150th Book

INTRODUCTION

Newcastle High School for Girls, one of the schools in Girls’ Day School Trust, was formed in 2014 following the merger of Central Newcastle High School and Newcastle Church High School. This book traces the fascinating history of these important girls’ schools, a history that stretches back to 1876, and records the key events of the first decade of Newcastle High School for Girls.

We have been pioneers of girls’ education in the North East for 150 years - shaping generations of young women into leaders, trailblazers, and world-shapers. Together with its founding Schools, Gateshead High School, Newcastle Church High School and Central Newcastle High School, Newcastle High School for Girls has over 300 years of collective experience in educating young women.

NHSG has been has been built upon the distinctive yet complementary ethos and strengths of its founding schools. These institutions were shaped by a shared conviction that girls were entitled to the very best education, one that recognised and nurtured each pupil’s abilities, strengths, and character in order to help her reach her full potential. Like our founding schools, we encourage our girls to be ambitious, fearless, and unapologetically themselves. At NHSG, every girl is supported to discover her potential, break down barriers, and achieve her goals, whatever they may be.

Recognised for both academic excellence and pastoral care, our schools have always believed that education has the power not merely to inform individual lives, but to reshape society itself. Across more than a century and a half, our schools have acted as powerful agents of change, redefining what women might learn, what they might become, and the roles they might claim within the world beyond the classroom. We’ve educated girls not simply for private fulfilment, but for public responsibility, professional life, and civic engagement. In doing so, they helped to normalise the presence of educated women in universities, professions, and leadership long before such outcomes were widely accepted.

Our Schools have withstood some extraordinary challenges. War, pandemics, economic depression, and immense social change have all been met with the adaptability, courage and resilience.

The spirit and achievements of our schools and the women that have been part of our history are reflected in the confident young women we are educating today. The story of our schools is not only a record of institutional development, but a testament to the enduring power of girls’ education to open doors, challenge and redefine the role of women as well as to blaze a trail for future generations.

We are immensely proud of our heritage and of the intelligent, fearless young women we have taught, women who have seized the opportunities offered to them and played a vital part in the emancipation of women. This book tells the story of our extraordinary school, from its first foundation as Gateshead High School in 1876 to the present day.

Amanda Hardie Head

LIFE OF A SCHOOL GIRL 1876

• Travel to school is by horse drawn bus, tram or on foot. Those coming from Newcastle had to cross via the High Level Bridge as it was the only one at the time.

• School starts at 9.00am and ends at 1.00pm, but if she lived a great distance away she could stay for lunch.

• Strict rule of silence from the moment you enter school to the moment you leave.

• No uniform but a strict dress code including a school slipper without heels, long dresses with two petticoats.

• A slate, slate pencil and sandbox for the younger pupils, copybooks with dip pens, ink and blotting paper for the older girls.

• The curriculum included English literature, History, Geography, Mathematics, Latin, French and German, Science, Scripture, Music and PE.

HER FUTURE PROSPECTS

• Any property she owned would be transferred to her husbands ownership on marriage.

• She could not enter into contracts or sue in court without their husbands endorsement.

• In (very rare) cases of separation, her children were legally the property of the father.

• No say in who her public representatives were.

• Access to Higher Education and professional careers are very limited, education is assumed to prepare her for marriage.

• The age of consent was raised this year from 12 to 13.

GIRLS’ EDUCATION IN BRITAIN, C. 1750-1900

In the late 19th Century, the GDST and the Church Schools Company were very much part of the advance movement of the education of girls.

Prior to that, the majority of girls of the upper and middle classes were educated at home. A very few Convent schools had existed since the Middle Ages, but it was not until the late eighteenth century that they began to increase in number and more girls began to attend. Even then they were small, varied greatly in the qualifications of those who ran them, and were generally consistent in the poor quality of the education provided. The teaching was little, if any, better than that offered to children taught at home by ill-paid governesses who had themselves been badly taught, and who were now teaching other children simply because it was almost the only permissible way for a gentlewoman to earn her own living.

By the early nineteenth century, a growing network of private academies and small schools for girls had emerged, particularly in urban centres. These institutions varied widely in quality. Some offered serious instruction in mathematics, history, geography, and science, while others remained little more than finishing schools. There was no national

framework, no inspection system, and no agreed standard of attainment. Girls’ education depended heavily on the vision of individual headmistresses and the willingness of parents to invest in intellectual rather than social outcomes. These schools did not attempt to equip pupils for any future but marriage and hardly that, for the domestic virtues and accomplishments had lost favour in many of the fashionable schools; excellence in plain sewing, cookery and housewifery which had been the pride of the women of the seventeenth century had been smothered under the desire of frills and smart accomplishments in the early nineteenth century.

Girls’ education reflected assumptions about women’s social roles rather than their intellectual capacity. For most girls, particularly those of the working poor, education was minimal and functional, focused on obedience, basic literacy, and preparation for domestic labour. Among the middle and upper classes, schooling was more common but often narrowly conceived. Instruction prioritised “accomplishments” such as music, drawing, needlework, and modern languages taught for social polish rather than intellectual development. Educating girls was generally held to be at best a waste of time and money and at worst there was a very real concern that those girls who were

allowed to use their brains, to read and think for themselves, would be robbed of all feminine charm and grace and become socially suspect.

The later eighteenth century saw significant challenges to this model. Enlightened ideas about reason, moral improvement and the argument that women’s moral influence within the family and society required a sounder intellectual foundation began to take hold. Yet these arguments rarely extended to claims for equality. Education was defended as a means of making women better daughters, wives, and mothers, rather than independent thinkers or public actors. The mid-nineteenth century marked a turning point. The 1851 census identified that there were between five hundred thousand and one million more women than men.

These figures caused moral and social panic, with the widespread belief that there would be large numbers of unmarried women who would either live in misery and poverty or must rely on their own earnings. Industrialisation, urbanisation, and expanding professional classes created new social pressures. Increasing numbers of families sought education for daughters that matched, at least in seriousness, that provided

for sons. At the same time, social reform movements and religious organisations became more involved in educational provision, seeing schooling as a means of moral formation and social stability. These developments exposed the inadequacy of existing arrangements for girls.

The need for high-quality academic education for girls was recognised as a major social issue. Combined with the emergent women’s movement this made fertile ground for the reform of girls’ education. From the 1860s onwards, reform accelerated. The Association of Headmistresses (now the Girls’ Schools Association or GSA) was established in 1874 to recognise trained women teachers and Headmistresses as Professionals. Campaigns for women’s access to higher education gained momentum, leading to the establishment of women’s colleges and the gradual opening of university examinations to female candidates. Public concern grew about the lack of academically rigorous secondary education for girls. In response, new types of institutions emerged: High schools for girls, organised on professional lines, offering structured curricula, qualified staff, and public examinations. These schools represented a decisive break with the tradition of informal or ornamental education.

Despite these advances, progress was uneven and contested. Critics warned that serious study might damage girls’ health or undermine femininity. Access to education remained shaped by class, geography, and religious affiliation. Nonetheless, by the final quarter of the nineteenth century, the principle that girls were intellectually capable of sustained academic work was increasingly accepted and the path to social reform for women was laid, largely due to the work of the schools of the GPDST and the Church Schools Company.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GIRLS’ DAY SCHOOL TRUST

The Girls’ Day School Trust was founded by four pioneering women committed to making an outstanding, academically rigorous education available to young women.

The scale and success of the GDST is a truly remarkable achievement. Unlike many boys’ schools founded on historic endowments and long-established wealth, the GDST began in the nineteenth century with a small band of female pioneers in girls’ education and the belief of enlightened parents who dared to believe their girls deserved more than society expected of them.

From those pioneering beginnings the GDST has grown into one of the largest charities in the UK and educates 20,000 girls a year.

The establishment of the Girls’ Public Day School Trust in 1872 marked a decisive moment in the history of girls’ education in Britain. For the first time, a national organisation was created with the explicit purpose of providing academically rigorous secondary education for girls on a scale previously reserved for boys. The Trust emerged in response to growing dissatisfaction with the limited, inconsistent, and often superficial schooling

available to girls, particularly those of the professional and middle classes.

The founders of the Trust were motivated by principle and practicality. They believed that girls were intellectually capable of sustained academic study and that society would benefit from educating women to a higher standard. At the same time, they recognised that existing provisionprivate academies, small proprietary schools and home education - lacked coherence, accountability, and breadth. The Trust offered a new model, publicly accountable, professionally staffed, nondenominational day schools for girls, governed centrally but responsive to local needs.

Foremost among them were Maria Grey and Emily Shirreff, long-standing collaborators in the reform of women’s education. Both were deeply critical of the ornamental schooling available to most girls and argued forcefully that women required disciplined intellectual training if they were to participate fully in moral, civic, and professional life. Through their earlier work with the National Union for Improving the Education of Women, they had already established themselves as leading educational thinkers, combining philosophical clarity with practical realism.

They were joined by two women of significant social standing and public influence: Lady Stanley of Alderley and Lady Augusta Stanley. Both brought political acumen, financial credibility, and access to influential networks that enabled the Trust to move rapidly from principle to practice. Their participation also signalled that serious education for girls was a matter of national importance rather than private eccentricity.

From the outset, the Trust insisted upon high academic standards. Its schools offered a structured curriculum that included mathematics, science, history, geography, modern and classical languages, English literature, alongside physical education and cultural pursuits. Teaching was undertaken by wellqualified staff, many of them university-educated women at a time when higher education for women was still severely restricted. Regular inspection and public examinations ensured consistency and credibility, helping to establish girls’ secondary education as intellectually serious and socially legitimate.

Equally significant was the Trust’s commitment to accessibility. While not free, its schools were intended to be more affordable than many private establishments, opening opportunities to families who valued education but could not sustain the costs of boarding schools or prolonged home tuition. By situating schools in urban centres, the Trust also recognised the realities of family life and the growing demand for day education for girls.

The influence of the Girls’ Public Day School Trust extended far beyond its own institutions. It set benchmarks for curriculum, governance, and expectation that reshaped the educational landscape nationally. Its success demonstrated that girls’ schools could thrive academically, financially, and reputationally, and it challenged long-standing assumptions about women’s intellectual limits. In doing so, it helped to normalise ambitions that would later be taken for granted: university study, professional training, and public contribution.

Within this wider movement, Gateshead High School was established. In the 1870s Gateshead was a rapidly growing industrial town, shaped by shipbuilding, engineering and commerce and increasingly populated by enlightened families in Gateshead and Newcastle, many of them Quakers, Liberals and professionals, who valued education as a means of social and intellectual advancement. Provision for girls beyond elementary schooling remained limited and uneven so when the GPDSC invited applications from towns willing to raise share capital for new schools, Gateshead responded with enthusiasm.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GATESHEAD HIGH SCHOOL 1876 - 1895

In accordance with the Girls’ Public Day School Trust’s policy, no school could be opened without sufficient local commitment in the form of share subscriptions to cover initial costs. The Gateshead applicants were prompt in taking up the required shares, indicating a strong level of support among a small but influential group. Among them were Dr Robert Spence Watson, President of the Literary and Philosophical Society and a founding figure in what would become King’s College, Newcastle, and Joseph Wilson Swan, pioneer of electric lighting and photographic paper. Both men, and their families, were deeply involved in the intellectual, scientific and educational life of the region, and their support placed the school firmly within a culture that valued serious learning for girls.

Suitable premises were found at Prospect Cottage in Bensham. Typical of the early foundations of the Girls’ Public Day School Company, it was a domestic building adapted for schooling. It stood in its own grounds, surrounded by orchards and hedgerows of wild roses and honeysuckle. The School opened in September 1876 with twentyeight pupils, becoming the tenth and northernmost establishment of the Company. The first Headmistress was Miss Jane Paske Rowdon, remembered by former pupils as “a fearsome person and a

great disciplinarian”, though her pug dog, Pongo, was also a familiar presence in the early schoolrooms. Miss Rowdon ruled the school for its first three years, until her marriage. Although little survives about her educational philosophy, the rapid growth of the school suggests that parents approved of the order and seriousness she established. Within two years pupil numbers had doubled. Prospect Cottage was regarded as a temporary home from the outset. By the time Miss Isabella Cooper took over as Headmistress in 1879, work was already under way on a new school building on Windmill Hills.

The new premises, opened in May 1880, was large and imposing, standing on elevated ground and exposed to the prevailing winds. For many pupils arriving daily on foot from considerable distances, the climb up Windmill Hill became a lasting and vivid memory. The new building soon proved insufficient, and by 1883 extensions were required, including additional classrooms, a dining room and a hut gymnasium. Numbers continued to rise, reaching 300 by 1885, a tenfold increase in less than a decade. Pupils came from Gateshead, Newcastle, Northumberland and County Durham.

Under Miss Cooper the school developed a notably strong staff, including at least six teachers with university degrees, an unusual distinction in the early 1880s. The curriculum was broad and demanding. Alongside English, history and geography, pupils studied mathematics, Latin, French and German, and older girls were prepared for public examinations. Scripture occupied a central place in school life and was taught seriously rather than devotionally. Music, both vocal and instrumental, was strongly encouraged, and concerts formed part of the school’s public presence.

Discipline was strict and carefully regulated. Silence was required from entry to departure, except during recreation and dinner, and conduct marks were closely monitored. The school’s identity was reinforced through symbols and mottos.

The school motto, Vigilando ascendimus (“We rise by being vigilant”), appeared on the badge, while the Sixth Form adopted Lampada tradam (“I will pass on the torch”).

By the late 1880s Gateshead High School had established itself as a large, academically serious day school drawing pupils from across the region, a success that would soon prompt new developments beyond Gateshead itself.

Gymnastics and Fencing pupils with Monsieur Leblique, 1891

Miss Cooper, Head 1879-1891

Four members of staff c1890

Miss Vickers and staff, 1896

THE CHURCH SCHOOLS COMPANY

THE FOUNDATION OF NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL

By setting up day schools which would appeal to the middle classes who wished both to keep their daughters at home and to educate them as economically as possible, the Girls’ Public Day School Trust laid the groundwork for the formation of the Church School’s Company. While sharing with the GPDST a commitment to academic seriousness, the Church Schools Company’s educational purpose was the provision of intellectually rigorous schooling for girls grounded in the principles and traditions of the Church of England.

From the outset, the Company adopted a professional and nationally coordinated model. Strategic oversight, inspection, and the appointment of headmistresses were managed centrally, ensuring consistency of standards across schools. At the same time, each school was supported by a local committee responsible for financial guarantees, community engagement, and practical support.

By the early 1880s,Newcastle upon Tyne was a centre of industrial innovation and civic ambition, with a growing professional class seeking serious education for their daughters. There was clear local support for a school that combined academic rigour with Anglican ethos. In 1884 the decision to establish a Church high school in the city was made and shares taken up.

Negotiations commenced for taking over a private school at 54, 56, 58 and 60 Jesmond Road, run by Miss Hewison. The first Headmistress’s package was confirmed: £180 salary, furnished rooms, a capitation fee of £1 per pupil after the first 75, and a service allowance up to £80. Miss Caroline Ackerley was appointed as the first Headmistress at just twenty-eight, she brought strong academic credentials as a Clough Scholar of Newnham College, Cambridge, and a clear commitment to intellectual seriousness. From the beginning, it was intended as a school of high academic attainment and the curriculum included English, mathematics,

modern languages, history, science, and religious knowledge, supported by physical education and cultural activities. Pupils were prepared for public examinations, placing the school within the emerging national framework of recognised academic achievement for girls.

Fees were set at £15.5s a year for pupils under twelve and £18.18s for pupils over the age of 12. The school opened on the 21 January 1885 with 59 pupils for the first term. There was no formal uniform, only a white dress or pinafore was stipulated and the chrysanthemum was designated the school flower. By the end of 1885 the school had 63 pupils and Miss Ackerley instituted a Kindergarten, with fees of nine guineas a year. and there was an entrance fee of 10/6 “in the case of little boys” - evidence that boys were included in the early Kindergarten arrangements.

Miss Caroline Ackerley, Headmistress 1885-1894 Form Mistress and pupils, c1980

In 1887 numbers had reached 73 pupils and although Miss Ackerley made an application for a grant of £10 from the Education Committee to start a Chemical Laboratory at Jesmond Road that same year, it was clear the Jesmond Road premises were being outgrown and the need for new premises was pressing. In 1887 a site was purchased on Tankerville Terrace, and plans were drawn up for a purpose-built school designed specifically for girls’ education.

Architectural firm Oliver and Leeson were appointed in 1888 after alterations to the sanitary arrangements insisted on by the “ladies on the Council” after expressing strong views. The contract for the new buildings was sealed 29 March 1889 for £4,911.12s.6d and was delivered at a cost of £5219 16s 0d. It was a state of the art modern, purpose built school with larger, brighter classrooms, a central hall, and “in advance of its time” a gymnasium.

Electric lighting was considered, but the estimated cost of £76 and doubts as to its safety led to the decision to use gas. The new school was opened in May 1890 by Helen Gladstone, Principal of Newnham College, daughter of Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone and a leading figure in women’s higher education.

The move to purpose-built accommodation involved changes in the organisation of the School. As Miss Ackerley was no longer resident, her salary was increased to £200 a year from £180 and the boarding house ceased to exist. Pupil numbers reached “the hundred mark” in 1892, then declined sharply: 75 by end of 1894 and 65 in Autumn 1895. During this crisis, the Girls’ Public Day School Trust proposed transferring its Gateshead school to Newcastle and offered to purchase the Tankerville Terrace buildings (July 1894).

A natural rivalry between the CSC’s Newcastle High School for Girls and the GPDSC’s Central Newcastle High School existed from the outset, the establishment of the CSC’s schools in the North East had certainly damaged pupil numbers at Gateshead so this offer of purchase must have been met with some bad feeling. The CSC “disavowed any intention of selling” and expressed a desire to avoid future rivalry.

