The Queen's School is an independent day school for girls aged 4–18 located in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, England. Founded in 1878 as "The Chester School for Girls",

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

, who was the school's first patron, issued a royal decree naming the school as "The Queen's School" in 1882, the only school in England to have this distinction. It is a member of the

Girls' Schools Association The Girls' Schools Association (GSA) is a membership association for the heads of independent and state girls' schools in the United Kingdom. It is a constituent member of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), and works with the Association ...

History

Founded in 1878 by a group of prominent Chester citizens as The Chester School for Girls, the school owes its royal name to

. In response to a request from the

Duke of Westminster Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ...

, an early benefactor of the school, in 1882 she commanded "that the School in question shall be styled the Queen's School". The school originally had its home at 100 Watergate Flags, an 18th-century house built upon the site of an extramural Roman bathhouse. Once again, the Duke of Westminster supported the school by offering the trustees a piece of land which had once been the site of Chester's City Gaol and House of Correction, together with a gift of £500 towards the building of a new school. In 1886 Margaret Sandford became the headteacher. She extended the curriculum including languages, mathematics, chemistry, gymnastics, and a novel approach to art developed by Robert Aplett in Bradford. Her family were concerned about women's rights. Sandford was open to women being involved in the administration of education but she was opposed to women gaining the right to vote. In 1895 she had a public debate with

Millicent Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, women's suffrage by Law reform, legal change and in 1897–1919 led Brita ...

on the question. She was the head until she died in 1903. The site, right on the city walls of Chester became the home of the school's senior pupils. More recently, further buildings have been constructed or acquired, so that the school inhabits a mixture of Georgian and Victorian buildings as well as modern ones. The Queen's Lower School was originally based in two large Victorian houses in Liverpool Road. It still occupies this site but has expanded in recent years.

Curriculum

Girls are taught a range of subjects including languages, mathematics, the sciences (separately), technology, the humanities, PE and the creative arts. All pupils from Reception learn three languages and in Year 7 are required to learn Spanish and Mandarin Chinese and may choose a language of their choice from those two or French the following year. The Queen's School regularly appears in league tables as one of the region's top independent schools based on examination results. The Queen's Lower School was one of three independent schools in Cheshire to be named in

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

' top 100 schools for 2011 based on SAT results. The 2011 ISI inspection rated both the Lower School and Senior School curriculum as "excellent" in all areas. The Queen's School is the only independent school in the north of England to be recognised and designated "Confucius Classroom" status by

Hanban The Centre for Language Education and Cooperation () is an organization under the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China tasked with "providing Chinese language and cultural teaching resources and services worldwide". It is common ...

for excellence in teaching

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

Extracurricular

The school has a number of orchestras, bands, ensembles and choirs and organises regular musical and dramatic productions. The school hosts the Chester Youth Symphony Orchestra once a week. The Lower School Young Voices choir has been semi-finalists for the past three years in the BBC Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year competition, reaching the final in 2015. Competitive sports played include hockey, lacrosse, netball, swimming, rowing, skiing, gymnastics, equestrian, badminton and athletics. Hockey, netball and swimming teams range from U10s to U18s, others for Senior School only. The school's hockey players are regularly placed as county champions or higher across a range of age groups. The Lower School team were North of England Champions in 2013 and the U14 Team were placed in the top 9 in the UK in 2016. Both the Lower and Senior School Swimming Teams reached the National Finals in 2015. The school's Fitness For All strategy aims to increase participation in sport by girls through offering a wide variety of non-competitive sports.

Notable alumnae

Diana Beck Diana Jean Kinloch Beck (29 June 1900 or 1902 – 3 March 1956) was the first British female neurosurgeon. She established the neurosurgery service at the Middlesex Hospital in London. In 1952 she gained a public profile for performing life-sav ...

, the world's first female neurosurgeon *

Ann Clwyd Ann Clwyd Roberts ( , ; ; 21 March 1937 – 21 July 2023) was a Welsh Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cynon Valley for 35 years, from 1984 until 2019. Although she had intended to stand down in 2015, she was re-el ...

, Welsh Labour Party politician * Elsie Conway, phycologist and one of the few female fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. *

Vivienne Faull Vivienne Frances Faull (born 20 May 1955) is a British Anglican bishop and Lord Spiritual. Since 2018, she has served as the Bishop of Bristol. In 1985, she was the first woman to be appointed chaplain to an Oxbridge college. She was later a ca ...

, Bishop of Bristol and only female cathedral provost in Church of England history *

Matilda Freeman Matilda Freeman (born 2004) is a British actress from Mickle Trafford. She has appeared in various short films and played a leading role in the 2019 feature film ''The Last Boy''. In 2017, after a guest appearance on ''Doctors'', Freeman began pla ...

, actress *Dame

Louise Makin Dame Pamela Louise Makin, DBE (born 27 November 1960) is a British businesswoman. Early life Pamela Louise Makin was born on 27 November 1960. She attended The Queen's School, Chester and King Edward VI High School for Girls before going on to ...

, businesswoman *

Frances Patterson Dame Frances Silvia Patterson, (29 November 1954 – 20 December 2016), styled The Hon. Mrs Justice Patterson, was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales. Born in County Durham, Patterson was educated at The Queen's School, Chester an ...

judge of the High Court of England and Wales. *

Beth Tweddle Elizabeth Kimberly Tweddle (born 1 April 1985) is a retired English Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. Renowned for her uneven bar and floor routines, she was the first female gymnast from Great Britain to win a medal at the Rhythmic Gymnas ...

, Olympic gymnast and three times Olympian *

Gemma Owen Gemma or GEMMA may refer to: People and fictional characters * Gemma (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Gemma (surname), including a list of people with the name Science and technology Biology * Gemm ...

Love Island star

References

External links