Sheffield High School (South Yorkshire)
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Sheffield High School (SHS) is an independent girls' school in
Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
,
South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...
, England part of the
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 ...
(GDST).


History

In February 1878 a meeting was held at the
Cutlers' Hall Cutlers' Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Sheffield, England, that is the headquarters of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire. It is located on Church Street, opposite Sheffield Cathedral, in Sheffield City Centre. History and architect ...
seeking support for a proposal to set up a girls’ school in
Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
. On 12 March 1878 the school accepted its first 39 pupils in its town-centre premises, the old Surrey Street Music Hall. In 1884 the school moved its premises to 10 Rutland Park where it resides today. In 1917 the school purchased Moor Lodge to be used as a girls' boarding house. In 1939 with the onset of war, the school was evacuated to Cliff College, Calver,
Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
. To celebrate the school's 125th Birthday in 2003, the school had a giant party. A calendar was made with a different photo for each month. For the front cover, Shaun Bloodworth (a parent of one of the pupils) set up a camera on top of the science block with an image painted onto the lens. Prefects were sent onto the field below with bags of pegs and string and were shouted instructions from the rooftop until the numbers 1, 2 and 5 were laid out. Each pupil was given a bone china mug with a cartoon (called 'Girls Through The Ages') of different uniforms worn in the high school, drawn by art teacher, Miss Hanlon. A ceremony was held at the Octagon Centre, Sheffield on 11 March 2003.


Recent changes to the school

In 2007 the school acquired No.4 Melbourne Avenue as a new infant building thus enlarging the Junior building to incorporate a new library. Also in 2007 the science block underwent a total refurbishment of the chemistry, physics and biology laboratories. In 2006–7 the Art department within Moor Lodge was refurbished and extended; two new art rooms and a new ICT suite were created. In the summer of 2010 an extension to the Sixth Form Centre was completed, providing additional classrooms and an Independent Learning Centre. Since then the Main reception area has been redesigned and a number of classrooms refurbished including an additional ICT suite. In 2018, the school merged with Ashdell Preparatory school. The infant school moved to be housed at the former Ashdell site, whilst the Junior school spread over the former Junior and Infant site at Melbourne Avenue. Also in 2018, headmistress Mrs Dunsford announced her retirement, to be replaced by Mrs Nina Gunson.


Present day

The school premises can be seen to be split between four sites; the infant school, at the former Ashdell School on Fulwood Road, the site on Melbourne Avenue consists of the canteen, school uniform shop and Junior School, the Sixth Form Centre which is located further up Melbourne Avenue overlooking the astroturf, and the main site at Rutland Park. The Senior School is located on Rutland Park, consisting of the sports hall, 'old gym', School House, Ash Grove, Moor Lodge and Main School. Both sites share the sports facilities and canteen. The school has around 1000 pupils aged four to eighteen. As of 2009, the school has examination pass rates of over 99% at A-level, AS level and GCSE. The school does not reveal the proportion of those sitting the entrance exam who are then admitted. Almost all the girls proceed to higher education, with over 90% obtaining a place at their first choice of university. The declared destinations on the school's website show that, of the 92 leavers of 2009, four went on to either
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
or
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
universities, eleven took a gap year, and the remainder went on to Higher Education courses. The school was the winner of Norwich Union's 'Best Independent School for Sport' 2005-2006, and currently has many successful teams in a range of sports. The sports that are offered by the senior school include: *
Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...
*
Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...
* Cross-Country *
Equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...
*
Gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...
*
Hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
*
Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
*
Martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...
*
Netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
*
Rounders Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running arou ...
*
Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
*
Trampolining Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle position to more co ...
Home matches are held at the school on Saturdays for both hockey and netball, and league matches are regularly played after school during the week. Although not officially connected, the high school has some informal links with
Birkdale Birkdale is an area of Southport, within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, though historically in Lancashire, in the north-west of England. The area is located on the Irish Sea coast, approximately a mile away from the centre of S ...
, a nearby independent boys' school. Pupils from both schools travel jointly by coach service to areas such as
Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...
,
Clowne Clowne is a village and civil parish in the Bolsover district of Derbyshire, England. The population at the 2001 Census was 7,447 increasing to 7,590 (and including Harlesthorpe) at the 2011 Census. It forms part of the Bolsover constituency. ...
,
Dronfield Dronfield is a town in North East Derbyshire, England, which includes Dronfield Woodhouse and Coal Aston. It lies in the valley of the River Drone between Chesterfield and Sheffield. The Peak District National Park is to the west. The nam ...
, Tankersley,
Tickhill Tickhill is a market town and civil parish in the City of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, close to the border with Nottinghamshire. At the 2001 census it had a population of 5,301, reducing to 5,228 at the 2011 Census. Geography It l ...
, and
Wickersley Wickersley is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England, situated from the centre of Rotherham. The area is very near to road junctions for the M1, M18 and A1(M) (passing through Bramley, ...
. School trips and sports tournaments such as 'Girls versus Birkdale' netball matches are also arranged for charitable purposes during the annual 'house charity week'.


