Cheltenham Ladies' College
Encyclopedia
The Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham
, Gloucestershire
, England
.
, a prominent Suffragette educator who founded St Hilda's College, Oxford
.
The school crest depicts two doves, taken from the Cheltenham town shield, above three stars, which are in turn above a daisy, a prominent school symbol.
and the University of Cambridge
among others. A large and successful alumnae association of over 9,000 former pupils keep in contact and offer work placements and careers advice to girls.
Girls who board live in one of thirteen boarding houses. There are nine junior houses for 11-16 year olds, and four senior houses for sixth form girls. The junior houses are Farnley Lodge, Glenlee, Sidney Lodge, St. Austin's, St. Helen's, St. Margaret's. At Sixth Form all girls move to a senior house. The senior houses are Beale, Cambray, Elizabeth and St. Hilda's. Each house is run by a housemistress and several resident staff (matrons). The housemistresses have a lighter teaching load with a full-time commitment supervising their boarders.
Junior day girls have their own base in Eversleigh, where the three junior houses, Bellairs, Glengar and St. Clare, are located. Bayshill Court is the home of the senior day girl house, Bayshill, and the first Housemaster in the 155 year history of the College.
There are nine junior houses Glenlee, Sidney Lodge, Farnley Lodge, St Margaret's, St Helen's, St Austins, Bellairs, Glengar and St Clare's.
in the subject they intend to study for A-levels.
in October 2008, the last Office for Standards in Education
inspection of boarding facilities took place in May 2008.
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
History
The school was founded in 1853. In 1858, the Principal's post was taken by Dorothea BealeDorothea Beale
Dorothea Beale LLD was a suffragist, educational reformer, author and Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies' College.Born in Bishopsgate, England, she was the founder of St Hilda's College, Oxford....
, a prominent Suffragette educator who founded St Hilda's College, Oxford
St Hilda's College, Oxford
St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.The college was founded in 1893 as a hall for women, and remained an all-women's college until 2006....
.
The school crest depicts two doves, taken from the Cheltenham town shield, above three stars, which are in turn above a daisy, a prominent school symbol.
Present day
The school uniform consists of a white blouse, green skirt and green jumper with a badge featuring the House colours. Sixth Form girls are given the option of trousers or pencil skirts (navy with pinstripes). There are occasional days when girls are allowed to wear their own choice of clothes in return for a donation to charity. All girls carry the School Sack, apart from those who choose to carry their school equipment in their arms.Academic
The school works around the pupils, giving them free choice in what they excel in. A broad range of subject combinations is available to girls at GCSE, A Level. The school offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma at Sixth Form. Tutors are full-time academic members of staff and advise girls on matters relating to their academic work and progress, including university advice and applications. Most students go on to continue higher education at a range of top universities both in the UK and America such as the University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
among others. A large and successful alumnae association of over 9,000 former pupils keep in contact and offer work placements and careers advice to girls.
Pastoral
Students are supervised by a Housemistress, the House Staff and a Tutor, and are part of a House.Girls who board live in one of thirteen boarding houses. There are nine junior houses for 11-16 year olds, and four senior houses for sixth form girls. The junior houses are Farnley Lodge, Glenlee, Sidney Lodge, St. Austin's, St. Helen's, St. Margaret's. At Sixth Form all girls move to a senior house. The senior houses are Beale, Cambray, Elizabeth and St. Hilda's. Each house is run by a housemistress and several resident staff (matrons). The housemistresses have a lighter teaching load with a full-time commitment supervising their boarders.
Junior day girls have their own base in Eversleigh, where the three junior houses, Bellairs, Glengar and St. Clare, are located. Bayshill Court is the home of the senior day girl house, Bayshill, and the first Housemaster in the 155 year history of the College.
Extra-curricular
Music and Drama departments offer a number of productions each year involving all age groups. Over 900 individual instrumental lessons take place each week. A new Performing Arts Centre opened in September 2009. Over 30 sports are offered, and students are encouraged to maintain physical fitness with physical exercise. Eighty other extra-curricular activities are available.There are nine junior houses Glenlee, Sidney Lodge, Farnley Lodge, St Margaret's, St Helen's, St Austins, Bellairs, Glengar and St Clare's.
