Brighton Girls, formerly Brighton and Hove High School, is an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
day school for girls aged 4 to 18 in the city of
Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England.
Brighton Girls GDST is ISI rated ‘Excellent’. The school was founded in 1876 and has 450 pupils. The school has a Prep School (Early Years, Key stages 1 & 2), High and Sixth Form, making it the only all-through girls’ school in Brighton.
Brighton Girls is one of the schools of the GDST (
Girls' Day School Trust
The Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) is a group of 25 independent schools, including two academies, in England and Wales, catering for girls aged 3 to 18. It is the largest group of independent schools in the UK, and educates 20,000 girls each ye ...
). Its main site is at Montpelier Road and includes the Temple building in the
Montpelier area of the city with the Prep School opposite on Temple Gardens. In addition to netball courts, sports hall, gym and dance studio, the school also has its Astroturf playing field and further sports facilities on nearby Radinden Manor Road.
The Head of Brighton Girls is Rosie McColl, who started in the autumn term of 2019.
The Good Schools Guide describes Brighton Girls as a school that is “certain of its own value and ethos, with individual encouragement producing fantastic results and grounded girls”.
History
Brighton Girls School is the seventh oldest school founded under the Girls' Day School Trust (1876). Its founders had radical ideas about education for women. The school founders' names are now used as the houses, Stanley, Lyttleton, Grey and Gurney. Their Latin motto is translated as "Truth is the way".
Academics
Entrance examinations consist of: 11 + Maths, English & VR; 13+ Maths, English, Science, MFL; 16+ Minimum of 5 GCSE passes (including English Language & Maths) with 8/7 s in subjects to be pursued; applicants are also interviewed.
Pupils can take part in a number of societies and extra-curricular activities. School pupils are divided into four Houses: Grey, Gurney, Lyttelton and Stanley; the Houses compete in a series of events and competitions to earn points, which go towards the House Cup, also known as the Banfora Cup, at the end of each academic year.
In 2021, 26 per cent of the school's GCSE grades were grade 9, the highest, and another 26 per cent were grade 8.
[Henry Tomlinson]
"GCSEs: Brighton Girls Headmistress slams grade critics"
'' The Argus'', 12 August 2021
Creativity
Since 2018, the school has had an artist-in-residence,
Crimson Trebar, and has held open houses and art displays.
The school has had a resident dance company, Penny & Jules Youth Dance, for many years. This company, alongside the school's own dance clubs and groups, works towards the annual dance show, 'Momentum', which is held at the Old Market in Brighton.
Rebranding
The school underwent a rebranding in late 2019, including the change of name (from 'Brighton and Hove High School' to 'Brighton Girls'), as a well as an updated logo.
Notable former pupils
*
Karen Barber
Karen Barber (born 21 June 1961 in Manchester) is a British ice dancer. She is the 1983 European bronze medalist and competed at two Olympics with partner Nicky Slater.
Skating career
Barber won the silver medal at the 1977 World Junior Cham ...
, ice dancer
*
Alexandra Bastedo
Alexandra Lendon Bastedo (9 March 1946 – 12 January 2014) was a British actress, best known for her role as secret agent Sharron Macready in the 1968 British espionage/science fiction adventure series ''The Champions''. Bastedo was a vegetar ...
, actress
*
Blanche Baughan
Blanche Edith Baughan (16 January 1870 – 20 August 1958) was a New Zealand poet, writer, botanist and penal reformer.
Biography
Early life and education
Baughan was born in Putney, Surrey, England, on 16 January 1870, one of six c ...
, poet, writer, penal reformer
*
Jasmine Birtles, financial and business journalist, author and presenter
*
Elizabeth Beresford, creator of
The Wombles
''The Wombles'' are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures created by Elisabeth Beresford and originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. They live in burrows, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recyc ...