In the midst of the 1894–95 uncertainty, Miss Ackerley left to become Headmistress of the CSC school at Leicester, and Miss Eva Mary Siddall was appointed to replace her. n Victorian England sport was being transformed into organised, regulated and regularised national activities. Cricket, rugby, association football, tennis and golf all took shape during these decades and flourished. Sport became closely associated with ideals of masculinity and the formation of gentlemanly character. Women, meanwhile, were

A HISTORY OF PE AND GAMES

n Victorian England sport was being transformed into organised, regulated and regularised national activities. Cricket, rugby, association football, tennis and golf all took shape during these decades and flourished. Sport became closely associated with ideals of masculinity and the formation of gentlemanly character. Women, meanwhile, were widely regarded as physically delicate and emotionally vulnerable. Medical opinion warned that vigorous activity might damage fertility or disrupt the nervous system. While limited participation was permitted, it was expected to remain graceful, restrained and noncompetitive. Sporting attire reflected these assumptions.

Against this background, the prominence given to Physical Education at Gateshead High School was both outstanding and unusual. Within a year of the opening of the new school, a hut gymnasium had been added, and even before this M. Leblique had been appointed visiting master for drill and gymnastics. Former pupils recalled his classes with enthusiasm:

“The gymnasium was a great joy… parallel bars, vaulting, etc., under M. Leblique, and we did many daring things.” Leblique also taught fencing — an inclusion regarded even at the time as startlingly unconventional for girls. One Old Girl later reflected that it was “no doubt considered a very dangerous and not at all

suitable thing to teach girls.” At Newcastle High School, the purpose-built Tankerville Terrace building included a gymnasium — considered highly progressive. All pupils undertook ten minutes of Drill daily, while Dancing and Swedish Drill were optional extras. Uniforms reflected prevailing expectations of propriety: thick navy serge dresses with scrubby collars, red sashes and voluminous undergarments, the yards of material “getting badly in the way.”

By the end of the nineteenth century, physical education in girls’ schools was still framed largely as drill rather than sport, emphasising posture, discipline and bodily control. The decisive shift came in the 1890s and early 1900s with the introduction of organised games. At both Gateshead High School and Newcastle Church High School, hockey

and tennis were introduced around the turn of the century, altering both the rhythm and culture of school life. Elsa Rounthwaite, who joined Gateshead High in 1897, captured the excitement vividly:

“Then suddenly to our joy, we heard that hockey was to be introduced… It is difficult to remember school life without these games… They opened a new vista for us.”

Inter-school competition followed quickly. Highly contested Hockey and Tennis Shields were played for between Durham, Sunderland and Newcastle Church High Schools, and later Central Newcastle High School. These fixtures required travel by train, formal team selection, and public representation of the school. The first recorded hockey match played by Newcastle High School was against Gateshead High

Church High

School, resulting in a heavy defeat of 13-1!

Early playing conditions were challenging. Uniform reflected the tension between tradition and change.

Conventional women’s clothing of long skirts, corsets and petticoats was incompatible with meaningful physical movement. Social expectations insisted that women maintain a gentile appearance even while participating, so early sporting outfits emphasised grace and decorum over performance. Activities like tennis, golf, field hockey, and badminton became acceptable to middle- and upper-class women because they could be played gently, often with conversation rather than aggressive competition, and in attire that preserved decorum and maintained a respectable silhouette.

At Newcastle High School the hockey team wore long full navy blue skirts, and pale blue ties on the dark green flannel blouses with stand up starched collars which cut into the neck, with embroidered pale blue crossed hockey sticks on the pockets. At Gateshead one Old Girl recalled:

“We played with stout ash L-shaped sticks and a hard tarred rope ball, and many were the falls and broken noses. Our long skirts made running awkward, and the playground was a large expanse of black asphalt— hard and unforgiving.”

By 1900, skirts for hockey were officially raised to twelve inches above the ground—a small but significant step towards practicality over propriety.

Annual Sports Days were introduced at Newcastle Church High School under Miss Gurney in 1902. At Gateshead High School, basketball (the forerunner of netball) was introduced in 1903, swimming competitions including a Swimming Cup and Diving Medal were recorded by 1904, and the first full Sports Day was held in 1909, although ‘races’ included arithmetic and poetry recitation and couldn’t really be called athletic!

By 1914, organised games formed part of the official curriculum at Newcastle Church High School, and in 1917 the school appointed its first full-time gymnastics mistress. Central Newcastle High School followed a similar pattern, appointing its first full-time gymnastics specialist in 1921.

By 1914, organised games formed part of the official curriculum at Newcastle Church High School, and in 1917 the school appointed its first full-time gymnastics mistress. Central Newcastle High School followed a similar trajectory, appointing its first full-time gymnastics specialist in 1921. Swimming, initially constrained by access to baths, became increasingly competitive once both schools were able to use the Royal Grammar School Baths – a marked change from earlier years when timetables were arranged to prevent girls and boys encountering one another en route to school.

Access to outdoor space marked a decisive change. In 1927 Newcastle Church High School purchased land at Reid Park Road, and in 1928 Central Newcastle High School rented a large playing field, both with pavilions. For the first time, fixtures could be hosted with appropriate facilities and regular

training schedules established. Hockey became the dominant winter sport, with tennis and rounders played in summer. The introduction of House systems during the 1920s intensified internal competition and embedded sport firmly within school culture.

These developments unfolded within a national context in which women’s sporting participation remained tightly constrained by medical anxieties and social expectations and women remained excluded from activities deemed too physically demanding. Yet school sport created a protected and structured environment in which girls trained, competed and developed physical confidence. By the inter-war years, gymnastics displays, swimming galas and interschool fixtures were established features of school life.

The Second World War brought disruption but also opportunity. Evacuation to Keswick gave Central High pupils access to open countryside and shared playing fields. Hiking, skating on frozen lakes and even an Alpine Club were introduced, while Church High continued games at Alnwick Castle and organised extended walking expeditions. More broadly, wartime social change loosened traditional gender restrictions. As women entered factories, transport services and auxiliary military roles, physical strength became associated with national service rather than unfeminine behaviour. Participation expanded and visibility increased.

A HISTORY OF PE AND GAMES CONTINUED

The post-war decades saw rapid expansion. In the 1950s and 1960s, new playing fields and facilities supported a broader curriculum across both schools including lacrosse, netball, crosscountry, country dancing, rounders and fencing. In the late 1960s Central High became the first girls’ school in the North East to teach Judo.

By the late twentieth century, trampolining, badminton and athletics had joined the programme, and sporting success became national in scope. Netball teams reached finals, swimmers qualified for English Schools competitions, and tennis achieved particular distinction. In 1998 Central Newcastle High School became the first school from the North of England to win the Aberdare Cup and was named Lawn Tennis Association School of the Year. Overseas tours — to Australia, Spain, New Zealand and Fiji — reflected a confidence and global outlook unimaginable in the schools’ earliest years. Physical Education itself gained academic recognition, becoming a GCSE subject in 1986 and soon after an A-Level qualification. In the twentyfirst century, Physical

Education broadened further to include fitness, wellbeing and personal challenge alongside competitive sport. Dance, introduced formally in 2007, bridges discipline and artistic expression, The Duke of Edinburgh Award fosters resilience and leadership, while traditional team games remain strong. As sport at CNHS and NCHS progressed, the wider sporting world was still catching up. It was not until the London Olympic Games in 2012 that women were permitted to compete in every sport on the Olympic programme — a striking reminder of how recent full inclusion is.

The evolution of sporting uniform is an interesting barometer of female sport. Heavy serge tunics and restrictive skirts gradually gave way to lighter, functional kit that prioritised movement and performance, reflecting growing acceptance of active female bodies. Yet control did not disappear — it shifted. In recent decades, controversies in sports such as beach volleyball, alongside disputes in handball and gymnastics, have seen female athletes challenge regulations they view as unnecessarily sexualised. Women’s

sporting dress has shifted from restriction in the name of modesty to regulation in the name of marketability. From the cautious gymnastics of the Victorian classroom to Olympic equality and international tours, the story of Physical Education is a an interesting look at female emancipation. Barriers have fallen and opportunities have widened but the debate over autonomy, representation and respect continues. Our Schools were pioneers in the advancement of female sport, challenging the limits placed on women and we continue to champion it today.

Church High blazer badge with Games colours

Tennis Team, 1952

Central High Ball Drill 2013

Church High Ball Drill 1900

Church High Hockey Team First XI, 1910

Central High Hockey, 2007

Central High, 1998

Central High, 1990

GATESHEAD AND CENTRAL HIGH 1895 - 1905

Gateshead High School and the emergence of Central Newcastle High School, 1885–1895

‘In the early eighties it was still assumed that the majority of girls would marry, and that the few unfortunates who did not would become governesses. No one thought of girls doing paid work’. Olive Carter’s History of

the School

By the mid-1880s Gateshead High School stood at the height of its numerical and reputational success. In 1885 the school reached a peak enrolment of around 300 pupils, a remarkable achievement less than a decade after its foundation and one that placed it among the largest girls’ day schools in the country. Girls attended not only from Gateshead but from Newcastle, Northumberland and County Durham, reflecting both the school’s reputation and the limited availability of comparable education for girls elsewhere in the region.

The school day began at 9am and formally ended at 1pm, though many girls lunched at school and remained for afternoon work beginning again at 2pm. Because most pupils travelled considerable distances, afternoon attendance was not compulsory and only those living nearby usually stayed on, but the day was nonetheless long by

contemporary standards for girls. Discipline was strict and highly visible. Prayers marked the start of the day and provided an opportunity for inspection; although there was no official uniform, dress was carefully regulated and girls were required to wear heel-less school slippers, checked as they filed out, with any deviation immediately challenged. Former pupils recalled that silence was enforced so rigorously that girls who lost their way in the building sometimes remained lost rather than risk speaking to ask for directions.

The curriculum was broad, demanding and carefully structured. English literature, history and geography were taught alongside mathematics, Latin, French and German, and science occupied a significant place in school life. In 1886 a chemistry laboratory was added, enabling practical experimental work that remained rare in girls’ schools at this date. Older pupils prepared for the Cambridge Higher Local Examination, and Carter records the deliberate transition into senior academic work: girls putting their hair up, lengthening their skirts and taking on the responsibilities of advanced study with a clear sense of progression.

The intellectual atmosphere of the school was reinforced by its staff and supporters. Under Miss Isabella Cooper’s headship the school employed

a notably high proportion - at least 6 - university-educated mistresses, including women from Newnham College such as Dr Geraldine Hodgson, later Professor of Literature at Bristol University. The school was sustained by the active support of parents and governors drawn from the region’s scientific, professional and cultural life.

Gateshead High School had every right to be proud of its achievement in furthering the cause of education for girls and in 1888 Princess Louise, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria and a prominent advocate for women’s education, visited Gateshead High School to distribute the prizes.

Yet this apparent strength masked emerging difficulties. Competition intensified as the Church Schools Company expanded rapidly, opening girls’ schools in Newcastle, Durham and Sunderland. Although assurances were given that these schools were not intended to rival the Girls’ Public Day School Company, the effect on Gateshead was immediate. Many of its pupils came from the west end of Newcastle and from Jesmond, a fast-developing middle-class suburb.

Bicycles revolutionised Victorian womens’ lives by providing unprecedented, independent mobility, breaking down strict social conventions, and giving women a sense of self-reliance_. They allowed women to travel without chaperones, spurred the adoption of practical ‘rational dress’ over restrictive corsets, and aided in the fight for suffrage.

For these girls, attendance at Gateshead involved a long daily journey: crossing the Tyne by the High Level Bridge, then either walking or taking a tram up to Windmill Hills, an area that was becoming increasingly industrial.

In response, Miss Cooper pressed for the establishment of a preparatory feeder school in Newcastle. A Preparatory School was opened in May 1889, initially occupying two rented houses at 3 Devonshire Terrace and 10 Eslington

Terrace. The opening was tentative - only two pupils enrolled at first - but numbers rose steadily once confidence grew. The Preparatory School’s success revealed the weakness of the original plan. Parents proved reluctant to send daughters “south of the river” at the point of transfer, and the leaving age was raised, first to thirteen in 1891 and then to fourteen in 1892.

The situation was compounded in 1891 by Miss Cooper’s resignation through ill health.

Her departure marked the end of a formative era at Gateshead. She was succeeded by Miss Mary Moberly, who inherited a school still academically serious but facing a steady decline in numbers. By 1894 the Company Council accepted that long-term support was more likely to be sustained in Newcastle than in Gateshead. The Preparatory School was closed in December 1894 in preparation for a new beginning.

Central High bicycles in the Hall, 1900

GATESHEAD AND CENTRAL HIGH 1895 - 1905

The Decline of Gateshead High School, 1895-1905

In January 1895 Central Newcastle High School opened at No. 1 Park Terrace, Jesmond, with the benefit of Gateshead High School’s experience behind it. Miss Mary Moberly was transferred from Gateshead to serve as the founding Headmistress, and the initial roll numbered fiftytwo pupils, including several girls who had previously attended Gateshead High School. At Gateshead itself, Miss Vickers was appointed Headmistress, and for a time the two schools operated in close association.

The premises at 1 Park Terrace were an adapted private house, exposed to the cold winds sweeping across the Town Moor. There was no central heating, ink froze in inkwells and pupils’ voices were hoarse at morning prayers. Mornings were devoted to compulsory instruction in English, mathematics, history, geography, modern languages, science and Scripture, with Latin offered to some pupils. Afternoons were reserved for music, dancing and games, and homework was set only at the request of parents.

From the outset, Park Terrace was regarded as a temporary solution. As pupil numbers increased, the limitations

of the building became increasingly apparent. An attempt to purchase the Church Schools Company’s Newcastle High School premises was unsuccessful, and in 1898 the Trust instead acquired a site on Eskdale Terrace, Jesmond, for a purpose-built school.

The new building was designed by Fred W. Morgan of Oliver & Leeson of Mosley Street, the same firm responsible for the Church Schools Company’s Newcastle High School on Tankerville Terrace. Constructed in part-rendered brick, the school rose three storeys and was articulated into five principal bays, with gabled end bays and tall chimneys punctuating the roofline. Venetian windows on the upper floor and canted bay windows at ground level provided generous light to classrooms and common rooms. A large, high-ceilinged hall occupied the rear of the building, with classrooms above, while smaller side extensions housed lavatories, a service staircase and a lift. A bellcote marked the northwestern end.

The foundation stone was laid by Earl Grey in 1898. Beneath the stone the head girls laid a time capsule in a glass bottle and Central Newcastle High School moved into the new premises in May 1900. The occasion was marked by a congratulatory telegram

from Gateshead, expressing pride in Miss Moberly and the “splendid new building”. The school was formally opened in 1902 by Princess Louise, reinforcing its standing within the national movement for girls’ education. School rules from this period record the ordered discipline expected of pupils: loitering at the gates was forbidden, books unconnected with school were not to be brought in, and a fine of sixpence was imposed for ink spilt on the floors.

While Central Newcastle High School consolidated its position, Gateshead High School entered a period of gradual decline. Miss Moberly maintained strong links between the two institutions, and a joint school magazine continued into the late 1890s, recording examination results, sporting fixtures and charitable work. Under Miss Vickers and later Miss Tooke, Gateshead maintained a high academic standard and the level of attainment was considerable with Old Girls progressing to Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Durham Universities. However, pupil numbers steadily fell as families increasingly chose schools closer to their homes north of the Tyne.

Windmill Hills, once an acceptable and even attractive location, became less convenient and less desirable

as industrial development intensified. The daily journey to Gateshead, particularly for pupils from Jesmond and the west end of Newcastle, grew increasingly burdensome.

By the early years of the twentieth century it was clear that Gateshead High School’s institutional future was limited, even as its educational influence lived on through staff, traditions and pupils now firmly established at Central Newcastle High School.

By 1905 the Trust’s work had been successfully replanted in Newcastle. What had begun as an attempt to sustain Gateshead High School had resulted instead in the creation of a large, permanent and academically ambitious girls’ day school on Eskdale Terrace, carrying forward the values and aspirations of the earlier foundation into a new and more viable setting.

NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 1895 - 1905

By the mid-1890s, Newcastle High School faced a period of serious uncertainty. After the optimism following the move to the premises on Tankerville Terrace, pupil numbers fell sharply: by 1894 the roll stood at seventy-five, and by the autumn of 1895 it had declined further to sixty-five. Financial pressures increased accordingly, and the Church Schools’ Company considered reducing staff in response to falling income.

In July 1894, the Girls’ Public Day School Trust went so far as to propose purchasing the Tankerville Terrace buildings, an offer politely declined.

Amid this instability, Miss Caroline Ackerley resigned in 1894 to take up a headship in Leicester. Her successor was Eva Mary Siddall, Girton College educated and former Headmistress of the GPDST’s Blackheath High School. When Miss Siddall took up her post, the school had sixty-nine pupils and a staff of five. Almost immediately, she received the unsettling news that the Girls’ Public Day School Trust planned to establish a school nearby in Jesmond, later known as Central Newcastle High School. Rivalry between the two institutions became an enduring feature of this period.

Despite financial strain, the school maintained high standards. Miss Siddall brought energy and vision, introducing new initiatives and strengthening the school’s academic reputation. By 1897, numbers had risen to seventynine, and by 1898, ninety-one pupils were enrolled. The Old Girls’ Club was founded in 1899,

and the same year saw the inauguration of the Dramatic, Choral, and Orchestral Societies, alongside a charity society. Through this work the school supported a child in the Waifs and Strays Home and provided an annual tea and Christmas tree for the children of St Nicholas’ Schools. The school magazine also originated in these years before a temporary lapse.

The curriculum was refined, daily worship continued to underpin school life, pupils were consistently prepared for public examinations, and discipline, orderly routine, and professional standards were strongly emphasised. Girls attended in simple day wear with white pinafores, hung on pegs during the school day. The “bun boy” arrived daily at recreation time, selling gingerbreads, sugartopped buns, and currant girdle cakes. Sport and physical exercise became increasingly structured: every class undertook ten minutes of daily drill and competitive sport became more formalised. The Head Girl and prefect system was introduced early in Miss Siddall’s headship to instil discipline and responsibility in older girls.