Admissions
Entrance to The Cheltenham Ladies’ College is by examination for girls aged 11+, 12+, 13+ and at Sixth Form, where only a select number of top students will be admitted. A number of academic, art, music and sports scholarships are awarded each year and financial assistance with fees is available. Girls applying to the Sixth Form are required to achieve A*s at GCSE or IGCSEIGCSE
The International General Certificate of Secondary Education is an internationally recognised qualification for school students, typically in the 14–16 age group. It is similar to the GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Standard Grade in Scotland or Junior Certificate in the Republic of...
in the subject they intend to study for A-levels.
Guild - Notable former pupils
Guild is the association of College's former pupils.The arts
- Florence FarrFlorence FarrFlorence Beatrice Emery Farr was a British West End leading actress, composer and director. She was also a women's rights activist, journalist, educator, singer, novelist, leader of the occult order, The Golden Dawn and one time mistress of playwright George Bernard Shaw...
, actress and mistress of George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60... - Bridget RileyBridget RileyBridget Louise Riley CH CBE is an English painter who is one of the foremost proponents of Op art.-Early life:...
, artist - Sophie SolomonSophie SolomonSophie Solomon is a British violinist, songwriter and composer who fuses many different musical influences into her music. In January 2012 she will take up the Directorship of the Jewish Music Institute, SOAS.-Early life:...
, violinist - Kristin Scott ThomasKristin Scott ThomasKristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....
, actress - Katherine Hamnett, fashion designer
- Damaris HaymanDamaris HaymanDamaris Hayman is an actress best known for character roles on television. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College....
, actress - Charlotte ReatherCharlotte Reather-Personal life:Educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Reather went on to study English Literature at Kingston University. Charlotte currently lives in the Cotswolds and often plays polo...
, comedy writer and actress - Talulah RileyTalulah RileyTalulah Jane Riley-Milburn is an English actress whose films include Pride and Prejudice, St Trinian's, The Boat That Rocked and St...
, actress - Amanda WakeleyAmanda WakeleyAmanda Wakeley OBE was born in 1962, and educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College. She is a self-taught designer who worked for Go Silk in New York before launching under her own signature label in 1990....
, fashion designer
Politics
- Cheryl GillanCheryl GillanCheryl Elise Kendall Gillan is a British Conservative Party politician. She is currently the Secretary of State for Wales, and the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Chesham and Amersham in Buckinghamshire....
, Member of Parliament and Secretary of State for Wales - Carolyn Kirby, first female President of the Law Society
- Lesley Knox, founder of British Linen Advisors, ex-Director of the Bank of Scotland
- Rachel LomaxRachel LomaxJanis Rachel Lomax in Swansea Wales is a British economist and former government official who served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, sitting on the Monetary Policy Committee from 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2008.-Early life:...
, the first woman Deputy Governor of the Bank of England
- Fiona MacTaggartFiona MactaggartFiona Margaret Mactaggart is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Slough since 1997.-Early life:...
, Member of Parliament - Gareth PeirceGareth PeirceGareth Peirce is an English solicitor, educated at the Cheltenham Ladies' College, the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. She is known for her work in high profile cases representing people with Irish and Muslim backgrounds accused of terrorism.-Personal life:Born with the...
, defence lawyer - Sally KeebleSally KeebleSally Curtis Keeble is a British Labour Party politician, was the Member of Parliament for Northampton North from 1997 to 2010...
, Member of Parliament
The Sciences
- Mary Archer, scientist
- Maud CunningtonMaud CunningtonMaud Edith Cunnington , was a Welsh-born archaeologist, most famous for her pioneering work on the prehistoric sites of Salisbury Plain....
, archaeologist - Lillias HamiltonLillias HamiltonDr Lillias Anna Hamilton M.D., was an English pioneer female doctor and author. After attending Cheltenham Ladies' College, she trained first as a nurse, in Liverpool, before going on to study medicine in Scotland, qualifying as a Doctor of Medicine in 1890.She was a court physician to Amir Abdur...
