An outstanding independent Junior School in the heart of London.

Francis Holland Junior School is located in one of the most sought after and elegant areas of central London, just off Sloane Square, with Belgravia and Knightsbridge on the doorstep. It is home to many of London’s premium residential squares, crescents and terraces and therefore attracts many of the world’s leading boutiques and designer stores, bars, restaurants and galleries. Nearby, green open spaces such as Battersea Park (a pleasant walk across the Thames from the school) are enjoyed frequently by our girls, and world-famous shopping streets such as the King’s Road and Sloane Street provide a stimulating backdrop to a first-class education.

As a leading independent girls’ school, with a long tradition of academic excellence, we see our location as an integral part of the complete educational experience that instils confidence and ambition into our girls from an early age. We educate girls from the age of 4 to 11 and are committed to our ethos of inspiring a love of learning and a commitment to traditional values, which are complemented by the development of the new skill sets and attitudes required to thrive in the modern world.

When you walk through the doors of our prep school, you will find happy, confident, and engaged girls, who are encouraged in every area of their lives to thrive. We foster an environment which is always warm, nurturing and inclusive. Along with academic excellence, our girls enjoy a broad curriculum that includes languages, art, music, sport, and many trips out to support their learning, as well as speaker visits, and special events. We want our girls to become tomorrow’s inventors, leaders, entrepreneurs and game-changers.

We have a reputation for strong 11+ exam success, where our girls go onto our Senior School and other leading London independent schools, many with academic, music or sporting scholarships.

For more details regarding registration and visiting us, please visit Prep Admissions.

An independent Prep School near Knightsbridge for 140 years

Our Junior School was founded in 1881 by Reverend Francis Holland and has grown from strength to strength. From the day we opened, our girls have benefitted from our central London location off Sloane Square, just a stone’s throw from both Knightsbridge and Belgravia.

Our school holds traditional values of respect, integrity and kindness but our metropolitan outlook due to our location in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities, means we also instil a contemporary outlook amongst our girls, equip our girls with the resilience, fortitude and all the tools they need to succeed in today’s fast-moving world.

We are committed to the very best teaching, yet our outstanding academic achievement is only part of our success. We believe children who are happy and content, with enquiring minds are set up to learn, which is why we place an emphasis on pastoral care. All members of our school community work together to help your child develop confidence, so they can flourish. We also enjoy good communication with parents, where there are plenty of opportunities for parents to meet with staff, both formally and informally, to discuss their child’s progress.

Many of our girls therefore move on to flourish at our Senior School, yet often we collaborate with the girls and their parents to ensure they are successful in applying to an alternative London independent school in the Knightsbridge, Belgravia or Westminster area, should that be their preferred option.

A Belgravia Prep School with an outstanding academic record

We encourage curiosity and a love of learning. We offer a broad-based and stimulating curriculum, based on the National Curriculum, but with an emphasis on stretching every individual. We inspire our girls to be brave, to not be afraid of making mistakes, but to learn from them and have the confidence to try again. They are determined and focused to succeed.

For children in Reception, we focus on literacy and numeracy to lay the foundations of their learning. These girls also enjoy music, art and sport, and enjoy trips to complement their classroom activities. If you are looking for a private school in London for 4+ entry, our Early Years team are always on hand to talk you through the curriculum and how we approach fostering a love of learning.

In Years 1 and 2, all classes are small and supported by teaching assistants and children build on their knowledge from Reception. They start to enjoy wider subjects, including Science, History and Geography. They also enjoy music, taught by specialist teachers and IT. PE and dance are also taught by specialist staff, including our ballet teacher, who trained at the Royal Ballet School and who is an Examiner at the Royal Academy of Dance. Girls in Years 1 and 2 have the option of joining our French club.

From Years 3 to 6, all girls enjoy a broad and varied curriculum in all subjects. We have a dedicated science laboratory for experiments, as well as a computing suite for IT. Girls play a variety of sports and enjoy regular fixtures and tournaments.

Junior School for girls near Belgravia: Beyond the curriculum

Across all years, our girls enjoy visits to local museums, galleries, and attractions near Belgravia. These include visits to the National Gallery, the Saatchi Gallery, the Imperial War Museum, Sky TV studios, and more. Girls also enjoy regular workshops and visits from speakers such as authors, musicians and many others.

Our older girls also enjoy residential trips to develop their independence and to make lifelong memories.

Our girls also enjoy a wide range of co-curricular clubs, before school, at lunchtime and after school. These include speech and drama, netball, Italian, Mandarin, calligraphy, debating, chess, gymnastics and yoga, to name just a few.

We are specialists in educating girls in a city centre location and this brings its own sets of challenges and issues. We are geared up therefore to provide all the support that our girls need, should they find it harder than others to adapt to a new city or school. We will help them to feel part of a thriving environment and our comprehensive counselling service is available to everyone to ensure wellness, mindfulness and positive mental health for all pupils and staff.