Head’s Blog – Friday 3 July 2026

Dear Parents, 

This week marked the end of exams (finally) and I am very excited to be celebrating with the Year 13s this evening with a specially curated Prize Giving ahead of their Prom. I am delighted to let you know that our Speech Day 2026 has been rescheduled to Friday 18 September, when we will celebrate the school’s achievements at the start of our 140th Birthday year. 

This week I have thought a lot about the pace of life, as we are forced to slow down and retreat from the heat. Managing the pace of school life is a vital part of successful school leadership, and in our planning for next year, we want to be ambitious, whilst maintaining that sweet spot of “stretch not strain”. 

Next term there are three changes that I want to let you know about.  

Firstly, we are developing our curriculum in Year 10 to include a new Schools Designed Course for all students named “Horizons” which has three strands: Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship; Political and Philosophical Thinking; and PSHE. All three strands will have a focus on oracy so that we are building in future-ready knowledge and skills to prepare the girls for all that lies ahead. 

Secondly, we are having a strong strategic focus on Sport with a change to the timetable to allow for weekly sports afternoons for all year groups. These afternoons are aligned with our neighbouring schools, to increase and streamline our fixtures programme, and sustain girls’ commitment to sport and exercise at every age, with Year 11 joining Years 12 and 13 on Wednesday afternoons.  

Thirdly, in addition to our commitment to our school values of kindness, respect, integrity and compassion, I want us as to be ambitious as we strive for excellence. Again, this is about managing the pace and demands of school life appropriately for each girl, so that she feels proud of aiming to be the very best version of herself.  

My theme at Speech Day yesterday was to have been “count your blessings” because, as we reflect on the school year, we remember what a privileged microcosm we exist within. I very much hope that you share my excitement for all that lies ahead. 

Best wishes 

Cathy

Dear Parents,

It’s been lovely to see so many of you this week at our Into the Sixth event for Year 10, the Concert for a Summer’s Eve on Tuesday, and at Thursday’s wonderfully spirited Sports Day, and please do come along to the Summer Fair run by the SCHS Friends this Saturday at 1-4pm.

This week I was lucky enough to be a guest speaker at Downe House’s annual education conference whose theme was “The Bright Side of Education”. You’ll be pleased to know that I chose to talk about the partnership with parents as one of the bright sides of education. I am so grateful for your support and feedback as we work together to provide the best possible education, challenge and opportunities for our girls, and to help them feel that they matter and belong.

The conference’s keynote speaker was comedian and actress Miranda Hart, and her theme was familiar: the importance of play. You might remember that this was the focus of my letter last week, encouraging you to play with your children. However, her message was different as she reminded us of the importance of play as adults. She defined play broadly: it is any activity that we choose to do for its own sake, rather than for its productivity or usefulness. It is something that makes us feel good, so that time slips by, and we lose self-consciousness in our enjoyment of it, and don’t want to stop. Miranda took inspiration from Stuart Brown’s book “Play: how it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul”, and which I’ve added to my ever-expanding summer reading list. She’s adamant that we must include aspects of “play” every day in our adult lives, and explained how she believes a lack of this kind of playfulness was part of her well-documented health concerns in recent years. She has a deep nostalgia for her school days when play came easily in all sorts of fun and activities, and she now realises how much she missed this in her early adult life.

Miranda urged us to take charge of how we use our time, reminding us that it’s character (rather than fame, money or awards) that really counts. She quoted the wonderful Maya Angelou’s simple lesson: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

With best wishes,

Cathy Ellott

Head

Dear Parents,

I have loved having more time with the girls this week and it was exciting to chat to Year 10 pupils about their plans and ambitions for sixth form studies and all that lies ahead. I hope that Year 10 parents and girls will join us for Part 1 of our Into the Sixth event next Monday 15 June.

This week, after all the hard work and seriousness of exams, we have been talking about the importance of playing and playfulness, with yesterday being the UN International Day of Play. The powerful predictive patterns of AI algorithms are the antidote to playfulness, which is found in the richly human experience that enjoys quirkiness, unexpected leaps of thought, and intuitive response.  Idiosyncrasy, serendipity and coincidence are such a vivid part of being human, and the joy of these disruptive moments have their roots in play.

