We are delighted to share that Muddy Stilettos has published an in-depth review of The Hall, exploring everything from academics and pastoral care to music, sport and the wider pupil experience.
The review opens by describing The Hall as: “A warm, friendly, unpretentious-yet-ambitious selective boys’ school in leafy NW3 with a seriously impressive academic record and well-established links to the top senior schools in the country.”
Read the full review here.
The article highlights the breadth of opportunities available to Hall boys and, in particular, the strength of the school’s music provision:
“Roughly 90 per cent of boys play at least one instrument, with 54 clubs (including everything from choir to oboe) and 26 music teachers, many on site four days per week. The result? Over the past three years, pupils have secured 13+ music scholarships and awards to top schools including Westminster, St Paul’s, Eton and Winchester. In addition, 10 boys are in the National Children’s Orchestra and six in the National Youth Choir.”
The review also shines a spotlight on the Hall’s Junior School environment, recognising the importance of providing young boys with inspiring spaces in which to learn and play:
“Muddy thought the townhouse building Junior School’s based in was idyllic, with high ceilings, airy rooms and plenty of art and colour throughout. When it comes to releasing energy, there’s a terrific wood climbing frame, dinky kitchen, building blocks, trikes and water play to let pupils loose on.”
Throughout the article, Muddy Stilettos explores the school’s combination of academic ambition, extensive co-curricular provision and strong pastoral support, alongside the many opportunities available to boys both inside and outside the classroom.community.
Read the full review here.
We are delighted to share two pieces of wonderful news from Tatler.
The Hall School has been featured in the latest Tatler Schools Guide, one of the UK’s most respected independent school publications. Even more excitingly, we have also been nominated by Tatler as Best Prep School, a recognition that reflects the exceptional work of our pupils, staff and wider school community.
Featured in the Tatler Schools Guide
In its review, Tatler highlights The Hall’s strong academic outcomes, breadth of opportunity and commitment to developing well-rounded boys.
The guide notes that recent leavers secured an impressive 15 scholarships, including seven academic, five music, one for design and technology and two sports awards.
Reflecting on the school’s ethos, one parent says: “While the school is ambitious and selective, once a boy joins, the focus is firmly on understanding him as an individual and helping him reach his potential.”
The review goes on to celebrate the rich variety of opportunities available beyond the classroom, from sport and music to creative pursuits and educational experiences. Perhaps most tellingly, Tatler chose to include a pupil’s own words: “We have so many opportunities to find our talents and what we love.”
Nominated for Best Prep School
Alongside being included in the guide, we are particularly proud to have been shortlisted by Tatler for Best Prep School.
This nomination is a tribute to the energy, dedication and ambition that can be seen across every part of school life. It reflects our belief that an outstanding prep education should combine academic excellence with exceptional pastoral care, inspiring teaching, breadth of opportunity and a genuine understanding of every child as an individual.
A Whole-School Achievement
We would like to thank our pupils, staff, parents and alumni for helping to make The Hall such a special place. Recognition from Tatler is a wonderful endorsement of the school’s approach, but it is the achievements, character and happiness of our boys that remain our greatest measure of success.
The Hall School is proud to present this year’s senior school drama production, A Monster Calls, based on the award-winning novel by Patrick Ness.
Join us in the Wathen Hall for a powerful and deeply moving performance brought to life by our incredibly talented cast. Tickets are FREE but booking is essential.
Tuesday 30th June – 6pm
Wednesday 1st July – 2pm
At The Hall, environmental responsibility is not a one-off initiative – it is embedded in the life of the school. Since 2018, our commitment to sustainability has been driven by a passionate, pupil-led Eco-Committee and a shared belief that young people are the future custodians of our planet. We are proud to have this work recognised with the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award, the programme’s highest accolade.
Our Eco-Schools journey continues to evolve as pupils deepen their understanding of key issues such as energy use, marine conservation, biodiversity, and global citizenship. Each year group contributes to this learning, ensuring that environmental awareness grows alongside academic development.
“What makes our Eco-Schools programme so impactful is that it is genuinely pupil-led. The boys are not only learning about environmental challenges—they are actively shaping solutions. Their enthusiasm and sense of responsibility are what make this work so meaningful.”