The Tankerville Terrace building became central to the school’s identity. In 1900 the Archbishop of Canterbury visited the school and was favourably impressed by the quality of work, though he criticised the classrooms as too small and the assembly hall as inadequately heated in winter.

Miss Siddall resigned in 1902 to undertake mission work, and Louisa Mary Gurney, daughter of the Principal of

Newcastle’s Armstrong College (later Newcastle University) and a graduate of Girton College, Cambridge (M.A., B.Sc., Mathematical Tripos 1895), was appointed headmistress, beginning a remarkable 34year tenure. Gurney was an influential figure in the late nineteenth-century movement for girls’ education and played a significant role in the work of the Church Schools Company. She served on its governing bodies and education committees and was actively involved in the appointment and oversight of headmistresses. She was particularly concerned with professional standards, curriculum quality, and the moral purpose of education, believing that girls should receive an education equal in intellectual seriousness to that offered to boys. Her influence extended beyond the school, contributing to policy discussions affecting the Company’s national network, including inspection, staffing, and educational philosophy. Miss Gurney’s higher education credentials appeared in all local newspaper advertisements for the school, alongside a note on its modern sanitation. Under her leadership, the school expanded its academic offerings and strengthened its reputation for excellence.

By 1905, Newcastle High School for Girls was firmly established in character and reputation. It had survived financial strain, sustained competition, and leadership change, emerging as a stable school defined by academic seriousness, moral purpose, and a distinctive school culture.

EDUCATION, EQUALITY AND THE VOTE

From their earliest years, the founding schools of today’s Newcastle High School for Girls were shaped by women who believed profoundly in education as a force for social reform.

Newcastle High School’s first headmistress, Caroline Ackerley, was an early Clough Scholar from only the fourth intake at Newnham College, Cambridge. Caroline belonged to a pioneering generation for whom women’s education was inseparable from the wider struggle for rights and recognition. Her appointment as headmistress in the 1880s placed her at the forefront of girls’ education at a time when female leadership itself was a political statement. The School could not afford to align itself with radical political views, but it is notable that when Caroline Ackerley designed the School badge, she chose the colours of the suffrage movementpurple for dignity, green for hope, and white for purity of purpose.

Gateshead High and later Central Newcastle High School’s connection with the suffrage movement would have been considerably influenced by Dr. Ethel Mary Nucella Williams (1869 – 1948) whose involvement with the Schools was both practical and inspirational. Ethel became Gateshead High School and later Central High’s first school doctor, but her relationship with the school extended far beyond medical care. She was a regular presence, delivering

lectures, donating prizes, hosting events, and serving as a powerful role model to generations of girls.

Educated at the GPDST’s Norwich High School for Girls and Newnham College, Cambridge, before completing her medical training in Paris, Vienna, and later London, Ethel was nonetheless barred from graduating at Cambridge and excluded from British hospital training, she experienced firsthand the structural inequalities faced by educated women - inequalities that helped to shape her political convictions.

A committed suffragist, she chaired the North East Society for Women’s Suffrage and served as president of the Newcastle and District Women’s Suffrage Society. Ethel took part in the landmark United Procession of Women or ‘Mud March’ of 1907 as it became known (incessant heavy rain left the marchers drenched and mud-spattered). Organised by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), more than three thousand women marched from Hyde Park Corner to the Strand in the largest public demonstration in support of women’s suffrage seen up to that date and it was Ethel that led the Newcastle contingent of suffragists on the Great Pilgrimage, marching for six weeks to converge on Hyde Park with 50,000 suffragists from across England and Wales on the 26th July 1913. Ethel was a member of Newcastle’s Literary and

Philosophical Society, a Justice of the Peace and the first woman to sit on the Senate of King’s College (now Newcastle University). Ethel also distinguished herself by being reportedly the first woman in Newcastle to own and drive a motor car. Transport to reach her patients was vital to delivering care and also proved invaluable in mobilising movements in pursuit of her political aims which played a crucial role in mobilising the women’s suffrange movement in the region.

As a pacifist, Williams was a founder member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, when it was established in 1917 during the First World War and co-founded the Northern Women’s Hospital (now the Nuffield Health Clinic) in the same year. She continued throughout the duration of the First World War to ensure that the fight for female suffrage continued in Newcastle.

Ethel retired in 1924 and left her practice to another female doctor but returned to Newcastle during the Second World War, volunteering at air raid shelters to provide medical aid to civilian casualties.

Her suffrage banner is now one of the treasures in Newcastle University’s Special Collections, along with a ‘Winged Victory’ statuette bestowed on her in 1918 to commemorate the Representation of the People

26 GATESHEAD AND CENTRAL HIGH 1905 -1915

By 1905 Central Newcastle

High School was fully established in its permanent building on Eskdale Terrace and operating as a large girls’ day school. Although some pupils and staff missed the open space of the Moor, the premises at Eskdale Terrace offered stability and room for growth for what was now a busy institution. Form rooms were crowded, windowsills held jars, bulbs, plants and specimens, while walls displayed maps, drawings and handwork. Heating was uneven smokey fires doing little to warm cold winter mornings. The hall served as a shared space for assemblies, rehearsals, indoor games and Prizegivings, while corridors were busy enough to prompt regular reminders about orderly movement between lessons.

A distinct school identity developed during these years. The first school badge was designed, showing an art-nouveau image of a plant growing from the seed of truth and goodness into a protective shield. A brown hatband with a lighter zigzag pattern, designed by a Sixth Form pupil, came into general use and replaced the earlier practice by which only girls with games colours wore distinctive bands. Gym dress, however, was compulsory and much remarked upon: a cumbersome, voluminous green costume worn for drill and games.

Discipline and supervision remained strict under Miss Moberly’s headship. No contact was permitted with boys’ schools, and when the Royal Grammar School moved from Rye Hill into Eskdale Terrace in 1907, school hours were arranged as far as possible to prevent RGS boys and Central High girls travelling home together. In the same period the school briefly adopted the name The Girls’ High School, Newcastle, but this caused confusion with the Church Schools Company’s Newcastle High School, which formally objected, and the original name was reinstated.

Gateshead High School finally closed in 1907 and over 40 of the remaining 63 girls transferred to Central Newcastle High School. For those who transferred, the loss of the older school was remembered with regret, but the move was generally accepted as necessary, and former Gateshead girls were absorbed quickly into the life of the larger school.

As numbers increased, Prizegiving ceremonies grew in scale. In 1908 General Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts and whose Mother had been one of the founders of the GPDST, distributed the prizes. He attracted such a large audience, some of whom were suspected of being gatecrashers, that ticketed admission was introduced thereafter. In the following

years ceremonies were moved to the Lecture Theatre of the Literary and Philosophical Society, starting a tradition that lasted until 1935.

By 1909 there were 200 pupils in the school with Kindergarten, which included little boys, housed at one end of the school, and the Sixth Form at the other. Games were central to school life and ouside there was an asphalt playground and tennis court. Hockey was played on a rented field nearby and in 1909 the school held its first Sports Day.

Academically, the curriculum included English, mathematics, history, geography, modern languages and science. By the early 1910s the school employed two fully qualified science mistresses. Pupils kept tadpoles and caterpillars, grew plants and on one occasion, kittens were discovered hidden inside a pupil’s hat, having been brought into school unnoticed. Lectures by visiting speakers supplemented classroom teaching, with talks on science education, economics and contemporary intellectual questions attended by parents as well as pupils. The Dramatic Society staged productions supported by both current pupils and Old Girls, who remained closely involved in school life through charitable work, performances and social events.

By the later years of Miss Moberly’s headship, Central Newcastle High School was consistently entering pupils for public examinations with sustained strong results. Pupils consistently progressed on to Oxford University, Armstrong College (Newcastle University) and Durham University. In July 1911 Miss Moberly retired and was succeeded by Miss D. F. P. Hiley. Brisk and unconventional, Miss Hiley was known for pacing the classroom, pince-nez in hand, and physically returning inattentive pupils to their seats. Some found her leadership challenging but it marked the beginning of a new phase in the school’s development.

With the outbreak of the First World War, lessons, games and examinations continued, but war work was incorporated into ordinary routine. Pupils knitted socks, scarves, mufflers and mittens, and sewing classes produced shirts, pillowcases, bandages and pyjama garments for hospitals. Cookery competitions were adapted so that plain cakes were baked for hospital use. Shortages prompted renewed debate about the green gym costume, with “persistent efforts” by some pupils to remove as much material as possible, countered by reminders that economy did not dispense with propriety.

Senior pupils received weekly talks on the progress of the war, supported by maps, and air-raid precautions were explained calmly.

Between 1911 and 1914 there were two General Inspections each followed by a good report and by 1915 Central Newcastle High School was a large, academically serious girls’ day school drawing pupils from across Newcastle and its surrounding districts.

28 NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 1905-1915

The formidable Miss Gurney’s leadership saw the school achieve independence and expansion. Governance by the Church Schools’ Company in London was proving increasingly impractical. Every request for incidental expenditure from the purchase of tablecloths to the appointment and salary of a kitchen maid required lengthy correspondence and all fees were sent to London with only a proportion being returned to the School. Changes in national education policy following the 1902 Education Act further complicated matters, as the Company’s status prevented access to government support.

Responsibility for the School was therefore devolved to a local body of Governors, and in 1909 a Company limited by guarantee was formed and the building leased from the Church Schools’ Company. Although full legal independence would not be achieved until the purchase of the buildings in 1925, this earlier change strengthened financial oversight, staffing decisions, and long-term planning, and gave the School a firmer local identity.

The School was greatly disrupted during this change in governance but nonetheless academic standards remained consistently high.

Competitive games were now firmly established and in 1906 the Honours boards at the back of the Hall were introduced to record the names of Head Girls, scholarship holders and the winners of University Honours as Higher Education for women was still unusual. Numbers steadily increased so that by the outbreak of the First World War pupil numbers stood at 271, twice as many as in 1902 when Miss Gurney took up her Headship.

The school magazine was revived in the same year and recorded King Edward VII’s visit to Newcastle to open the Royal Infirmary and the main wing of Armstrong College. The school was given a holiday in order to watch the proceedings from a grandstand erected on Barras Bridge. Many hats, bought specially for the occasion, were damaged by a surprise storm.

In 1907 Miss Gurney, took a small number of girls as boarders in her own home at No. 16 Otterburn Terrace, a practice that continued when she moved to No. 5 Henshelwood Terrace. The outbreak of war led to an increase in boarding numbers and in 1915 miss Gurney leased The Grove in Jesmond as a boarding house.

The declaration of war in August 1914 redirected much of the School’s charitable activity towards the national emergency. The Governors offered the School buildings

for use as a hospital, and although this offer was not taken up, the premises were used during the summer holidays of 1914 as a centre for St John’s Ambulance work. Miss Gurney became Lady Superintendent of the Jesmond Nursing Division and Commandant of the Voluntary Aid Detachment 52 and provided training for women in Newcastle willing to render voluntary aid in attending the wounded. As with her leadership of the School, she brought high standards and organisational skill to this work. Under her direction, the Jesmond Nursing Division won the Ritchie Cup, awarded to the best nursing division in Northumberland.

By September, the School was storing a complete supply of medical and surgical stores sufficient for a 200-bed hospital. First Aid and Home Nursing classes were held for the pupils every day and knitting and sewing was undertaken to send to the troops. They knitted for Colonel Collis’ Northern Cyclists Battalion, collected eggs for the Second and Third Northumberland Field Ambulance Hospital and collected for the Belgian Relief Fund and Princess Mary’s Fund for Christmas presents for the troops.

Empire Day was celebrated on the 24th May 1915 and a recital was held to raise funds for the Lady Mayoresses Motor Ambulance Fund for the 2nd & 3rd North Field Ambulance Hospital.

By 1915 war conditions were increasingly reflected in everyday school life as the School maintained its routines while contributing materially to the national effort.

30 CENTRAL NEWCASTLE

HIGH SCHOOL 1915-1925

Academic standards remained high despite the war and pupil numbers rose steadily. In the summer of 1916 the school roll stood at 197; by 1918 it had reached 321 and by 1920 it had risen to 440. This increase placed immediate pressure on accommodation. In the autumn of 1917 the Kindergarten was transferred to 3 Eslington Terrace. Alongside this expansion ran the development of the school’s boarding provision. The Boarding House, active during the later war years, developed a strong social life of its own. Records describe tennis challenges, hockey matches, Hallowe’en celebrations and a Fancy Dress Ball. One oftenrepeated anecdote recounts Miss Hiley descending the stairs carrying what appeared to be a small child wrapped in a shawl, only for it to be revealed as Jacob, her dog and the Boarding House mascot.

Antiquated gas lamps meant that it was easier to sit in semi darkness than light them.

The Spanish Influenza epidemic forced the School to close for half a term in 1918 and resulted in the loss of a member of staff, Miss Scott.

By the early 1920s the scale of the School required more formal selection. Previously the entrance examination had been used chiefly to determine form placement; now it became a means of limiting numbers.

A nearby private school closed around this time, and a substantial number of its pupils transferred to Central, contributing further to pressure on space. When the lease on the Boarding House at 78 Jesmond Road expired, the Council purchased the property for use as a Kindergarten and Preparatory Department, judging it more suitable than Eslington Terrace, whose lease was also nearing its end.

As the immediate effects of war receded, school life expanded outward again. Excursions resumed and grew in ambition. In 1922 a Sixth Form pupil travelled to Arras, France as a representative of the school, reflecting Newcastle’s post-war civic connection with the town.

The Local History Society was founded the same year, organising visits to Warkworth, Durham and the Roman Wall. In 1923 pupils took part in celebrations marking the Jubilee of the Girls’ Public Day School Trust, attending a service at St Paul’s Cathedral and staying at Clapham High School. The following year saw a visit to London and the Empire Exhibition at Wembley, an experience remembered as particularly striking for girls

who had never previously left the North East.

Fundraising for playing fields became a sustained feature of school life during these years. Efforts included selling peppermint creams in small bags, potted ferns, and produce from playground fetes. In 1924 Green House staged an operetta that included a comic vision of school life in 1951, complete with lessons taught by wireless and hockey matches against the inhabitants of Mars.

By 1925 Central Newcastle High School had reached a new stage of maturity. It was larger, more selective and more firmly organised than before the war, with junior provision increasingly distinct from the Senior School and accommodation under constant review. The period from 1915 to 1925 was therefore not one of reinvention, but of managed expansion, in which routines, societies and standards were preserved even as the School adapted to scale, health crises and post-war change.

32 NEWCASTLE CHURCH

HIGH SCHOOL 1915-1925

The decade from 1915 to 1925 was shaped by the First World War and its aftermath. Aacademic work continued without interruption, and perseverance in ordinary routines was explicitly framed as a contribution to national stability. War work became part of the timetable. Pupils knitted socks and scarves, sewed pyjamas and bed jackets, raised money through collections and sales of work, and supported recognised relief funds. The School maintained its extensive involvement in medical and ambulance-related work. Egg collections for example continued for the Second and Third Northumberland Field Ambulance Hospitals, organised on a rota of two forms each week. In 1917 and 1918 forty girls travelled to Scotland to pick raspberries in Blairgowrie, working seven hours a day, sleeping in huts and travelling 3 miles by bicycle to the nearest bath. This was described as the largest single piece of war work undertaken by the School and was treated as serious national service rather than an excursion.

Material constraint shaped daily life. Coal shortages meant that rooms were often cold in winter, and pupils were expected to remain in outdoor coats during lessons when necessary. One report observed simply that “comfort must give way to economy, and cheerfulness is expected of all.” Lighting

was subdued and equipment reused and repaired rather than replaced. Science teaching continued but a shortage of chemicals during the war made practical work impossible. Meals were plain and meat was served only twice a week, with dishes such as bacon and sage-and-onion pie, while meatless meals included boiled eggs with white sauce. Packed lunches were simple - often bread with dripping or jam - and notices repeatedly stressed the avoidance of waste “even in small things.”

The war years saw a steady growth in pupil numbers. By 1917 there were 300 pupils and the School purchased 5 Henshelwood Terrace to serve as a Junior School. Uniform was introduced in 1917. Prior to this date the only uniform, apart from that for Drill, had been a hat band worn an a hard sailor hat. The new compulsory uniform consisted of a navy tunic, a white blouses of any pattern, a navy blue coat, and a straw hat in summer with a black hat in winter. The School magazine expressed approval when “the general appearance of the school reflects restraint and dignity suitable to the times”.

Numbers continued to rise after the Armistice In November 1918 and by 1920 there were 400 pupils and despite a rise in School fees to £12 12s 0d per term that number grew to 450, necessitating a waiting list.

In 1921 The School’s Guide Company began and institutional structure was further strengthened in 1922, when Miss Gurney introduced the House system, dividing the School into four houses: Blue, Orange, Red, and White. In the same year, the sculptor John Reid (who created six First World War memorials in the North East, including the bronze St George and the Dragon on Barras Bridge) was commissioned to carve Arts and Crafts–style wooden brackets in the form of The Four VirtuesPrudence, Justice, Temperance, and Courage - to support the Honour Boards and cups at the south end of the Hall. Also in 1922, the first school trip was undertaken (to Ambleside), Lacrosse became an established sport and electric lighting fixtures were at last installed in the Hall.

In 1925 the School became fully self-governing, the School buildings were purchased for £10,000 and it was formally renamed The Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School.

Ruth Nicholson graduated from Durham University College of Medicine in 1909 as the only woman in her year. Facing restrictions that confined female doctors to treating women and children, she gained vital surgical experience as a missionary doctor in Gaza.

During the First World War, refused service by the British Army, she was accepted by the French government at the Royaumont Hospital, established in an abandoned abbey near Paris. Nicholson served as second-in-command and one of its leading surgeons. Under extreme battlefield conditions—including surgeries by candlelight—she and her colleagues treated over 10,000 soldiers with survival rates surpassing those of military hospitals. For her service, she was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1918.

Nicholson went on to found the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Her career opened doors for generations of women in medicine.

Rachel Parsons was the first woman to read Mecanical Sciences at Cambridge University. When war broke out her brother joined the Royal Field Artillery and she took his place as Director of their Father’s Newcastle Engineering Firm, C.A. Parsons.

