Beyond the Classroom

Our girls enjoy so much more than an excellent academic education. We provide countless leadership opportunities, expand girls’ horizons and give them excellent advantages as they move up through the school and beyond.

Naturally you will find an active sports faculty in the school, fielding teams at the highest level in hockey, swimming, netball, cricket and athletics. Our sports centre houses a swimming pool, fitness suite and sports halls for a variety of indoor sports and wellbeing activities such as yoga and pilates. A whole range of activities are on offer as lunchtime and after-school clubs as part of our unique REC (Radically Enriched Curriculum) offering for pupils.

If you enjoy drama or music, you will find many opportunities to join in, whether you want to take individual instrumental lessons, join an orchestra or other ensemble or take part in one of the many plays which are organized in school. Each year we stage either a play or musical and pupils from all years can participate as actors, musicians or backstage. In addition there are smaller performances organized in different year groups such as the House plays and House music competition.

Pupils can also choose to undertake the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, beginning with the Bronze award in Year 10 and continuing to the Silver and Gold award if they choose, and in addition to the large-scale activities, there are numerous other extracurricular opportunities, from debating to dancing, from coding to crafts, for the beginner, the improver and the expert.

Music activities are rich, varied and well established. The Orchestra is at the hub of our musical community, together with Choir, Flute Choir, Wind Quintet and String Quartet. Additionally, we offer an exciting Jazz and Pop Club and all girls are welcome to explore their musical tastes, where they can try out an extensive range of instruments. The ladies’ Chamber Choir goes from strength to strength with a range of performances at different events throughout the year.

The new Performing Arts Club holds a dual role within the Faculty as we connect to explore Musical Theatre. Meetings, auditions and rehearsals bring together a large range of performing arts students.

In Theatre, LAMDA is an excellent opportunity for girls to refine their acting skills and classes are enjoying excellent levels of progression and outstanding examination results. Drama Club is open to all girls and provides opportunities for learning different acting styles across a range of genres. The Senior Drama Company is an exclusive group formed especially for senior girls and includes auditions, workshops and working with guest directors.

The range and quality of our trips and visits programme is one of the aspects of school life that, our parents tell us, set us apart.

We love to take learning out of the classroom, bringing topics to life through visits to historical sites, hands-on experiences in galleries and museums, expeditions into the great outdoors and encounters with other countries and cultures. Our whole year group trips, such as Year 7’s Humanities residential in Shropshire, Year 8’s trip to Normandy and Year 9’s Outward Bound adventure are superb bonding experiences. 

Each year there are also exciting optional adventures for students, whether that is a skiing trip, a sports tour, World Challenge, European city breaks or a homestay experience to help improve language skills.

Sport teaches girls so much more than how to play; it is about teamwork, leadership, determination, and courage. We strongly believe in access to sport for all and encourage everybody to join in, recreationally or competitively, fostering a positive attitude towards health, fitness and physical recreation.

We focus on you as an individual helping you to excel in your chosen field, whether that is team sports such as hockey, netball, volleyball, handball, cricket, rugby or football, or individual sports such as badminton, tennis, athletics, gymnastics, dance, or swimming. Everyone has access to our fitness suite and a personalised fitness programme and as girls progress through the school, they get the chance to try a broader and broader range of activities, such as boxfit and spin through to ultimate Frisbee and trampolining.

A varied and diverse fixture programme includes mid-week and Saturday fixtures plus opportunities to take part in GDST National Sports Rallies, as well as achieving a regional standard or higher in a range of competitions and participating in regular sports tours and tour weekends. Wonderful facilities include a swimming pool, astro-turf, large playing fields, netball and tennis courts, a large sports hall, squash courts and a superb state-of- the-art fitness suite and studio.

There is a Chinese proverb which states “Teachers open the doors, but you must enter by yourself”. The Northampton High School equivalent is “We scatter your path with opportunities”. Our unique and bespoke Enrichment Programme is scattering myriad opportunities and that students are required to do is sign up, show up and be interested. We believe that it would be a disservice to our pupils to let them leave school with just GCSEs and A Levels

Beyond the core academic curriculum, but within the timetable for Years 10-13, our enrichment programme allows students to delve into a huge range of activities to broaden their horizens.

Please click here to view our Enrichment & Electives Programme Guide.