In assembly this week I reminded girls that new scientific discoveries, like those of the double-Nobel-Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie, and Ava Lovelace’s first computer programme, came from playful curiosity.  I so admire Serena Williams choosing to re-enter the fray of championship tennis four years after her retirement, because of the sheer joy of playing, and wanting to show her daughters what she can do.

Future employers are looking for skills that are honed and developed through play: problem-solving, collaboration, communication and resilience, as well as the life skills developed in young children who learn the courtesies of taking turns and the moral awareness of “fair play”.

Role play is another crucial part of a child’s growing self-awareness and children love dressing up to play the adult roles that they aspire to. As they imagine different futures for themselves, they also learn the habit of empathy and explore different power structures, working out who is really in charge.

I also reminded the girls that our worth is not only measured by our productivity. When we lose ourselves in music, sport, art, conversation, reading, performance or creation, these moments are not distractions from life; they are part of what makes life rich.

This weekend, I encourage you to enjoy some kind of playfulness with your girls, just for the fun of it.

Best wishes

Ms Cathy Ellott
Head

Dear Parents,

My very first role on stage was as a tin soldier in “Mary Poppins” aged 4, and I remember the itchy red uniform and the tall black sugar-paper hat that wobbled as I sang. My parents still remember me scanning the rows of the audience and then beaming at them once I’d spotted them. The vividness of these memories indicates how profoundly important these moments are for children, to step into a spotlight and feel that they are seen in a new light, particularly by those you love.

We don’t all seek the spotlight, although it’s vital that all children feel seen and are given their time to shine. When I observe lessons, I love how teachers tease out contributions from the girls so that each of them finds their moment to test their understanding, share their interpretations, and debate contrasting views. This week I had the privilege of watching a Year 9 girl perform her first ever music solo, and I hope that each day we are giving girls the chance to try new things, take new risks, and have a go, even when it doesn’t all go to plan.

The outstanding recent performances of our gymnasts, who are national champions for the second year in succession, is the result not just of their talent, but also their tenacity, dedication and determination. This is true of so many of our performers in sport, the arts, and academics where the girls show a contagious ambition for excellence. But we can’t all be champions and winners, and I am so proud of the girls who turn up, who bounce back from disappointment, and who can be cheerful with it. Looking ahead to our Speech Day on Thursday 25 June, it will be very special to celebrate our year of so many successes, but each day when I chat with the girls, it is their daily challenges and triumphs that count.

It is not just the girls who deserve a spotlight: two staff have achieved special recognition this week too. Warm congratulations to Dr Tamara Sierra, our Spanish Language Assistant, who has been awarded her doctorate in Pragmatics and Linguistics from the University of Barcelona. Congratulations as well to Mrs Diana Young, our Director of Marketing and Communications, who yesterday joined King Charles III at a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in recognition of her work over 8 years with the King’s Trust as a business mentor for young people.

As the spotlight moves to the stage of the Ellis Hall next week, I very much hope you and your families will join us for the lower school drama production of “Ivy Shambitt and the Sound Machine” on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 May at 6.30pm.

Best wishes,

Ms Cathy Ellott
Head

Dear Parents,

Today, with the start of A Levels and our Year 11s in the full flow of their exams, we wish them luck for the busy weeks ahead. It was very special yesterday to be part of the Year 13s’ leavers’ assembly where they shared their memories, friendships and reflections on all that they will treasure from their time at SCHS. What came through so powerfully from this group of such impressive young women was their collective joy and pride in their year group, and their deeply held conviction of feeling valued both as themselves and as part of something bigger. They spoke with such accomplished ease, tearful honesty, and sisterly determination, affirming that “Once a SCHS girl, always a SCHS girl”, because “you can take the girl out of SCHS, but you can’t take SCHS out of the girl”. I very much hope they will stay in touch with each other and with us at school.

