North London Collegiate School (NLCS) is a private day school for girls in England. Founded in Camden Town, it is now in Edgware, in the London Borough of Harrow. Associate schools are in South Korea, Jeju Island, Dubai, Vietnam, Singapore and Kobe, Japan, all of which are coeducational day and boarding schools offering the British curriculum. It is a member of the Girls' Schools Association.

North London Collegiate School is consistently ranked among the top independent schools in the United Kingdom. In the 2025 edition of The Times Parent Power league table, NLCS was ranked within the top 10 schools overall in the UK, and among the top 3 girls' schools nationally, based on academic results at GCSE and A-level.

In the 2026 The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide, North London Collegiate School was named the "Independent Secondary School of the Year", the "Independent International Baccalaureate School of the Year", and the "Independent Secondary School of the Year in London.

Location

thumb|Canons Drive

North London Collegiate School is at the western edge of Edgware near Canons Park. It is accessed via Canons Drive from Edgware High Street. Stanmore tube station and Canons Park tube station are within walking distance.

History

North London Collegiate School was founded by Frances Buss, a pioneer in girls' education. It is generally recognised as the first girls' school in the United Kingdom to offer girls the same educational opportunities as boys.

The school opened in 1850 at No.46. later renumbered No.12 Camden Street, London.

Buss believed in the importance of home life and it remained a day school. In 1929, the school bought Canons, a modest villa built by William Hallett Esq, on the site of a palatial residence originally built in the early 18th century by the Duke of Chandos, and relocated to the property (designed by Sir Albert Richardson) in 1940.

Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw, mother to George Bernard Shaw was a director of music at the school, followed in 1908 by Lilian Manson, J.B. Manson's wife. Her ambitious revival of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 1910 gained coverage in The Times.

The school introduced a house system in 2014, with the houses being named after noted past pupils.

Today the school takes girls from ages 4 to 18. It has a junior school (reception to Year 6) and senior school (Year 7–13).

The co-ed boarding North London Collegiate School Jeju opened in Seogwipo, South Korea in 2011. North London Collegiate School Dubai opened in September 2017 as one of NLCS's international schools and its first campus in the Middle East. The school was established in Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum City, within the Sobha Hartland development, as a co-educational day school offering the International Baccalaureate curriculum. Daniel Lewis, who had worked at North London Collegiate School in London for fourteen years, was appointed as the founding principal of NLCS Dubai and led the school during its launch period. The school opened another international school in Singapore in August 2020.

Curriculum

North London Collegiate has been an International Baccalaureate World School since October 2003 . Girls may choose to take the traditional A Levels or the Pre-U or the IB curriculum.

Alleged malpractice in deciding teacher-assessed grades

In 2021 90% of its A-level entries got A* grades, whereas in 2019 the figure was only 34%. In December 2022 the Guardian revealed that the school had been the subject of an investigation by an A-level examination board into the teacher-assessed grades given to pupils in 2021. A spokesperson for NLCS claimed that there was no centre malpractice by the school. However, a whistleblower told the Guardian that the school had made decisions "that had little integrity, even though they appeared to be within the rules".

Teacher assessment grades replaced the formal exams that were cancelled due to COVID-19. Jo Saxton, Ofqual’s chief regulator, confirmed in October 2022 that private schools were being investigated when she appeared before the education select committee.

Headmistresses

thumb|[[Frances Mary Buss and Sophie Bryant in 1900]]

  • Frances Mary Buss (1850 – December 1894)
  • Sophie Bryant (1895–1918)
  • Isabella Drummond (1918–1940, previously Head of Camden School)
  • Dame Kitty Anderson (1945–1965)
  • Madeline McLauchlan (1965 – December 1985, previously at Henrietta Barnett School)
  • Joan Clanchy (1986–1997) previously Head of St George's School, Edinburgh
  • Bernice McCabe (1997–2017, previously at Chelmsford County High School)
  • Sarah Clark (2018–2022, previously at Queen's School, Chester)
  • Vicky Bingham (2023–present, previously at South Hampstead High School)

