WHAT? WHERE?

Headington Rye Oxford School is a smart, selective all-girls day and boarding option in the well-heeled suburb of (you guessed it) Headington, two miles from Oxford’s city centre. The school takes girls from nursery through to prep, senior and Sixth Form. You’ll find the senior school – 800 girls, around quarter of whom board either full, weekly or half-weekly – in a striking, elongated brick 1930s deco building built in neo-Georgian style, set back from the main road, a short distance away from the Headington cafés and shops. The ground floor as you enter feels pretty traditional – lots of wood-panelling along the corridors – but it gives way to some much more striking modern spaces and natural light as you go through the school.

Headington Rye Oxford opened its doors as a co-ed prep and all girls senior school in September 2024 following a merger between Headington School and Rye St Antony.

FACILITIES

Er, how long have you got? Facilities are excellent here, particularly when you consider the proximity to the city centre. Headington Rye Oxford Senior has 23 acres to its name, with a lovely stretch of lawn to the left of the main building, and large playing fields to the rear.

SPORT

Aside from the expected all-weather pitches, tennis courts and sports hall, there’s been massive investment over the last five years in sport, with an impressive £3.4 million Dance and Fitness Centre including a 270m2 dance studio, fitness centre, and rowing area with 24 ergos (rowing is a big deal at Headington Rye Oxford and they’re used to winning). There’s also a 25m heated swimming pool on site (they’re used to winning at swimming too).

Big news for rowers is that they are now operating out of their very own boathouse on the Thames near Wallingford, with its own on-river facilities. Officially opened early in 2024, it’s the first permanent home for the award-winning boatclub, having previously shared facilities with St Edward’s School.

CREATIVE ARTS

Get comfortable, we could be here some time. The 240-seat theatre is used for both music and drama performances, has a mirrored rehearsal room and comes equipped with a front-of-house bar (result!). Matilda, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and a double bill of The Taming of the Shrew and The Tamer Tamed have been senior shows in the last two years, with plenty of costume, staging and lighting finesse.

Musicians are well-catered for here – 21 different ensembles are in place, 21 different musical instruments and 450 lessons are taught each week, including classical, jazz, musical theatre and pop vocal lessons, by a swathe of peri teachers. There’s a dedicated Music School with 10 teaching rooms, six (SIX!) rehearsal spaces, two large performance rooms, not to mention a recording studio, plus a full time music technician, read Mr Humphries’ blog here.

Another massive calling card is the Creativity & Innovation Centre, dubbed The Hive, which opened in 2021 – a modern glass and brick purpose-built home for fine art, sculpture, fashion textiles and photography. It includes a lecture theatre, enormous exhibition gallery (named after Emma Watson who attended the school), 3D workshop, teaching spaces and creative studios.

Creativity is high on the wish-list employee qualities for the future, so it’s a smart, timely move. The Fashion Textiles department is leading the way in this – the school won at our Muddy Stilettos Best Schools Awards in 2022 for its Experiential Learning where the curriculum has embraced a fully sustainable, eco-led approach.

Synthetic materials, acrylic paints and aerosols are no longer used, and instead the girls make their own dyes from plants, create their own environmentally-friendly glue and print pastes and use recycled fabrics. In 2022, the A level students joined forces with garden designer Lottie Delamain, dyeing a textile installation made entirely from plants for display at the Chelsea Flower Show, which won them a silver medal.

SCHOOL

The school opened a wildly impressive, purpose built Food and Nutrition block in April 2022, with two teaching kitchens and a stunning mezzanine Chef’s Kitchen with seating for 12 with views below to the ground floor kitchen. What’s more, with the Rye merger the School will now be offering Leiths Food and Wine Certificate.

There are Gaggenau appliances – cookers and dishwashers for each child, fireproof aprons, and all Year 7 and Year 8 girls use the rooms as part of their currriculum though my sense is that it’s very child-led – the teachers give the girls leeway in what they want to cook (within limits obviously!) and there’s scope for creativity. All girls can take after-school cookery clubs, plus there’s an elective programme in Sixth Formers. No surprise to see a huge take up for GSCE, and there’s a useful ‘get ready for uni’ cookery course for the Year 13s.

In other news, there’s a groovy, award-winning library (it was given the School Library Inspiration Award 2016), plus a slick Sixth Form Centre in a mixture of industrial and retro styling, completed in 2019.

