WHAT? WHERE?

High March is a non-selective pre/prep school for girls aged 3-11 and boys aged 3-4 on a bucolic road in affluent Beaconsfield. It’s known locally for its academic rigour but also its warmth of approach and family atmosphere – friendship and kindness sit ahead of the school’s other value – educational excellence, a sentiment that very much comes to the fore when you chat to staff and pupils.

The school sits on two sites in three former large residential houses: one site for Nursery to Year 2, and then a minute walk down the road for Years 3-6. Pupils number 300 across the four acres with maximum class sizes of 20, and many year groups have waiting lists (the eight spaces for boys in nursery are particularly sought after). With a deep plot that allows for generous playgrounds and sports provision behind the main buildings, High March has the qualities of Mary Poppins’ handbag, housing much more than might first meet the eye. It uses its space inventively (the main hall doubles for drama, dining and some PE) and it outsources where necessary – the girls head to the playing fields of Beaconsfield High for athletics.

High March began a new chapter in November 2024 when it became part of Wishford Education, a group of ten schools including Rupert House in Henley and Westonbirt in the Cotswolds. Having previously been owned by the same family since 1948 this is big news for High March, and it took the previous owners three years to decide which group to go with. As such, the ethos of the school very much fits the Wishford model and thus far the only changes have been investments in infrastructure – development in the IT network, the Upper School playground will be overhauled over the summer and 1-to-1 devices will come in from September 2026 from Year 4, as well as shared CPD across teachers at Wishford schools – most of which are preps.

FACILITIES

While adapted from residential houses, the classrooms don’t want for space – they are generously sized for the numbers of children, light, bright and well organised with noticeboards on every available wall hosting artwork, writing, photos and celebrating the High March girls’ many achievements (many a High March girl will look doe-eyed at the gold lettered scholars and head girls boards). Younger years have dedicated outside space that’s covered over so feels like a genuine extension of the classroom with plenty of scope to chill out with a book once they’ve exhausted the mud kitchen and building blocks.

Both sites have a multi-use main hall for drama, indoor PE and dining, and both have a library, IT suite, and music room. The Upper School adds to this a science lab, which you can peer into through a huge fish tank from the corridor, as well as the art/DT room, more on which below.

Outside, both school sites have excellent, inventive play areas – well superior to what I often see on site visits. The Junior school playground in particular is very creative, with a ship made by the maintenance staff, a lovely sensory garden and an extravagant wooden Wendy house – plenty of nooks for whatever mood takes them.

Forest School now takes place at ‘Wild Kites’ in Tring and has been extended to Years 1 and 2 (previously it was just for Nursery and Reception).

While the sites are separate, specialist teachers from the Upper School visit the Junior school (specialist teaching in all subjects is delivered from Year 4) so there is familiarity with senior staff for those making the leap to the Upper School (every girl does). In Year 2 there are various transition initiatives like experiencing drop off at ‘big school’ in the summer term and performing in the big Main Hall to ease the September nerves.

SPORTS

The school has an excellent calling card in its own shiny 20 metre swimming pool – every child gets to swim at least once a week from Nursery onwards (older girls may swim up to 4 times a week), and everyone is time trialled in Year 2 then more capable swimmers can receive an hour’s extra swim tuition a week. The upshot is a highly competitive swim team that regularly qualifies for the IAPs Swimming Finals and recently one of the High March swimmers came third nationally.

Netball is another major sport at the school, with two newly resurfaced courts on site and previous success for the Year 6 teams in reaching the finals of the IAPS national tournament and crowned Bucks County Netball Champions – that’s what happens when you play two terms of netball. There’s a tennis wall for budding Emma Radacanus, and two table tennis tables for fun at break times. Girls use the fields at Beaconsfield High School for athletics.

PE will offer tasters in sports like pop lacrosse, and many other sports are available as part of the school’s extra-curricular programme including judo, dance, gymnastics (separate clubs for general interest and more talented girls) and football coached by the team at Wycombe Wanderers. Triathlon is a hugely popular emerging sport and this year sees the school’s first Triathlon captain chosen, with successes including three girls in the top ten at the IAPS National Triathlon Championships in Bath and second place nationally for the Year 6 Squad at the Schools Biathlon Championships.

Stars aside, every girl will represent the school on various occasions during their time at High March and the school’s Junior and Upper Sports Days are a big deal (the Year 6 and Year 3-5 Prize Giving days are the other biggies). The Upper School Sports Day is held on a Saturday to allow working parents to attend and is hosted at nearby boys’ prep Davenies.

