We are strong. We are resilient. We make a difference.
In 1876 Gateshead High School for Girls opened its doors to just 28 pupils. Since then we have educated young women through wars, pandemics, economic depressions and immense social change.
IIn 1895, Newcastle Church 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.
Ruth Nicholson
Newcastle High School for Girls, NCHS
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 theRoyal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Her career opened doors for generations of women in medicine.
Ruth Plummer MBE
Newcastle High School for Girls, CNHS
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 is early phase trials.
Professor Plummer has been awarded a richly deserved MBE in recognition of her outstanding service and contribution.
Our bursary progamme makes sure that the brightest minds are given the best opportunity to succeed. Our bursaries are an investment not only in each individual child but in all our futures.
Meet our future pioneer, Ecko Wei
Bursary Award Holder, Newcastle High School for Girls Class of 2025
Robotic Engineering and Artificial Intelligence MEng/BEng (Hons) at Kingston University.
‘This first year here at Kingston I’ll be developing the core skills needed to become an engineer, gaining hands-on experience in robotics, manufacturing and design through labs and project-based work. Looking ahead, I hope to use the knowledge I gain to make a positive impact and contribute in any way I can to do some good for society - and hopefully help in shining a better light on the use of articificial intelligence I’m going to work hard and make something of this opportunity!’
Our Bursary Programme in Numbers
In 10 years of NHSG 177 Pupils have attended NHSG with a Bursary Award.
For many years as Head of Central Newcastle High School it was my privilege to watch the progress of my pupils and to share their pleasure in their achievements. It was particularly satisfying to know that those girls to whom bursaries had been awarded were, with the School’s encouragement, reaching their full potential both academically and as members of our school community As a school, we felt the benefit of their contribution, their experiences, their ideas. It was a fresh look at the school through their eyes. That is the true value of the bursary system I too was awarded a bursary and I am full of admiration for Newcastle High School for Girls and for its excellent bursary scheme.
As a donor, a recipient and as a former Headmistress I feel qualified to say: ‘Please consider making a gift to the bursary fund, you could change a life’
Angela Chapman
Head of Central Newcastle High School for Girls 1982 – 1999
I have always recognised that the education and encouragement I received as a pupil at CNHS enabled me to have the confidence to apply to Oxford and embark upon a demanding career as a barrister and later as a Judge. I enjoyed my time at school and am grateful for that experience and the opportunities it gave me I have wished to support other young women to achieve their dreams and aspirations
Judy Moir Alumna of Central Newcastle High School Class of 1973 .
I believed the most important gift I could give my daughter was the best education possible. I am finding it difficult to find exactly the right words to express the extent of my gratitude for the education, the care, support and opportunities that allowed my daughter to flourish into the confident, hardworking and empathetic young woman I am so proud of. I would especially like to thank each and every person who has contributed to the bursary found as it would not have been possible for her to attend NHSG without it. We are both incredibly grateful for this amazing opportunity which will not be wasted’
Linda Baldwin, Parent Lauren now works for Crimson Education, Cambridge which was set up to help students from across the globe overcome financial and geographical barriers to higher education.
Awarding a pupil a bursary in some circumstances is a vital life line. It provides security and a family environment which values their contribution to the school community and recognises all they have to offer An education at NHSG is about so much more than just grades; it sets girls up for life and the confidence that being in such an empowering female community gives, whether it be in school or through the alumnae group, is invaluable.
AT, Central Newcastle High School
I was terrified on my first day and ended up crying I was treated with such kindness and understanding that I felt welcomed and like I belonged from day one. If you are considering applying for a bursary then 100% go for it and if you have given to the bursary fund then I would like to say thank you – you have given me so many opportunities and I have made so many friends! Your kindness has changed my world’
Lucy Henderson, Newcastle High School for Girls Lucy is now in her second year of Astro Physics at Newcastle University.