She was instrumental in instructing the thousands of women in the factories of Tyneside who took the place of fighting men and went on to train women in factories across Britain.

After the War she campagined tireless for women’s employment rights: ‘Women must organise – this is the only road to victory in the industrial world. Women have won their political independence; now is the time for them to achieve their economic freedom too.’

She became a leading member of the National Council of Women, advocating for equal access to technical education for women and in 1919 Rachel and her mother Katharine established the Women’s Engineering Society and opened an all-female engineering firm.

36 WHAT DID THE WAR DO FOR US?

Between 1914 and 1918, the lives of millions of women in Britain were overturned by the first world war. With hundreds of thousands of men away from home, women filled manufacturing and agricultural positions on the home front, finding work opportunities that were not only better paid but also far more rewarding. The number of women in paid employment increased during this period from 4.93 million to 6.19 million.

The suffragette movement campaigned for women’s right to be at the heart of the war. By 1917 a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps was put in place shortly followed by a Women’s Royal Navy Service and Women’s Air Force. In 1918 women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote and a year later the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act made it illegal to exclude women from jobs because of their sex.

But the many gains were offset by some depressing losses as with the declaration of peace there came a predictable backlash. 750,000 women were made redundant by The 1919 Restoration of PreWar Practices Act to make way for the demobilised troops. Many women found themselves pushed back into the home and into caring roles for husbands, fathers and brothers maimed and incapacitated by the fighting. Women who resisted were vilified in the

press, described as “ruthless self-seekers depriving men and their dependants of their livelihood”; as “leeches” and “parasites”, determined to “have the time of their lives” at the expense of the returning men and of wider society. Cultural conservatives were keen to see these women return to more ‘traditional’ areas of work.

Even women’s football was banned. Tolerated by the Football Association (FA) during the war, with the men’s game largely shut down and money being raised for servicemen, women’s football flourished, drawing extraordinary crowds of 53,000 people. But in 1921 the FA banned its members from allowing women’s football to be played at their grounds and forbade its members from acting as referee or linesmen at women’s games, effectively killing the women’s game overnight. Explaining their decision, the FA released a statement in which it concluded that football was “quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged”.

Newspapers expressed deep concern at the unsuitable conduct of post-war women, particularly despairing of those that served in uniform ‘In some cases Army life… has not been an unmixed blessing… they show a tendency to avoid the home and sever their home ties; the efforts they make to appear ‘bold’ and masculine, whether it be… in excessive cigarette

smoking or the thrusting of their hands deep into their side pockets, all go to indicate the loss of grace and charm which in the old days caused their fathers to espouse their mothers.”

Even had they displayed the correct amount of grace and charm to attract a husband, many of these women were destined remain single. 700,000 British men had been killed during the conflict, exacerbating an already unequal distribution of men to women in the population. The 1921 census revealed that there were 1.75 million more women than men in the UK. These ‘surplus’ women were patronised and treated as if their predicament was of their own making. Unable to marry these women remained at home with their parents or married siblings, powerless, naïve and desperate to be useful so they could retain their precarious toehold in the household. Higher Education was still rare and accepted professions (secretarial, nursing, teaching) were poorly paid.

Undeniably the Great War changed Britain’s society and despite the efforts of some to return women to their pre-war roles, British women had gained new social and economic options and stronger political voices – empowered and more confident their lives would never be the same again.

THE LIFE OF A SCHOOL GIRL 1926

• Travel to school is by tram, bus or on foot.

• School starts at 9am and ends at 1pm, but the afternoons games, supervised prep and extra tutorial classes are held.

• The prefect system and house system have been introduced, delegating discipline and leadership to senior pupils.

• Uniform has been introduced, at NCHS in 1926 this comprised navy tunics, white blouses and navy blue coats.

• Pupils still began with slates, but written work increasingly centred on exercise books, with pen-nibs dipped in desk inkwells and ink dried with blotting paper.

• The curriculum included English literature, History, Geography, Mathematics, Latin, French and German, Science, Scripture, Needlework, Music and PE.

• Pupils now participate in public examinations and university entrance pathways.

• Trips are to local sites of interest, London and Paris.

• Her Future Prospects

• She would now retain ownership of her own property after marriage, rather than it automatically transferring to her husband’s ownership on marriage.

• She could now enter into contracts, sue and be sued in her own name as a legal individual.

• In cases of separation or divorce, custody of children could be awarded to the mother, although fathers were often still favoured.

• She could vote in parliamentary elections if she was over 21 (equal voting rights with men would not come until 1928).

• Access to higher education had expanded, and women could enter some professions such as teaching, nursing, social work, and certain areas of medicine — though many careers (law, senior civil service, some universities, and most political roles) remained restricted or socially discouraged. If she married,

• she would be expected to leave paid employment.

• The age of consent was now 16.

38 CENTRAL NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 1925-1935

By the mid-1920s attention at the School increasingly turned to improving facilities, enriching school life and strengthening the intellectual and cultural character of the school.

In 1927 a summer uniform was introduced: a brown cotton dress with cream collar and cuffs, worn alongside the established hatband. Swimming dress was similarly standardised, with brown costumes edged in yellow and matching knitted caps and swimming lessons were transferred to improved facilities at the Royal Grammar School baths.

Long-standing difficulties over outdoor space began to ease towards the end of the decade. After years of fundraising, a large playing field was rented in 1928, providing proper facilities for hockey and tennis and including its own pavilion. This marked a significant improvement on earlier arrangements and allowed games to take a more central place in school life.

Gradually the school had been moving from mornings only, with optional afternoon lessons, to an all-day curriculum and by the 1930s afternoon school had become firmly established. Excursions and societies flourished. A Camera Club and a Music Society were started. The Local History Society, founded earlier in

the decade, was particularly active, organising regular visits to sites such as Warkworth, Durham, Corbridge, Aydon Castle, Alnwick and the Roman Wall, often under expert guidance. Junior forms studied natural history: collections of pond life, insects and reptiles were kept in classrooms, and one escaped grass snake, later retrieved from a drain.

In 1931 the school’s first purpose-built Library opened. A bazaar and other fundraising activities had taken place to finance the building of the Library, not only to house the school’s book collections but also to provide a study area for the growing Sixth Form. The finished room, panelled in oak and furnished with heavy tables and shelving. At first the shelves were fairly empty but the teachers were allocated budgets for books and gradually the shelves filled up, necessitating ladders to run on brass poles around the room for access to the higher shelves. A gas fire was recessed into one side of the room but could only be switched on with special permission in very cold weather!

The school Houses adopted historical names—Stuart, Tudor, Windsor and Plantagenet in 1934, the same year that Miss Hiley retired after 21 years as Head of the School. She was succeeded by Miss Odell who came from the GPDST School at Brighton. The new Headship saw the inclusion of Chemistry and Physics in the Higher certificate exam, though the numbers of girls taking the exam remained small. Pupil numbers continued to grow and Prizegiving was moved to the City Hall. ‘At Homes’ were introduced for parents to visit the school and discuss their daughter’s progress and to see the girls’ work on display and the School crest was changed in 1935 to a crisper design incorporating the new school motto ‘Ante Deum Asto’ (I stand before God).

Throughout the decade pupils continued to progress to universities and professional training in increasing numbers. The school’s role as a route to higher education was firmly established by the mid-1930s.

40 NEWCASTLE CHURCH

HIGH SCHOOL 1925-1935

Emerging from the constraints of war and postwar adjustment, and with the purchase of the Tankerville Terrace buildings in 1925 the school could now focus on long-term planning and capital investment.

Miss Gurney gave up The Grove boarding house after 11 years and returned to 5 Henshelwood Terrace, taking 17 of her boarders with her. Boarding numbers had risen sharply during the First World War, largely because families were disrupted by military service and some girls could not travel daily or return home easily. At the end of the war conditions stabalised and boarding numbers fell as families resumed normal domestic arrangements. With it unfortunately went the school playing field and so the Games Capital Fund was established.

A Grand Bazaar was held in May of 1927 to support it and featured stalls selling needlework, arts and crafts, cakes and provisions. By the late 1920s, the Games Capital Fund stood at £2,044, a substantial sum reported with evident pride and ground at Reid Park Road was purchased to provide the long-sought games field. Five tennis courts, belonging to Brandling Tennis Club were also rented for school use.

That same year saw significant physical expansion. Tankerville House, immediately opposite the School, was purchased and adapted to house the Junior School, easing pressure on accommodation. New laboratories were constructed at Tankerville Terrace and further building followed in 1933 with when an extension was built at the north end of the building added a dining room, kitchen, pantries, and serveries on the ground floor, with a new botany laboratory and a larger geography room above.

Uniform regulations were tightened in 1927, –perhaps as a response to the disgraceful number of Neatness Reports given out in 1926 - with blazers and grey stockings made compulsory and in 1928 the School changed its uniform colour from navy to green, which it remained for the rest of its history.

Institutional life continued to evolve and consolidate. Drama and music flourished, plays, concerts, and choral performances were reported regularly in the magazines, prizegiving outgrew the School Hall into firstly the King’s Hall and then in 1929 to The Oxford Galleries, with a dance held afterwards in the adjoining Northumberland Hall. A school trip was organised to Switzerland and in 1931, the last recorded evidence of boys at Church High appears in the sources.

Around this time, Mrs Horsley began receiving Church High boarders at her home at 58 Highbury, and a photograph from the period confirms that ‘a few small boys’ passed through the kindergarten.

The Old Girls’ Association became increasingly active with 530 members, contributing to the School’s social and financial support as well as sending reports from various destinations and occupations, including the School of Medicine in London, an Angora rabbit farm in Ascot and a school in Kongwa, Tanganyika, East Africa.

The year marked the School’s 50th anniversary and a full week was devoted to the Jubilee celebrations. The Old Girls gave new oak tables for the recently extended dining room and the staff gave the carved oak chair still in school today. The main event held on the 21st January, the day the school opened 50 years ago. A communion was held in Jesmond Parish Church followed by a service in the Cathedral, a luncheon and in the evening more than 1000 guests were received by Miss Gurney for a dance at the Oxford Galleries in New Bridge Street.

A HISTORY OF SCIENCE

Science has always been taken seriously at our School and was recognised as a core part of the curriculum from its earliest years. In the Victorian and Edwardian periods, most girls’ schools confined science to elementary lessons with little practical work. At Gateshead High School, however, the approach was markedly different. In 1886, shortly after the new buildings opened, a chemistry laboratory was installed, enabling practical experimental work that remained rare in girls’ schools at that time.

When Central Newcastle High School was established in 1895, pupils continued to pursue science despite the limitations of its temporary home at No. 1 Park Terrace. The adapted private house offered minimal specialist facilities, and girls travelled weekly by horse-drawn bus to Gateshead to use its laboratories. The journey took place immediately after morning recreation, with “milk and buns” provided beforehand.

Improvisation at Park Terrace was equally determined. Miss Mary Moberly, who led Central from its foundation until 1911 and had previously revitalised Gateshead High School before its merger into Central in 1907, refused to allow the absence of a laboratory to curtail scientific study. She arranged for Miss Silcox, science mistress at Gateshead High School, to teach in Newcastle two days a week. With no laboratory available, Miss Moberly “suggested the makeshift of using her bathroom

instead.” It had gas and water, the classes were small, and lessons could proceed. The only inconvenience was that Miss Silcox, “an early preparer,” had to wait “somewhat impatiently” with her pupils in the corridor for the Headmistress to vacate the room, because the Headmistress was inclined to late rising.

When Central moved to purpose-built premises on Eskdale Terrace in 1902, laboratories for Chemistry, Botany and “The Elements of Physical Science” occupied the upper floor and became integral to the formal timetable. By the early twentieth century, Central was recognised locally—alongside the Royal Grammar School and Newcastle Church High School—as one of the few Newcastle secondary schools offering extended practical science within a full academic curriculum.

By the early 1910s, two fully qualified science mistresses were in post and practical science had become part of ordinary school life. Pupils kept living specimens— tadpoles, caterpillars and plants—alongside formal experimental work. Under Miss Hiley’s headship (1911–1935), around two pupils a year went on to qualify as doctors at a time when they were often the only women in their year.

At Church High, science likewise formed part of the core curriculum from the outset. By 1922 a Chemical Society had been established, and by 1926 chemistry was embedded within the modern

stream of the Fifth Form, with laboratory competence expected.

During the Second World War, science teaching continued throughout evacuation at both schools. Within a fortnight of arriving in Alnwick, Church High secured the use of the boys’ Duke’s School laboratories for two afternoons a week. When Central returned from Keswick, it was noted that the removal firm refused to transport certain laboratory chemicals on safety grounds – a member of staff carried them back personally in her car, the fumes so strong that the occupants had to stop repeatedly for air.

The Second World War accelerated women’s participation in STEM, as women assumed engineering and manufacturing roles previously unavailable to them. In the post-war years, Miss Leale, Headmistress of Central (1940–1949), became a champion of science. She taught the subject herself, insisted upon higherspecification equipment than was customary in girls’ schools and introduced Physics into the Sixth Form where previously Botany, Zoology and Chemistry had predominated. One pupil recalled being taught Physics to Higher Certificate level in a “crash course,” enabling her to enter medical school directly into the second year. It became common for girls to study sciences to Advanced Level and attain excellent results. Pupils visited Newcastle Breweries, Blaydon Manure and Alkali Works, Swan Hunter shipyard, Derwenthaugh Coke Works and Team Valley Glassworks, and later met jointly with the

Society.

By the 1950s, increasing numbers of girls were reading General Science, Physics, Zoology, Medicine and Pharmacy at university.

At Central, laboratory conditions were crowded and equipment rudimentary. There was no lab assistant and no Quickfit apparatus; pupils drilled corks and assembled their own glass tubing before organic chemistry practicals. Older girls experimented with “unknowns” at lunchtime with minimal supervision and lived to tell the tale). A Kipp’s apparatus in the fume cupboard produced hydrogen sulphide gas even when supposedly dormant. In 1959 Central secured funding for a major improvement programme. The Central Science Block opened in 1961and contained four large laboratories, preparation areas on every floor and space for thirty pupils at generous benches. Sixth Formers carried equipment to its new home and lit a celebratory bonfire to destroy the packaging.

At Church High, growing enthusiasm for science created acute accommodation pressures: with only two laboratories, Physics was taught in the Chemistry preparation room. Investment in scientific infrastructure was urgently needed in both Schools. In 1958 Church High purchased No. 17 Tankerville Terrace, renamed it Curtis House and converted it into laboratories, including a small Sixth Form Laboratory. Between 1969 and 1970 Church High further expanded its laboratory accommodation with the purchase of No. 16 Tankerville Terrace. Fifteen years later the sale of Curtis House and the Church High

Development Trust enabled the opening of a new Science Block at Church High in 1985 incorporating six laboratories, preparation rooms and a greenhouse. These parallel developments demonstrate the sustained institutional priority given to science.

By the 1980s protective goggles and overalls became compulsory. Health and Safety regulations increased. Through the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, science remained central to both schools’ academic identities, a tradition that continues at Newcastle High School for Girls. Today, separate Sciences are taught from Key Stage 3 through GCSE and A Level. First-class laboratories and preparation rooms support experimental work, collaborative investigation and independent research. Pupils participate in Science Club, Med Soc and Dental Soc, enter national competitions and engage in industrial partnerships and scholarship programmes.

From horse-drawn buses and borrowed bathrooms to purpose-built science blocks with state-of-theart laboratories, science has remained a core part of our School curriculum.

In 1876 women faced the same restraints and limitations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics that they encountered in their wider lives: lack of autonomy, limited educational opportunity, absence of recognition and structural exclusion. Women seeking careers in science faced discrimination at university and professionally. Those working within scientific fields were often excluded from principal laboratories, confined to inferior spaces, and saw their

research ignored, ridiculed or appropriated.

Our Schools opened the world of science to girls. They provided laboratory access, specialist teaching and intellectual expectation at a time when such opportunities were far from guaranteed. They normalised ambition in chemistry, physics, medicine and engineering. They prepared girls not just to pass examinations, but to enter professions from which women had historically been excluded.

Church High’s first Head Girl, Ella Bryant, was the first woman to receive a degree from Durham University, it was a BSc in Physics. Among Central High’s alumna was Rachel Parsons, who founded the Women’s Engineering Society in 1919 to support and advance women in engineering careers at a moment when many were being pressured to relinquish their wartime roles. For a century and a half our School has played an important part in advancing the presence and influence of women in science.

Today, NHSG alumnae are shaping the scientific future of our world — working in artificial intelligence, robotics, medicine, renewable energy, aerospace and environmental science. They do so as inheritors of a powerful tradition. They stand on the shoulders of generations of resilient and courageous women who refused to accept that science was not for them, and who proved that girls belong not at the margins of scientific endeavour, but at its forefront.

Ella Mary Bryant, Newcastle High School

Newcastle High School’s first Head Girl, Ella Mary Bryant, became the first woman to receive a degree from Durham University. Mary had passed the BSc examination in Physics in 1892, but when she attempted to pay the fee to receive her degree, she was refused. Bryant’s challenge prompted the university senate to petition the Crown for a supplementary charter, allowing Durham to grant degrees to women. Bryant received her BSc on 24th June 1895, becoming the first woman to receive a degree from Durham University and blazing a trail for future generations. Today over 54% of students at Durham University are women.

Dorothy F. Hollingsworth, Newcastle Church High School

Church High School Alumna

Dorothy F. Hollingsworth OBE (1916–1994) was a pioneering British nutritionist. She joined the Ministry of Food in 1941 and played a key role in evaluating wartime rationing. She became Head of the Nutrition Section at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and in 1970 became the first female Director General of the British Nutrition Foundation, bridging government, industry, and science. From 1978 to 1985 she expanded her impact globally as Secretary General of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences. Widely published and influential, Hollingsworth was appointed OBE in 1958 and is remembered

for institutionalising datadriven nutrition policy and and leaving a lasting legacy in evidence-based nutrition policy.

