Leeds Girls' High School (LGHS) was an independent, selective, fee-paying school for girls aged 3–18 founded in 1876 in Headingley,

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It merged with

Leeds Grammar School Leeds Grammar School was an independent school founded 1552 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Originally a male-only school, in August 2005 it merged with Leeds Girls' High School to form The Grammar School at Leeds. The two schools physicall ...

in 2005 to form The

Grammar School at Leeds The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) is an independent fee-charging school in Leeds, England, created on 4 August 2005 by the merger of Leeds Grammar School (founded ) and Leeds Girls' High School (co-founded in 1876 by Frances Lupton). The sc ...

History

Elinor Lupton Centre - Leeds Girls' High School - Headingley - geograph

LGHS was founded in 1876, at a time when female education was limited but expanding.

Frances Lupton Frances Elizabeth Lupton (née Greenhow; 20 July 1821 – 9 March 1892) was an Englishwoman of the Victorian era who worked to open up educational opportunities for women. She married into the politically active Lupton family of Leeds, where sh ...

and other members of the Ladies’ Honorary Council of the Yorkshire Board of Education decided that campaigning for access to the universities was of little use without better all-round education for girls, equivalent to what boys received at traditional academic

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 ...

. Established interests prevented the use of existing charitable funds, so Lupton and her colleagues created a new way forward: a

joint stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders a ...

. The school motto was ''Age Quod Agis'', which means "do what you do". While seemingly tautological at first glance, it is in fact a corruption of the Biblical exhortation, "whatsoever thy turn thy hand to, do it with all thy might". The pupils were divided into four houses, named after the four patron saints of the United Kingdom: Andrew, David, George and Patrick. Girls were placed into the houses that their families had been in before them. There were various house competitions throughout the year, mainly sports and arts orientated, the main one being the house music competition during the spring term. The school had three sections situated in the western suburbs of

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

: *Infant School (Rose Court): 3- to 7-year-olds *Junior School (Ford House): 7- to 11-year-olds *Senior School: 11- to 18-year-olds Ford House (Leeds Girls High School)

The Infant School (Rose Court) was situated on the large Senior School site on Headingley Lane, while the Junior School (Ford House) operated down the road in a converted mansion house. The Senior School building was built in the early 1900s, and efforts are currently being made to have the building listed. The fine oak wood panelling in the Assembly Hall detailed where Old Girls went to university on completion of their education at LGHS. The furniture within the Senior School Library was designed by Robert Thompson (The Mouseman), but was sold when the school moved to Alwoodley Gates (the Leeds Grammar School site). In 2004 LGHS was the highest performing school within the Leeds LEA area, achieving top results at both GCSE and A Level.

Merger with Leeds Grammar School

In 2005 LGHS merged with

to form the

(GSAL). The merged school administration took over LGHS in August 2005, however the schools did not physically merge until September 2008. At that time the Junior School (ages 7–11) and Senior School (ages 11–18) moved to Alwoodley Gates. Classes for girls and boys between the ages of 11 and 16 remain segregated, but all extracurricular activities are mixed. The Infant School moved to the Ford House building next to a new nursery school, currently operating as GSAL'S Rose Court Nursery and Pre-Prep. The school building was used as a filming location for the fictional St Matthews' Hospital in the new ITV medical drama '' Monroe'', which was scheduled for broadcast in 2011.

Headmistresses

Notable former pupils

Laura Ashe Laura Ashe is a British historian of English medieval literature, history and culture (–1550). She lectures in English and is a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. She was educated at Leeds Girls' High School (independent). In 2009 Ashe won a ...

– historian of medieval literature * Judith Blake, Baroness Blake of Leeds – former

Leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets v ...

Leeds City Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of ...

* Lucy Frazer – UK government minister * Catherine Hughes – former civil servant and Principal of

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, I ...

Esther Killick Esther Margaret Killick (3 May 1902 – 31 May 1960) was an English physiologist who was a professor of physiology at the London School of Medicine for Women (Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine) from 1941 until her death in 1960. Her main r ...

– physiologist *

Mary Kitson Clark Anna Mary Hawthorn Kitson Clark, (14 May 1905 – 1 February 2005), married name Mary Chitty, was an English archaeologist, curator, and independent scholar. She specialised in the archaeology of Romano-British Northern England but was also inv ...

– archaeologist and independent scholar *

Sally Mackereth Sally Mackereth (born 10 February 1966) is a British architect practising in London. After graduating from the Architectural Association in 1995, Mackereth co-founded Wells Mackereth before creating Studio Mackereth in 2013, which the ''Telegraph' ...

– architect *

Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Neville-Jones Lilian Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Neville-Jones (born 2 November 1939) is a British politician and former civil servant who served as Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) from 1993 to 1994. A member of the Conservative Party ...

– former civil servant and UK government minister * Valerie Pitts, Lady Solti – former BBC announcer and widow of musician Sir Georg Solti *

Marilyn Stowe Marilyn Stowe (born 1957) is an English family lawyer. She founded her firm in a converted cobbler’s shop in Halton, Leeds, in 1982. An attack by three masked men outside her office on 3 December 2003 led to the closure of her offices in Leeds ...

– divorce lawyer and campaigner for family law reform

References

External links