Sheffield High School, South Yorkshire

Sheffield High School (SHS) is an independent girls' school in Sheffield, United Kingdom, part of the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST).

History

In February 1878 a meeting was held at the Cutlers’ Hall seeking support for a proposal to set up a girls’ school in Sheffield. On the 12th of March the school accepted its first 39 pupils in its town-centre premises, the old Surrey Street Music Hall.

In 1887 the school moved its premises to 10, Rutland park - where it resides today. In 1917 the school purchased Moor Lodge to be used as a girls' boarding house. In 1939 with the onset of war the school was evacuated to Cliff College , Calver ,Derbyshire.

Present day

The school premises can be seen to be split between two sites, one on Melbourne Avenue consists of the canteen, school uniform shop and Infant and Junior department. The sixth form centre is located further up Melbourne Avenue overlooking the astroturf. The Senior School islocated just across the road on Rutland Park, consisting of the sports hall, old gym, School House, Ash Grove,Moor Lodge and Main School. Both sites share the sporta facilities and canteen. The school has around 1000 pupils aged four to eighteen. The school has examination pass rates of over 99% at A-level, AS level and GCSE. However, the school only admits around 75% of the pupils who sit the school's own entrance exam .Almost all the girls proceed to higher education, with over 90% obtaining a place at their first choice of university, with approximately 10% securing places at Oxbridge. For example, the declared destinations on the School's website show that, of the 69 leavers of 2007, 7 went on to either Oxford or Cambridge, 6 took a gap year, 1 went straight into employment and the remainder all went on to Higher Education courses.

Although not officially connected, the High School has some informal links with Birkdale, a nearby independent boys' school. Pupils from both schools travel jointly on a coach service to areas such as wickersly and Worksop. Also functions such as Christmas and end of year 11 balls are organised involving pupils from both schools. Sports tournements such as girls Versus Birkdale charity netball matches.

Recent changes to the school

In 2007 the school acquired No.4 Melbourne Avenue as a new infant building thus enlarging the Junior building to encorporate a new library. In 2007 the science block underwent a total refurbishment of the chemistry, physics and biology laboratories. In 2006-7 the Art department within moor lodge was refurbished and extended creating two new art rooms as well as a new ICT suite.

125th Birthday Celebrations

The school had a giant birthday party in 2003 to celebrate the school's 125th Birthday. A calendar was made with a different photo for each month. For the front cover, Shaun Bloodworth (a parent of one of the pupils) set up a camera on the top of the science block with an image painted onto the lens. Prefects were sent onto the field below with bags of pegs and string and were shouted instructions from the rooftop until the numbers 1, 2 and 5 were laid out.Due to the fact that girls started filling up the photo area on the 125th birthday photo at the top first, there are many more girls in the top edges of the numbers compared to the bottom.

Each pupil was given a bone china mug with a cartoon (called 'Girls Through The Ages') of different uniforms worn in the high school, drawn by art teacher, Miss Hanlon.The mugs from the school's 125th birthday were delivered much later than expected so a team of staff had to box all 1,250 mugs at top speed.

A ceremony was held at the Octagon Centre, Sheffield on 11th March 2003.

Buildings

• Ash Grove (Music)
• Canteen
• Main Building (Maths, English, History, Languages)
• Moor Lodge (Year 11 base, Geography, ICT, RE, Business, Art)
• School House (Drama, PSHE)
• Sixth Form Centre
• Sports Hall
• The Infant and Junior Department is now housed in two adjacent buildings - in Melbourne House and in the newly-refurbished premises at No. 4 Melbourne Avenue

Headmistresses

• Miss M Alger (March-December 1878)
• Mrs E Woodhouse (1878-1898)
• Miss A E Escott (1898-1917)
• Mrs A Doncaster (1917-1919)
• Miss M Aitken (1919-1926)
• Miss D L Walker (1926-1936)
• Miss M E Macauley (1936-1947)
• Miss M E A Hancock (1947-1959)
• Miss C M Lutz (1959-1983)
• Miss D M Skilbeck (1983-1989)
• Margaret Houston (1988 - 2002)
• Valerie Dunsford (2003 to present)

Houses

The Senior school is split into four houses named after the four founder members of the school Maria Grey, Mary Gurney, Emily Shirreff and Lady Stanley of Alderley. Paintings of these are displayed on the stairs by the reception.

The Infant and Junior Department reflects this system. Grey is known as 'Amethyst', Gurney is called 'Emeralds', Shirreff is known as 'Sapphires' and Stanley is called 'Rubies'. A pupil is allocated a house when they join the school, this may be affected by preferences of the pupil or the houses of other siblings already in the school.

Numerous competitions and events are organised each year including sporting events such as netball, rounders and athletics, art competitions, Year 7 Mathematics Day and House Charities Week. House captains are democratically elected by the members of the house each year. A captain for winter and summer sports are picked and take a pivotal role in sports day which occurs at Don Valley Stadium each year.

Sixth Form

Around 200 pupils at any one time are present in year 12 and 13. Girls study for academic AS and A2 levels, including more specialist subjects such as geology, Latin and Russian. In year 12 girls undergo an enrichment process for 2 hours on a wednesday afternoon where they can choose what activities they wish to participate in including:

• The Young Entreprise award
• Learning Mandarin Chinese
• Sport
• Peer education (teaching younger girls PSHE)
• helping with the school magazine
• charity work

Sixth form do not wear uniform and may leave school during the day if they wish - a privilige not granted to younger pupils. Students may bring cars to school as the centre has its own carpark, but spaces are limited so works on a first come first serve basis. Each year has its own common room and the centre has its own hall for sixth form only assembly once every 2 weeks.

Awards

• Winner of the Daily Telegraph/Norwich Union Award for Best Independent School for Sport 2005. The award was made at a ceremony in London in December 2006 and the School displays the logo related to this award within its website.

Magazines

Each year girls from the school help to write and publish the magazine, High Times. This was edited by Mr Nichols until 2006, and is now edited by Miss K. Henderson, and features articles, photos and art work from the pupils. This is edited by a team of volunteers from year 12 and 13 as part of their enrichment program.

Awards ceremony

An annual awards ceremony is held at the Octagon Centre to celebrate the school's achievements.

Tradition has it that every year the staff place bets as to how long the guest speaker's speech will last. Entry is one pound and the money collected is given to the one with the most accurate guess. This happened for a number of years but did not take place at the 2007 ceremony.

Notable alumnae

• Deborah Ann Barham
• Margaret Drabble, novelist
• Angela Knight
• A. S. Byatt, novelist, sister of Margaret Drabble

Interesting facts

• Headmistress Valerie Dunsford formerly worked as a tour guide in Italy. This is mentioned in her CV on page 7 of the 2003-2004 edition of the School's 'High Times' magazine.

External links

• School website