ACADEMICS

Since Caroline Jordan took the hot seat in 2011 the academics here have taken a hike northwards – in 2024 girls achieved 59% 8/9s at GCSE, 79% 7 or above and 33% 9s. For A Levels, 61% A*-A and 87% A*-B.

PASTORAL

You’d expect a large all-girls school to be wise to the importance of pastoral care, and from my conversations with the children on my visit it seems to be delivering. There’s a dedicated Deputy Head Pastoral who liaises with the form tutors and heads of year twice a week to discuss the children and any issues brewing. There’s a full-time counsellor on site, plus a chaplain. There is also a Wellbeing Hub, Wellbeing Prefect and all Sixth Formers are attached to a form – to offer peer support.

THE HEAD

Caroline Jordan at the Senior school has been in situ for 13 years now, and is clearly massively capable and driven. As a geologist, she has made it her remit to encourage STEM here – the most popular Sixth Form subject is Maths.

BOARDING

Boarding is only available in the Senior School (so for girls 11+), and roughly 25% of girls board here. Like many schools I visit now, Headington Rye Oxford has a flexible approach to boarding, offering full to weekly, half-weekly and occasional to capture all markets – from the international students for Sixth Form to the local parents who want to offload their kids for a night or two. There are five boarding houses, the oldest and most homely of which houses the younger girls, and then more modern dorms for the older girls, including two Sixth Form houses – the usual story of formica furniture and, as it’s girls, unfeasibly tidy rooms.

QUIRKS

Headington Rye Oxford has grown in stature over the last few years, and is now seen locally as creative and progressive – there’s no question that its base line offering is ‘quality all-rounder’, but it also offers Art Textiles, History of Art, Photography, one-year qualifications alongside GCSEs including certified courses in Financial Education, Philosophy, Digital Music Production and the HPQ and Dance and Drama & Theatre for A level. There’s a boldness to developing the Fashion Textiles programme, for example, and the school is keeping step with modern thinking via its new Food and Nutrition block on the importance of cooking from scratch, wellness and sustainability.

ISI REPORTS

Read the latest ISI Report from Jan 2023 here.

WRAP AROUND CARE

All private schools with strong day numbers know they need to provide sharp wrap around provision. The massive bonus for Headington Rye Oxford girls is that wrap around care can ultimately be an overnight stay. Drop off and pick up perimeters are 7.45 am – 6.00 pm.

FEES

The day school fees are a teeny bit more expensive than all-girls competitors St Helen’s & St Katharine’s and Oxford High though you could argue the flexi boarding provision makes it well worth the while. Boarding costs are broadly in line with other comparable schools in the area.

Upper 3-5 £7,515, Sixth Form £7,515 (direct entrants £8,180). Half boarding from £10,034 – 11,048, Weekly boarding £12,553 – £13,918 and Full Boarding £15,027 – £16,466.

WORD ON THE GROUND

The girls I spoke to while I was looking around (plus the several teenage ‘moles’ I know who go to the school and nobbled later) tell me that Headington Rye Oxford is still on the right side of encouraging – no-one I talked to thought it was a ‘hot house’, and I guess the massive range of extra curricular events, around 150 on offer every week, is testament to that. If you have a fussy eater, relax – school food is good, though the evening meal for boarders could be improved (so says a boarder!). Mr Cunningham in geography is apparently very funny and Miss Rose is ‘the nicest teacher ever’.

THE MUDDY VERDICT:

Good for: Those looking for an all-rounder school that will prepare girls for the future – academically Headington Rye Oxford is robust but music, art, drama and sport are all individual success stories here. Sports-wise rowing is definitely the star (the school won the inaugural Junior Women’s Eights at Henley Royal Regatta in 2022), so if your daughter is tall and strong or tiny and gobby get her in here quick. The huge extra curricular programme offers plenty of opportunity beyond the classroom. The Oxford location is a massive advantage for arts, culture, sport (the river obvs) and also Oxbridge tests – plenty of time to acclimatise for those exams.

Not for: The girls I spoke to talked of the school being inclusive even if you’re quiet and not a joiner-inner but clearly the USP of Headington Rye Oxford is to get stuck in and try something new, so if you have a serious wallflower just bear that in mind.

Dare to disagree?! Check the website for details on upcoming open events.

Headington Rye Oxford, Headington Road, Oxford OX3 7TD. Tel: 01865 759100.

Headington Rye Oxford School

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