Dr. Ellie Cannon, Central Newcastle High School

Central High School Alumna Ellie Cannon is a GP, writer, and broadcaster who combines frontline NHS experience with a high-profile media career to challenge health misinformation and shape public debate. Having worked for years in an NHS practice in London she speaks with authority on issues including mental health, diet, addiction, dementia, parenting, and the changing pressures on the NHS. Widely known as “Dr Ellie,” she is a regular health expert on several high profile media channels and a published author. Dr Cannon sees it as her responsibility to counter what she calls “pseudo health news,” using evidence, clinical insight, and plain speaking to inform the public.

Dr. Miriam Stoppard, Central Newcastle High School

Dr Miriam Stoppard OBE became widely recognised in the 1970s and 1980s as a trusted medical broadcaster through pioneering television work, helping millions understand health, science, parenting and women’s issues at a time when accessible public health information was far less common. Drawing on her medical training and early clinical and pharmaceutical experience, she translated complex medical topics into

clear, practical advice, building a reputation as a leading authority with broad appeal. In addition to her TV work, Stoppard has authored more than 80 books selling over 25 million copies worldwide and written long-running health columns, cementing her role at the forefront of the revolution in health communication that helped shape how families engage with medical information.

Dr. Ruth Plummer, Central Newcastle High School

Ruth Plummer is a world leader in her field. Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at Newcastle University and an honorary consultant medical oncologist in Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Director of the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre which she has helped raise over £16 million. Ruth also leads the Newcastle Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and the (Cancer Research UK’s (CRUK) Newcastle Cancer Centre. At a national level she chairs the MRC Experimental Medicine Panel and sits on CRUK Research Careers and Clinical Research Committees as well as the NCRI Strategy Advisory Board. Ruth was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018 for her work developing PARP inhibitors as novel cancer treatments and in 2021 was awarded the ESMO-TAT Lifetime Achievement award for her work. Professor Plummer has been awarded a richly deserved MBE in recognition of her outstanding service and contribution.

Dr. Angela Milner,

Newcastle Church High School

In January 1983, a chance discovery by a plumber in a Surrey clay pit unveiled one of Britain’s most important dinosaur finds—an enormous claw that launched the dinosaur later named Baryonyx walkeri into instant fame and marked the first dinosaur project of palaeontologist Angela Milner, working with Alan Charig at the Natural History Museum. Identified as a bizarre, crocodile-snouted fish-eater thanks to preserved fish scales in its stomach—the first such evidence for any dinosaur—the discovery propelled Milner to the forefront of dinosaur science, where she remained throughout her career. She went on to become a leading authority on meat-eating dinosaurs and early birds, pioneering the use of CT scanning in palaeontology with her 2004 reconstruction of the brain of Archaeopteryx, and championing technologies that transformed fossil research, while also contributing landmark studies on early tetrapods, molecular palaeontology, and global field expeditions from China to the Sahara.

CENTRAL NEWCASTLE

HIGH SCHOOL 1935-1945

Operation Pied Piper, 1935 – 1945

The evacuation of Britain’s cities at the start of World War 2 was the biggest and most concentrated mass movement of people in Britain’s history. Under the shadow of war, on the 1st September 1939 operation Pied Piper was initiated and over 3,000,000 people were transported from towns and cities in danger from enemy bombers to places of safety in the countryside. 800,000 of these were children, relocated from industrial target areas across the country to safer rural ‘reception’ zones where they were to be billeted with families in private housing. The pupils of Central Newcastle High School and Newcastle Church High School, equipped with a gas mask and two heavy tins of bully beef, boarded special trains to Keswick and Alnwick respectively.

Central High 1935 – 1945

By the mid-1930s social change was evident in school:

‘By 1936 the number of perms in the Fifth and Sixth Forms was slowly increasing and hats were taking on a more rakish angle and more delicate shoes replacing the regulation brogues and walking shoes. Contacts with the Royal Grammar School had already begun and the days when it was considered

not quite proper to appear to know that there was a boys’ school across the road were long gone’.

World War 2 would accelerate that change. The first indication of the approaching international crisis came with the arrival of a Czech refugee pupil. By September 1939 blackout measures were introduced, air-raid precautions explained, and arrangements made for emergency conditions. Within days of the outbreak of war, it soon became clear that normal arrangements could not continue.

The school was evacuated to Keswick in September 1939. Pupils were instructed to bring a rucksack containing clothing, personal necessities, food for one day and a gas mask. Each girl was given an identification label, and the school assembled in the playground before proceeding in an enormous crocodile of 319 pupils to West Jesmond station to board a special train to Keswick.

Keswick was a ‘reception area’ for evacuees, Roedean School relocated from Brighton to Keswick and the pupils were billeted in two local hotels along with the students from St Katharines Teacher Training College from Liverpool. Soon, evacuees from Newcastle arrived.

In Keswick, Central Newcastle High School shared buildings

with Keswick School. Each school operated on a half-day timetable, including Saturday sessions. Teaching materials were scarce, and paper shortages required the use of scrap paper and envelopes for written work. Spare time was occupied with knitting garments for the Forces, making blankets and toys for hospitals, and other war-related activities.

The location was a joy to many of the 319 girls who were evacuated and outdoor pursuits in the lovely surroundings made up much of their spare time, but accommodation was obviously a problem for such a large number, as was homesickness and almost half the girls returned home by the end of the first year of evacuation. Even so ‘Acute billeting conditions’ meant that accommodations were very tight and the School office had four moves in the first year before finally being set up on Main Street at the undertakers where it remained until the School returned to Newcastle.

In 1940 Miss Odell rented Barrow House. It was large with plenty of ground including a private shore on the lake. Used as hostel for the girls for seven terms, the Local Education Authority supplied bunks and tables and chairs and crockery came from Eskdale Terrace. Pupils were organised with a patrol system to put up blackouts and were fined £2 one night when it was not carried out. The electricity at

the house was hydroelectric provided by Barrow Falls and often failed so storm lanterns were used. Girls played Monopoly, chopped wood, went for picnics and skated on Derwentwater in the winter.

Miss Odell moved on to another school in 1940 and Miss Leale took over as Headmistress at a time when the numbers of Keswick evacuees were dwindling as many girls returned to their homes. Parents had requested a school for the younger children back in Newcastle. As the Eskdale buildings had been let to the Gas Board another building had to be found.

An offer was received from St. Margaret’s School in West Avenue, Gosforth, to sell the school to the GDST. This was accepted and the school opened as the Gosforth branch of Central High School in May 1942. The school continued to run in both Keswick and Gosforth until 1942 drew to a close. The last Prizegiving in Keswick was led by the Headmaster of Keswick School who said an affectionate goodbye to the ‘Brown Bombers’ who had invaded and the School. The Gas Board moved out and the School returned to Eskdale Terrace in January 1943.

The pencil factory in Keswick produced a special spy pencil sent in care packages to British POWs held in foreign prisons. They each had a small compass concealed inside the fittings for the rubber on the end of the pencil and a map rolled up in the partially hollow centre of the pencil.

NEWCASTLE CHURCH

HIGH SCHOOL 1935-1945

The Jubilee year was in many ways a watershed for the School. Miss Gurney retired in 1936. She was succeeded, reluctantly, by Dr Williamson who served only two years and was replaced by Dr Margaret Yates in 1938. In the first year of her tenure the Second World War broke out and she became the Headmistress that ‘took the School to Alnwick’.

The Second World War had a more immediate effect upon the School than the outbreak of the First. Plans had been made for what was to be done in the event of war for the School to remain open and ‘provide trenches’ in the playgrounds. However the decision not to evacuate the School to a safety zone was revoked a year later and as part of ‘Operation Pied Piper’ the School was evacuated to Alnwick.

On the 1st September 136 pupils, equipped with gas masks and with large luggage labels round their necks, boarded their special train to Alnwick where they would spend the duration of the war. 306 pupils were registered at the School but because the crisis fell in the school holidays and families already away were urged to remain where they were; by the end of September 215 were present in Alnwick.

Church High pupils were to share the Duchess School and initially were billeted with local families. The Duchess

School was however small and time tabling two schools became a serious problem. The Duchess of Northumberland offered Alnwick Castle as an alternative with rent agreed on a sliding scale based on pupil numbers. Early in November 1940 the Castle became home to Newcastle Church High School, functioning as both a boarding and a day school with 220 pupils ranging in age from 4 to 17. Day pupils lived in Alnwick (either with their own families or in billets) but the largest proportion of pupils and teachers boarded at Alnwick Castle. Parents sent a bed, a quilt, sheets and a chest of drawers for each of their daughters; these were all transported to Alnwick Castle from Newcastle by Bainbridges (now John Lewis) in their delivery vans. The larger rooms were emptied of furniture and given over to dormitories. The big billiard and smoking rooms on the first floor were left furnished for use as staff common rooms and the Duchess’s own nursery wing housed the younger girls.

Rooms were repurposed for school use. Morning Assembly and Drill was held in the huge Banqueting Hall with heads of big game shot by the Percy family looking down from the walls. activities (rumour has it that some pupils engaged in a game of seeing who could pull the most whiskers out of the stuffed and mounted animal heads on the walls at a running jump), the long underground Kitchen Tunnel served as an air-raid shelter, the big billiard

and smoking rooms on the first floor were used as staff Common Rooms and the Lower Guard Chamber as the pupil’s Common Room. The Headmistress had the big morning room, furnished in mahogany and wine red brocade in which her desk from Tankerville Terrace ‘seemed quite lost’ but her secretary could reach her by pressing a button marked ‘Duke’ and from the windows she could watch the Lacrosse and other games in the Middle Bailey and the girls on the Castle ramparts.

An excerpt from Dr. Margaret F Yates, Headmistress 19381941 contribution to the History of Newcastle Church High School

When we first arrived and the great snows had melted, our first dilemma with the little ones, housed aloft in the Duchess’s own nursery wing, was whether to let them climb the steep steps thirty feet up to the four foot wide parapets of the Castle battlements. They were so dangerous but if they were forbidden the children might ascend them when no one else was about. If allowed in the early days with plenty of supervision the novelty of constant climbing them might wear off. So for about three weeks they swarmed over the ramparts and, hearts in mouths, we watched them. Suddenly they stopped and never resumed

again. There is a lesson here, I think.’

Margaret House’s (Easten) account:

‘When the move to the Castle was suggested it sounded very exciting. Memories of our arrival in Alnwick are a jumble. I know there were kindly people at the station who gave every one of us a brown paper carrier bag containing a tin of corned beef and some biscuits to give to our ‘hostesses’ when we arrived at our billets. The people of Alnwick were remarkably generous. They came out of their homes and gathered us up in ones, two’s and three’s and took us in. The first thing I remember about Alnwick Castle is the vastness of the place. Long stone corridors and stone staircases seemed to go on forever. The second thing to hit me was the COLD. If only there had been thermal underwear in those days. We were allowed to wear warm, dark green cloaks with hoods lined in yellow plaid which kept out some of the draughts – but not all by any means. I often think now about the summer term when the Middle Bailey of the Castle was turned into tennis courts and we spent hours playing or watching from the battlements. The very thought of running and up and down the battlement steps and sitting on top with legs dangling while we knitted rather dodgy socks and Balaclava helmets for the troops gives me an immediate attack of vertigo today! The grounds were open for us to wander at will. We were so lucky to have such a wonderful setting and I hope we made the most of it.

There were things that were a bit grim such as the basement bathrooms where we switched on the lights and waited outside for a few minutes to let the cockroaches scuttle away. And the awful Saturday afternoon walks – in crocodile of course – when the weather never seemed to matter and we trudged for miles through the worst of winter days. We didn’t escape the air raids either. Siren suits were kept at the bottom of our beds and when the warning sounded we had to put them on, wrap ourselves in our eiderdowns and make our way to the tunnel between the kitchens and the state dining room where we sat on benches. An Emergency Aid Squad was formed where we learned how to tackle incendiary bombs, some simple home nursing and how to carry unconscious people down stairs. Every Friday night a small group took a turn to cut up the butter and margarine rations. This was a great responsibility because we each had our individual butter dishes and a fair measure was vital. I shall always admire the staff at that time because they never allowed Church High standards to fall. Every Sunday morning before church, Sister inspected us to see that shoes were polished, lisle thread stocking seams straight and that there were no illegal creases in velours or panamas. Despite the problems of clothing coupons, uniform had to be correct at all times. I remember my last term in 1944 when I came into the VIth Form study one morning to find my blazer pockets in shreds. They had been attacked by mice.

It was a strange time. There was the constant anxiety of those who had fathers and brothers in the forces, the old girls coming back to visit us in military uniforms, the world shattering events going on while we were tucked away in the safety of Alnwick.’

Mary Creyke’s (Campbell) account:

‘On Friday 1st September we were evacuated. I have a clear picture in my mind of the rail track being lined with weeping figures watching the evacuees going away.

The Autumn Term was a strange experience. We shared the facilities of the Duchess School. We used the classrooms in the afternoons and kept our books in our rucksacks. School did not finish until 5 o’clock in the afternoon and as it was dark by then we had to return to our billets in convoys to make sure we did not get lost in the black-out.

The Castle must have been very inconvenient and difficult for the staff to cope with, especially as it was so cold and spread out. There were coal fires in many of the classrooms, and one of our chores was to get up early and light these. Nasty smoky things they were too when the wind was in the wrong direction.

The main focus of the School was the Guest Hall with its walls covered with the skins and heads of wild animals. This was used for daily prayers and all big assemblies. The Common Room where we spent our free time was the Armoury. It was a most uncomfortable place so we seemed to be outside as much as possible. The dormitories were very scattered and had been large bedrooms. The plumbing was somewhat primitive and we only had baths twice a week and hair-washing once a fortnight.

But we all enjoyed living there. In fine weather the grounds were most attractive, with flowers such as snowdrops and daffodils and then bluebells and other wild flowers. It was a marvellous place on a summer Sunday, sitting on the battlements writing our weekly letter home, playing tennis or walking in the grounds. We said a somewhat tearful goodbye to Alnwick after many memorable farewell parties.’

It seems that the Church girls had a better evacuee experience than those of Central, transforming the Castle into a functioning and well organised boarding school where the girls lived among familiar faces. Much loved new hooded long woollen cloaks lined in the Percy tartan were designed by the school uniform supplier, Issac Walton and boarding school life allowed a broadened co-curricular life. Pupils recall clubs for cycling, walking, play reading, country dancing, a Girl Guide company, annual picnics to Hulne Park (with the traditional rain), and expeditions to gather rosehips for syrup to support the war effort. There were structured rhythms of connection with home: two visiting days per term, and an annual Old Girls’ day with tennis against an Old Girls’ team.

A 80 year anniversary afternoon tea was held at Alnwick Castle in 2014.

In 1941 Headmistress Dr Yates returned to the Civil Service and Miss B.E. Jackson was appointed. Miss Jackson was tragically killed in a motor accident while travelling between the Castle and the School during the blackout and Miss Ivy C. Joslin was appointed Headmistress.

While Church High operated from Alnwick, the Newcastle premises were heavily used for the war effort and occupied by the Air Raid Precaution (A.R.P.) authorities and the Police. Tankerville House was let to the Ministry of Labour in 1941 and the Women’s Royal Naval Service (W.R.N.S.) used the netball courts, and the Royal Air Force (R.A.F.) used the playground for basketball. A Kindergarten was later re-opened in Newcastle for younger children still living with parents there, even while the main school remained in Alnwick.

By 1944, with the end of war in sight, Governors decided to return and re-establish the School as a day school with its traditional local base.

NEWCASTLE HIGH FOR GIRLS ALUMNAE IN WWII

Mary Baxter Ellis CBE, Central High School

A veteran of the First World War, Mary was appointed Commandant of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in 1932. It was largely due to Mary that the Corps was continued after WW1 and able to respond to the demands made on it at the outbreak of WWII, supplying 1500 trained female mechanics to the Auxilliary Territorial Service. Ellis would later go on to become a deputy-director at the ATS throughout the war.

Esther McCracken (nee Armstrong), Central High School

sther McCracken played an interesting role in WWII. A playwright and philanthropist, Esther was a vital voice for British morale presenting a ‘steadfast’ England, her plays and broadcasts on the BBC World Service were hugely popular. Her play ‘No Medals’ paid tribute to the ordinary woman managing her household under the strains of WWII, reflecting the vital importance of the home front to the war effort. She also won the cricket ball throwing competition every year while at school!

(Dorothy) Margaret Greig (nee Hannah), Central Newcastle High School

A talentend mathematician, Margaret Greig earned a first in the notoriously tough Cambridge mathematical tripos examination.

She became a scientific officer at the Ministory of Aircraft Producation, working in the Air Warfare Analysis Section for Bomber Command. Dorothy worked on calculations relating to the navigational accuracy of bombing and developing pioneering new technologies that contributed to the eventual victory in Europe.

Dame Irene Ward, Newcastle Church High School

The Woman Power Committee was formed in 1940 and led by Dame Irene Ward. The Committee mobilized women for crucial war work, addressing labor shortages in factories and essential services by recruiting housewives and other civilians, influencing government policy, and highlighting women’s vital role in the industrial and military effort. Ward advocate for improvements in wages and working conditions for women. Irene was as a member of Parliament 1931 - 45 and 1950 - 74 which made her the longest serving woman member at the time.Ward was a lifelong advocate for disadvantaged women like her mother and, throughout her political career, stretched the boundaries for women’s rights. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1951, a Companion of Honor in 1973, created a baroness in 1974 and served in the House of Lords 1974 - 1980.

CENTRAL NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 1945-1955

Following the end of the Second World War, Central Newcastle High School resumed operation on its pre-war sites, with Eskdale Terrace as the Senior School and St Margaret’s, West Avenue, Gosforth, as the Junior School. Miss Leale oversaw the reintegration of the school after evacuation and the consolidation of its post-war organisation.

