Park School for Girls was 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 ...

all-girls Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...

school situated in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The school merged with Laurel Bank School and the resulting Laurel Park School was absorbed into

Hutchesons' Grammar School Hutchesons' Grammar School is a co-educational independent day school for pupils aged 3-18 in Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded as Hutchesons' Boys' Grammar School by George Hutcheson and Thomas Hutcheson in 1641 It is a selective school, m ...

in 2002.

History

The school was founded in 1880 by the Glasgow Girls School Company, which appointed the self-taught

Georgina Kinnear Georgina Kinnear (1820 – 26 April 1914) was a British headmistress. Life Kinnear was born in Edinburgh in 1820. Her brothers were educated by tutors, but Kinnear taught herself, getting up at 5 am each morning to do so. She was able to poach so ...

to develop a school as she saw fit. One of the first pupils was

Margaret Paulin Young Margaret Paulin Young (4 December 1864 – 15 January 1953) was a Scottish educator. She attended and was later headmistress of the Park School for Girls in Glasgow, where she introduced classes on art and science. Early life Young was born in ...

who rose to become Head Girl. She returned to teach and was groomed by Georgina Kinneear to take her place. Under Young's leadership, the school it continued to grow, developing separate classes for art and science. In 1929, Margaret Paulin Young retired and Janie Robertson became the head of Park School. She was born in Dumfries in 1879 and was a masters graduate of

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 ...

. She had been head of maths and second mistress. She was religious and she could recite parts of the bible from memory. She was active in the church and the

Girl Guides Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

. She led the school until 1944 and died in 1957. In 1976, with a declining need for girls' schools in the west end of Glasgow, the governors of the school agreed to share finances with two other nearby girls' schools. Due to falling enrolments, Park School merged with Laurel Bank school in 1996, creating Laurel Park School. The Park School premises on Lynedoch Street were sold and converted into luxury flats, while Laurel Park School occupied the former Laurel Bank School premises on Lilybank Terrace in Hillhead. Laurel Park School for girls closed in 2002, and pupils transferred to

Laurel Bank School

Laurel Bank had been different before it merged. It had been formed in 1905 by

Margaret Hannan Watson Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular through ...

and Janet Spens who were graduates of St Andrews and Glasgow University. Spens left Watson in charge when she left in 1908. It had distinctive green uniforms. It had also had some notable pupils. One early pupil had read "Scouting for Boys" and with five other students they formed the "Cuckoo Patrol" which was a precursor of the Girl Guides.

Allison Greenlees Allison Greenlees (born Allison Hope Cargill; 13 August 1896 – 4 August 1979) formed a group of girl scouts before it was possible for her to become Scotland's first ever Girl Guide and a founder member of Girlguiding Scotland. Early life Bo ...

was Scotland's first Girl Guide in 1909. A notable and "immortal" staff member was

Agnes Raeburn Agnes Middleton Raeburn (1872-1955) was a Scottish member of the informal group of artists known as "The Immortals". Life Raeburn was born in Glasgow to corn merchant James Raeburn and wife Agnes in 1872. She was the youngest of six siblings, ...

who taught art at Laurel Bank. A later alumni was the journalist

Sally Magnusson Sally Anne Magnusson (born 1955) is a Scottish broadcast journalist, television presenter and writer, who currently presents the Thursday and Friday night edition of BBC Scotland's ''Reporting Scotland''. She also presents ''Tracing Your Roots'' ...

Ann Paton, Lady Paton Ann Paton, Lady Paton, (born 1952) is a Scottish advocate and judge. She is a Senator of the College of Justice, sitting in the High Court of Justiciary and the Inner House of the Court of Session. In 2019 she became the Chairman of the Scottis ...

, the pacifist

Helen Steven Helen Steven (19 October 1942 – 12 April 2016) was a Scottish Quaker peace activist and one of the founders of the Scottish Centre for Nonviolence. Her opposition to the nuclear submarine base in Scotland was recognised with the Gandhi Intern ...

and

Janet Hendry Janet Hendry (23 October 1906– 21 February 2004) was one of the pioneers of Scottish aviation and had the distinction of being the first woman pilot in Scotland. Early life Janet Hendry was born in Ardrossan, Ayrshire on 23 October 1906 to Ann ...

one of the pioneers of Scottish aviation and the first woman pilot in Scotland. Other notable alumni were

Laura Kuenssberg Laura Juliet Kuenssberg (born 8 August 1976) is a British journalist who currently presents the BBC's flagship Sunday morning politics show. She succeeded Nick Robinson as political editor of BBC News in July 2015, and was the first woman to ...

at Laurel Bank

References

{{coord missing, Glasgow 1880 establishments in Scotland Educational institutions established in 1880 Girls' schools in Scotland