Today in school we celebrated VE Day, 81 years after the end of World War II, and the girls chose a traditional lunch menu of toad-in-the-hole and sticky toffee pudding, which makes my distant memories of school spam fritters seem very dated. I remember my grandparents’ stories of being bombed out in the blitz, of rationing, and sheltering in the underground, and of feeling very glad to be alive. Their stories brought their lived history vividly into my childhood present.

This weekend, I encourage you to talk with your children about your family’s recent histories and prompt them to ask elderly relatives and friends about their lives when they were young. My grown-up children are wistfully nostalgic for my phone-free childhood, imagining it as a blissfully naïve haven compared to the digital noise of their young lives. It is an exciting privilege to exist in middle age at this fulcrum of history, having heard, as a child, first-hand stories of VE Day parties and, if I’m lucky, hoping to witness extraordinary tech change for my imagined future grandchildren as they instruct my AI agent to care for their old granny. As we take stock together, it is so important to steady our gaze on the horizons of the future by rooting ourselves in the soil of our past.

Wishing you a very happy weekend.

Best wishes,

Ms Cathy Ellott
Head

Dear Parents,

I am very excited to let you know that we have now finally received the planning permission for the sports lighting and cricket nets. I am hugely grateful to Alison Bullock for the care and tenacity with which she has worked on this in recent years, and we hope to get it all installed soon. My very warm thanks to all the parents and friends of the school who have helped us in this process.

Today the Year 11 had their last lessons as they head off for study leave with their exams starting in earnest next week. They have been doing brilliantly in their steady and spirited determination to do themselves proud. I hope that their hard work pays off, and I wish them every success in the weeks ahead.

Yesterday I hosted a very special working lunch for our outgoing and incoming Head Girl Teams to get to know each other and share ideas, ambitions and advice. The Year 13s reflected very movingly on how close they have become during their year of incredible teamwork and revealed that they’re even planning a Head Girl Team sleepover at the end of our Prize Giving in June. Their support of one another has been exceptional, and they have worked tirelessly to build connections across year groups so that we really are a family.

On the Academic side, Ellie was impassioned about girls experiencing the joy of learning, and she will miss the Socratic Society where girls learn through intelligent questioning – surely a most highly-prized skill in our uncertain world.

In Sport, Lottie spoke proudly of our exceptional performance outcomes and our renewed focus on inclusivity and fun too, hoping that we continue to build our sports mentoring programme and even greater involvement in sports across all year groups.

Eva reflected on the extraordinary involvement of so many girls in the creative arts, and shared how her leadership role allowed her to focus on her wider passions and concerns. She was very proud to have delivered our recent assembly on neurodiversity which I am sure opened the eyes of so many to a new understanding of different people’s perceptions of the world.

Hakimah spoke of the energy needed to encourage collaboration so that girls turn up and join in with school events. She was a powerful ambassador for the newly-expanded Culture Week and exemplifies, as all of the team do, the magic of showing up authentically as yourself. Her humour and straight-talking will be much missed.

Kinzah explained her commitment to Wellbeing through nurturing a family of sisterhood and belonging. She has pioneered the new house mascot project and, thanks to her, it is now customary for the girls who speak in assembly to open with “Hey sisters!”.

Amaia, as our outgoing Head Girl, encouraged a model of service leadership, reminding us that we are part of something bigger, and reflecting on how much she enjoyed her role of drawing diverse individuals together to create a sense of shared common purpose. Together the girls shared their top tips for organisation and communication, for sustaining momentum and not getting overwhelmed. It has been such a privilege to watch this extraordinary team of young women grow together. Amaia’s most poignant advice was to have fun: the precious window of sixth form life passes so quickly and I know we will all feel immensely proud to see this talented year group set off into the world beyond SCHS later this summer.  

Wishing you a lovely bank holiday weekend.