— Abbie Luck, Eco-Schools Coordinator
Our Eco-Committee, made up of pupil representatives from Year 1 through to Year 8, alongside staff volunteers, meets regularly to ensure that sustainability remains a collective priority. Through assemblies, student feedback, and ongoing projects, every member of the school community plays a role in shaping our environmental impact.
Guided by the core principle of the 5 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose, Refuse, pupils take ownership of meaningful, practical change.
This academic year has seen a wide range of impactful, pupil-led initiatives:
One of the highlights of the year was our Earth Hour celebration in the Junior School. With lights switched off across the building, pupils spent an hour focused on positive environmental action. The event culminated in a vibrant fashion show, where boys designed imaginative outfits from recycled materials—modelled by their teachers. It was a joyful and powerful reminder that sustainability can be both creative and collaborative.
Name: Otto Turton
Years at The Hall: 1989 – 1998
House: Purple House
Current Role: Chief Commercial Officer, Vue Entertainment
Long before stepping behind the scenes of Europe’s cinema landscape, Otto Turton saw a world with a built-in curiosity – an instinctive habit of framing life and reading the room that fit harmoniously with his education at The Hall. That refined tenacity carried him from PwC to Amazon, leading to his current role as Chief Commercial Officer at Vue Entertainment. There, he oversees everything from digital innovation to the European release of major titles, including a recent BAFTA-nominated film.
“I get to watch films for a living!” he laughs – though the reality is far more intricate. Over the last decade, Turton has been an early adopter of AI in the workplace, using it to schedule more than 70,000 screenings each week across Vue’s cinemas – a logistical long-take that requires precision and creative problem-solving in equal measure.
He keeps his lens focused on audience behaviour too: analysing how filmgoers respond to new investments like recliner seating, soon to premiere at the Vue on Finchley Road.
What drew him to cinema in the first place was its timeless, communal pull. “I wanted to do something that tangibly made people happier,” he unveils. In an age of fractured media, he values the rare magic of an audience sitting together, eyes aligned, looking forward.
“No week is the same,” he adds, “Each new release changes the atmosphere – and gives you something new to learn about what customers love.”
Turton’s story began long before the executive credits rolled. From 1989 to 1998, he was a Hall boy – a proud member of Purple House and later a Prefect. Maths and football were his twin call sheets: intellectual discipline on one side, team spirit on the other.
His time at the school remains deeply cemented in his life – not least through his lifelong friendships. Tellingly, all three of his sons have godfathers who are fellow former Hall boys.
The scenes from Turton’s time at The Hall have never left the frame; today, they serve as a blueprint for his own children. With two sons currently attending the school – and one joining for Reception in September – he is watching a new generation navigate the same halls.
“I hope they have fond memories, like I do,” he explains. “I see them trying so many different things, and I hope that willingness to explore stays with them their whole lives.”
His decision to return as a parent was not an act of mirroring, but clarity. Having watched the school “continue to flourish,” he recognised a landscape of academic and pastoral care that has become even richer than the one he knew. That intuition has “proven to be the case,” a storyline that leaves him, in his own words, “incredibly happy.”
As his own story has unfolded, Turton has found that adulthood – much like the film industry – demands constant reframing. He believes the opening shot of a career is set at school, but what follows requires a willingness to keep adjusting the lens.
“Being exposed to different things and staying humble and eager to learn from others,” he says, are the qualities he hopes current boys carry forward. In an age of targeted information, he views critical thinking as the ultimate survival skill. The future, he believes, belongs to those who can navigate the world with a steady hand behind the camera.
Every so often, The Hall plays host to a week that feels less like a timetable and more like a quilt – woven with stories, flavours and traditions from every corner of our boys’ lives. Heritage Week returned this year with all its trademark vibrancy, giving the boys an opportunity not merely to learn, but to share, showcase, and shine.
Each year group brought its own flair to the celebration.
Year 4 mapped out meaningful places from their family histories.
Year 5 championed historic moments and sporting icons.
Year 6 turned memories into striking visual art and photography.