THE ARTS

The art department is a much-loved resource at High March, offering an extremely well equipped and bright art room, with sewing machines, wood-working stations and its six potters wheels – highly unusual to have that number in a senior, let alone prep school.

The enthusiastic art teacher Mrs Bissett, who we first met in 2020, is still in situ and still massively creative – the girls are currently making their own Squishmallows (including considering the branding and packaging) and every Year 5 girl will make an item of clothing. Her fashion design extra curricular club is wildly over-subscribed. The Art/DT space is also used for cookery with girls learning basic skills and encouraged to try new foods.

The music department offers up another inspirational teacher, the affable Mr Hayes, who has often led the school into the national Barnardo’s Youth Choral competition finals – they sang at the Barbican last year, one of only ten choirs. The school has an Upper School orchestra (no mean feat given High March only goes up to 11 years), plus ensembles, four choirs, and roughly 80% of the children from Year 1 up take music lessons here (12 peripatetic teachers visit each week including a singing teacher for three full days). Every girl is asked to have a go at the singing competition from Year 2 when they must sing a solo to Mr Hayes and the head. It’s a daunting prospect for some, but is intended to help girls tackle stage fright and weed out potential stars among its 7 year olds.

LAMDA exams have a huge take up, with almost all the girls from Year 1 onwards taking part. The production at Christmas is the big deal here with all children given exactly the same number of lines in the early years, then meatier parts handed out for the Year 4 and Year 6 plays – a big highlight of the school calendar. Previous years have included Matilda, and this year sees Year 6 tackle Annie Jnr with preparations for the summer performance beginning in February and a professional live orchestra brought in to accompany. Lights up ladies!

LITTLIES

The offering here is not a day care setting but all about school preparation, with children asked to enrol from age 3 in five mornings minimum, with many staying for the full day. That said, children aren’t pushed to begin reading and writing if they’re not ready but everyone has 1-to-1 time each day, so no doubt they will soon be ready. Given the strong demand for Nursery places High March is back up to two classes. Both rooms have a plethora of activity areas that change frequently – it was a dentist in one corner, Gruffalo theme in another and a fruit and veg stall the day I visited. The covered outside area is a real boon and very much an extension of the classroom.

High March school Beaconsfield early years

That class remains mixed with up to eight places for boys though from Reception onwards the school becomes all girls. The nursery hours run from 8.30am to 3.30pm, with a longer day possible (see wraparound care), and there are clear efforts to make life easier for parents, with half day pupils given lunch before pick up, and full day pupils taken to and from swimming lessons and ballet classes so these don’t need to be done outside of school. Praise be!

The children seemed very happy, bombing around the playground in their natty uniforms and then lining up neatly to come back inside. Part of that uniform are the ‘Spotties’ – blue and white spotted overalls used for eating lunch, creating art or frankly anything with mess involved. They are beyond cute.

ACADEMICS

Though High March is non-selective, academics is an area of shining achievement at the school: High March pupils move on to some of the best grammar, state and independent schools, both in the local area and beyond, with 20 school destinations on the table for 2025, and Beaconsfield High School, Berkhamsted School, Wycombe Abbey and Piper’s Corner the most popular destinations. The vast majority go to girls’ schools, though locally there are very few co-ed options. A handful each year go the ISEB route and head to Wellington with the intervening two years locally.

15 scholarships were offered in 2025 across Academic, Drama, Music and Sports, underlining the school’s all-rounder ethos. There was also a very high pass rate for 11+ – 84% in 2025 versus a county average pass rate of 31%.

What’s the secret of High March’s success? A mix of early interventions, instilling skills early and a nurturing approach to teaching seems to be the recipe here. The children learn cursive writing from Reception and are heard to read for 10 minutes every day throughout Pre-Prep. The kids are streamed for Maths from Year 4 though English is no longer streamed from Year 5. In Year 5 children can take Latin and, new for this year, Spanish, as well as Critical Thinking. French is the main language taught at High March. Computer skills, including coding, touch-typing, photo editing, stop frame animation and digital safety, are taught from Year 1 (half classes for Years 1 and 2, so nice small numbers).

PASTORAL CARE

Excellent. One of High March’s USP’s is its nurturing environment and as a small, all-girls school, it’s red hot on kindness, friendship and empathy. Like many smaller schools, High March forgoes tech tracking for a system of checks that starts with the class tutor, and extends up to a Deputy Head of Pastoral, plus the new role of Assistant Head for mental health and wellbeing, all of whom meet weekly to discuss the girls’ wellbeing. Then there’s Coco the therapy dog who visits weekly, together with her pet therapy trained handler, to be read to in the library, petted and generally spoilt rotten, and whose diary is chock full each week. Every girl meets with their form tutor for a five-minute 1-to-1 each week.