Best wishes

Ms Cathy Ellott

Head

Dear Parents,

This week we have continued to enjoy the warm spring sunshine, and I love the sounds of the girls playing outside – even when their makeshift cricket match threatens the windows of my study. I was very interested to listen to Professor Baroness Kathy Willis’ Octavia Hill lecture for the National Trust, an annual lecture where commentators reflect on nature, beauty and history. As Professor of Biodiversity at Oxford and Principal of St Edmund Hall, as well as a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords, her expertise spans plant evolution, biodiversity conservation, and the links between biodiversity and health. In this week when we have been celebrating Earth Day, it was very inspiring to learn how time in the natural world can support our health and mental health and aid recovery from disease. In an age when reality is so often mediated through a screen, it is wonderful to be reminded of the science of nature’s benefits. You can listen to the talk on Times Radio if you want to hear more.

On Monday I am going to be talking to the girls about school uniform, and I would be really grateful for your support, as we address this head to toe. From school shoes and hole-free tights, to natural hair colour, only one pair of earrings in ears (and these should be in the earlobe), and no further jewellery (unless for religious reasons, as agreed by parents with the school), we want to be really clear about our expectations.

I will be reminding the girls why uniforms are such a powerful way of feeling a sense of belonging; of minimising effort in the morning with no fancy outfit to choose; and of levelling out comparisons about clothes’ style and value. I will remind them that their individuality comes through who they are, and their actions, beliefs and passions, as much as how they look.

We have been celebrating the wonderful experiences of the Artemis II astronauts and Christine Koch’s very moving declaration when she returned to Earth that we are all the “crew” for Planet Earth. Throughout their space journey and return, the astronauts appeared in different matching uniforms, and yet their individuality was powerfully evident, and I hope that this is a good reminder to the girls to wear their uniform with pride.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Ms Cathy Ellott

Dear Parents,

I write this, eagerly anticipating our first ever House Dance competition which I hope will be a very joyful end to the term. I firmly believe that everyone can dance, and I’m hoping to see exuberant proof of that today. Last night, the musicians in our wonderful Spring Concert proved what great rhythm they had, and reminded me again of how subtly we make connections as we perform together, through eye contact, gestures, and a finely tuned ear.

This holiday I, like many parents, will be parenting children heading into the exam season, hoping that we can achieve a certain amount of domestic harmony for purposeful revision. We will be heading to one of our favourite haunts in the Lake District where there is no WiFi or mobile signal, and each year when I go, it feels even more of a culture shock. For a few precious days, we will return to being a phone-free family again, and it is likely to be an uncomfortable reminder of how deep-rooted our tech dependency has become. I am very, very excited about spending extended time with books as well as loved ones.

Whatever your plans or destinations, please do discuss carefully with your children the expectations and rules around phones and devices in holiday and revision time. This week’s landmark verdict in LA ruled that Instagram and YouTube are deliberately engineered to be addictive, and that these companies have been negligent in their safeguarding of the children who have used them. This means that tech giants Meta and Google face a $6m pay-out in damages to the young female victim who claimed the platforms had left her with body dysmorphia, depression, and suicidal thoughts. We do so much to protect our children from harm in the real world, but I think we can be naïve about the harms our children face when they roam online.

In order to keep your girls safe, please do put clear tech boundaries in place, and be curious about the content they enjoy online. Yesterday’s new government advice that limits screen time for the under-5s to one hour a day has great validity, I think, for under-15s, and is what I kept my kids to. They are now extremely grateful to me for doing so, although there were some bitter battles at the time. I urge you to stay strong in your family tech boundaries and I hope it opens up all sorts of space and time for family fun, with children newly connected to the world around them and even, sometimes, learning about feeling a bit bored. It’s then on them to then find something interesting to do.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday.

Cathy Ellott

Head

Dear Parents,

I hope that you enjoyed a lovely break over Easter. It has been such a pleasure to welcome the girls back to school this week and to see them enjoying the warmer weather outside. I’m impressed at how focussed and calm our exam candidates are (although we know there might be wobbles), with Years 10 and 12 starting their assessments today and the GCSE and A Level exams only a few short weeks away.

At a time of febrile international conflict and today’s good news of a tentative ceasefire in Lebanon, the art of listening seems more important than ever. Amidst the noise of conflict, I admire those who actively listen to understand. One can only imagine the delicacy of negotiation in the heat of war and, in an age when we can feel swamped by fake messaging, how do negotiators know the true intentions of their adversaries? Careful listening and building trust between individuals are at the heart of this, and we take it to heart at SCHS too.

