EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST
EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH HEAD
Ms. Cathy Ellott FROM STREATHAM AND CLAPHAM HIGH SCHOOL, SW LONDON Located in South West London, Streatham and Clapham High School is one of the UK’s leading private girls’ schools, taking students from Nursery through to Sixth Form. The school is part of the Girls’ Day School Trust, an organisation which has pioneered girls’ education since 1872. Streatham and Clapham emphasise this community and equality in education throughout their school. Ms. Cathy Ellott, Head of Streatham and Clapham High School, speaks to us about Streatham and Clapham’s holistic approach to education, the role of social change and responsibility in the student experience and the school’s diverse and multifaith cohort. Can you tell us a little about how you perceive the ethos and values at Streatham and Clapham and where you hope to go with this going forwards?
There’s a really strong sense here that we’re a family - it’s not about creating the product of a great individual that goes on to be successful, it’s about nurturing these young people to be the very best versions of themselves. In terms of ethos and values, one of the legacies 28 | EDUCATION CHOICES MAGAZINE | S P R I N G 2 024
that stayed with me from St. Mary’s is the sense that we look to core values as a foundation point from which we live our lives. I thought really carefully over the summer about moving into a secular, multifaith context Streatham and Clapham is the most diverse school in the GDST, so where would I find those rooted values that I think form the foundation of a really great school? Eventually I landed on four: kindness, respect, integrity and compassion. We talk quite proudly about the fact that we’re a quirky school. We love the fact that we are a mixture of different strengths and capabilities and we have girls who have quite a wide range of academic abilities. We look for the ways in which we value ourselves and one another, along all sorts of axes and indices. It is not just about the hard data of exam results that you get at the end of your school career. While they are an important part of what a girl takes with her into the next stage of her educational journey, they aren’t everything. I’m really interested in how those girls are flourishing when they’re 25, or when they’re 35 and thinking about their own daughter’s education - is what we have inculcated in them still with them and are our