In the assisted learning room and elsewhere in the school there’s retreat spaces where girls can go if they feel like time out, and the Year 6s are encouraged to mentor the younger pupils.The school has Girls On Board, an approach which helps pupils and parents understand the dynamics of girl friendships and gives girls the tools to navigate them.

THE HEAD

High March school Beaconsfield head Kate Garter

Kate Gater joined in Sept 2019 from Oxford High prep school, where she’d been the head teacher. She’s popular with staff and pupils for her clarity, pragmatism and positivity. Having increased the number and breadth of extra curricular clubs, extended the wrap around care to help parents with drop off and pick up, and in Sept 21 restructured the management so that there are now three assistant heads with distinct responsibilities – one for co-curricular, one for professional development (for example, staff training) and a third for mental health and wellbeing, her recent initiative is the RISC wheel. Delivered through classes, assemblies and tutors, its designed to tackle perfectionism and risk aversion in the girls, attempting to build resilience, encourage them to be curious and take initiative and practise self discipline. The intention is that the girls develop skills that will help them with the leap to secondary and beyond.

QUIRKS

Leadership skills, confidence in performance and exercising pupil voice are priorities for High March and girls are offered positions on Eco Council, Junior Road Safety, Food Reps, Playground Leaders, and good old fashioned Classroom Monitors and so on, with opportunities tracked so the keen beans don’t get all the jobs each year. There’s also Micro, Mini and Juniors Dukes, a sort of DofE award that requires the girls to take their on initiative to work through the levels, from dressing by themselves in Reception to helping a younger sibling to read in the older years. By Year 6 every girl has an assigned role, from head girl to house captain, sports captains and eco/maths/music/charity prefects, so everyone will get their moment in the spotlight. Residentials are considered both a rite of passage and an opportunity for life skills with a week in Devon for Year 5 and France for Year 6, and new for this year, a couple of nights away for Year 4.

In keeping with the sense of fairness and opportunity for all that runs through High March, there are two head girls each year – one from each of the two Year 6 classes. To make sure there are no cliques and that the girls learn to mix, the classes change yearly.

High March boasts a ‘purple plaque’ next to its front door donated by alumna Alison Ettridge, who was awarded a Women In Innovation award for her contribution to female engineering, and decided that it was High March that had instilled her love of STEM and so bestowed the plaque to the school. This continues today in the delivery of Science, DT and Construction Club after school.

The girls produced a petition to introduce trousers to the uniform this year and the school is looking into fabrics and designs – watch this space.

FEES

Slightly below the local average I’d say, perhaps reflecting the lack of sprawling acres of playing fields on site. Current pricing is: Nursery (5 mornings) £2,530 Reception £5,820, Year 1 £6,285, Year 2, £6,805, Years 3–6 £7,965.

WRAP AROUND CARE

The addition of a Breakfast Club from 7.30am (at a cost of £5.25) has been welcomed by working parents dashing for the train. Early drop off is at 8am and after school club for all children, including Nursery, until 5.30pm is included in the fees. There is the option of ‘Late Stay’ from 5.30pm to 6.00pm, which includes a light tea and is charged at £7.25. Clubs run 4-4.45pm and include Calligraphy, Cross Stitch, Film, Young Journalists and more, alongside the sporty options.

ISI REPORT

High March had a glowing ISI inspection report in 2023 with praise across teaching, pastoral and leadership and very little by way of advisories for the school to follow up on.

WORD ON THE GROUND

Very positive. High March is the antidote to those hot-housing prep schools that talk happiness and all-round ability but have a gimlet eye on silverware at every turn. Parents love the nurturing, family atmosphere and there’s a happy mix of long-standing and younger staff. The feeling one’s left with after chatting to its staff is one of loyalty and passion for the school – everyone is very much onboard. Unlike many other independent schools in the area, there’s no plans at present to extend the admission of boys beyond Nursery – most go on to nearby Davenies.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

High March school Beaconsfield pastoral care

Good for: Those looking for a caring, inclusive school that puts pastoral care and happiness at the top of the agenda, expecting achievement to follow from that. The academic results show it’s working.

Not for: High March may not have extensive acreage but the girls don’t miss out on anything – as evidenced by the yearly magazine bulging with a variety of drama, sports, music and academic achievements and its waiting lists in some year groups. An avid hockey player may lament the lack of a dedicated term of the sport.

Dare to disagree?! Be my guest! The next open morning is Fri 20 March 2026 but you can visit by appointment at other times. Details here.

High March School, Ledborough Lane, Beaconsfield HP9 2PZ. Tel 01494 675186.

High March School, Beaconsfield

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