St Paul's School For Girls is a

voluntary aided A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation) contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In m ...

, comprehensive, girls' school in

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, UK,

Admissions

It is a Roman Catholic school, and became a specialist school in maths and computing in September 2005. It is ethnically diverse, with a mixture of Black and White English/Irish pupils. It is situated just north of the A456 and B4125, just south of

Edgbaston Reservoir Edgbaston Reservoir, originally known as Rotton Park Reservoir and referred to in some early maps as Rock Pool Reservoir, is a canal feeder reservoir in Birmingham, England, maintained by the Canal & River Trust.Environment Agency public regist ...

. The school is named after St Paul's Convent, and the headmistresses were nuns until 1998.

History

It was founded on 7 October 1908, from an earlier establishment based on ''Whittall Street''. St Paul's Convent had been founded at

Selly Park Selly Park is a residential suburban district in south-west Birmingham, England. The suburb of Selly Park is located between the Bristol Road ( A38) and the Pershore Road ( A441). Toponymy Selly Park is named after the parkland that was origin ...

in 1864. In the 1940s, it became a

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 ...

with selective entry based on the 11-plus. In 1975, it became a Comprehensive School. Part of the school was destroyed by fire in November 1973.

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...

visited on 12 September 1974. In 2010 a new Maths and English building was constructed named 'The Sister Suite' in reference to the nuns who founded the school, certain rooms inside the building were named after notable Sisters in the school's history.

Academic performance

It has relatively high

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

pass rates for similar schools in the Birmingham LEA and in England. In 2009 it got the second best A-level results for comprehensive schools in Birmingham, with results similar to a grammar school.

Notable former pupils

Clare Short Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 to 2003. Short began her career as a civil servant. A member of the Labour Party until 2006, she was Member o ...

(b. 1946) – Labour Party Member of Parliament for

Birmingham Ladywood Birmingham Ladywood is a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency in the city of Birmingham that was created in 1918. The seat has been represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the Unit ...

(1983 to 2010) *

Julie Walters Dame Julia Mary Walters (born 22 February 1950), known professionally as Julie Walters, is an English actress. She is the recipient of four British Academy Television Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two International Emmy Awards, a Go ...

(b. 1950) – actress * Cherie Nursalim (b. 1967) – Indonesian businesswoman and philanthropist *

Sarah Smart Sarah Smart (born 3 March 1977) is an English actress. Early life Smart was born on 3 March 1977 in Birmingham, England and lived in Northfield, Birmingham, Northfield until 1987. She was a pupil of St Paul's School for Girls (Birmingham), St ...

(b. 1977) – actress

References

External links