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St Margaret's tops the Sunday Times' Small Schools' League Tables for 2016 and 2017, St Margaret's is an independent school for girls between the ages of 4 and 16. There are 155 girls and 23 teachers in the St Margaret's family. Like most schools, we want our girls to be happy, rounded, and confident. Like most schools we want our girls to do their very best academically. We work towards reaching these goals by engaging with each girl on a personal level, something you can do when you have small classes, low teacher turnover, and a culture of involvement. Every girl stands out at St Margaret's School. 155 girls and everyone outstanding, Here it is not only the tallest, most athletic girls who represent the school at netball, or the most extrovert who get the speaking roles in plays. Everyone is valued, and we encourage and celebrate excellence and enthusiasm in equally high measure. Every girl is involved in the life and experiences that the school has to offer. Our girls' exam results are excellent, with on average about 2 out of every 3 GCSEs taken graded A* or A. The school has become an expert at teaching girls since 1884. As we rarely advertise, almost all our girls come here through word of mouth. If you haven't arrived here through a personal recommendation, you may wish to read an independent review of the school from the current Good Schools Guide or our 2014 Inspection Report. We are understandably pleased with both but, as any current parent will tell you, there is no substitute for coming to see us in person. What should be immediately apparent to anyone visiting the school is this: small class sizes, a culture of learning, and an environment in which treating each other with respect and kindness is the norm, not an aim. We are committed to providing a secure, caring, and challenging learning environment in which girls are encouraged to strive for excellence in all that they do. Respect for others lies at the heart of the school community, within which the potential and talent of each individual can be recognized, nurtured, and realized. At St Margaret's education is seen as a partnership between pupils, parents, and teachers, The small friendly and homely atmosphere allows the girls to achieve whatever they can - but in a safe, nonconfrontational environment. The written records relating to the history of our school are, disappointingly, very thin on the ground. Because the school was privately owned for the first 70 or so years of its existence, there are practically no official records of its early years and its successive owners were, alas, not foresighted enough to preserve the kind of material which might answer our questions about that period of its life. A proper, academic, history of the school is not viable. St Margaret's is not the oldest school in Hampstead, but it is one of the oldest. What gives it its genuine historical significance, however, is that it is the last remaining "proprietorial" school in the area. In the second half of the 19th century, there were dozens of such schools, based in ordinary houses in the leafy residential streets of Hampstead. Most took only a handful of pupils - both boarding and day - and were owned and presided over by the spinster ladies who often had limited qualifications but no other way of providing for themselves. The vast majority lasted only a decade or two, fading away as their owners retired or died. Most of those who did manage to survive for longer were forced to close because of dwindling numbers during the turmoil of the World Wars or by the demand for better facilities and more advanced educational methods as the 20th century progressed. But somehow, very much against the odds, St Margaret's survived. 128 years on, it is now in its fifth home and the hands of its tenth Principal. Although the school is celebrating its 128th anniversary, the name "St Margaret's" is quite a little bit younger. It was normal to practice in the 19th century for private schools to have no particular name - they would be referred to by the name of the owners of the houses they occupied. So our school was probably known simply as "Miss Tulloch's" or (possibly) "Chester House". The first mention of "St Margaret's" is in 1898, when a newspaper advertisement appeared, announcing that Miss Tulloch would be moving the school to "St Margaret's, Oak Hill Park". So the name probably came from the house which was to become the school's second home, though we know (from the memoirs of Daphne du Maurier, a former pupil) that even in 1915 it was still referred to as "Miss Tulloch's School". If the name St Margaret's was accidentally given, then it was the most appropriate accident. View full school