Year 7 filled classrooms with the rhythm of languages and music passed down through generations.
And Year 8, ever the connoisseurs, crowned the week with a magnificent Heritage Buffet—complete with dishes and stories lovingly sourced from home.
Why It Matters
“Heritage Week gives every boy the chance to share the stories, traditions and places that shape their family identity. By learning from one another’s cultures, the boys develop curiosity, empathy and a richer understanding of the world. It’s a simple yet powerful way to deepen their learning and celebrate the diversity within our community.”
As The Hall’s Diversity and Inclusion Lead, Ognjen Soskic reflected.
“Whether they are from these shores or elsewhere in the world, Heritage Week at The Hall gives every boy the chance to share the stories, traditions and places that shape their family identity. By learning about one another’s history and culture, the boys develop curiosity, empathy and a richer understanding of each other, and the world. It’s a simple yet powerful way to deepen their learning and celebrate the diversity within our community.”
A Community Woven Together
The true magic of the week lay in the quiet moments—boys listening intently to each other, discovering just how much depth sits within the community they see every day. It was a celebration of pride, connection and the understanding that learning extends far beyond textbooks.
A Glittering Highlight of the School Year
With its colour, curiosity and sense of shared celebration, Heritage Week once again proved itself a standout moment in the school calendar. A dazzling reminder that every boy brings a story worth hearing – and that together, those stories make The Hall shine.
Name: Callum MacKillop
Years at The Hall: 2008 – 2015
House: Purple House
Current Career: Poet, Editor, Gap Year Student at The Hall
Over a decade ago, the familiar susurrus of the library, the hum of the DT room, the bright, tentative pluck of first instruments and the rising cadence of debate sparring in the corridors served as a sanctuary of sorts for Callum Mackillop, who was, even then, instinctively drawn to the worlds that words could open – a pull that would deepen over time.
His bright, enquiring energy has since carried him from classroom beanbags to the archives of The Times Literary Supplement. Despite bouts of mischievous during his prep years–a rite spared by no boy in his young age–there was one constant that held fast: his fascination with stories, and the intricate mechanics of how words work.
The Making of a Writer
Such curiosity has gathered its own momentum. After graduating from St Andrews in 2024, Mackillop has gone on to publish essays in The London Magazine and intern with the Times Literary Supplement where he combed through more than a century of archival poems by writers like Sylvia Plath, Auden, and R.S. Thomas. In late 2025, he founded Slow Burn, a bi-annual poetry pamphlet supported by the T.S. Eliot Foundation, now stocked by the London Review Bookshop and collected by the National Poetry Library – a rare distinction for an emerging writer.
“In the years since I graduated, I realised I had a few poems which I was ready to do something with and I thought that I had a rare window of time and quite a unique opportunity to make something,” MacKillop remarks.
Returning to the Stanza
Now he has returned to The Hall as a gap-year support teacher in the Senior School – writing in the early mornings, reading submissions in the rare quiet moments, and inspiring boys in the very classrooms that once shaped him.
“It’s very easy to connect with these boys and their lives – there’s something very tender about being back here,” he says. “There are some great little groups – quirky boys with a good vibe going – and I love seeing them look out for each other.”
Library sessions with Mr Gilbey McKenzie have stood the test of Mackillop’s memory. He recalls the heat of the playground still on their faces, boys sinking into bean bags as this “stern old man softened into these stories” – a storyteller whose voice could shift the entire atmosphere of the room. It was, as Mackillop puts it, the moment he first realised how a story could “sweep you up” and carry you somewhere entirely different.
Learning his Form
At university, he roamed widely across English, art history, film and classics, yet poetry proved the constant to which he returned. Working with Don Paterson – the Scottish poet and musician whose accolades include two T.S. Eliot Prizes – he began to understand writing as both craft and sensation: a process in which form, feeling, and precision converge.
Slow Burn, the poetry pamphlet he founded after graduating, grew from finding meaning and poems in those short, rich, rhythmic feelings that burn slowly. Its success was surprising to Mackillop as it began as a personal project but has since amassed into “something small but meaningful.”
