A top private school was forced to apologise yesterday after hiring out buildings and grounds for a rapper’s explicit music video.
Governors at Mill Hill School, where fees are up to £33,717 a year, have launched an investigation after scenes included Stefflon Don naked in the shower and smoking marijuana in a dormitory.
The video storyline is about a new girl arriving in school. Stefflon Don’s character wins over classmates after playing in a football match where she swears at an opponent she suspects of diving.
Rapper Stefflon Don inside Mill Hill School in north London for her video for song ‘pretty girl’
The video depicts Stefflon Don, real name, Stephanie Allen, smoking marijuana and showering
Mill Hill in north London shown in ‘Pretty Girl’ is a prestigious school with £33,717 a year fees
The rapper’s character says: ‘What the f***? Are you going to drop just like that?’ She also makes an obscene gesture with her middle finger. Another scene in the Pretty Girl video shows Stefflon Don, 26, in the shower gyrating suggestively.
The film, which also includes ‘pupils’ dancing on desks in a classroom, ends with the dormitory scene in which the rapper smokes drugs with friends.
Yesterday Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘The message being sent by this video popularises everything which good schools should be against – drug-taking, swearing, and overt sexuality.
‘These are all things which schools should be trying to guide pupils away from, not promoting them. Parents who are paying the fees for their children to go there will be appalled.’
Shower scene from Stefflon Don’s video ‘Pretty Girl’ which was shot on the grounds on Mill Hill
Mill Hill sport venue hire ranges from £20.83 -£33.33 per hour, classroom is up to £25 per hour
Stefflon Don (pictured centre) shown dancing in her video in grounds of prestigious Mill Hill
He added: ‘Mill Hill has a fine reputation and one can only hope that they did not know what they were letting themselves in for. It’s a warning to all schools that they need to be very cautious before they hire out their premises.’
The school’s website includes information about how to ‘hire the school’ and its 150-acre grounds for ‘wedding receptions, christenings, bar mitzvahs, special occasion parties, corporate functions, dinner dances, balls, and filming and photographic shoots’.
It adds: ‘All events will be managed and can be catered by our highly skilled staff.’
Prices for hiring its sporting venues range from £20.83 to £33.33 per hour while a classroom is up to £25 per hour.
Stefflon, originally from Birmingham, has publicly stated that she does not drink or take drugs
Stefflon Don, real name Stephanie Allen, can be seen in the video rolling a marijuana joint
A school source has confirmed that the classroom and dormitory scenes were filmed on school premises. Stefflon Don, real name Stephanie Allen, was named Best Female at the MOBO Awards in 2017. Her hits include Hurtin’ Me.
After signing a £1.2million record deal with Polydor last year, she wrote to her 800,000 followers on Instagram: ‘The UK ain’t seen this s*** B4!!!’
Nearly 500,000 people have watched the video for Pretty Girl, which also features rapper, Tiggs da Author, on YouTube. A further nearly 200,000 saw it on Stefflon Don’s Instagram.
Stefflon, originally from Birmingham, has publicly stated that she does not drink or take drugs.
The school announced yesterday that Frances King has stepped down as its head, but denied it was related to the filming of the video.
A spokesman said governors grant permission, ‘from time to time’, for location shooting ‘to raise funds in accordance with their charitable objectives’.
He added: ‘Strict controls are in place on the suitability of the content. The governors are investigating how this filming was allowed to proceed and apologise for any offence caused.’
Last night a spokesman for Stefflon Don said: ‘We don’t have any comment.’
Dr Who and Crick old boys
Mill Hill school in north London costs over £33,000 per year for tuition
Mill Hill School was founded in 1807 to provide a space for boys to learn away from the ‘physical and moral corruption’ in central London.
It began accepting sixth form girls in 1975 and became fully co-educational in 1997. Students are either day pupils, weekly boarders or full-boarders. Fees start at £7,047 a term for day pupils, rising to £11,239 for full-boarders. The school currently has more than 600 pupils, but originally taught just 20.
One historic building was previously owned by botanist Peter Collinson, whose hydrangeas – the first in Britain – still flourish in the grounds. Famous former pupils include Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, Dr Who actor Patrick Troughton and Sir Denis Thatcher.