Notable alumnae

  • Roma Agrawal (engineer)
  • Barbara Amiel (journalist)
  • Peggy Angus
  • Agnes Arber [née Robertson] (1879–1960) (botanist)
  • Virginia Astley (musician)
  • Alice Beer (TV presenter)
  • Eleanor Bron (actress)
  • Sara Burstall (teacher, headmistress) (headmistress of Manchester High School for Girls)
  • Tanya Byron (psychologist)
  • Esther Cailingold, fought with the Jewish forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and died of wounds received
  • Jo Coburn BBC political broadcaster
  • Clara Collet (civil servant and promoter of women's education and employment)
  • Gillian Cross (children's writer)
  • Anne Digby (novelist)
  • Sophie Duker (comedian and writer)
  • Jo Dunkley (Professor of Physics at Princeton University)
  • Fenella Fielding (actress)
  • Margaret Fingerhut (pianist)
  • Lindsey Fraser (Olympic athlete, Team GB diving coach)
  • Caroline Sylvia Gabriel (artist)
  • Dame Helen Gardner (academic/writer)
  • Stella Gibbons (1902–1989) (novelist)
  • Margaret Gilmore (former BBC correspondent)
  • Eleanor Graham (1896–1984) (publisher and children's writer)
  • Noreena Hertz (b. 1967) (academic)
  • Caroline S. Hill (b. 1961) (scientist)
  • Judith A. Hill (b.1959) (historian)
  • Amy Horrocks (1867-1919) (composer)
  • Gabrielle Howard (1876–1930) (plant physiologist)
  • Mary Vivian "Molly" Hughes (1866–1956) (writer, educator)
  • Dame Emily Lawson (head of the NHS COVID-19 vaccine programme)
  • Lilian Lindsay [née Murray] (1871–1960) (first female dentist)
  • Ishbel MacDonald
  • Sheila MacDonald Lochhead
  • Anna Madeley (actress)
  • Marilyn Malin, publisher, editor and literary agent
  • Judy Mallaber (MP)
  • Jane March (actress)
  • Jan Marsh (expert on pre-Raphaelites)
  • Kate O'Toole (actress)
  • Ruth Padel (poet)
  • Pat Phillips (diplomat, ambassador)
  • Myfanwy Piper [née Evans] (1911–1997) (librettist)
  • Jessie Pope (1868–1941) (poet)
  • Anna Popplewell (actress)
  • Catherine Alice Raisin (1855–1945) (geologist and educationist)
  • Louie Ramsay (actress)
  • Esther Rantzen (television personality)
  • Stevie Smith (1902–1971) (poet)
  • Marie Stopes (1880–1958)(palaeobotanist,birth control advocate)
  • Angela Tilby (author, Anglican priest and Canon Emeritus at Christ Church, Oxford)
  • Clotilde von Wyss (nature educator)
  • Natasha Walter (writer)
  • Judith Weir (composer)
  • Rachel Weisz (actress))
  • Peggy Angus (artist, tile and wallpaper designer), teacher 1947-70
  • Hannah Robertson, led middle school, later tutor of women at Leeds University from 1905 to 1921.

Bibliography

  • The North London Collegiate School 1850–1950: A Hundred Years of Girls' Education Includes 'Essays in honour of the Frances Mary Buss Foundation' together with an appendix section that includes Royal Patrons, The School Prospectus, Prize Day List, Links to Girton College and the University of London, and regulations concerning Prefects and Monitors. Published by OUP (Oxford University Press) in 1950 with 231 pages, including the index. (No author or Editor)
  • "And Their Works Do Follow Them" by Watson, Nigel London, James & James, 2000

References

  • Profile on The Good Schools Guide
  • ISI Inspection Reports
  • Profile on MyDaughter
  • NLCS International Ltd.