Lady Margaret School
Encyclopedia
Lady Margaret School is a smaller than average all-girls' Voluntary Aided Church of England secondary school
in Parsons Green
, Fulham
, London
. It was awarded specialist school
status as a Mathematics & Computing College in September 2003.
. The school is heavily oversubscribed, with 16 girls applying per place. The majority of girls stay on into the sixth form. A small number of students from other schools are given places in the sixth form.
The headmistress is Mrs. Whyte, and the deputy head is Mr. Sanderson following the retirement of headmistress Mrs. Joan Olivier and deputy head Mr. Busby in 2006.
Lady Margaret School has its origins in Whitelands College School, founded in 1842, soon after the College itself. In 1917, Whitelands School was threatened with closure, and it was only by the strenuous efforts of Miss Enid Moberly Bell, the Second Mistress, and the Staff of the School, that a substantial number of the pupils were "rescued" and became Lady Margaret School in September 1917.
The School began life in the oldest of the three houses facing Parson's Green which now form the present school: Belfield House. The School was named after the Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, founder of St John's and Christ's Colleges, Cambridge, and a benefactress of education. In 1937, the second house, Elm House, was purchased through the generosity of Miss Anne Lupton.
With the passing of the Butler Act in 1944 the Kindergarten and Junior School were phased out and Lady Margaret became a two-form entry grammar school. In April 1951 its relationship to the Church of England was regularised when it became a Voluntary Aided School.
Today Lady Margaret School is a successful, over subscribed, Church of England Comprehensive in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. In 2003 the school achieved specialist status in Mathematics and Computing. In 2007 the school was described by Ofsted as 'good with outstanding features' and by the Statutory Inspection of Anglican Schools as 'outstanding'. Having been designated a 'high performing specialist school' following the successful Ofsted inspection, the school has now been awarded a second specialism in Music.
The houses are as follows:
Moberly-Bell, named after the first Headmistress of LMS (pink),
Lyttelton (blue),
Carver (green),
Marshall (purple),
Chirol (red) and
Kensington (yellow).
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
in Parsons Green
Parsons Green
Parsons Green is an area in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.The mainly residential area is named after the village green now called Parsons Green Park where the vicar of Fulham used to live...
, Fulham
Fulham
Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It was awarded specialist school
Specialist school
The specialist schools programme was a UK government initiative which encouraged secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum to boost achievement. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust was responsible for the delivery of the programme...
status as a Mathematics & Computing College in September 2003.
History
The school serves a population of approximately 590 girls between eleven and eighteen years old, about 150 of whom are in the sixth formSixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
. The school is heavily oversubscribed, with 16 girls applying per place. The majority of girls stay on into the sixth form. A small number of students from other schools are given places in the sixth form.
The headmistress is Mrs. Whyte, and the deputy head is Mr. Sanderson following the retirement of headmistress Mrs. Joan Olivier and deputy head Mr. Busby in 2006.
Lady Margaret School has its origins in Whitelands College School, founded in 1842, soon after the College itself. In 1917, Whitelands School was threatened with closure, and it was only by the strenuous efforts of Miss Enid Moberly Bell, the Second Mistress, and the Staff of the School, that a substantial number of the pupils were "rescued" and became Lady Margaret School in September 1917.
The School began life in the oldest of the three houses facing Parson's Green which now form the present school: Belfield House. The School was named after the Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, founder of St John's and Christ's Colleges, Cambridge, and a benefactress of education. In 1937, the second house, Elm House, was purchased through the generosity of Miss Anne Lupton.
With the passing of the Butler Act in 1944 the Kindergarten and Junior School were phased out and Lady Margaret became a two-form entry grammar school. In April 1951 its relationship to the Church of England was regularised when it became a Voluntary Aided School.
Today Lady Margaret School is a successful, over subscribed, Church of England Comprehensive in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. In 2003 the school achieved specialist status in Mathematics and Computing. In 2007 the school was described by Ofsted as 'good with outstanding features' and by the Statutory Inspection of Anglican Schools as 'outstanding'. Having been designated a 'high performing specialist school' following the successful Ofsted inspection, the school has now been awarded a second specialism in Music.
Houses
There are six houses in the school, each with a distinctive colour to be worn during house activities, and in the lower years house points can be collected for these houses. In addition, there are many inter-house competitions including poetry, sport and debating; the two biggest house events being Sports Day at the end of the academic year and also the School's Birthday, on the 29th September, when each of the houses performs a short play whose plot corresponds to a uniting theme, for example: Grimm's Fairy Tales or Greek Myths. The plays are judged by a Teacher Panel on the basis of plot coherence, quotable lines, specific references to the school, the quality of the teacher parodies and overall effort from the house. Last year (2010) the house plays were won by Lyttelton with their version of The Titanic. Sports Day, the final house event of the year, was won by Chirol. However the house with the most housepoints - points received when students are extremely well behaved or do exceptional homework etc - was Kensington.The houses are as follows:
Moberly-Bell, named after the first Headmistress of LMS (pink),
Lyttelton (blue),
Carver (green),
Marshall (purple),
Chirol (red) and
Kensington (yellow).
Notable alumnae
- Jill SawardJill SawardJill Saward is best known as the victim of the 1986 Ealing Vicarage Rape, a crime that scandalized the UK and led indirectly to changes in the law. She was educated at Lady Margaret School...
, rape law reformist, aka the "Ealing Vicarage Rape Victim" - Janet Street Porter — Editor-at-large at the Independent newspapers