Head's Introduction

I am delighted to have the opportunity to introduce this site, which will, I hope, give a flavour of Mill Hill County High School.

I came to the School in January 2004, from another headship. The School which I found was one in very good shape, as the 2003 Ofsted Report clearly indicates.

It has been a great pleasure and privilege for me to join such a harmonious, dedicated and capable body of teaching and support staff. In my introductory one-to-one meetings with members of staff, colleagues have conveyed an enormous feeling of enthusiasm for their work, resulting in large measure from the very rewarding and engaging nature of the School's 1600 students.

The students of this School are keen to learn. In a recent survey of the parents of 300 secondary schools nationwide, our students were shown to do 38% more homework than the norm. This, combined with inspiring teaching, contributes to our excellent examination results.

The School has been a Technology College for ten years and this has helped create a forward-looking curriculum which "provides superbly" for the needs of students, according to Ofsted.

Secondary education in Barnet is provided by fully selective schools, single sex schools, schools with religious affiliations and non-denominational comprehensive schools, such as our own; in order to maintain a balanced intake and in line with our specialisms, we allocate 10% of places on the basis of technological aptitude, 10% on musical aptitude and 5% on dance aptitude.

The School is highly traditional in its approach to student behaviour and attitudes. Students are expected to wear our distinctive uniform in a conventional manner, i.e. with collars buttoned, shirts tucked in etc. While all members of the School community are expected to behave respectfully to one another, there is an explicit expectation that students will respect their elders, maintaining a wholly courteous manner towards teaching and support staff, adult visitors and members of the general public. In classes, every student is expected to be trying to be a pleasure to teach.

In contrast to the nationwide decrease in levels of extracurricular activity and school trips, the staff of Mill Hill County High School place great value upon the learning experiences which can be provided by sports teams, musical ensembles, dramatic and dance productions, clubs of every sort and educational visits. The School's extracurricular programme is exceptional and represents a vast amount of voluntary effort on the part of staff; students are expected to avail themselves of appropriate opportunities and to learn the virtues of loyalty and faithfulness.

Only one aspect of the School has been disappointing for me: I regret the fact that we cannot admit all the children who would like to come here; if we did, the School would grow to be 10,000 strong. It is gratifying to be popular but it is dispiriting to have to disappoint well over 1,000 applicants every year.

I hope that you will find this website interesting and that it will provide you with all the information which you seek.

With every good wish,

Yours sincerely

Geoffrey A Thompson
Head