St Paul's Girls' School

:"This article is about the school in London. For the school in Edgbaston, Birmingham, see St Paul's School for Girls"Infobox Secondary school
name = St Paul's Girl's School

motto =
type = Independent all-female
city = Hammersmith
country = England
established = 1904
grades = 7-Sixth Form
head_label = High Mistress
head = Ms. Clarissa Farr
students =
website = [http://www.spgs.org/website/index.htm St Paul's Girls' School website]

St Paul's Girls' School (or SPGS) is an independent school, located in Hammersmith, London, England.

History

In 1904 a new day school for girls was established by the trustees of the Dean Colet Foundation (founded by John Colet), which had run St Paul's School for boys since the sixteenth century. The buildings for the school were designed by the architect Gerald Horsley, the son of the painter John Callcott Horsley and one of the founder members of the Art Workers Guild.

The school has had several distinguished directors of music, most notably Gustav Holst (1905-34) and Herbert Howells (1936-62). Holst composed his "St Paul's" and "Brook Green" suites for the pupils at the school.

Present Day

Students range from 11-18 years old, with approximately 720 pupils in total. The school emphasizes both academic and extracurricular activities. It has a firm musical tradition. Gustav Holst was Director of Music at the school during the period he composed his orchestral suite, "The Planets". He also named his St Paul's Suite after the school. John Gardner followed in his footsteps, writing many memorable pieces for the School, including his popular Christmas carols "Tomorrow Shall be My Dancing Day" and "The Holly and the Ivy". Students progress to university after their secondary education, with 40-45% gaining entrance to the Oxbridge Colleges. Former and current pupils are known as "Paulinas" (rhymes with 'lip-liner'). There is no uniform, which encourages individuality within the school community. St Paul's is a prestigious school with "many opportunities to offer". It is well known for its academic excellence, the girls' confidence and freedom throughout the school and always tops league tables in the UK. According to the "Good Schools Guide", "For the bright, talented, motivated and confident girl, [it is an] exhilarating start to the big adventure." [http://goodschoolsguide.co.uk/school/st-pauls-girls-school.html] The school, in common with many independent schools, employs an idiosyncratic nomenclature for the different years:

*Year 7 is known as the Middle Fourth
*Year 8 is the Upper Fourth
*Year 9 is the Lower Fifth
*Year 10 is the Fifth
*Year 11 is the Sixth
*Year 12 is the Seventh
*Year 13 is the Eighth

The current High Mistress is Clarissa Farr

As measured by its position in the national league tables of GCSE and A level performance, and by its excellence in Music and the arts, the School has earned a reputation which today places it foremost among girls' schools in the country. In 2007, the school gained the highest ever recorded GCSE results, with 87.1% gaining A* grades, and 99.1% of entries gaining A* or A.

High Mistresses of St Paul's Girls School

The headmistress of St Paul's Girls School is known as the High Mistress.

*Frances Ralph Grey OBE (d.1935), High Mistress 1903-1927
*Ethel Strudwick CBE (1880-1954), High Mistress 1927-1948
*Margaret Osborn (1906-1985), High Mistress 1948-1963
*Dame Alison Munro DBE (b. 1914), High Mistress 1964-1974
*Lady Brigstocke CBE (Heather Renwick Brigstocke, created Baroness Brigstocke 1990) (1929-2004), High Mistress 1974-1989
*Helen Elizabeth Webber Williams (b. 1938), High Mistress 1989-1992
*Janet Gough (b. 1940), High Mistress 1993-1998
*Elizabeth Mary Diggory (1945-2007), High Mistress 1998-2006
*Clarissa Mary Farr (b. 1958), High Mistress 2006-

Notable Old Paulinas

Old girls of the school, known as , include -

* Celia Brayfield - novelist
* Lesley Blanch - writer and author of The Wilder Shores of Love
* Jane Bonham Carter - Liberal Democrat peer
* Miranda Carter - biographer
* Emma Darwin - novelist
* Monica Dickens - writer
* Sheila Forbes - educator
* Rosalind Franklin - scientist
* Kitty Godfree - tennis player
* Christine Hamill - mathematician
* Rachel Johnson - writer, sister of Boris Johnson MP
* Kathleen Kenyon - archaeologist
* Marghanita Laski - writer
* Nicola LeFanu - composer
* Onora O'Neill - philosopher
* Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin - astronomer
* Jessica Rawson - Warden, Merton College, Oxford
* Barbara Reynolds - scholar [ [http://www.xreferplus.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=6111760 REYNOLDS, Barbara] at "Who's Who" online (accessed 26 November 2007)]
* Joan Robinson - economist
* Emma Tennant - novelist
* Angela Thirkell - novelist
* Samantha Weinberg - writer
* Kit Whitfield - novelistFact|date=July 2007
* Dame Alison Munro - Civil Servant, High Mistress of St. Paul's Girls' School

Politics

* Harriet Harman - Labour MP and Cabinet minister
* Susan Kramer - Liberal Democrat MP
* Mavis Tate - Conservative MP and women's rights campaigner [ [http://www.xreferplus.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=6200768 TATE, Mavis Constance] at "Who's Who" online (accessed 26 November 2007)]
* Shirley Williams - former Labour Education Secretary and co-founder of the SDP [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5221/is_2005/ai_n19141236 Shirley Vivien Teresa Brittain Williams] from UXL Newsmakers (2005) (accessed 27 December 2007)]

Journalism

* Emily Buchanan - BBC World Affairs correspondent
* Daisy Donovan - TV presenter
* Stephanie Flanders - BBC Economics Editor
* Sophie Raworth - broadcaster
* Alexandra Shulman - magazine editor
* Carol Thatcher - journalist, daughter of Margaret ThatcherFact|date=November 2007
* Eirene White, Baroness White - Labour politician and journalist
* Petronella Wyatt - journalist

The Arts

* Joan Cross - singer
* Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein) - artist
* Imogen Holst - musician
* Ursula Howells - actress
* Celia Johnson - actress, star of Brief Encounter
* Emily Mortimer - actress
* Natasha Richardson - actress
* Georgina Rylance - actress
* Catherine Storr - children's writer
* Imogen Stubbs - actress
* Dodie Smith - playwright
* Rachel Weisz - actress
* Celia Brayfield - novelist
* Rachel Johnson - writer, sister of Boris Johnson

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.spgs.org/website/index.htm St Paul's Girls' School website]
* [http://goodschoolsguide.co.uk/school/st-pauls-girls-school.html Profile at the Good Schools Guide]