Northampton High School is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

day school for girls in

Hardingstone Hardingstone is a village in Northamptonshire, England. It is on the southern edge of Northampton, and now forms a suburb of the town. It is about from the town centre. The Newport Pagnell road (the B526, formerly part of the A50) separates ...

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

, England and is 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 yea ...

Location

The school is about from Northampton town centre along the

Newport Pagnell Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parish in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area. The town is separated from the rest of the u ...

road (the B526, formerly part of the

A50 road The A50 is a major trunk road in England between Warrington and Leicester; historically it was also a major route from London to Leicester. Route The current A50 runs south-east from Warrington via Junction 20 of the M6 motorway, M6, Knu ...

) which separates the school from Wootton.

History

The school was founded in 1878 by a committee of local church people. It later came under the control of the Diocese of Peterborough (

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

), whose Board of Education used to appoint the majority of the Governors. The school eventually became a

direct grant A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

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 ...

. However, on the abolition of the direct grant system during the 1970s, the school became independent. Before moving to its current location, the school was based in Derngate, Northampton town centre. This site included 78 Derngate, a building with interiors and some windows designed by

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macd ...

, which was used by the school between 1964 and 1993, initially as offices and subsequently as classrooms. It is now a museum. The school moved to new premises at its present location in 1992, whose construction was financed by a grant of £13m from the Cripps Foundation, and the original site was sold for housing development. In 2006 the school joined the

and no longer has a formal link to the church. A new sixth form facility costing £150,000 was opened in 2008."Spruced-up sixth form is unveiled at High School"
Northampton Chronicle & Echo, 21 October 2008 The Nursery opening time was extended to 46 weeks of the year in 2013. A new gym and fitness centre
Northampton High School Gym and Fitness Centre was opened by former pupil and Commonwealth Games Gold medalist

Caitlin McClatchey Caitlin McClatchey (born 28 November 1985) is a British former swimmer. Representing Scotland, she won two gold medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, in the 200 metres freestyle and 400 metres freestyle. Representing Great Britain, she won bro ...

in 2014.

Catchment

Girls come from a large number of independent prep and junior schools as well as maintained primary and secondary schools within a wide area covering Northamptonshire and parts of neighbouring counties such as Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire. The vast majority of girls in the Junior School stay on to the Senior School for their secondary education. Most girls stay on into the Sixth Form and each year girls from other schools join at Year 9 (post prep) and the Sixth Form. Almost all Year 13 leavers proceed to Higher Education, either directly or following a gap year.

Results

This page shows the top institutions ranked on the basis of their pupils' A/AS-level and equivalent results in 2007. In 2007, on the basis of A/AS-level and equivalent results, the school achieved an average points score of 1035.8, making it the highest ranked in the county, and 93rd in the country, among the schools with 30 exam entrants or more. Full rankings are available at the Independent Schools Directory website and from the Independent Schools Inspectorate.Independent Schools Inspectorate report of February 2005
The latter report showed: "strengths in many aspects of its provision ..high quality of learning, attitudes and behaviour of the girls contributes to the academic success of the school ..high standards in the senior school. The headmistress and senior management team provide very effective leadership and management, ably supported by the governors. Very good quality and enthusiastic teaching supports girls' attainment ..high quality of pastoral care provided by the school contributes significantly to the personal development of the girls." The standards of accommodation, maintenance and upkeep were: "outstanding and contribute to an excellent learning environment" and the school had no major weaknesses. In its 2019 Educational Quality report, inspectors from the ISI said that 'pupils academic and other successes are excellent' and commented that the quality of pupils' personal and social development is also 'excellent'.

Sport

The sporting facilities in the school are of a high standard and the school sport squads frequently participate in local and nationwide tournaments. The school netball team is extremely competitive and have often been ranked as number one in the Northamptonshire county tournaments. In 2019 the U16 netball team entered the national finals.

Notable former pupils

Prominent old girls include: *

Helen ApSimon Helen Mary ApSimon, (born 28 April 1942) is an English air pollution scientist and academic. She is a Professor of Air pollution Studies at Imperial College London. Her research includes the impact of acid rain, nuclear accidents and fine part ...

, air pollution expert at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

* Joanne Campbell (1964–2002), actress *

Marcia Falkender, Baroness Falkender Marcia Matilda Williams, Baroness Falkender, CBE (''née'' Field; 10 March 1932 – 6 February 2019), also known as Marcia Falkender, was known as the private secretary for, and then the political secretary and head of political office to, U ...

, formerly Marcia Williams and private secretary to Prime Minister

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

Anne Fine Anne Fine (born 7 December 1947) is an English writer. Although best known for children's books, she also writes for adults. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and she was appointed an OBE in 2003. Fine has written more than se ...

, author of ''

Madame Doubtfire ''Madame Doubtfire'', known as ''Alias Madame Doubtfire'' in the United States, is a 1987 novel written by English author Anne Fine for teenage and young adult audiences. The novel is based on a family with divorced parents. Well received upon i ...

'' which was made into the film ''

Mrs. Doubtfire ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' is a 1993 American comedy-drama film directed by Chris Columbus, written by Randi Mayem Singer and Leslie Dixon, based on the 1987 novel '' Madame Doubtfire'', by Anne Fine. The film was produced by Mark Radcliffe, Mars ...

'' *

Eliza Manningham-Buller, Baroness Manningham-Buller Elizabeth Lydia Manningham-Buller, Baroness Manningham-Buller (born 14 July 1948) is a retired British intelligence officer. She worked as a teacher for three years before joining MI5, the British internal Security Service. She led the newly cr ...

, former

Director General of MI5 __NOTOC__ The Director General of the Security Service is the head of the Security Service (commonly known as MI5), the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency. The Director General is assisted by a Deputy Director Gen ...

Louise Pentland Louise Alexandra Pentland (born 28 April 1985) is an English beauty, motherhood and lifestyle vlogger, blogger, YouTube personality and author. She is also known by her online pseudonym SprinkleofGlitter or SprinkleofChatter, although she publi ...

, author and internet personality *

Ellie Robinson Eleanor "Ellie" Robinson (born 30 August 2001) is an English retired swimmer. Competing in S6 (classification), SB6 and S6 (classification), S6 classification events, Robinson holds the World record and the Paralympic record in the S6 50m butte ...

, Olympic gold medallist para-swimmer *

Sasha Roseneil Sasha Roseneil (born 1966) is a group analyst and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Roseneil became the ninth vice chancellor of the University of Sussex in August 2022. Early life and education Roseneil obtained a 1st class BSc degree in e ...

, sociologist * Dame Margaret Wheeler ( Brain; 1932–2024), midwife and public servant * Hilda Mary Woods (1892–1971), statistician

References

External links

School Website
* ISI Inspectio
Reports

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 Private schools in West Northamptonshire District Girls' schools in Northamptonshire Schools of the Girls' Day School Trust Educational institutions established in 1878 1878 establishments in England Member schools of the Girls' Schools Association