, doctor and author
- Liz MillerLiz MillerElizabeth Sinclair Miller is a British physician, surgeon, campaigner and writer noted for her outspoken stance on mental health, and bipolar disorder in particular...
, former neurosurgeon and mental health campaigner - Margaret LowenfeldMargaret LowenfeldMargaret Frances Jane Lowenfeld was a British-born pioneer of child psychology and psychotherapy, a medical researcher in paediatric medicine, and an author of several publications and academic papers on the analysis of child development and play...
paediatrician and child psychotherapist - Sister Frances Dominica RitchieSister Frances Dominica RitchieSister Frances Dominica Ritchie, OBE, DL, FRCN is a British nurse, specializing in palliative care. She founded two hospices for seriously ill young people.-Early life:...
, nurse - Helena Rosa WrightHelena Rosa WrightHelena Rosa Wright was a British-born pioneer and influential figure in birth control and family planning both in the Britain and internationally. With her husband she undertook missionary work in China for five years. She qualified as a medical doctor, later specialising in contraception medicine...
(née Lowenfeld) doctor and pioneer of family planning
Journalism/Authors
- Phyllis BentleyPhyllis BentleyPhyllis Eleanor Bentley, OBE , was an English novelist.The youngest child of a mill owner, she grew up in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and was educated at Halifax High School for Girls and Cheltenham Ladies' College. During World War I she worked in the munitions industry...
, author - Katharine BurdekinKatharine BurdekinKatharine Burdekin was a British novelist who wrote speculative fiction dealing with political, social, and spiritual issues. She was the sister of Rowena Cade, creator of the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. Many of her novels could be categorized as feminist utopian/dystopian fiction...
, author - Rosie BoycottRosie BoycottRosel Marie Boycott , better known as Rosie Boycott, is a British journalist and feminist.-Journalism career:Daughter of Major Charles Boycott and Betty Boycott née Le Sueur, Rosel Boycott was born in St Helier, Jersey and was educated at the independent Cheltenham Ladies' College and read...
, journalist - D. K. BrosterD. K. BrosterDorothy Kathleen Broster , usually known as D.K. Broster was a British novelist and short-story writer, born in Garston, Liverpool at Devon Lodge , which lies in Grassendale Park on the banks of the River Mersey. Educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and St...
, novelist - Katharine BurdekinKatharine BurdekinKatharine Burdekin was a British novelist who wrote speculative fiction dealing with political, social, and spiritual issues. She was the sister of Rowena Cade, creator of the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. Many of her novels could be categorized as feminist utopian/dystopian fiction...
, novelist - Amy Key Clarke, mystical poet, author and senior teacher at the school, also wrote histories of the school
- Beatrice HarradenBeatrice HarradenBeatrice Harraden was a British writer and suffragette.Born in London on 24 January 1864, Harraden studied in Dresden, at Cheltenham Ladies’ College in Gloucestershire and at Queen’s College and Bedford College in London, and received a bachelor’s degree...
, writer and suffragette - Cherry HealeyCherry HealeyCherry Healey is a British television presenter, frequently featuring in self-titled documentaries on BBC Three....
, journalist - Phoebe HeskethPhoebe HeskethPhoebe Hesketh, , was an English poet from Lancashire notable for her poems depicting nature.-Life and writing:...
, poet
- Helen Oppenheimer, Lady Oppenheimer
- May SinclairMay SinclairMay Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair , a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League...
, writer - Caroline SpurgeonCaroline SpurgeonCaroline Frances Eleanor Spurgeon was an English literary critic. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, Dresden and at King's College London and University College London.-Life:...
, literary critic - Jenny UglowJenny UglowJennifer Sheila Uglow OBE is a British biographer, critic and publisher. The editorial director of Chatto & Windus, she has written critically acclaimed biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell, William Hogarth, Thomas Bewick and the Lunar Society, among others, and has also compiled a women's...
, biographer - Margaret Winifred VowlesMargaret Winifred VowlesMargaret Winifred Vowles was an English author on science.-Parentage:...
