Croydon High Junior School for Girls

We would love to meet you, so please book a visit to come and see us.  From there, we will ask you to complete an Online Application Form, and then arrange for your daughter to come and spend a day with us. She will have an assessment, enjoy some lessons and meet potential classmates, with the aim of helping us all decide if Croydon High is the right school for her to really flourish. If everything feels right, you will then receive an offer of a place.

We value every one of our girls as an individual and her happiness is paramount. At every stage, girls are encouraged to stretch themselves beyond age expectations and are challenged and supported every step of the way.  Seven year olds are innate explorers, scientists and analysts. As they enter what is called the ‘Concrete Operational’ stage of cognitive development around this time, they become increasingly capable of applying what they have learnt to a greater range of contexts. In our society, this is also the age where girls can begin to believe that boys are brighter or more capable. For girls, being educated in a single-sex environment, means that they are more likely to take risks with their learning without fear of failure.

By the age of seven a child’s emotional maturity has taken a leap forward and they are better placed to cope with transitions and changes to their routine. Conversely though, their growing awareness of the world around them can lead to some feelings of insecurity. To counter this, it is vital that they are in a comfortable and nurturing environment, where they can meet with success and have the support necessary to develop resilience when things are more challenging.

On top of the academic basics taught by caring class teachers, our girls experience specialist teaching in Enterprise Technology, Drama, Languages, Music, Sport and Art. These specialist teachers only teach their chosen subject and have dedicated their careers to inspiring interest and progress in that area.

Beyond the curriculum, our girls are encouraged to engage with a varied and busy co-curricular  programme. We offer clubs before school, at lunch and after school. This allows our girls to design a bespoke week around their set lessons, reflecting their individual interests and talents: from card games to coding and from Bollywood to blogging. As they explore new subjects, new sports and new hobbies they begin to develop their sense of personal identity. Who are they? What makes them happy? What makes them special? This journey of self-discovery through Years 3-6 is crucial to their self-assured transition to secondary school –  just four short years away. 

As girls grow up, discover their strengths and weaknesses and experience success and setbacks, it is crucial that they are treated as individuals. Our expert staff are there every step of the way to support, to guide, to challenge and to extend.

Average class sizes in Year 3-6 are in the low to mid twenties which we find works perfectly. With two classes in each year group, we are also able to combine the classes for activities where ‘the more the merrier’ works better such as competitive sport or singing as a choir, and then split them into smaller groups for Maths and English.

Through performance, girls develop the skills of presentation, learning how to use body and voice to communicate their message as well as developing the ability to harness nerves rather than being overwhelmed by them.  Whether on the stage or in the boardroom, girls who grow up with regular opportunities to perform in front of a group or larger audience display more confidence in these situations. Just within Year 3, girls will have five formal occasions to perform to an audience.

Competitive activities begin in Year 3. Sports trials, Maths competitions, robotics tournaments, poetry declamation events and inter-house tournaments all feature in Years 3-6.  They learn how to win and lose with good grace, when to stand their ground and when to compromise or even concede.

Sport at Croydon High is all about discovery. Girls discover eight different sports in Year 3, quickly learning that there is more than one way to be ‘sporty’ at Croydon High.

We balance ‘excellence in sport’ with ‘sport for all’ in Juniors, with every girl playing in competitive fixtures for their House, attending training sessions outside lessons and tracking their personal progress.  With six netball and tennis courts, a full length swimming pool, all-weather hockey pitch, indoor sports hall, gymnasium and dance studio – girls have the opportunity to learn their chosen sports in first class facilities.

We have specialist music teaching from Nursery with girls in Years 2 and 3 all learning an instrument, starting with the recorder in Year 2. In Year 3, every girl learns either violin or cello, with lessons funded through a generous legacy left by a former music teacher. Girls wishing to continue playing instruments can then join our Junior Orchestra.

We believe tomorrow’s trail blazers will be the designers of – not the users of – technology.

Our girls are introduced to the principles of coding and programming early. By the end of Year 3 they are able to write algorithms to create simple animations and manipulate robots by programming instructions. By Year 5, they understand the concept of designing for a purpose and are confidently able to harness technology to design and create interactive content. They can use sequence, select and repeat in programs, work with variables and experiment with various forms of input and output.  This culminates in a project where Year 5 pupils deisgn and make a piece of wearable technology.

Our Year 6 girls are working on objectives that are normally found on a Senior School curriculum in Robotics, Computer Science and Business Studies. They also start writing more complex programs using Python.  Finally, all girls in Year 6 participate in the Enterprise Challenge which is a creative project that involves combining multiple applications across a range of devices, to design and promote their own business idea.

With our Senior School on the same campus and a thriving alumnae network, our girls have plenty of role models. At our annual Careers in the Classroom events, we regularly welcome back ‘old girls’ who are keen to share their successes with our girls and inspire the next generation. Sixth Form prefects volunteer in our Junior School library and in Ivy Club (our wrap around care) and our Year 6 girls have a ‘playground duty rota’ where they initiate games for the younger girls.