South Hampstead High School is a private day school in Hampstead, north-west London, England, which was founded by the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST). It is for girls aged 4–18 with selective entry at ages 4+, 7+, 11+ and 16+ (Sixth Form). History The school was founded in 1876, the ninth school established by the GDST (previously known at the Girls' Public Day School Trust), with 27 pupils. Until 1886, the school was led by Rita/Rebecca Allen Olney; she left to found another school nearby with her sister Sarah Allen Olney who had been an assistant head at this school. The cross-dressing Mary Benton returned as headmistress when morale was low. The "Brigadier-General" built up the school until in the 1920s it was claimed that half the of the school's students then at university were studying scientific subjects. From 1946 until the late 1970s, it was a girls' direct grant grammar school, with around half the intake paid for by the local council. In January 2015, alumna Helena Bonham Carter, opened a new 7-storey building for the Senior School, designed by Hopkins Architects. In January 2020, the school unveiled a new state-of-the-art performance space, Waterlow Hall. Staff Head teachers Victoria Bingham 2017– present Helen Pike 2013 - 2016 Jenny Stephen 2005 - 2013 Vivien Ainley 2001 - 2004 Jean Scott 1993 - 2001 Averil Burgess OBE, 1975 - 1993 Sheila Wiltshire OBE, 1969 - 1974 Prunella Bodington 1954–1969 Muriel Potter 1927–1953 Dorothy Walker 1918–1926 (Miss McGonigle 1926 one term) Mary Benton 1886 - 1918 Miss Allen-Olney 1876 - 1886 Former teachers Edith Allen, mother of food writer Raymond Postgate and Dame Margaret Cole (who married G. D. H. Cole), and wife of classicist John Percival Postgate Rosalind Goodfellow, who taught history Marianne Lutz, Headmistress from 1959–83 of Sheffield High School for Girls taught history from 1947–59. Margaret Nevinson, suffragette, and mother of the painter Christopher R. W. Nevinson (taught classics in the 1880s) Marie Orliac, who taught French in 1907–1910, founder of the University des Lettres Francaises (1910, Marble Arch, West London) that would become in 1913 the Institut Francais du Royaume-Uni. Academic results In 2019, South Hampstead High School was ranked 13th in the country for A Level results, based on data collated by the Independent Schools Council (ISC). Typically around one fifth of the student body goes on to study at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. School