, author - Sarah WardleSarah WardleSarah Wardle was born in London in 1969, and educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College. She studied Classics at Lincoln College, Oxford and English at Sussex University. She was President of Oxford University Conservative Association during Trinity term, 1989. In 1999, she won the Geoffrey Dearmer...
, poet - Janet E. CourtneyJanet E. CourtneyJanet Elizabeth Courtney was a scholar, writer and feminist.-Early life:...
, writer - Betty RidleyBetty RidleyDame Mildred Betty Ridley, DBE was a leading figure in the life of the Church of England from the 1960s into the 1980s, serving as Third Church Estates Commissioner from 1972 until 1981, the first woman to hold the post...
, journalist - Margaret KennedyMargaret KennedyMargaret Kennedy was an English novelist and playwright.-Family and education:Margaret Kennedy was born in Hyde Park Gate, London, the eldest of the four children of Charles Moore Kennedy , a barrister, and his wife Ellinor Edith Marwood...
, novelist - Kate ReardonKate ReardonKate Reardon is a British journalist, the current editor of Tatler magazine.-Early life:Reardon was born to London architect Patrick Reardon in New York. Her education, however, was 'thoroughly British', attending Garden House, Bute House, Cheltenham Ladies' College and Stowe School...
, journalist
Other
- Annette Bear-CrawfordAnnette Bear-CrawfordAnnette Bear-Crawford was a women's suffragist and federationist in Victoria.-Early life:Bear-Crawford was born in East Melbourne, her family was wealthy and she spent her childhood in Australia and England. She had three brothers and five sisters...
, suffragette - Tamara BeckwithTamara BeckwithTamara Beckwith is an English socialite, noted for her coverage in glossy celebrity magazines such as OK! and Hello! magazine.-Early life:...
, socialite - Mary Russell, Duchess of BedfordMary Russell, Duchess of BedfordDame Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, DBE, RRC, FLS was an English aviatrix and ornithologist.-Early and personal life:...
, 11th Duchess of Bedford - Lisa JardineLisa JardineLisa Anne Jardine CBE , née Lisa Anne Bronowski, is a British historian of the early modern period. She is professor of Renaissance Studies and Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary, University of London, and is Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority...
, historian - Dame Helen Gwynne-VaughanHelen Gwynne-VaughanDame Helen Charlotte Isabella Gwynne-Vaughan, GBE , née Fraser, was a prominent British botanist and mycologist....
, Commandant of the Women's Royal Air ForceWomen's Royal Air ForceThe Women's Royal Air Force was a women's branch of the Royal Air Force which existed in two separate incarnations.The first WRAF was an auxiliary organization of the Royal Air Force which was founded in 1918. The original intent of the WRAF was to provide female mechanics in order to free up men...
and Chief Controller of the Auxiliary Territorial ServiceAuxiliary Territorial ServiceThe Auxiliary Territorial Service was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War...
- Agnes RoydenAgnes Royden[Agnes] Maude Royden, CH was a preacher and suffragist.Always known as Maude Royden, she was born at Mossley Hill, Liverpool, the daughter of Sir Thomas Bland Royden, 1st Baronet, of Frankby Hall, Birkenhead...
, preacher and suffragette - Jane Ellen HarrisonJane Ellen HarrisonJane Ellen Harrison was a British classical scholar, linguist and feminist. Harrison is one of the founders, with Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, of modern studies in Greek mythology. She applied 19th century archaeological discoveries to the interpretation of Greek religion in ways that have...
, classical scholar - Mary BoyceMary BoyceNora Elisabeth Mary Boyce was a British scholar of Iranian languages, and an authority on Zoroastrianism...
, Zoroastrian studies
Inspections
The school was last inspected by the Independent Schools InspectorateIndependent Schools Inspectorate
The Independent Schools Inspectorate is an organisation responsible for the inspection of independent schools in England which are affiliated to the Independent Schools Council . The Inspectorate is a separate company, owned by the Independent Schools Council and has its work monitored by the...
in October 2008, the last Office for Standards in Education
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....
inspection of boarding facilities took place in May 2008.