The Queen's School is an independent day school for girls aged 4–18 located in Chester, England. Founded in 1878 as "The Chester School for Girls",

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

, who was the school's first patron, issued a royal decree naming the school as "The Queen's School" in 1882, the only school in England to have this distinction. It is a member of the Girls' Schools Association.

History

Founded in 1878 by a group of prominent Chester citizens as The Chester School for Girls, the school owes its royal name to

. In response to a request from the

Duke of Westminster Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...

, an early benefactor of the school, in 1882 she commanded "that the School in question shall be styled the Queen's School". The school originally had its home at 100 Watergate Flags, an 18th-century house built upon the site of an extramural Roman bathhouse. Once again, the Duke of Westminster supported the school by offering the trustees a piece of land which had once been the site of Chester's City Gaol and House of Correction, together with a gift of £500 towards the building of a new school. This site, right on the city walls of Chester still exists today as the home of the school's senior pupils. More recently, further buildings have been constructed or acquired, so that the school inhabits a mixture of Georgian and Victorian buildings as well as modern ones. The Queen's Lower School was originally based in two large Victorian houses in Liverpool Road. It still occupies this site but has expanded in recent years.

Curriculum

Girls are taught a range of subjects including languages, mathematics, the sciences (separately), technology, the humanities, PE and the creative arts. All pupils from Reception learn three languages and in Year 7 are required to learn Spanish and Mandarin Chinese and may choose a language of their choice from those two or French the following year. The Queen's School regularly appears in league tables as one of the region's top independent schools based on examination results. The Queen's Lower School was one of three independent schools in Cheshire to be named in

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

' top 100 schools for 2011 based on SAT results. The 2011 ISI inspection rated both the Lower School and Senior School curriculum as "excellent" in all areas. The Queen's School is the only independent school in the north of England to be recognised and designated "Confucius Classroom" status by Hanban for excellence in teaching

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

Extracurricular

A range of extra-curricular activities and clubs are offered at both the Lower and Senior Schools. Educational trips take place to theatres, museums and both local and regional sites of interest. Trips abroad to locations such as China, Africa, America, Latin America and Europe take place several times a year. Music lessons are available to individuals or groups. The school has a number of orchestras, bands, ensembles and choirs and organises regular musical and dramatic productions. The school hosts the Chester Youth Symphony Orchestra once a week. The Lower School Young Voices choir has been semi-finalists for the past three years in the BBC Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year competition, reaching the final in 2015. Competitive sports played include hockey, lacrosse, netball, swimming, rowing, skiing, gymnastics, equestrian, badminton and athletics. Hockey, netball and swimming teams range from U10s to U18s, others for Senior School only. The school's hockey players are regularly placed as county champions or higher across a range of age groups. The Lower School team were North of England Champions in 2013 and the U14 Team were placed in the top 9 in the UK in 2016. Both the Lower and Senior School Swimming Teams reached the National Finals in 2015. The school's Fitness For All strategy aims to increase participation in sport by girls through offering a wide variety of non-competitive sports.

Notable alumnae

* Diana Beck, the world's first female neurosurgeon * Ann Clwyd, Welsh Labour Party politician *

Elsie Conway Elsie Conway (née Phillips, 15 March 1902 – 22 July 1992) was a British phycologist. She served as president of the British Phycological Society from 1965 to 1967, and was one of the earliest women Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ...

, phycologist and one of the few female fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. *

Vivienne Faull Vivienne Frances Faull (born 20 May 1955) is a British Anglican bishop and Lord Spiritual. Since 2018, she has served as the Bishop of Bristol. In 1985, she was the first woman to be appointed chaplain to an Oxbridge college. She was later a cat ...

, Bishop of Bristol and only female cathedral provost in Church of England history * Diana Leitch MBE, chemist and trustee of The Catalyst Centre and

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

*''Dame'' Louise Makin, businesswoman * Frances Patterson judge of the High Court of England and Wales. *

Beth Tweddle Elizabeth Kimberly Tweddle (born 1 April 1985) is a retired British artistic gymnast. Renowned for her uneven bar and floor routines, she was the first female gymnast from Great Britain to win a medal at the European Championships, World Cham ...

, Olympic gymnast and three times Olympian * Gemma Owen Love Island star

References

External links