King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls

If your daughter is bright, busy and happiest when there is plenty going on, Handsworth Girls is the kind of school where she will fit right in. One parent told the Good Schools Guide it is a place that "helps raise strong competent females with a voice", and the Guide describes a school that suits motivated, busy and bright girls within one of the most diverse and inclusive communities you could hope to find. Girls travel in from across Birmingham to be here, some commuting well over an hour because they want the place.

The school has been part of the King Edward VI family since it was founded in 1883, settling on its Handsworth site in 1911. Parents tell the Good Schools Guide they are won over by the quality of teaching and by support that arrives before they have even realised it is needed. Music has real warmth, with one parent recalling a concert where a flute ensemble wove silvery sound around the audience, and sport has come on quickly with more variety and more wins. The learning support department is widely admired and nationally recognised, and there is a student-run neurodiversity club, the sort of detail that tells you how the girls look out for one another.

This is a good fit for a hard-working, curious girl who wants to be stretched and looked after in equal measure, in a community that genuinely reflects the city around it. Led since September 2024 by headteacher David Goodwin, it is a school where a daughter can be ambitious without ever feeling she has to be anyone other than herself.