Thank you to the parents who have contributed to our Parent Survey which will help inform our future priorities and strategy, and we will listen to your views and feed back later in the term.

Your daughter might have mentioned the Undivided Survey, a GDST annual pupil survey that the girls completed last term. I fed back on the results of the survey to the girls yesterday, and I wanted to share some headlines with you too.

We had the highest response rate in the GDST at 94%, and I love that our girls want to have their say. I was particularly pleased at the pride and sense of belonging that so many girls feel. The girls told us:

· 95% (99% Sixth Form) feel like we belong in our school

· 97% feel that staff at our school value different views, beliefs and cultures

· 98% agree that over the last year as a school we have worked together to support diversity and inclusion in our school

· 94% feel proud to be part of our school

There were many lovely comments from the girls, but also areas for us to reflect on, and we did so in our staff training this week, as part of an ongoing commitment to ensure that we respond to girls’ concerns.

Some girls commented that they would like to have a wider range of cultures celebrated – in celebrating diversity, it’s important that everyone feels included, and they mentioned Japan, South Africa, the Balkans, Scotland, Australia, as well as South America, the US and Britain too. The also commented about wanting to learn more about positive black history, and wanting more representation of bursary students to help girls “have a realistic understanding of how people who don’t come from privileged backgrounds live in this country”. They said how much they value really active and engaging lessons, and we will continue to work hard to offer stretch and challenge, as well as support and scaffolding when needed.

It will continue to be the work of the School Council, as well as staff, to work towards every girl feeling that she belongs and is valued as her true self in school. I was therefore delighted on Thursday to introduce the new Year 12 student leaders to the school, including the new Head Girl team, and I can’t wait to work with them.

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Ms Cathy Ellott

Dear Parents

As the sun shines on the day of the Spring Equinox, it is lovely to see the change of the seasons. The girls are hard at work practising for our new House Dance Competition which I am hoping will be a very joyful spectacle on the last day of term, and then term will end for pupils at 12:30 next Friday.

This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week and I could not have been more proud of the girls who led our assembly on Monday and shared their experiences of living and learning with different neurodiversities. Their candour, courage, insight, humour and public speaking skills were deeply humbling, and my favourite moment was when a Year 7 girl looked out at the school with an amazing twinkle in her eye, saying “And look at me now!”. As the parent of a neurodiverse child, I know how much children need us, as the adults in their lives, to advocate for every one of them so that they are known and understood, and we continue as a school to strive to do this as part of our commitment to our values of kindness, respect, integrity and compassion.

I am always very grateful for parents’ feedback and am pleased to launch our Parents’ Survey as we plan our future strategy. You will no doubt have seen that the Government is changing the rules about phones in schools from April 2026, and details about our updated approach are available here.

I was one of many gleeful spectators at today’s Red Nose Day Sponge the Teacher event. I love that the girls are so great at being clever, ambitious and working hard, and then know how to be silly and have fun too.

Wishing you a lovely sunny weekend.

Cathy Ellott

Head

Dear Parents,

This has been one of those weeks when we pack in all that is best about SCHS. On Monday, at the start of Women’s History Month, we reflected on how historical gender inequalities still happen today. We turned our focus to the plight of girls and women in Afghanistan who, since the Taliban’s resurgence in 2021, have been prevented from attending secondary school or university, restricted in their ability to work, and unable even to access healthcare. We learned about the rising maternal mortality rate amidst the growing numbers of teenage mothers who have been married off as child brides. And we heard of women’s quiet resistance as they found new ways of connecting, running businesses, and campaigning for change.

Today we have celebrated our third International Women’s Day conference, supported by fantastic alumna, parents and guests who offered the Years 9,10 and 12 workshops about their lives as creators, entrepreneurs, innovators, financiers, journalists, lawyers, medics and much more. I was then honoured to interview leading lights from the Women of the Future Awards: its founder, Pinky Lilani, and the Vice-Chair, Vicki Treadell, who served as British Commissioner in Australia, and in New Zealand & Somoa, as well as Deputy Commissioner in Mumbai. They have mixed with many of the world’s most powerful women and men, and offered such inspiring optimism for our girls’ futures.

