St Paul's Girls' School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the school in London. For the school in Edgbaston, Birmingham, see St Paul's School for Girls

St Paul's Girls' School (or SPGS) is a major British independent school, located in Hammersmith, London. It has earned a reputation which places it foremost among girls' schools in the UK.

John Colet founded St Paul's School for boys in 1509. In 1904 a new day school for girls was established by the trustees of the Dean Colet Foundation, which had run St Paul's School 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.

Students range from 11-18 years old, with approximately 680 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. John Gardner followed in his footsteps, writing many memorable pieces for the School, including his popular Christmas carol Tomorrow Shall be My Dancing Day. Most students progress to university after their secondary education, with 35-40% gaining entrance to the Oxbridge Colleges. Former and current pupils are known as Paulinas (rhymes with 'lip-liner'). 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, who replaced Elizabeth Diggory in the Autumn Term of 2006. Sadly, Miss Diggory died on March 18th 2007, only 8 months after retirement, following the third recurrence of breast cancer, a disease she had managed bravely to fight off during her career.