Rationing and shortages continued to affect school life throughout the later 1940s. St. Margaret’s navy uniforms were allowed to be worn alongside the brown of CNHS and correspondence from 1945 and 1946 records difficulties in obtaining basic equipment,. Gym shoes were so worn that they were repaired between lessons using bicycle repair patches. Fuel shortages limited heating, and paper, books and teaching materials were strictly rationed. Shared textbooks, reused exercise books and economical teaching practices were standard. By the end of the decade pupil numbers exceeded 500, placing severe pressure on accommodation. At the Junior School, which occupied Nos. 16, 18 and 26 West Avenue, the adjacent No. 20 was purchased and internal walls removed to create a single enlarged site. At Eskdale Terrace the dining room was insufficient, and a neighbouring classroom was converted to provide additional dining space. Even so, only around 60 per cent of Senior School pupils could be accommodated at lunchtime,

with priority given to those travelling from a distance. A school dinner cost sevenpence for a main course and pudding.

Wartime structures were dismantled or adapted. Air-raid shelters in the yard were removed and replaced with huts used as Biology laboratories. In 1947 No. 5 Eskdale Terrace, formerly occupied by the National Fire Service, was purchased and renamed Hiley House, reflecting its earlier use as Miss Hiley’s residence. The Sixth Form moved into the building, and prefects were provided with their own sitting room for the first time. Further expansion followed in 1949, when No. 3 Eskdale Terrace was acquired and joined to No. 5, creating additional teaching space including a Domestic Science laboratory and Music rooms.

Alongside these physical changes, educational organisation evolved in response to national reform. By 1946 the effects of the 1944 Education Act were becoming apparent. The school’s role as a selective academic institution was clarified within the emerging tripartite system, and greater emphasis was placed on defined examination pathways. The distinction between pupils leaving at sixteen and those proceeding to the Sixth Form became more explicit, and planning increasingly assumed progression beyond compulsory schooling for a substantial proportion of girls.

Careers guidance and preparation for higher education became more systematic by the end of the 1940s. Sixth Form pupils received clearer advice on university entrance requirements, scholarships and professional training, with staff providing individual guidance for applications to universities, teacher training colleges and medical courses.

An expanded pupil body supported a flourishing programme of activities. A Literary Society was formed, the Music Society re-established, and a small school orchestra gave its first concert in 1946. In 1947 the school collaborated with the Royal Grammar School for the first time in a joint dramatic production. Miss Leale, a science specialist, strengthened provision in the subject despite continued difficulty obtaining equipment, and a Science Society was founded the same year. The School Council also met for the first time in 1947. Despite ongoing economies, school trips expanded in the early 1950s: the History Society travelled further afield, and in 1952 the school organised its first Winter Sports trip to Norway and the whole school watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on television.

Miss Leale retired in 1949, leaving a school significantly enlarged in both space and numbers, well positioned for further growth under Miss Belton. Educational reform continued with the national

introduction of the General Certificate of Education in 1951,were replaced by a system of Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations.

By the mid-1950s, remaining at school beyond sixteen was increasingly regarded as the norm rather than the exception for academically able pupils. University entrance became a central assumption of Sixth Form education, with Advanced Level study framed explicitly as preparation for higher education. This expansion reflected wider social change but also built directly on the school’s established academic culture.

56 NEWCASTLE CHURCH HIGH SCHOOL 1945-1955

Miss Joslin managed the ‘Herculean’ task of returning the School to Newcastle which was completed by 1945, but pupils recalled the transition as disorienting. After the vast spaces of Alnwick Castle, Tankerville Terrace felt “small,” and even the School Hall—once considered large—seemed diminished by comparison with the Castle’s Guest Hall. The Tankerville Terrace premises required significant repair and reconditioning after years of heavy use, classrooms had to be made usable, equipment replaced, and pupils had to adapt to a new routines as normal timetables were restored.

Miss Mary Wood replaced Miss Ivy Joslin when she returned to the Frances Holland School in London later that year and marked the beginning of a long and stabilising headship. She would remain in post for twenty years, presiding over the School’s reconstruction after war and evacuation. Rationing and shortages continued to affect daily life. The School’s uniform supplier Isaac Walton’s advertised that they could supply the school uniform with clothing coupons and despite clothing rationing lingering into the early 50s uniform discipline remained uncompromising and there was little sympathy for shortages. But, as Miss Wood later recalled, ‘hope was in the air; we could plan our work and our games and even think of things like new paint and further accommodation.’

By 1945 there were 454 pupils so in 1945, 5 Haldane Terrace was acquired. The lower floor was used for the Nursery Class, while the upper flat became the residence of Miss Wood until her marriage in 1954, after which she became known as Mrs Pybus. In 1946, No. 4 Tankerville Terrace was purchased. Renamed Gurney House and formally opened in 1947 by Miss Gurney, it provided accommodation for the Nursery and Kindergarten and dedicated rooms for the teaching of Domestic Science. The kitchens were rearranged and re-equipped in 1948, 36 Burdon Terrace was purchased in 1950 and in 1951 the tower on the main building was demolished after it was judged unsafe.

One of the most significant developments of the decade was the long-delayed creation of a School library. Plans for a reference library dated back to the early twentieth century when bookcases had been provided by the Sixth Form in 1912, and from 1926 the Governors had allocated £20 per term for the purchase of reference books. Funded in part through appeals and bazaars, the new library and Sixth Form room cost £6,000 and was opened in 1954.

By 1953 pupil numbers stood at 603 and demand for places consistently exceeded availability. Throughout these years, the School’s institutional life regained its pre-war rhythm. Games, Music and Drama regained

momentum and in 1951 it became possible to take A-level Music, Geography and Spanish for the first time. Charitable activity continued, though its focus shifted away from wartime emergency towards local causes and school-related needs. The Old Girls’ Association remained active, maintaining strong links between past and present pupils and providing practical and social support to the School.

The Education Act of 1944 altered the national educational framework, and its effects were gradually felt at Church High. Academic seriousness remained central, with particular strength in the humanities and languages, alongside a growing emphasis on science. The Parent-Teacher Society was founded in 1946 and School trips are taken to Switzerland and Austria in 1949. In 1950 Katharine Garbutt of Form Va won a competition to provide words for verses and chorus of the School Song.

By 1955 Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School had completed its transition from evacuation and emergency to stability and growth. Under Miss Wood’s steady leadership, the School was not merely restored but strengthened: its buildings repaired and extended, its numbers secure, and its confidence renewed and in February 1955 the School had a General Inspection.

58 CENTRAL NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 1955-1965

Under the headship of Miss Belton, pupil numbers rose steadily and by the end of the 1950s the School was under considerable pressure for space. The Art Room was moved to Hiley House, allowing the dining room in the main building to be enlarged, and in 1958 a room was furnished as a separate Sixth Form Library, which also served as a prefects’ room for relaxation and ‘coffee-brewing’.

Science teaching, long a strength of the school, was increasingly constrained by inadequate facilities. Biology was still taught in small huts in the back yard, while Physics and Chemistry occupied cramped laboratories on the first floor of the main building. In 1959 welcome confirmation was received that the Girls’ Public Day School Trust would fund a new laboratory block. The new Science Block opened in 1961, built on the former tennis courts on the south side of the School. A fourstorey structure of concrete and glass, it stood in marked contrast to the older buildings and reflected contemporary architectural styles. It contained four well-equipped laboratories, an extension to the Library, an additional classroom and a new staff room. The improvement in facilities was followed by a noticeable increase in pupils proceeding to university courses in Biology and Chemistry.

Games provision was temporarily reduced by the loss of the tennis courts to the Science Block, but didn’t stop the school from hosting a gymkhana on the Moor in aid of the World Refugee Fund that was won by Newcastle Church High School. Sports facilities improved significantly when a former bomb site on Eslington Road was acquired, and in 1964 a full games field was secured on the Town Moor, providing space for hockey and tennis courts as well as a new pavilion.

Miss Russell succeeded Miss Belton as Headmistress in 1962. Her arrival coincided with a period of modernisation. From 1963 school hats were no longer compulsory during the Summer term and in 1964–65 the uniform was redesigned with a modern appearance and a focus on comfort and practicality, reflecting wider social shifts. There is a corresponding change in the pupil voice in the school magazine, with confidence and assurance increasingly evident in place of earlier deference. Everyday school life also reflected wider change. Technology begins to appear, Typewriting Club was established, though it was pointed out that this was not with a view to vocational training but as a modern skill.

Records note the use of a cine camera and projector, and the growing presence of gramophone records in teaching. Duplicated handouts and typed circulars began to appear, and specialist rooms were increasingly timetabled for particular subjects.

The History Society organised increasingly ambitious expeditions, building on the traditions of local study established earlier in the century. Music and drama flourished, and by the early 1960s “Keel Row” was firmly established as the unofficial school song, sung with enthusiasm at gatherings and events. Drama productions increasingly involved collaboration with Royal Grammar School, now presented as normal rather than remarkable.

The school magazines continued to record strong performance at Ordinary and Advanced Level, alongside an expanding range of university destinations. Careers pursued by Old Girls increasingly included medicine, scientific research, education, administration and public service and in 1960 Gateshead Old Girls’ Guild accepted the invitation of the Newcastle Guild to amalgamate with them.

60 NEWCASTLE CHURCH

HIGH SCHOOL 1955-1965

The 1955 School Inspection was largely positive but regrettably the Nursery was forced to close after the inspection team found a ‘lack of space for the Infant Children to play in’ at Gurney House. The decision to close the Nursery in favour of provision of facilities for senior pupils was in response to rising numbers and accommodation pressures.

Accommodation pressures were most acute in the teaching of science. By the mid-1950s, the School had only two laboratories, and Physics was taught in the Chemistry preparation room. In 1958 No. 17 Tankerville Terrace was purchased, renamed Curtis House and converted into laboratories, cloakrooms, staff space and a small Sixth Form Laboratory. Further internal reorganisation converted the former Biology laboratory behind the stage into a form room, and the old Chemistry laboratory became the Geography room. In the same year, pressure on communal facilities led to the reconfiguration of the entrance area: cloakrooms and toilets were extended, a small waiting room was retained, the School office moved, and the Headmistress’s room was relocated. Continued growth prompted further adaptation in 1960, when the caretaker moved into the upper flat at 5 Haldane Terrace, allowing the former attic accommodation to be converted into rooms for the Sixth Form.

In the Summer term of 1964, the kitchens were again remodelled and modernised, during which time the pupils lunch was served in the Church Hall next door.

Throughout the 1950s, the Governors repeatedly considered Direct Grant Status but the application when made in 1957 was ultimately unsuccessful, and the School retained its independent status. Pupil numbers throughout the decade remained high and in 1953, numbers stabilised at around six hundred, with demand for places consistently exceeding supply.

Academic outcomes during these years reflect the School’s sustained ambition. The History Book records several pupils gaining places at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and others pursuing doctoral research in nuclear physics and radiochemistry, firstclass and upper-second university degrees, professional qualifications in pharmacy and medicine, and admission to the Bar at Gray’s Inn. Teaching remained a common career choice, with several Old Girls returning to the School as members of staff in subjects including French, Physical Education, Art, Domestic Science, and Junior School.

The School calendar began to look a little more like the one we are used to today –busy! School trips, both local and international, sports fixtures, parent and teacher meetings, and for the first time specific mention is made of careers advice with Newcastle University Careers Advisors. Prizegiving during these years retained its formal character and scale, the precise marshalling of pupils onto the platform was so exact that it was remembered as prompting spontaneous applause from audiences.

Charitable giving continued and the Old Girls Luncheon is now an established event held on the second Thursday of each month at the Douglas Hotel on Grainger Street.

By 1965, Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School stood as a large, academically ambitious institution, carefully managed within the constraints of its site. Mrs Pybus retired in 1965 to ‘devote more time to the duties and pleasures of matrimony and the breeding and care of Border Terriers’.

62 BUILDINGS AND SPACES

CENTRAL NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 1965-1975

By the mid-1960s Central Newcastle High School had grown substantially. At Prizegiving in 1965, Miss Russell noted that Gateshead High School had opened in 1876 with twenty-eight pupils, while Central Newcastle High School now enrolled approximately seven hundred girls.

Accommodation remained under severe pressure. A school building fund was established in 1966, supported by fetes, drama productions, a shoe-cleaning service and a treasure hunt and in 1968 Eslington Tower was acquired with the help of the GPDST. The building provided additional accommodation for the 136 members of the Sixth form who appreciated their separation from the rest of the school, although it they were not always complimentary about the small rooms and many stairs.

Games provision expanded further during the late 1960s. A second games field was acquired and shared with Newcastle Church High School, allowing a wider sports programme of hockey, tennis, netball, athletics, swimming, fencing, archery, riding, squash and badminton. Central Newcastle High School became the first girls’ school in the North East to introduce judo.

Changes in teaching practice reflected wider technological developments. Films, tape recordings and gramophone records were increasingly used, typed circulars and duplicated handouts became more common.

Academic outcomes remained strong throughout the decade with consistent success at Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations and progression on to higher education at Oxford and Cambridge, Newcastle, Durham, Bristol and London Universities, as well as to polytechnics and professional training routes. Subjects studied included medicine, dentistry, biochemistry, physics, law, architecture, languages and planning.

Extra-curricular activity remained extensive. Societies continued to grow and new ones were established. Music and drama flourished. Music became increasingly prominent and several trips were made to Germany to take part in music festivals. Drama productions grew in scale and ambition, often in collaboration with the Royal Grammar School. Fundraising and service work featured regularly, including Red Cross events, fairs, sponsored activities and discos. Charitable activity reflected changing horizons: while earlier fundraising had focused largely on local and national causes, by the late 1960s and early 1970s school efforts increasingly supported international and humanitarian appeals.

In 1972 the centenary of the Girls’ Public Day School Trust was marked by a service at Westminster Abbey. Thirtyeight pupils from Central Newcastle High School attended, four of whom formed part of the Guard of Honour for HRH the Duchess of Gloucester, Patron of the Trust. A Centenary Cruise for Trust schools took place later in the year, and a day in July was set aside for whole-school participation in celebratory activities.

The Central Newcastle High School Association was formed, its purpose being “to stimulate social activity and a general interest in education among its members and to provide a vehicle by which they can give active help to the school.” The Association lasted almost 40 years and in 1975 an appeal was launched to raise funds for a new Hall at Senior School.

66 NEWCASTLE CHURCH HIGH SCHOOL 1965-1975

The retirement of Mrs M. R. Pybus in 1965 brought to an end twenty years of stable leadership. Miss M. B. Lewis was appointed Headmistress in 1965. Educated at Oxford and Cambridge, she brought strong academic credentials and wide experience, having served as Headmistress of St Edmund’s College, Liverpool and having previously taught at Cheltenham Ladies’ College.

Throughout the late 1960s the School remained academically ambitious and heavily subscribed. Examination results continued to be published in detail, with long lists of GCE Ordinary and Advanced Level passes demonstrating strength across humanities, modern languages, mathematics, sciences, and creative subjects. Careers and university destinations show clear statistical evidence of widening opportunities for women, with pupils progressing to Higher Education in subjects including nuclear physics, pharmacy, modern languages, history, biochemistry, and oriental studies. Others entered paid employment in laboratories, legal offices, insurance firms, and banks.

Meanwhile the existing buildings were under increasing strain. The growing importance of science placed pressure on laboratory accommodation designed for a much smaller school. The Centenary Development Programme was undertaken: Curtis House was extended through the purchase and conversion of No. 16

Tankerville Terrace, and an ambitious, forward-looking Science Block was under construction by the early 1970s.

In 1974 a new purpose-built Junior School was completed on the site of adjacent gardens and formally opened by the Duchess of Northumberland. Funded partly by the sale of the playing field, the decision was regretted but necessary, as the distant site had become an expensive liability and the new building released space for tennis courts. The new Junior School was built on the site of what had been known as the “ orphanage garden’’. It was light and airy with two large halls and gardens surrounding it. Compared to the limited space in Tankerville House, it was paradise for the pupils. It was financed by donations to the Appeal Fund, launched in 1972 and by the sale of the playing field at Reid Park Road for £131,000, a sum greatly in excess of the amount anticipated.

In the same year Miss P. E. Davies succeeded Miss Lewis as Headmistress. Having spent ten years working in boarding schools in West Africa, she arrived to find a school in the midst of extensive rewiring, repainting, and the reorganisation of teaching space. Art, Speech and Drama, and Needlework were transferred to Gurney House, while the Sixth Form moved into Tankerville House, securing a suite of second hand furniture from a passing Corporation Truck on its way to the dump.

Green velour hats were compulsory to and from school and pupils fought on ongoing battle to have skirts six inches above the knee rather than below it, although there was no avoiding the beige knee socks. Breaks were taken outside whatever the weather and pupils fought for a warm place in the disused outhouses in the schoolyard. Nail varnish remover became a staple school supply item.

Games remained central to the timetable. Charitable fundraising supported capital projects and new equipment, including the School’s first projector. Donations shifted from local causes to national and international charities such as Cancer Research and the NSPCC. Hockey remained dominant, supported by netball, tennis, gymnastics, and swimming, and co-curricularly the record number of girls in a toilet was set at 18. Cultural life was equally strong, with drama productions, concerts, trips, lectures on topics from Fashion Buying to the Himalayas, and success in debating competitions.

By 1975 Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School had 620 pupils and stood at a point of transition. Leadership change, major building projects, and a renewed emphasis on science marked the decade, laying the foundations for the more visible transformation that followed later in the 1970s, while core values of discipline, academic seriousness, and ordered community life remained unchanged.

68 THE LIFE OF A SCHOOL GIRL 1976

• Most girls travel daily by bus, car or on foot from across Newcastle and its surrounding districts.

• The school day is structured around a full timetable, with lessons in both morning and afternoon. By this period there are eight lessons a day, four in the morning and four in the afternoon.

• Uniform is compulsory throughout the school. At NCHS this consisted of a green blazer worn with a skirt, shirt and tie and a green velour hat worn to and from school. Games kit consisted of green serge pleated tunics, and beige knee socks.

• Classrooms are equipped with blackboards, textbooks and exercise books; written work is completed in pen, increasingly ballpoint rather than dip pen. Science is taught in dedicated laboratories.