Buildings

* Ash Grove (Music) * Canteen * Main Building (Maths, English, History, Languages) * Moor Lodge (Year 11 base, Geography, ICT, RE, Business, Art) * School House (Drama, PSH

* Sixth Form Centre * Sports Hall * The Junior Department is now housed in two adjacent buildings —in Melbourne House and in the refurbished premises at No. 4 Melbourne Avenue. * The infant block is now housed at the former Ashdell Preparatory School site.


Headmistresses

* Miss Mary Alger (March–December 1878)Margaret Bryant, ‘Alger, Mary Jemima (1838–1894)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, October 200
accessed 23 January 2017
/ref> * Mrs E Woodhouse (1878–1898) * Miss A E Escott (1898–1917) * Mrs A Doncaster (1917–1919) * Miss M Aitken (1919–1926) * Miss D L Walker (1926–1936) * Miss M E Macauley (1936–1947) * Miss M E A Hancock (1947–1959) * Miss M C Lutz (1959–1983) * Miss Diana M Skilbeck MBE (1983–1989) * Margaret Houston (1989–2003) * Valerie A Dunsford (2004-2018) *Mrs Nina Gunson (2018–present)


Houses

The Senior school is split into four houses named after the four founding members of the school Maria Grey, Mary Gurney,
Emily Shirreff Emily Anne Eliza Shirreff (3 November 1814 – 20 March 1897) was a pioneer in the movement for the higher education of women and the development of the Froebelian principles in England. Biography Family She was born on 3 November 1814, the s ...
and Lady Stanley of Alderley. Their portraits are displayed on the stairs by the reception. House colours are as follows: Grey Gurney Shirreff Stanley Houses in the Infant and Junior Department reflect this system. Grey is known as 'Amethysts', Gurney is called 'Emeralds', Shirreff is known as 'Sapphires' and Stanley is called 'Rubies'. A pupil is allocated a house when they join the school; this may be affected by the houses of other siblings already in the school, or the houses of other relatives. Numerous events and competitions are organised each year; these include
netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
,
rounders Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running arou ...
and athletics events, art competitions, Year 7 Mathematics Day and House Charities Week. House captains for the year are appointed by the school's Senior Management Team following consultation with members of staff. Captains for winter and summer sports are also chosen and take a leading role in the annual sports day which is held at Woodburn Road Stadium.


Fees

Annual fees at the school in 2019 ranged from £9,216 (for reception to year 2 pupils), to £12,975 (year 7 to year 13. Lunch is also mandatory from reception to year 7, incurring a further charge of £542.50 per year.


Sixth form

Approximately 200 pupils attend years 12 and 13. Girls study for academic AS and A2 levels, including more specialist subjects such as Geology, Latin and Russian. In year 12, girls undergo an enrichment process where they can choose which activities they wish to participate in including: *The Young Enterprise Award *Sport *Assisting with Junior School classes *Peer education (teaching younger girls PSHE) *Helping with the school magazine *Charity work *Leadership studies Sixth form pupils do not wear uniform and, upon signing out, may leave school during the day if they do not have any timetabled lessons—a privilege not granted to younger pupils. A new Kitchen/Diner was created in late 2009 for use by all Sixth Form pupils, to provide basic cooking and dining facilities. Each year has its own common room and a sixth form
assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...
is held in the hall once every two weeks. This extension was completed in the summer of 2010 and now provides additional teaching classrooms and an 'Independent Learning Centre' with a library and ICT facilities.


