Henrietta Barnett School 3.98

The Henrietta Barnett School is a grammar school with academy status for girls in Hampstead Garden Suburb in London. The Good Schools Guide called the school 'One of the best academic state schools in the country, providing a gentle, inspiring education in a wonderful setting for very clever girls', and the school consistently ranks amongst the top state schools in educational league tables. The school named among the 'magnificent seven' in 2005, following three mentions as being 'outstanding' in Ofsted's annual report, and was again deemed Outstanding in all respects in the most recent Ofsted inspection in 2007, before its conversion to an academy.HistoryIt was founded in 1911 by Dame Henrietta Barnett for the education of girls. She wished to improve girls' education, which in her time, was at a low level. She believed in a society where poor girls had access to the same levels of education as those girls in more privileged sections of society. Indeed, when the school was founded, the now affluent Hampstead Garden Suburb was being developed for poor families to live in, and it was Barnett's wish to educate girls based on their natural ability, not their financial background.Originally known as 'The Institute', the school was initially intended to enclose the North-East side of Central Square, according to Sir Edwin Lutyens' masterplan for the area, and the north wing was completed in 1911. John Soutar, the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust's architect supervised construction of the south wing in 1923, while Lutyens designed the elevations for Crewe Hall, the central block. The building offered concerts, evening classes and debates until its conversion to the Henrietta Barnett School for Girls in the 1930s. The school is a Grade 11* Listed Building.