*
Rosemary Coogan, astrophysicist, astronaut
*
Beth Cordingly
Beth Cordingly (born 25 October 1976) is an English actress, known for her appearances in series ''Family Affairs'', ''The Bill'' and ''Dead Set''.
Early life
Cordingly was born in Brighton and went to Brighton and Hove High School. She is the ...
, actress
*
Helen David, artist
*
Rosa Dean, Senior Circuit Judge
*
Grace Eyre Woodhead, Philanthropist, pioneer of disability rights and mental health care
*
Constance Garnett
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, translator
*
Sally Greengross
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, equality campaigner, politician
*
Louise Gullifer
Louise Gullifer is a British legal academic and barrister who is Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at the University of Cambridge. She is the first woman to hold this professorship and was formerly Professor of Commercial Law at the Universit ...
, Professor of English Law
*
Margaret Joachim, politician and campaigner
*
Martha Kearney
Martha Catherine Kearney (born 8 October 1957) is a British-Irish journalist and broadcaster. She was the main presenter of BBC Radio 4's lunchtime news programme ''The World at One'' for 11 years, and in April 2018 became a presenter of the ear ...
, journalist
*
Amy Levy, poet and writer
*
Theodora Lisle Prankerd, botanist
*
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was an English-American actress, singer, director, writer, and producer. T ...
, actress
*
Louisa Martindale
Louisa Martindale, (30 October 1872 – 5 February 1966) was an English physician, surgeon, and writer. She also served as magistrate on the Brighton bench, was a prison commissioner and a member of the National Council of Women. She served ...
, surgeon
*
Hilda Martindale, British civil servant and author
*
Suzy Menkes
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, Editor of the
International Herald Tribune, journalist
*
Gwenda Morgan, artist
*
Maureen Muggeridge
Maureen Muggeridge (13 August 1948 – 7 October 2010) was a British geologist best known for discovering the Argyle diamond deposit in the north of Western Australia.
Early life and education
Muggeridge was born in Croydon; her father was Eric ...
, geologist and gemologist
*
Geraldine Newman
Geraldine Newman (born 18 February 1934) is an English film and television actress who has acted in more than 30 television programmes and films.
Career
Newman attended drama school in Brighton. She is best known for her role as Hilda Hughes in ...
, actress
*
Lindsay Northover, Baroness Northover
Lindsay Patricia Northover, Baroness Northover, (born 21 August 1954; née Granshaw) is a British academic, Liberal Democrat politician, member of the House of Lords, and former junior government minister.
Early life
The daughter of Charles an ...
, politician
*
Karen Pickering
Karen Denise Pickering, MBE (born 19 December 1971) is a former freestyle swimmer from Great Britain.
Swimming career
She made her international senior debut in 1986. She was first selected to represent her country at the European Junior Cham ...
, swimmer
*
Estelle Rowe, engineer, STEM campaigner
*
Kalea Stagg, netballer
*
Frances Stead Sellers
Frances Stead Sellers is a senior writer at ''The Washington Post'' and frequent moderator for the newsroom’s live platform, Washington Post Live.
Life and career
Sellers’ career as a reporter, editor and moderator has ranged from politics t ...
, journalist
*
Rebecca Stott
Rebecca Stott (born 1964) is a British writer and broadcaster and, until her retirement from teaching in 2021, was Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of ...
, author
*
Faynia Williams, international director, BBC Producer of drama and documentaries
[http://www.brightontheatre.com/people]
Notable staff
*
Gabrielle Lambrick (1913-1968), civil servant, educator and historian taught at the school.
See also
*
Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove: A–B
References
External links
Official websiteProfile
on the Independent Schools Council
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a non-profit lobby group that represents over 1,300 schools in the United Kingdom's independent education sector. The organisation comprises seven independent school associations and promotes the bus ...
website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brighton Girls School
Independent schools in Brighton and Hove
Girls' schools in East Sussex
Educational institutions established in 1876
Schools of the Girls' Day School Trust
Member schools of the Girls' Schools Association
Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
1876 establishments in England