The Turn
When asked what he would tell current pupils, Mackillop doesn’t hesitate: read widely, take the stage when it’s offered, make things even when you’re not sure how they’ll turn out. Perform, present, try, experiment – because it is this habit of trying it out that leads to craft. If you have an idea for something, he says, just begin. Gather a few friends, find a space, and start. It is the same principle that penned his journey from indefatigable schoolboy to published poet – the courage to begin.
Looking ahead, Mackillop hopes to continue writing while pursuing further study; he has applications in for master’s programmes in modern and contemporary literature and intends to keep expanding Slow Burn as both a publication and a home for new voices. The second edition of Slow Burn is out now.
This week at The Hall School, classrooms, laboratories and halls were alive with the energy of STEM Week, as boys across the school immersed themselves in a programme of experiments, workshops and challenges designed to spark curiosity and stretch young minds.
Across all year groups, the week was defined by lively experimentation, inventive thinking and the sort of intellectual confidence that grows when bright boys are encouraged to test ideas and explore how things work.
The week began with hands-on workshops for Years 2 and 3, where pupils explored scientific ideas through practical activities designed to encourage questioning, experimentation and teamwork.
These early encounters with investigation set the tone for the days ahead. Whether observing reactions, testing ideas or simply asking “what happens if…?”, boys approached each task with enthusiasm and curiosity.
Midweek saw Year 5 take centre stage with a lively assembly introducing the science behind catapults before putting theory into practice in the much-anticipated Catapult Challenge in Wathen Hall.
Designing, building and refining their models, boys worked through the principles of force, trajectory and engineering with impressive determination. The room quickly filled with the kind of purposeful energy that comes when learning becomes hands-on.
The week concluded with a whole-school STEM assembly and a talk for Years 7 and 8, drawing together the ideas explored throughout the programme and celebrating the boys’ enthusiasm for discovery.
STEM Week also coincided with British Science Week, a nationwide celebration organised by the British Science Association that encourages schools, communities and organisations across the UK to engage with science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
At The Hall, STEM Week is not simply a series of activities. It reflects a wider culture of curiosity and ambition — one in which boys are encouraged to ask questions, test ideas and approach challenges with confidence.
We are delighted to celebrate the musical achievements of four Hall boys, who have been awarded prestigious 13+ scholarships and exhibitions to their next schools.
These awards are a wonderful recognition of the boys’ talent, commitment, and passion for music, as well as their dedication over many years of practice and performance.
Our thanks go to the staff whose expert teaching, individual tuition, and rich musical provision have supported and inspired these boys throughout their time at The Hall.
We congratulate Leo, Sebastian, Lucas, and Benedict on this fantastic achievement and look forward to following their continued musical journeys.
Learn more about our 13+ results and leavers’ destinations.
Last week, The Hall was filled with stories as boys across the school celebrated World Book Day. From author visits and book swaps to shared reading sessions and imaginative costumes, the week was a joyful celebration of the power of books.
Author Visits
Boys had the opportunity to hear directly from visiting authors throughout the week.
Years 4–6 welcomed Sam Sedgman, bestselling author of the Isaac Turner Investigates series, who spoke about the creative process behind storytelling. Later in the week, Years 7 and 8 met Anthony McGowan, Carnegie Medal–winning author, who shared insights into the craft of writing.
Younger boys also enjoyed author visits, with Tori Kosara speaking to Reception and Year 1, and Tor Freeman visiting Years 2 and 3.
Sharing Stories
Books were shared in many ways throughout the week. Boys took part in a book swap, discovering new stories from classmates, while a pop-up bookshop from Primrose Hill Books allowed boys to browse and choose new titles.
The school also came together for a Whole School Reading Run, where classrooms paused to read at the same time.
Reading Together
Older boys shared stories with younger pupils during paired reading sessions, building confidence and a shared love of books across year groups.
Teachers also hosted a Readathon, reading aloud from favourite children’s stories and bringing books to life for the boys.
Celebrating Reading
Alongside these activities, boys completed Reading Bingo challenges and entered a 500-word writing competition, exploring their own creativity as young storytellers.
At The Hall, reading sits at the heart of school life — and World Book Day is a wonderful reminder of the curiosity, imagination and joy that books inspire.
