a whole-school Assembly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, a Section Assembly on Tuesday and a longer form time on Thursday.
 
Assemblies bring the whole school together for a collective act of worship and/or contemplation, following the Unitarian tradition of our founders.  All girls attend assembly; we are proud of our multi-faith community, and no-one is required to take an active part in anything that she feels unable to join in.  We hope assembly provides an opportunity to extend the knowledge and understanding that underpins tolerance and sympathy.  We celebrate Christmas and Easter with appropriate words and music, and whenever possible we try to mark non-Christian festivals and holy days, inviting girls to present their particular faiths to the school community.
 
There are 8 lessons during a normal school day.
 

Period 1       8.55 -  9.30
Period 2       9.30 -  10.10
Break          10.10 -  10.30
Period 3      10.30 -  11.05
Period 4      11.05 -  11.45
Period 5      11.50 -  12.25
Period 6      12.25 -  1.05
Lunch           1.05 -  2.20
Period 7        2.20 -  2.55
Period 8        2.55 -  3.35
Registration  3.35 -  3.40

 

The library is usually open after school until 5.30pm Monday-Thursday for girls who wish to do homework or use the computers there.  Girls should not expect to stay later except for an activity.

Absence: If your daughter is unable to attend school, please phone the School Office on 020 8340 2328 before 8.30am. (You can ring as early as you like - a message on the answer phone is fine.)  If we do not hear from you, one of the secretaries will phone you to ensure that all is well.

When your daughter returns to school, you should send a letter to her Form Tutor explaining the reason for her absence (even if you have already phoned us).  Should your daughter have a medical or dental appointment in school time, please let us know in writing 48 hours beforehand.

Exceptional absence: requests for absence for any other reason should be sent to the Head at least a fortnight in advance, and preferably earlier.  These are always considered very much on an individual basis and, while we try to be sympathetic, we do ask parents to be aware that our terms are considerably shorter than those in the maintained sector and we feel that, by and large, girls should be in the classroom during them! In general, permission to miss school is not given for family holidays, and you are asked to make airline bookings etc. well enough in advance not to interrupt the beginnings or ends of terms.

If you are going away overnight, please remember to let us know who will be looking after your daughter in your absence, in case she is ill or there is some other emergency.


Term dates are published at least a year in advance, usually towards the end of the summer term. Click here to see Term Dates.


If your daughter is late to school (ie, too late for registration) she should sign in at the School office before she does anything else at all.  For obvious reasons it is crucial that our records show she is in school.  Equally, if she needs to leave school early, for a medical appointment etc, she should be sure to sign out in the School office just before she leaves. Persistent lateness is discouraged: if it seems to be becoming more habit than accident, girls are asked to report to the Deputy Head at 8.00am for a suitable period.


Should your daughter have an accident or feel ill during the day, we have a fully qualified nurse on site who is always available for help or advice.

All medicines should be taken direct to her, please, together with a note giving clear instructions as to time, dose, etc, and any girl who feels ill should report to her in her room.  Please note that no girl should go home ill without having seen either the nurse or (in her absence) the Head of Section or the Deputy Head.

Every girl has a medical examination by the school doctor in the year she joins the school.  You will of course be fully informed about this and invited to be present, if you so wish.  We ask for your help in keeping our medical records up to date and ask you to let us know whenever there is anything to add to your daughter’s medical history.  Mrs Franklin (our school nurse) is always pleased to speak to parents on the phone - do please ring her if you feel you need to, and be assured that medical information is of course treated as strictly confidential.

Please click here to go the Medical Information page.