About us

Girls at Hanford enjoy a country life in a relaxed family atmosphere and at the same time maintain a standard of work that will enable them to fulfil their own potential. Hanford girls climb trees, ride before breakfast, make their own clothes and develop free spirits. We want our girls to have fun and lots of it, but we also expect them to work hard.

We believe this traditional approach explains why, for a small school, Hanford achieves excellent academic results with many of our girls winning scholarships to their senior school. We also have high expectations musically and artistically and that too is reflected in the large number of awards every year.

We believe that the girls who come to Hanford should always be allowed to be children and to enjoy the natural life and play of a child. They should be allowed to mature in their own time and as individuals in their own right, learning how to live with other children. There is always time for play and for free imagination, which enables them to make friends and keep them. Our aim is that by the time they leave Hanford our girls will have learned to work independently without continual pressure and supervision, and will have recognised within themselves the desire and ability to achieve. 

Latest news

12 Dec 2024

Nativity at Hanford School

Parents, staff and visitors were treated to an early Christmas present on Sunday 8th December when senior pupils at Hanford performed the school’s traditional Nativity play.

12 Dec 2024

Nativity at Hanford School

Parents, staff and visitors were treated to an early Christmas present on Sunday 8th December when senior pupils at Hanford performed the school’s traditional Nativity play. This play was written for Hanford’s Founder, Sarah Canning by Donald Kittermaster, an English teacher at The King’s School Worcester, in 1960 – using words from the King James Bible, Wordsworth and T. S. Elliot. The music was chosen by Kittermaster’s wife, Meriel, and costumes donated by Lady Rockley from the Amerhurst Collection. The same play, set to the same music and with the same costumes, has been performed by girls in Years 7 and 8 ever since.

The sense of history was tangible on a chilly, and windy, Sunday evening and Francoise Witheridge who has been directing the play since 1989 said she felt a real sense of responsibility to keep the play exactly as it was originally intended. The choreography of the play is such that different scenes from famous pieces of art, such as Botticelli, Guido Reni and Murillo, are recreated adding an additional layer of interest and poignancy.

We were delighted to be joined this year by Joy Plested, below, who was one of the very first cohort of girls joining Hanford when the school was founded in 1947. Joy, then called Joy Graham, joined the school the following year in 1948 and entertained current pupils with tales about the school’s early days.

Hilary Phillips, Head of Hanford, praised the girls’ performance, “This was a wonderful production, the Nativity is one of Hanford’s most precious traditions, it has been performed in the Hall at Hanford since 1960 every year, and I look forward to many more performances in the years to come.”

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