Year 8 have certainly been planning for their futures this week on Tuesday’s Take Your Daughter to Work Day, exploring the mysteries of adult working lives and imagining their future pathways. Thank you to parents who kindly hosted girls – both their own and other people’s daughters.

I loved how the girls and staff then dressed up for yesterday’s World Book Day with such flair: I encountered Mr Wonka with an Oompa Loompa; Alice, a Mad Hatter and a White Rabbit; the March sisters, Percy Jackson, Jekyll and Hyde and many more. There was even Sherlock Holmes and quite a jazzy Dr Watson, who was then one of the terrific soloists at last night’s stunning concert, “A Night at the Musicals”. Fresh from a day of rehearsing with West End vocal coach Abi Gilchrist, the GDST Alumna of the Year 2025, the girls told the stories of their musical numbers with impressive musicality and commitment.

This evening I will be sharing in our Iftar event, and then I wish every success over the weekend to our netballers who are competing in the Surrey Schools finals on Sunday and the Sisters n Sport national finals on Monday, and to our gymnasts at the British Schools Gymnastics in Stoke. In yesterday’s sunshine, it was lovely to see the girls sitting out on the field relaxing and making daisy chains amidst all this activity, and I enjoyed sharing a game of ping-pong with them too.

Thank you to all of the parents who were part of Monday’s Friends of SCHS Annual General Meeting. My deepest thanks to all the parents, families and friends of the school for your support and encouragement, and for sharing your amazing girls with us. It is such a joy!

Ms Cathy Ellott

Head

Dear Parents,

Safety continues to be one of my key priorities and I have been very pleased to see the traffic-slowing measures that TfL have implemented on Tooting Bec Road. Please can I remind parents to be safe and considerate in their parking on Abbotswood Road and please avoid parking on the yellow zigzags outside the school.

This week we have celebrated British Science Week and the girls have been showing off their innovation and inventiveness in many ways, not least at the Year 9 Business Product Fair this afternoon. Year 12s competed in an inter-school science quiz at Alleyn’s and our Year 10s have been continuing their AI project work with colleagues from the Southwark Schools Learning Partnership (SSLP). We’ve had the performance of a Mandarin Play in school, and sixth form linguists going off to the BFI to find out more about Spanish dictatorships. The mathematicians have been at a Maths in Action conference whilst our classicists enjoyed a talk by an Oxford professor on the Heroes and Heroines of Mesopotamia. The Extended Learning Group for Art visited the new Lucien Freud show at the National Portrait Gallery, and our Year 7s and 8s competed in the GDST Science Spelling Bee. Our gymnasts and netballers then excelled in their national competitions last weekend and this week too. With all this going on, you’ll understand if the girls need a gentle time this weekend!

Developing an awareness around self-care is a key aspect of how we support our girls to flourish and I do encourage you to come to our parenting talk next Tuesday on “From Meltdowns to Meaning”. Learning self-efficacy was a surprisingly strong theme in the discussions I enjoyed at the latest meeting of the GDST Universities Committee which I co-hosted yesterday. As well as the focus that you would expect on curiosity and critical thinking; the ability to read and synthesise complex texts and data; and the importance of oracy and linguistic specificity and flair; there was a call for some more straightforward factors that support success. Universities told us that students need to learn the importance of showing up and appearing keen and enthusiastic; of respecting the absolute fixedness of deadlines; of demonstrating drive and determination; and being resourceful to combat what they see as one of the most worrying student trends: loneliness. Students need to connect with people in person, not just online, and be both supported and held to account. Through this committee, it feels that we are doing really important work in connecting the educational worlds of school and university so that together we can develop golden threads of core competencies and characteristics that continue to grow through a young person’s educational journey. It brings a calm clarity amidst the noisy clamour of AI futurists asking what education is for. That’s a question for another day…

Wishing you a lovely weekend, and my warm wishes to those in our school family who will be celebrating Eid next week.

Best wishes

Cathy