Didcot Girls' School (also known as DGS) is a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

with academy status for students in

Didcot Didcot ( ) is a railway town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire and the historic county of Berkshire. Didcot is south of Oxford, east of Wantage and north west of Reading. The town is noted for its railway heritage, Di ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

and the surrounding

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

. The school has been awarded with

Language College Language Colleges were introduced in 1995 as part of the specialist schools programme (SSP) in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, modern foreign languages. Schools that succes ...

and Enterprise College status (as of 2006). The mixed sixth form, known as Didcot Sixth Form, is shared with St Birinus School. The school is made up of seven houses which are named after famous women who are considered potential role models for the students. These are Adie House, Bussell House, Ennis House, Greenfield House, Kennedy House, MacArthur House and Wilson House. Each house group has a different colour; red for Adie, pink for Bussell, orange for Ennis, yellow for Greenfield, purple for Kennedy, navy for MacArthur and green for Wilson. There were eight houses, but Roddick House and Plazas House were removed in September 2010 to make six. In September 2012, following Jessica Ennis' success at the London 2012 Olympics, Ennis house was created, bringing the number of houses to seven. The school has four main building blocks; St. Frideswide's (also known as Frids), Austen, Sherwood (formerly New Building) and Cockcroft. A large, modern sports hall is sited next to St. Frideswide's, and the canteen in St. Frideswide's is rated five stars. The executive headteacher, Rachael Warwick, was previously the Deputy Head at

Bartholomew School Bartholomew School is a secondary school with academy status which is situated in the village of Eynsham, West Oxfordshire, England. In the 2016/17 school year there were 1221 pupils on roll, 122 of whom are in the sixth form. The school's cur ...

. The current headteacher is Georgina Littler, having been appointed from May 2020. The "Friends of DGS" charitable committee was relaunched in 2015 by parent and staff member Lisa Turner to raise funds for the school. They have a monthly 'lottery' and September 26, 2015, sees the first ever "DGS Fest" which is a music, craft and beer festival within the school grounds.

History

The school was created by the merger in the early 1970s of the former St. Frideswides

secondary modern school A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usually ...

and adjacent Didcot Girls'

Grammar School A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

Notable former pupils

Jasmine Lowson Jasmine Lowson (born 1972) is a British actress, journalist and presenter of Singaporean descent. Early life Lowson was born in Chatham, Kent, South East England to an English father and a Singaporean mother (''née'' Yam Kheng Chan). She moved to ...

, TV presenter

Didcot Girls' Grammar School

Henrietta Knight (racehorse trainer) Henrietta Catherine Knight (born 15 December 1946) is a retired English Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. Knight is best known as a trainer of National Hunt racehorses. She is the daughter of Major Hubert Guy Broughton Knight (1917–1993) and H ...

, trainer of

Best Mate Best Mate (28 January 1995 – 1 November 2005) was an Irish-bred, English-trained racehorse and three-time winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. He was considered one of the most loved horses in the history of horse racing in the UK, with hi ...

(1995-2005 racehorse) * Ann Packer MBE, middle-distance runner who, at the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

, won gold in the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

(in a world record) and silver in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

; she held the women's

800 metres world record The following table shows the world record progression in the men's and women's 800 metres, officially ratified by the IAAF. Men The first world record in the men's 800 metres was recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federatio ...

from October 1964 to June 1967

References

External links

School website
Girls' schools in Oxfordshire Secondary schools in Oxfordshire Academies in Oxfordshire Didcot {{Oxfordshire-school-stub