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 in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, 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 physica ...

in 2008 to form The Grammar School at Leeds.

History

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 s ...

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 a 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 Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

. 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 (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certifi ...

. 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. From its earliest years, the school catered for female

boarders ''Boarders'' is a British teen comedy-drama television series created by Daniel Lawrence Taylor, centred around the lives of five young Black teens who earn scholarships into the prestigious boarding school of St. Gilbert's. The series is develop ...

. Although initially only operating as a high school for girls age over 13, in time, the school would have 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 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 Grammar School at Leeds (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 Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

'', which was scheduled for broadcast in 2011.

Headmistresses

Notable former pupils

* Laura Ashe – historian of medieval literature *

Judith Blake, Baroness Blake of Leeds Judith Vivienne Blake, Baroness Blake of Leeds (born 23 July 1953, née Parsons) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician serving as a life peer in the House of Lords since 2021. She serves as a Baroness-in-Waiting (Government Whip) ...

– former

Leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

Leeds City Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. Leeds has had a council since 1626, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 it has been a metropolitan borough council. It provides the ...

Lucy Frazer Lucy Claire Frazer (born 17 May 1972) is a British politician and barrister who served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from February 2023 to July 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as the Member of Parli ...

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

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

* Esther Killick – 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 – architect * Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Neville-Jones – former civil servant and UK government minister * Valerie Pitts, Lady Solti – former BBC announcer and widow of musician

Sir Georg Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-servi ...

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 Lee ...

– divorce lawyer and campaigner for family law reform

References

External links