• The curriculum included English, Mathematics, History, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, French, German, Latin, Music, Speech Traiing, Drama, Domestic Science, Needlework, Gymnastics, Hockey, Netball, Tennis, Rounders, Swimming and Scottish Country Dancing. There are clubs for Debating, Chemical Society, History, Trips are taken locally as well as to London, Stratford, Florence, Paris and Heidelberg.

Her Future Prospects

• She would have full legal ownership of her property and earnings, whether single or married.

• In cases of divorce, custody of children could be awarded to either parent, with courts increasingly considering the welfare of the child rather than automatically favouring the father.

• She could vote in parliamentary elections at 18 (the voting age had been lowered from 21 in 1969).

• Access to higher education was open to women on equal legal terms with men, and increasing numbers of women were attending university.

• Most professions were legally open to her, including law, medicine, academia, civil service, and politics.

• The Equal Pay Act (1970) and Sex Discrimination Act (1975) had recently made it illegal to pay women less for the same work or discriminate against them in employment and education (although inequalities still existed in practice). The Act also made it illegal for banks to require a man’s signature to open accounts or hold mortgages.

• Marriage no longer legally required her to leave employment, and many married women worked — although women were still more likely to work part-time and to carry primary responsibility for childcare and domestic work.

70 CENTRAL NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 1975-1985

In 1975 the Labour government enacted the Direct Grant Grammar Schools (Cessation of Grant) Regulations, requiring direct grant schools to choose between becoming Local Education Authority maintained comprehensive schools or independent schools without grant. Central Newcastle High School, which had held Direct Grant status since the post-war period, elected to return to full independent status. The change resulted in the immediate loss of between a quarter and a half of the School’s intake and brought an end to automatic financial assistance for families. In response, the Girls’ Public Day School Trust began exploring alternative support mechanisms and launched a national Bursaries Fund Appeal to mitigate the effects of the change.

Against this challenging background, 1976 marked the centenary of Gateshead High School and Central Newcastle High School. Celebrations were extensive and included tree planting, a service of thanksgiving at St Nicholas’s Cathedral, a performance of A Man for All Seasons, a Victorian evening and a supper dance. Birthday cakes were baked in the school colours of chocolate and lemon, and every girl received a commemorative pen. A centenary cake was presented to the school by Ian Gregg, the man who grew a small Tyneside family bakery into the well known national brand ‘Greggs’.

As part of the centenary programme, foundations were laid for a new Senior School Hall on land remaining behind the Science Block. The development also included a new laboratory and a Geography room. The Hall was opened in 1977 by Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, in a ceremony attended by over 500 guests. A time capsule was placed beneath the stage stairs containing a tape recording of pupils describing daily life in 1976–77, photographs of school uniform and the nearby Metro construction, dinner menus, school rules and fees, a school tie and hatband, contemporary news items and samples of twentieth-century materials including nylon and polystyrene.

In the summer of 1979, around sixty pupils and staff from Central Newcastle High School, Newcastle Church High School and the Royal Grammar School took part in a two-week exchange with students from Gelsenkirchen, Newcastle’s twin town in Germany. Travel abroad became increasingly common, with organised visits to Germany, Greece and France, marking a clear expansion beyond the predominantly local and national excursions of earlier decades.

In 1980 the School participated in city-wide celebrations for Newcastle’s 900th anniversary. Local schools created mosaics illustrating aspects of the city’s past for installation near Jesmond Metro Station. Katy Powell of Upper VI designed and completed the St Dominic and Blackfriars mosaic, which is still there today.

Academically, outcomes remained strong, most leavers progressed to higher education, with a widening range of courses and careers. The Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 reinforced expectations that girls would enter a far wider range of professions than previously assumed. Miss Russell remarked in 1984 that “One is therefore training girls for a wider field of operations and for a world in which they will meet men on equal terms.”

Fifty pupils qualified for degree courses that year; five gained places at Oxford or Cambridge to read Economics, History, Law, Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Individual achievements were also noted, including a former pupil who, after gaining a First Class degree in Law at Cambridge, completed an M.Phil. in Criminology.

The Assisted Places Scheme, introduced by the Conservative government in 1980, offered a limited means of financial support for some families, partially restoring access but on a far smaller scale than the former Direct Grant system.

Further building development followed in 1983, when land was purchased near the school and a new Gymnasium constructed, with courts marked for netball, basketball, volleyball and badminton, and tennis courts outside. Within the main building, the former Hall and Gymnasium were converted into cloakrooms, classrooms and a Computer Suite.

Computers were introduced into teaching during the early 1980s, and an O’Level introduced the following year. In 1984 the School held a Study Day based on a computerassisted occupational interests programme. Staff completed detailed questionnaires for pupils, the data was transferred onto computer sheets and sent for processing at Edinburgh University, and each girl received a printout identifying twenty occupations for which she was considered suited. The

system was subsequently incorporated into a wider careers programme.

Miss Russell retired in 1984, after 22 years as Headmistress.

72 NEWCASTLE CHURCH HIGH SCHOOL 1975-1985

Miss P. E. Davies remained in post as Headmistress throughout the decade, which was one of rapid social change. In the Centenary Book the following passage appeared –

“ …modern life exhibits such rapidly changing values and priorities that it is difficult to know what to abandon and what should abide. The Newcastle Church High School has a past to be proud of: let us hope that it will go on into its second century living up to it’s traditions, but not fettered by them – able to change where necessary, but witnessing the importance of endeavour, kindness and integrity.”

Renovation work began on Tankerville House to create a dedicated Sixth Form Centre, while 1 Haldane Terrace was converted into a new Music Department. During the building work, both departments were dispersed around the site, occupying “various cramped holes and corners”. Tankerville House now housed the Sixth Form, with classrooms, a tutorial room, cloakroom, lockers, a staff room, and a transformed common room with its own kitchen. An attic space, unused for several years and previously an art room, was converted into a quiet individual study area. New furniture for these rooms was funded by the Parent Teacher Society. During the renovation, a double kitchen range dating from the mid-nineteenth century was discovered; recognised as rare, it was transferred to Beamish Museum where it can be seen today. Another piece

of Victorian workmanship to go was the original gym floor which was finally replaced in 1976 having lasted for over 85 years. Smaller practical improvements continued. In 1976 an electric bell system was installed as “a spur to punctuality”. Fundraising by the Parent Teacher Association that year was directed towards flame-retardant stage curtains. In 1979 the School’s first Bursar was appointed, formalising financial oversight at a time of increasing complexity.

The decade’s most significant capital project was the development of new science accommodation. As science grew increasingly popular, existing laboratories became inadequate by the early 1980s. A new Science Block behind the main school building formed part of the Centenary Projects, funded by the Church High School Development Trust and the sale of 16–17 Tankerville Terrace. The block included six laboratories, three preparation rooms, and a small greenhouse, still visible within what is now a Modern Foreign Languages room. The Church High School Development Trust also supported smaller improvements, including refurbishment of the Gurney House teaching kitchen. Curtis House was later sold and converted into flats. The Science Block was formally opened on 16 September 1985. mid the preparations, the UIIIs were given the task of carrying all the pot plants down from Gurney House, where they were currently residing, to the new science block. It must have been a strange sight for anyone in Tankerville Terrace who

happened to look out of their windows - a sea of leafy-green plants flowing steadily down the street.

Core subjects - English, mathematics, divinity, history, geography, modern languages (French and German), and the sciences - remained central, alongside Latin, biology, physics, chemistry, and home economics. Needlework was introduced as a two-year GCE O Level, while Health Education, Spanish, and Computer Studies entered the curriculum for the first time. The first Careers Convention was held in 1980. Sports provision expanded to include cross country, trampolining, and badminton. Educational visits were frequent and wide-ranging, from theatres and lectures to industrial laboratories, residential outdoor centres, and Royal Life Saving examinations. The Summer Fair is now a biennial event and The Old Girls’ Luncheon Club continued to meet every second Thursday. Joint activities with the Royal Grammar School marked a striking contrast to earlier years when the school day had been carefully timed to avoid meeting the boys in the street but standards of behaviour were upheld - Miss Davies’ proudly recounts that an an entire row of Form L.IV girls who, confronted by a mouse during a Cathedral service, calmly raised their feet without letting even the smallest shriek escape.

The decade closed with the School celebrating its Centenary. To mark the School’s 100th birthday, an 82-lb centenary cake was baked and ceremonially cut on 3 July 1985. A piece was given to every pupil and member of staff — about 700 people in total. During the Centenary Open Day, pupils took part in abseiling from the roof of the Junior School.

74 CENTRAL NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 1985-1995

in January 1985 Mrs Angela Chapman was appointed Headmistress. Her headship coincided with significant national educational reform, continued physical expansion of the School, and rapid technological change. The school remained academically selective and independent, adapting its curriculum, organisation and facilities to reflect a changing social and educational landscape.

In 1986 the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) replaced both O Levels and the Certificate of Secondary Education, and teaching at Central Newcastle High School was redirected towards the new syllabuses in preparation for the first examinations in 1988. The introduction of the National Curriculum for state schools in 1988 prompted consideration of curriculum breadth and balance, particularly in the Junior School, which chose to align its curriculum broadly with national expectations despite not being legally required to do so.

Careers education became more structured during this period. Computer-assisted guidance was increasingly used, and formal careers planning was embedded across the Senior School. A dedicated careers library was maintained, careers mistresses coordinated guidance programmes, and Local Authority Careers Officers made regular visits to the School.

In 1989 the former synagogue on Eskdale Terrace was purchased and reopened as Russell House. This provided a new dining room on the ground floor which later evolved into a ‘lunch bar’ to accommodate increasing numbers, and expanded accommodation for the Art Department above. This development allowed reorganisation in the main school building including the opening of a seventh Science laboratory. Eslington Tower was extended and refurbished to meet the needs of a stillgrowing Sixth Form and in 1994 new facilities were opened on the site of a former Dunlop tyre depot behind the Gymnasium. The development included a purpose-built Music School in the shape of a grand piano and a new Sports Hall.

The school day started with registration and assembly at 8.50 a.m., five morning lessons, a generous lunch break for clubs and societies and three afternoon lessons, with the day ending at 3.55 p.m. Assemblies remained Christian but nondenominational.

Uniform regulations reflected a balance between tradition and practicality. Girls below the Sixth Form were required to wear school uniform, designed to be simple, functional and reasonably priced, with the number of compulsory items kept to a minimum. Pullovers were purchased directly through the School.

Members of the Sixth Form were permitted to wear their own clothes, provided they were suitably dressed for the activities of a normal school day.

Computers became firmly embedded in school life. Dedicated computer facilities were established, Computer Studies became an examination subject, and administrative systems increasingly relied on word processing rather than handwritten documentation. Audio-visual equipment, including projectors and tape recordings, was routinely used in teaching.

Extra-curricular activity remained extensive. Drama and music were particularly strong, and the school choir began a series of visits to Vienna, taking part in international music festivals. Academic outcomes remained consistently high, with the majority of leavers progressing to higher education across the United Kingdom. Approximately one third of those proceeding to degree study chose Science subjects, reflecting continued strength in scientific teaching. Careers pursued by Old Girls during this period demonstrate the widening professional opportunities available to former pupils.

76 NEWCASTLE CHURCH HIGH SCHOOL 1985-1995

A new strategy of seeking voluntary support for capital investment from those with long standing loyalty to the school. In the years immediately following the centenary, the Development Trust became a formal and active presencewith an office at 16 Tankerville Terrace, it sought contributions from parents, staff, Old Girls, and wider professional and commercial networks. This period established a durable pattern of fundraising to support long-term development rather than short-term expenditure.

Leadership remained stable into the later 1980s. Miss P. E. Davies continued as Headmistress, overseeing a period of curricular adjustment and institutional modernisation. The most significant academic change came in 1987, when pupils sat the School’s first GCSE examinations and by the early 1990s, the School acknowledged that “in most subjects our curriculum is being influenced by the prescriptions of the National Curriculum,” reflecting the growing reach of national policy even within the independent sector. The School also welcomed their first 11+ Assisted Place pupils, a decade after the programme was introduced and the first cohort of pupils undertook the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award in 1992.

Alongside examination reform, school life adapted in practical ways. A cafeteria system for school dinners was introduced and quickly proved popular, replacing earlier arrangements and reflecting broader social changes in expectations of school provision. In 1988 the library system was computerised, marking a further step in the integration of technology into daily academic life. Computing itself had already taken root: by the mid-1980s the School possessed ten computers, and teachers across subjects expressed interest in using them to support learning.

The female labour market was increasingly diverse and competitive and Careers education became more explicit and organised. By 1987 a careers resource room is recorded and the fifth biennial Careers Convetion was held in 1990. Old Girls contributed actively, completing forms detailing their occupations and offering support to current pupils. In 1992 Business Studies GCSE was introduced and in the same year Psychology A Level. Pupils visited industrial, commercial, scientific, and financial institutions including supermarkets, food manufacturers, breweries, pharmaceutical laboratories, telephone exchanges, a neurosurgical unit, and the Stock Exchange. Attendance at the Faraday Lecture on electronic money reflected growing interest in technology and applied science.

In 1989 the Old Girls’ Thursday Luncheon Club, which had met regularly for decades, was formally wound up when attendance had dwindled to two, reflecting perhaps busier lives led further afield.

But that same year the Old Girls’ Annual Dinner brought together seventy-five attendees and continued as an annual event until 2020.

The 1994 School magazine reported an A Level pass rate of 94% and the decade closed with further investment in a new Nursery School at Westward House, accompanied by an extension of the Junior School, ensuring continuity of provision from early years through to Sixth Form. Patricia Davies retired in 1995, following her ordination into the Church of England, leaving behind a school remarked to have had an atmosphere of quiet endeavour, filled with a sense of continuity, innovation, comradeship and warmth.

78 CENTRAL NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 1995-2005

The decade spanning the mid1990s to the early years of the twenty-first century was one of accelerated transformation in British society. Advances in digital technology, widening participation in higher education, and the continued expansion of women’s professional and civic freedoms reshaped expectations of schooling.

By the mid-1990s Central Newcastle High School was operating in a climate of increasing public scrutiny shaped by national education policy, rising pupil numbers and the introduction of published school league tables in 1992. Academic outcomes remained consistently strong, and the school was listed as the highest-performing independent school in the North of England in 1998.

Expansion of facilities was driven by sustained growth in pupil numbers. The Junior School, based in Gosforth, had outgrown its accommodation. In 1990 work began to convert a former electricity substation adjacent to the site into classrooms and a resource area, but further space was required. An early nineteenthcentury John Dobson–designed manor house in Sandyford was identified as a suitable site within reasonable distance of the Senior School. The property comprised a classically designed manor house with later institutional additions, an attached chapel and extensive grounds. Following the purchase in 1989, substantial refurbishment was undertaken to adapt the buildings for school use,

including conversion of the chapel into a Junior School hall. By 1999, Years 3–6 of the Junior School had relocated to what was now known as Chapman House.

National policy again affected the school in 1997 with the abolition of the Assisted Places Scheme, which had partially replaced the earlier Direct Grant system. Its removal reduced access for families requiring financial support. In response, the Girls’ Public Day School Trust launched the Minerva Campaign Appeal to fund bursaries and scholarships. In the same year the Trust removed the word “Public” from its title, becoming the Girls’ Day School Trust.

Technological change accelerated during this period. Computer use expanded beyond specialist lessons into general teaching and administration. Library catalogues and pupil records were computerised, duplicated and typed materials became standard, and email and internet access increasingly supported communication and learning.

Leadership changed at the turn of the millennium with the appointment of Mrs Lindsay-Jane Griffin as Headmistress. Her early years saw adjustments to pastoral organisation, including the introduction of Year Heads, and the school adapted to national examination reform as A Levels moved to a modular AS/A2 structure. Uniform changes provided a visible marker of modernisation. After more than ninety years of brown,

the Senior School uniform was redesigned in purple and grey. Sixth Form pupils continued to be permitted greater flexibility in dress.

Drama was introduced as a taught subject in 2002, leading to the opening of a dedicated Drama Studio in 2003. A new digital Language Laboratory opened in Hiley House in 2002, the first of its kind in the country. Extra-curricular provision and overseas travel expanded, and environmental concerns became more visible with the formation of a Green Group.

Mrs Lindsay-Jane Griffin retired in 2005, she was succeeded by Mrs Hilary French.

80 NEWCASTLE CHURCH HIGH SCHOOL 1995-2005

Mrs. Lesley Smith was appointed Headmistress in 1996 and the school entered a conscious programme of modernisation. Academically, Church High continued to secure strong examination results throughout the period, with pupils progressing to a wide range of higher education institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge, and entering disciplines such as medicine, science, economics, and the humanities. This pattern reflected wider national trends in the expansion of higher education and the increasing participation of women in fields from which they had previously been underrepresented. Careers guidance, university preparation, and professional awareness were integral components of the School’s educational provision. Opportunities for pupil leadership, civic engagement, and public speaking expanded, reflecting broader cultural shifts that encouraged young women to see themselves as active participants in public and professional life.

Computing became increasingly embedded within the life of the school. Pupils encountered technology not only as a discrete subject but as a practical and analytical tool applicable across disciplines. During 1999–2000, the school undertook the conversion of the senior library into a large, openplan ICT suite. Designed to support independent study, collaborative learning, and parallel teaching, the new facility reflected a strategic recognition that access to

digital resources would become essential to academic success.

Accommodations continued to expand. Dame Margaret led the successful £1.3m fundraising campaign for the final Centenary Appeal building projects. She opened the new Art Studios, Domestic Science and History extension on the 12th October 1999 and returned in 2002 to open the New Sports Hall. The Art Studios remain as they were today, as does Domestic Science (now Food Technology) but History was removed to the new Adamson building in 2015 and Information Technology now occupy those classrooms. 2003 saw the opening of the Learning Resource Centre in what was once the very forward thinking gymnasium of 1899, it remains the LRC today. Westward House opposite the school was purchased as the base for Modern Languages and included the installation of Satellite TV for language study at Sixth Form Level.

Other technology starts to take root with 20 members of staff now having their own email addresses and pupils are ‘surfing the net’ via modem at the gift of Newcastle Unversity who are paying for the service. At home pupils are able to access the internet via the telephone line at 1p per minute at weekends and 1.5p per minute at off-peak times. The School’s first website is created in 1998 and registered with search engines and applications for school places can now be applied for through email.

