St Albans Girls' School, usually referred to as STAGS, is a girls

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) ...

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. It was formerly known as "St Albans Girls' Grammar School." It is one of three all-girls schools in St Albans, the others being Loreto College and St Albans High School for Girls; the latter is private and selective. The school has specialisms in Business and Enterprise and Applied Learning. There are approximately 1,300 students, including boys, on roll at the school (2010 figures). The current Headteacher is Mrs Margaret Chapman. Mr Howard Bracegirdle has been Site

Achievements and recognition

* Number of students achieving 5 GCSE grades A*-C is usually between 85-90%. * The School was awarded the School Achievement Award by

DfES The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) was a United Kingdom government department between 2001 and 2007, responsible for the education system (including higher education and adult learning) as well as children's services in England. Th ...

in 2002.

House system

The school has eight houses, all named after famous women: Austen, Bronte,

Curie In computing, a CURIE (or ''Compact URI'') defines a generic, abbreviated syntax for expressing Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). It is an abbreviated URI expressed in a compact syntax, and may be found in both XML and non-XML grammars. A CURIE ...

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

, Hepworth,

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

Parks A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

and Seacole. The assigned colour of the house that a student belongs to is displayed as a small stag on their blouse collar. Parks is a new house that was made for the start of the 2019 academic year, after the school had finished its £2.5 million expansion that took a year to complete. The colours are as follows: *Austen - Red *Bronte - Yellow *Curie - Green *Franklin - Orange *Hepworth - Blue *Johnson - Silver *Parks - Pink *Seacole - Purple Each house has a head of house (staff) and either one or two house captains elected from the Lower 6th. The house system encourages a positive competitive nature in sports and competitions. There are a number of big events covered by the house system every year. The Christmas Fair includes stalls from each house competing for three awards: 'Best Stall', 'Best Display' and 'Best over all contribution to the Fair'. There is also an inter-house Easter event which has a different theme every year. In 2011 it was 'One, Two, Glee....Go!', an event where each house had to present a piece by a specific artist. There is also a themed 'House Challenge Day' every year, where each house has various tasks to fulfill to make up a final score. The winning house gets a large number of house points to add to their total. The previous house system had seven houses, all named after planets: Krypton (the home planet of superman), Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto.

Uniform

The uniform consists of a navy blue blazer with badge, a navy, knee-length skirt or navy trousers, a navy jumper with school trim and blue badge with embroidered STAGs in house colours. The

Sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

may wear more formal, work-style clothes, which include a smart skirt of reasonable length or smart full-length trousers and a blouse or top with sleeves. Boys should wear a formal shirt and trousers. On formal occasions when representing the school, all sixth formers must wear a black tailored jacket with white shirt (and tie for the boys), black trousers or skirt.

Notable former pupils

Olivia Allison Olivia Elizabeth N. Federici (née Allison; born 13 February 1990) is a British synchronized swimmer. She was born in Plymouth. Career Her most notable achievements to date are winning four consecutive gold medals at the British Synchronized ...

, Olympic synchronized swimmer. *

Anouk Denton Anouk Denton (born 9 May 2003) is an English footballer who plays as a defender for West Ham United in the FA Women's Super League. Educated at St Albans Girls' School, St Albans, Hertfordshire; Denton was signed by Arsenal Ladies to their acade ...

, footballer *

Maddy Prior Madelaine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the police dr ...

of the electric folk band

Steeleye Span Steeleye Span are a British folk rock band formed in 1969 in England by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings and established London folk club duo Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. The band were part of the 1970s British folk revival, and we ...

. *

Jeany Spark Jeannette "Jeany" Spark (born 7 November 1982) is an English actress, known for portraying Linda Wallander in the British television series '' Wallander''. The actress has also had significant roles in the comedy series '' Man Down'' and the dram ...

, actress.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Albans Girls' School Academies in Hertfordshire Girls' schools in Hertfordshire Educational institutions established in 1920 1920 establishments in England Schools in St Albans Secondary schools in Hertfordshire