Awards

* The school was awarded the prize for the most 'Environmentally Friendly Secondary School in Sheffield', at the 2009 Sheffield Telegraph Environment Awards. *In 2008, the School became one of the first 15 schools in the UK to be fully accredited for the Go4it Award for which as school was deemed to demonstrate a culture of creativity, innovation, positive risk-taking, a ‘can do’ attitude and an adventure for learning. Presentation of Go4It badges are made at the end of each school term to girls that the school's pupil led committee feels have fulfilled the criteria. * Winner of the ''Daily Telegraph''/Norwich Union Award for Best Independent School for Sport 2005. The award was made at a ceremony in London in December 2006 and the School displays the logo related to this award within its website. * The School won Independent School Awards in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 and was shortlisted again in 2014. It has been nominated for a fifth award in 2015.


School publications

Each year girls from the school help to write and publish the magazine, ''High Times''. The magazine is published towards the end of the autumn term each year and features articles about recent school events, interviews with new or departing teachers, photos and art work from the pupils. Volunteers from Years 12 and 13 write and edit the magazine as part of their enrichment programme with assistance from girls in younger years 7 through 10. This was edited by Mr Nichols until 2006, Miss K Henderson 2006-2008 and by Mrs L Downes since then it has been edited by a group of staff and students. A school calendar is published termly featuring upcoming events, as well as the ''High Flyer'' and ''International High Flyer'' leaflets published at least three times a year.


Awards ceremony

An annual awards ceremony is held at th
Octagon Centre
to celebrate the school's achievements. Awards are given for a range of sporting and academic achievements such as 'Loyalty to School Sport' and the 'Mrs Ames’ Spoken English Prize'. Each year a speech is given by an external speaker, the Headmistress, the Chairman of Governors and a 'Vote of Thanks' is given by the incoming Head Girl.


Notable former pupils

* Deborah Ann Barham, comedy writer * A. S. Byatt, novelist *
Dehenna Davison Dehenna Sheridan Davison (; born 27 July 1993) is a British Conservative Party politician and broadcaster serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up since September 2022. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for ...
, MP for
Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...
* Margaret Drabble, novelist, sister of A.S. Byatt *
Louise Haigh Louise Margaret Haigh () (born 22 July 1987) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Heeley at the 201 ...
, Labour MP for the Sheffield Heeley constituency *
Lydia Manley Henry Lydia Manley Henry Doctor of Science, DSc (30 June 1891 – 27 March 1985) was the first female graduate in medicine from the University of Sheffield. She served with the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service during the World War I, Fir ...
, first female medical graduate of Sheffield University *
Angela Knight Angela Ann Knight CBE (born Angela Ann Cook, 31 October 1950) was the chair of the Office of Tax Simplification. She was replaced on 18 March 2019. Previously she was the Chief Executive of Energy UK, the trade association for the energy indus ...
*
Cicely Mayhew Cicely Elizabeth Mayhew, Baroness Mayhew (''née'' Ludlam; 16 February 1924 – 8 July 2016) was a British diplomat. She was the second woman to work for the British Foreign Office, and its first female diplomat. Early life She was born on 16 Fe ...
, UK's first female diplomat *
Mary Taylor Slow Mary Taylor Slow (15 July 1898 – 26 May 1984) was a British physicist who worked on the theory of radio waves and the application of differential equations to physics. She was the first woman to take up the study of radio as a profession. Ea ...
, physicist and first woman to take up the study of radio as a profession


References


External links


School Website

Profile
on the
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website
Profile
on
MyDaughter MyDaughter was a British website set up by the Girls' Schools Association (GSA) offering advice to parents of daughters on all aspects of raising and educating girls. Advice was provided by headteachers from the member schools of the Girls' Scho ...
{{Authority control Girls' schools in South Yorkshire Schools of the Girls' Day School Trust Member schools of the Girls' Schools Association Private schools in Sheffield Educational institutions established in 1878 1878 establishments in England