Prizegiving at the City Hall in 1999 celebrated examination results among the school’s strongest, with A Level pass rates of 99% and GCSE pass rates of 97%. Public speaking, mathematics challenges, Duke of Edinburgh awards, expeditions, drama, music and sport were presented not as supplementary activities but as integral elements of the Church High experience.

The early years of the new millennium also reveal a school increasingly engaged with civic and public life. Pupils took part in Newcastle’s Youth Parliament, researching and presenting proposals on issues including youth safety, education funding and sexual health. These contributions, recorded in the magazines, illustrate pupils engaging confidently with public institutions and contemporary social questions while still at school.

Further developments followed. A new Sports Hall, opened in April 2002, completed the Centenary Appeal building programme and in 2003, the former gymnasium was converted into a Learning Resource Centre.

The School’s 120th anniversary was celebrated in January 2005 with among other events aa balloon release that carried messages as far as the Netherlands.

82 CENTRAL NEWCASTLE HIGH SCHOOL 2005-2014

From 2005 onwards, administrative and academic systems were increasingly supported by digital infrastructure. A new pupilrecord system enabled closer tracking of academic progress, and in 2006 a wireless network was installed across the school. The school magazine was revived the same year after a five-year gap, returning in a redesigned and professionally produced format.

In 2006 the Junior School uniform was redesigned to align with that of the Senior School, introducing a purple and grey plaid skirt with a striped lilac summer dress. Curriculum development continued, and in 2007 Dance was introduced as a taught subject. The subject expanded rapidly: by 2010 a dedicated Dance Studio had been created through the conversion of part of the gymnasium, and Dance was offered at examination level.

Between 2007 and 2012 extensive building work was undertaken across the Senior School. The former Hall, which had previously been subdivided into classrooms and locker rooms, was converted into a new Library with an IT suite and two computer classrooms below. The Reception area was opened out and redesigned with seating and a mezzanine balcony, the entrance steps were widened, and Minerva’s head was inlaid into the paving. A historic stainedglass window was relocated from Reception to the former Library, now repurposed as the Sixth Form Library. A new

Biology laboratory was created on the ground floor. The Hall was adapted to serve a dual purpose with a food servery, enabling Russell House to be reorganised and the Art Department expanded to include specialist facilities for jewellery-making and ceramics. Photography and Textiles moved into Russell House, while Eslington Tower was refurbished to house the English Department. New carpets, furniture and signage were installed throughout, doors were painted purple to coordinate with the revised uniform, the Sixth Form Common Room was refurbished, and the former fiction library became the Careers Room. Most work was undertaken during school holidays and completed by Christmas.

The Junior School underwent equally significant change. Earlier moves had seen Year 4 relocate to Chapman House in 2000 and Year 3 in 2011. Refurbishment of Chapman House was completed in 2012, and Nursery to Year 2 moved into the building that year. In 2011 plans were announced to reunite the Junior Schools on a single site. Chapman House, with its five acres of grounds and historic buildings, was refurbished to accommodate the full Junior School, and the Gosforth site was prepared for sale.

Extra-curricular provision remained extensive. Alongside Drama and Dance there were Science and Art Clubs, Book Groups, subject societies, debating at Junior and Senior level, and a wide range of

musical ensembles. Jazz and ceilidh bands performed regularly, choirs recorded CDs for sale, and in 2008 a choir including parents and staff gave its first performance of Messiah at the Civic Centre. The Duke of Edinburgh Award remained popular, alongside CCF, Amnesty International, Young Enterprise, Creative Writing, Film Group and an Allotment Group. Fundraising activities were largely pupil-led.

Overseas travel was extensive. Sporting tours took pupils to Australia (2005), Spain (2007), New Zealand and Fiji (2008), and Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai (2011). World Challenge expeditions visited Tanzania in 2006, including the ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro, followed by India and Chile in 2009. Regular departmental trips were made to Greece, France, Germany and Spain, and the History Department organised a visit to Krakow. Ski trips continued to be held regularly.

Environmental initiatives became more prominent. The Go Green Group introduced recycling schemes, Green Travel days, clothing and book swaps, reusable bottles and bags, an Eco Fashion Show, and healthier catering options including a salad bar. In 2009 a former car park at the rear of the school was converted into a landscaped playground with seating, decking and planting.

From 2007 Prizegiving was held at The Sage, Gateshead, and moved to September. A Sports Awards Evening recognised individual and team success. In 2009 the school hosted the first North East Women Leaders Conference at Newcastle Business School, open to pupils from across the region.

Academic outcomes remained strong throughout the period. Examination results continued to place the school prominently in published league tables, and pupils progressed to Oxford and Cambridge, Russell Group universities and specialist institutions, studying subjects across the sciences, humanities, social sciences and creative disciplines. Careers guidance remained structured and extensive.

In 2011 the Chemistry and Biology laboratories were refurbished. Following the death of the much-respected Chemistry teacher and Duke of Edinburgh leader John Donneky, one laboratory was renamed in his memory.

In 2013 the school community was informed of the forthcoming merger with Newcastle Church High School to form Newcastle High School for Girls. The final Celebration of Central High took place in June 2014. The last prefect team was appointed with the explicit understanding that they would become the first prefects of the new school. Central Newcastle High School formally ceased to exist later that year, bringing to a close a chapter that had begun with its establishment in Newcastle in 1905.

84 NEWCASTLE CHURCH HIGH SCHOOL 2005-2014

Mrs. Lesley Smith led the School into what would be its final decade as Newcastle Church High School. She retired in 2007 and Mrs Joy Gatenby became the School’s last Headmistress.

By 2005, the physical and curricular modernisation undertaken at the turn of the millennium was fully embedded in daily school life and the School was operating within the post-1988 National Curriculum, GCSE and A-level framework, while retaining its independent-school character.

Within the School purposebuilt facilities for Art, Textiles, Food Technology and ICT supported a broad curriculum encompassing sciences, humanities and creative subjects, alongside applied courses such as Business Studies, ICT and Politics. Teaching spaces were well maintained and equipped with interactive whiteboards, digital projectors and improved ICT access. Technology was embedded across subjects, supporting research, presentations and collaborative work.

Extended lunchtimes allowed for a wide range of clubs and societies, including debating, public speaking, science activities and recreational sport.Registration and assemblies reinforced shared expectations of effort, courtesy and responsibility. Lessons combined traditional instruction with discussion, group work and independent projects. Pastoral care remained central: form tutors, heads of year and support staff worked together to address

academic pressure, confidence and wellbeing, recognising that high achievement required emotional resilience as well as intellectual discipline. During this period the House system was reintroduced, Sports Day moved to Gateshead Stadium and the uniform was updated in style and fabric but remained resolutely green.

High participation in regional and national competitions continued. Church High teams reached finals in spelling, debating, mock trials and sport. Sporting success remained particularly strong in netball, hockey, badminton and cross-country, with pupils representing county and regional teams. Annual Art and Textiles exhibitions attracted attention beyond the School. Textile design was taught in close connection with professional practice, with pupils attending industry exhibitions, learning contemporary techniques and presenting work publicly.

In 2008 the Roman Catholic girls’ School La Sagesse School announced its closure following a significant increase in rent of their accommodations at Jesmond Towers and the announcement that the Royal Grammar School would begin admitting girls. Over100 pupils from La Sagesse joined Church High, the increase in numbers perhaps one of the reasons Prize Giving moved to The Sage, Gateshead in 2009 where prizes were presented by Alumna Ruth Caleb OBE, the first female Head of Drama for the BBC.

Later that year the School magazine was relaunched under the title Voices, documenting academic, artistic and extracurricular life as well as illustrating the strong relationships and loyalty felt towards the School. Parents chose the School for its reputation for individual care and intellectual seriousness. Pupils described a sense of being known and supported, while Old Girls remained active in governance, mentoring, fundraising and school life. Several families counted generations of girls having passed through Church High and recalled their time at School with great affection and respect for the institution.

That legacy, forged at Church High over nearly 13 decades, was to be carried forward into a new School.

In January 2013, Governors announced that Church High School would merge with Central Newcastle High School in September 2014 to form a new GDST school under the historic name Newcastle High School for Girls.

On Friday 4 July 2014, the final pupils in green uniform left the Tankerville Terrace buildings for the end-of-year service at St George’s Church, Jesmond. An administrative presence remained until Thursday 10 July, when the answerphone was transferred to the Central Newcastle High Reception at Eskdale Terrace.

86 THE FIRST TEN YEARS OF NHSG

In January 2013, Central Newcastle High School and Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School announced plans to merge to form Newcastle High School for Girls. The merger brought together two long-established institutions with a similar ethos and distinguished histories of educating girls in the North East for over a century, creating a single all-through school for girls aged 3 to 18.

The decision was shaped by strategic and educational considerations and a determination to secure a strong, sustainable future for academically ambitious girls, while preserving the values, ethos and sense of purpose that had defined both schools for generations. Both schools were operating in a changing independent school landscape, facing demographic pressures and rising operational costs. The opportunity to combine resources, strengthen longterm sustainability and secure a robust future for girls’ education in Newcastle provided a compelling rationale. The merger allowed the new School to preserve academic breadth, invest in facilities and maintain competitive strength while remaining faithful to the values shared by both founding institutions.

The announcement was met with mixed feelings. The two schools possessed distinct cultures and loyal communities – and over one hundred years of rivalry – and for many the prospect of change brought understandable uncertainty. For a period between 2014 and

2016 the two Schools operated in parallel, focussed on aligning curriculum, pastoral systems and school culture across Junior and Senior School sites in order to maintain academic standards and to shape a distinctive shared identity.

The new School retained and enhanced the best of its predecessors facilities: the recently renovated Chapman House in Sandyford Park, formerly Central Newcastle High School’s Junior School, and the Newcastle Church High School building on Tankerville Terrace. The latter was restored, refurbished and expanded by architects Ellis Williams, incorporating a multi-purpose assembly and performance space, dining room, fitness suite, science laboratories and additional classrooms. The Senior School moved into its award-winning new premises in September 2016.

A new uniform was introduced to mark the beginning of the School’s next chapter, teal in colour and including updated equipment such as puffer coats, skorts and sports hijabs. The seahorse was chosen as the School’s emblem, a reference to the heraldic supporters of the City of Newcastle’s coat of arms.

From the outset, the School articulated a clear educational aim: to enable girls to learn without limits and to develop the confidence, intellectual curiosity and independence required not only to succeed academically, but to lead. In an all-girl setting, pupils are encouraged to question, to contribute and to see ambition

as both natural and positive, with no subject or opportunity restricted by stereotype or expectation.

Equal emphasis is placed on educating the whole person: intellectual rigour balanced by compassion, confidence matched with responsibility, and character grounded in integrity and fairness. This approach is reflected in the School’s commitment to social responsibility, community engagement and the cultivation of resilience and self-reliance.

A typical school day begins at 8.35am with either wholeschool assemblies—led by pupils, staff or visiting speakers, often alumnae— or form time. Sciences, humanities, creative arts and physical education are all treated as core components of education and delivered across five periods throughout the day, three in the morning and two after lunch. Clubs take place during lunch or after school and include debating, Duke of Edinburgh, coding, drama and financial literacy among many others. The Personal, Social and Health Education programme addresses contemporary issues such as digital citizenship, mental health, relationships and global awareness. Travel and residential experiences are considered an extension of education rather than an optional extra, broadening pupils’ perspectives and strengthening independence.

In an echo of the Spanish flu epidemic 100 years previously that closed schools, the most significant test of the School’s adaptability during its first decade came in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to national lockdown. The abrupt closure of school sites required immediate transformation of teaching and pastoral systems.

Newcastle High transitioned its entire pupil body from classroom teaching to digital learning within two days. Timetabled lessons continued online; safeguarding structures were maintained; communication with families remained consistent. Staff mobilised training rapidly, adapting schemes of work and assessment approaches for remote delivery. Pupils adjusted to independent study in unfamiliar circumstances, maintaining routines and academic focus despite disruption.

Looking back over 2014–2024, the defining characteristic of Newcastle High School for Girls is resilience. The School moved from two historic institutions to one unified community, invested in modern facilities, sustained academic standards, expanded opportunity through bursary provision, and navigated a global pandemic and significant change in government policy towards independent schools—all within its first decade.

Focus has increasingly shifted from education understood purely as examination success to education understood as leadership formation. Pupils are encouraged to reflect, to take responsibility and to develop their voice. Girls do not need protection from the world; they need preparation to shape it—and an all-girls environment, when done well, accelerates that preparation. Newcastle High School for Girls stands today as a community shaped by tradition yet fully engaged with the present: academically ambitious, outward-facing, resilient, and secure in its belief that educating girls remains both relevant and necessary.

88 THE LIFE OF A SCHOOL GIRL, 2026

• Most girls travel daily by bus, Metro, car, bicycle or on foot from across Newcastle and its surrounding districts.

• The school day is structured around a full timetable of lessons across morning and afternoon, with co-curricular activities before school, at lunchtime and after the formal day ends.

• Informal relationships exist between teachers and pupils.

• Uniform remains compulsory up to Sixth Form where ‘smart business attire’ is worn. Uniform consists of teal and black tartan skirts, black shoes and tights, white shirts, teal jumpers and a blazer only worn for Prizegiving. PE kit consists of tracksuit bottoms, skorts, shorts, short pleated hockey skirts, teal t-shirts, ¾ zip and trainers.

• Classrooms are equipped with interactive screens, wireless internet access and digital projection. Pupils use laptops or tablets alongside exercise books. Written work may be completed by hand or submitted electronically and digital platforms support homework, research and communication.

• The curriculum includes English, Mathematics, History, Geography, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, Modern Foreign Languages, Classics, Religious Studies, Art, Textiles, Food Technology, Music, Drama, Dance, Physical Education and Politics. Careers education and university preparation are embedded throughout the senior years.

• A wide range of clubs and societies operate across the week, including debating, coding, robotics, environmental groups, creative writing, music ensembles, drama productions, sport, Duke of Edinburgh, Young Enterprise and charitable initiatives.

• Trips are taken locally and nationally and to Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Italy, Poland, the USA, India, Tanzania, Australia and South Africa.

Her Future Prospects

• She has full legal equality with men in owning property, managing finances, opening bank accounts, applying for loans, and taking out a mortgage in her own name.

• She can vote in parliamentary elections from the age of 18 and can stand for public office herself. Access to higher education is fully open to her, and young women now attend university in equal or greater numbers than men.

• All professions are legally open to her — including politics, law, medicine, engineering, the armed forces, and corporate leadership.

• Laws protect her from discrimination in education and employment on the basis of sex. She has legal protection against domestic abuse, sexual harassment, and coercive control.

• She has access to contraception and reproductive healthcare, and can make decisions about her own medical treatment once legally competent.

• In marriage or civil partnership, property and assets remain individually owned unless jointly arranged; the law treats spouses as equal partners.

• While legal equality is established, gender pay gaps, under-representation in some senior roles, online harassment, and ongoing social expectations around caregiving still shape her lived experience.

GIRLS FIRST. THEN. NOW. FOR GOOD.

The history of Newcastle High School for Girls and its founding schools is inseparable from the wider story of women’s education and emancipation. When the first girls entered Prospect Cottage in 1876, women lacked the vote, had limited access to universities and professions, and were denied legal and financial autonomy. Establishing a rigorous academic school for girls was a bold intervention that helped shift the social order.

Our founding schools were part of a national movement led by visionary women determined to expand intellectual horizons. Over 150 years, they normalised the presence of educated women and equipped generations with the confidence, networks and ambition to push boundaries. Alumnae went on to found professional bodies, break academic and sporting barriers, and take on leadership roles previously denied to them.

We have shaped not only individual lives but the social fabric of this region. Through war, economic upheaval and political change, our mission has remained constant: to advance girls’ education for the public benefit. Today our pupils prepare to lead in fields such as renewable energy, AI and robotics. They learn to speak with confidence, think critically, disagree constructively and lead with purpose.

Leadership must reflect society. Our bursary programme— supporting 15% of Senior School pupils—opens our education to talented girls from all backgrounds and contributes meaningfully to one of the UK’s most economically challenged regions. For much of history, girls’ schools lacked the endowments that supported boys’ schools, yet what we have achieved shows what is possible when women work together.

As the only all-girls school in the North East, our work still matters profoundly. If you believe, as our founders did, that educating girls is one of society’s most powerful investments, we invite you to support our bursary programme. A gift today is an investment in leadership, equity and social good.

For 150 years we have been trusted with the education of the young women of the North East. We have honoured that trust. Now we ask you to help us carry it forward.

Times have changed but our mission has not. We are for the advancement of women, always have been and always will be.

Girls First. Then. Now. For Good.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? A natural rivalry between the CSC’s Newcastle High School for Girls and the GPDSC’s Central Newcastle High School existed from the outset. The three schools founded in the North East by the CSC had certainly damaged pupil numbers at the GPDSC’s Gateshead High. Equally the CSC’s Newcastle High School for Girls must have been irritated by the establishment of the new GPDSC High School within such close proximity in Jesmond - particularly as the GPDSC offered to buy the new purposebuilt Newcastle High School for Girls’ building on Tankerville Terrace from the Church Schools Company in order to house their new school, an offer that was politely declined. Further encroachment into the CSC’s Newcastle High School for Girls was made in 1910 when the GPDSC changed Central Newcastle High School’s name to ‘The Girls High School Newcastle’. A year later it was unsurprisingly forced to revert back to Central Newcastle High School as a result of objections raised by the CSC. Shortly afterwards however, Newcastle High School for Girls became a self-governing independent Church School and was renamed The Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School. The disputed name was brought out of retirement when the two schools finally merged and Newcastle High School for Girls as we now know it was established in 2014.

Girls’ Public Day School Trust (GPDST), later the Girls Day School Trust. Gateshead High School (GHS) - 1876 - 1907, forerunner to Central Newcastle High School (CNHS) Newcastle High School for Girls 1885 renamed Newcastle Church High School (NCHS) in 1925

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