Bedford Girls' School (BGS) is a

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

for girls which opened in September 2010 located in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

, in the

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

. The school is a result of a merger of Bedford High School and

Dame Alice Harpur School Dame Alice Harpur School (also known as DAHS), known from 1882 until 1946 as Bedford Girls' Modern School, was a private girls school in Bedford, England, for girls aged 7–18. In September 2010 the junior department of the school merged with t ...

, and is operated by the

Harpur Trust The Harpur Trust is a charity in Bedford, England. The stated aim of the charity is to help and support the people who live in and around Bedford, and to help them improve their lives by: * providing and promoting education * offering help and ...

. The school became fully operational in September 2012.

History

The

had a long history of providing education for boys in Bedford, and in 1882 it opened two schools for girls, Bedford High School and Bedford Girls' Modern School (later renamed Dame Alice Harpur School), on the same site at Bromham Road, Bedford. While Bedford High School remained at the site, the Girls' Modern School moved to Bedford town centre by the end of the 19th century, and then in 1938 it relocated to Cardington Road, where new buildings were built on part of the playing fields the school already owned there. In 1946 it changed its name to Dame Alice Harpur School, in honour of the wife of the founder of the Harpur Trust. In July 2009, the Harpur Trust announced its intention to merge Bedford High School and Dame Alice Harpur School, a decision arrived at because both schools had seen a fall in pupil numbers over the previous twenty years: In 1990 more than 2,000 girls had been on the rolls of the two schools, while in 2009 there were only 1,500. The trust estimated that once started, it would take three to five years to merge the schools. In November 2009, the trust released further details of the merger. It was announced that the new merged school would be called Bedford Girls' School and would be located on the current site of Dame Alice Harpur School. It would offer the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...

as part of its curriculum, but would not offer boarding facilities for pupils. In December 2009, Jo MacKenzie was appointed as the first head of the Bedford Girls' School. MacKenzie assumed her post over Easter 2010. The junior department of the school opened in September 2010, when the junior schools of Bedford High and Dame Alice Harper merged on the Cardington Road site. The senior department of the school opened in September 2011, with the full merger of the old schools, including the sixth form departments completed in September 2012.
/ref> Gemma Gibson was appointed as Headmistress in 2020.

References

External links

Bedford Girls' School website homepage
{{authority control Private schools in the Borough of Bedford Girls' schools in Bedfordshire Educational institutions established in 2010 International Baccalaureate schools in England 2010 establishments in England Member schools of the Girls' Schools Association Schools in Bedford