Newstead Wood School

The school specialises in engineering and psychology. The current head teacher is Alan Blount. The school's motto is Fortitudine Crescamus (Latin for: 'May we grow in strength'). The school has recently begun admitting boys into the sixth form.

It is situated in the Crofton area of Orpington, not far from the A21 and next to Darrick Wood. Darrick Wood School and the Princess Royal University Hospital are the other side of Darrick Wood, to the west. The London Outer Orbital Path passes adjacent to the playing fields. It lies in the parish of St Paul's, Crofton.

The school was founded as Orpington Grammar School for Girls in 1957,[1] when administered by the Kent Education Committee. In 1965, as a result of the London Government Act 1963, the local area, and thus the school, came under the authority of the London Borough of Bromley. It was at this point that the school's name was changed to Newstead Wood School. Nearby Bullers Wood School became a comprehensive in the late 1970s, and most schools in the borough are now comprehensive. There were firm plans for Newstead Wood School to become comprehensive in 1978, but the school has remained one of the only two selective state schools in Bromley. As a result, it is heavily oversubscribed.

In 1997, a survey in the Sunday Times found that the school was the best value in England for each A or B grade achieved at A-level, second to St Olave's school; Bromley was a low spender (per pupil) comparative to other LEAs. In 2004, a pupil gained the best result at Maths GCSE in England. In 2009 the headteacher told the conference in Harrogate of the Girls' Schools Association[2] that schools were not concentrating on brighter pupils, instead trying to raise average pupils' grades from D to C, and that girls in mixed-sex schools can have their ambitions crushed and be held back in male-dominated professions (girls from single-sex schools are statistically more successful in science-based professions than from mixed schools). She also criticised a government scheme to give one-to-one tuition to less able pupils, and not more-able students, when considering the lack of women in traditionally-male occupations, and she claimed there was a 'huge reluctance' to concentrate on top students.

On 1 April 2011, the school gained academy status and is now sponsored by United Learning.

At its last full inspection in 2014, Newstead Wood was rated by Ofsted as Outstanding,[3] and a more recent visit did not result in an inspection judgement.[4] The school has a large catchment area, from which pupils are selected on the basis of tests in verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Around 900 girls sit the entrance tests annually.

The school was ranked third amongst secondary schools in Bromley based on overall performance at end of key stage 4 in 2019 - all pupils on the Progress 8 benchmark.[5]

Times Parent Power [6] has ranked the School's 2019 A-level results 121st in the country (previous year 161st) and 2019 GCSE results 11th (previous year 15th) and also ranks it 11th amongst all secondary schools in Greater London.[7]

Initially the school had no house system but when it was introduced there were only three houses: Nightingale, Wren and Swift. The first letters of each house came from the initials of Newstead Wood School, and the name of the house was both a bird, and a notable historical figure (Florence Nightingale, Christopher Wren and Jonathan Swift). Each year group had three classes, one from each house. As the school expanded, each year group grew to 4 classes, and a fourth house, Falcon, was founded. The school continued to expand, growing to 5 classes in each year, and so the Griffin house was founded. It expanded still, having six classes since the September 2013 intake.

The school now consists of six houses: Nightingale, Wren, Swift, Falcon, Griffin and Phoenix. The first five house names come from the school's initials NWSFG (Newstead Wood School For Girls), the sixth house, Phoenix was added in 2017 and celebrates the school reaching six forms for all years in the school. The September 2017 intake was the first year group to include Phoenix.

There are currently two examinations required to gain a place at the school: verbal and non-verbal reasoning.[8]

Josie Long at the Green Man Festival (Brecon Beacons) in August 2010

• Dina Asher-Smith, multi Olympic and World Championship medallist
• Gemma Chan, actress known for her role as Astrid in Crazy Rich Asians, and as Anita/Mia on the television drama Humans
• Samantha Baines, actress and comedian
• Suzi Brent, blogger and author
• Leela Bunce
• Libby Jackson, space exploration expert, author and former controller and flight director for the Columbus Module, the European module of the International Space Station.
• Emma Johnson, clarinettist, winner of the 1984 BBC Young Musician of the Year, and Bronze in the Eurovision Young Musicians 1984
• Liv Little, Editor in Chief and Founder of gal dem magazine
• Josie Long, comedian
• Kim Medcalf, actress who played Sam Mitchell (EastEnders) from 2002 to 2005 and from 2022 onwards
• Emma Raducanu, British tennis player and 2021 US Open Champion[9]
• Josephine Vander Gucht - part of the duet Oh Wonder
• Barbara Harriss-White,[10] Professor of Development Studies at the University of Oxford

• Newstead Wood School website
• Alumni
• EduBase