Academic competitions

Our students love to enter national competitions and win! By exercising their competitive spirit and critical thinking skills, they are able to try out their intellect and creativity, explore an idea in depth or undertake independent research.

We encourage students across all stages of school to compete and challenge themselves from the Senior School to the Sixth Form.

The Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) run a number of annual competitions such as: the Laurie Magnus Poetry Prize, the GDST Creative Writing Prize, the Somerville and Gurney Essay Competition and the Chrystall Public Speaking Competition.

In Science and Mathematics, the National Olympiad and UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT) competitions allow girls to enter categories by age range and ability, and the United Kingdom Linguistics Olympiad attracts entrants from Years 10 to 12. Students also compete in the GCHQ 'CyberFirst Girls' Competition, working their way through series of online cyber challenges designed to test their ingenuity.   

Our students have also enjoyed great success competing in the English Speaking Union's (ESU) Public Speaking Competitions.  

Additionally, our students have the opportunity to enter national competitions including: the Stephen Spender Poetry Translation Prize, Jaguar Maths in Motion, Oxford University’s Tower Poetry Competition and the Newnham College Essay Prizes.