Harris Academy Bermondsey

School summary

Harris Academy Bermondsey is an 11-18 girls’ school in central London, which opened as an Academy in September 2006. The Academy has twice been judged by Ofsted to be an Outstanding School, most recently in March 2015. Harris Bermondsey’s students make exceptional progress as a result of the uncompromising but caring approach to success taken by staff. Girls at the Academy are prepared well for life in modern Britain, with a rigorous academic and creative curriculum alongside a wide range of world class opportunities, including a unique one-to-one business mentoring programme, STEM scholarships and the Commonwealth Festival Choir.

We have a wide range of opportunities in music in particular, with every girl entitled to free private instrumental or voice tuition throughout her time at HAB and scholarships available to those with a particular musical gift.

In 2015, Harris Academy Bermondsey was rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted for the second time in a row.

Academy ethos

Our ethos is one of being uncompromising but caring in everything that we do. This is how we have created a happy and sate learning environment, with firm but fair discipline.

All HAB girls know our rules and abide by them. We expect every girl to be dressed correctly, on time and prepared to work hard, always following staff instructions. Our girls always want to live up to these expectations, but on the rare occasion that one of them fails to do so, she knows that there will be clear consequences, followed by support to learn from the experience.

We offer outstanding care and guidance for every one of our girls. In Year 7 for example, as well as her Learning Family Mentor, every girl has one-to-one transition coaching from a former student, while as many girls who need it have additional reading lessons so that they can achieve their academic potential from the beginning of their time with us.

Throughout her time at HAB, we guarantee that every girl will be known by all her teachers, support staff and the school's senior leaders, including the Principal. We also guarantee to every parent or carer that we will work closely with them to raise their daughter successfully, sharing the joys and challenges of this with honesty and integrity.