The school specialises in engineering and languages, and has a strong rivalry with nearby St Olave's Grammar School. The current head teacher is Alan Blount. The school's motto is Fortitudine Crescamus. The school has recently begun admitting boys into the sixth form. It is in the Crofton area of Orpington, not far from the A21 and next to Darrick Wood. Darrick Wood School and the Princess Royal University Hospital are the other side of Darrick Wood, to the west. The London Outer Orbital Path passes adjacent to the playing fields. It lies in the parish of St Paul's, Crofton.
History
It was founded as the Orpington Grammar School for Girls in 1957, when administered by the Kent Education Committee. It became part of Bromley in 1965. There were firm plans for the school to become comprehensive in 1978. Nearby Bullers Wood School went comprehensive in the late 1970s. In 1997, a survey in the Sunday Times found that the school was the best value in England for each A or B grade achieved at A-level, second to St Olave's school; Bromley was a low spender comparative to other LEAs. In 2004, a pupil gained the best result at Maths GCSE in England. In 2009 the headteacher told the conference in Harrogate of the Girls' Schools Association that schools were not concentrating on brighter pupils, instead trying to raise average pupils' grades from D to C, and that girls in mixed-sex schools can have their ambitions crushed and be held back in male-dominated professions. She also criticised a government scheme to give one-to-one tuition to less able pupils, and not more-able students, when considering the lack of women in traditionally-male occupations, and she claimed there was a 'huge reluctance' to concentrate on top students. On 1 April 2011, the school gained academy status.
In 2003 Newstead Wood was described by Ofsted as "an outstandingly successful school". The school has a large catchment area, from which pupils are selected on the basis of tests in verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Around 900 girls sit the entrance tests annually and competition is intense. In 2004 there were eight applicants per place. Amongst leavers in 2005, 25 students gained places at Oxford and Cambridge universities. It gets the second best A-level results in Bromley, after the St Olave's school – Bromley's parallel selective school for boys – and around the tenth best in Greater London. In both 2010 and 2011, the school achieved the second best GCSE results in the country.
Houses
Initially the school had no house system but when it was introduced there were only three houses: Nightingale, Wren and Swift. The first letters of each house came from the initials of Newstead Wood School, and the name of the house was both a bird, and a notable historical figure. Each year group had three classes, one from each house. As the school expanded, each year group grew to 4 classes, and a fourth house, Griffin, was founded. The school continued to expand, growing to 5 classes in each year, and so the Falcon house was founded. It expanded still, having six classes since the September 2013 intake. The school now consists of six houses: Nightingale, Wren, Swift, Falcon, Griffin and Phoenix. The first five house names come from the school's initials NWSFG, the sixth house, Phoenix was added in 2017 and celebrates the school reaching six forms for all years in the school. The September 2017 intake was the first year group to include Phoenix.
Entrance examinations
There are currently two examinations required to gain a place at the school: verbal and non-verbal reasoning.
