Following in the Footsteps
FRANCES MARY BUSS
Following in the footsteps of Frances Mary Buss, two ONLs overcame numerous challenges to successfully steer the development of girls’ education in the Victorian era
Each Spring on Founder’s Day, the School community unites to celebrate its heritage and to commemorate its founder, Frances Mary Buss. Each year in her address to students, staff and guests, Mrs McCabe focuses on an aspect of the School’ s history. This year she spoke of the pioneering spirit and determination Miss Buss demonstrated when founding the School in 1850. Under Miss Buss’ leadership, North London Collegiate School became a model for girls’ education and the educational values that she taught became the blue print for many schools throughout the UK and overseas. Following in the footsteps of Frances Mary Buss were two ONLs, Sara Burstall (1859-1939) and Edith Aitken (1861-1940), who also overcame numerous challenges to successfully steer the development of girls’ education in the Victorian era. Miss Burstall initially attended the Camden School for Girls, the other school founded by Miss Buss, before taking Cambridge Junior Local Examinations in which she won a scholarship to North London Collegiate School. She was later offered a scholarship to Girton College, Cambridge. When she returned to North London Collegiate School in 1882 as an assistant
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mistress, she began to show an increasing interest in women’s education. In 1894 she wrote a book entitled The Education of Girls in America, based on a visit to Chicago. Miss Burstall was Deputy Head of North London Collegiate for four years before becoming Headmistress of the Manchester High School for Girls in 1898. There she faced many challenges, as she had to provide for girls of all abilities. She introduced a range of domestic and secretarial courses to run alongside the academic subjects for university applicants. This decision increased the number of pupils who could attend Manchester High School, and as a result it flourished under her Headship, especially during the period 1908-1914. Edith Aitken also became heavily involved in girls’ education. She too attended North London Collegiate, before studying Natural Sciences at Girton College, Cambridge. She taught at a number of different schools, including NLCS, and lectured at Bedford College before founding Pretoria High School for Girls in 1902. The country had not yet recovered from the impacts of the South African War, hence Miss Aitken only had a school building which had been closed in 1899 and she suffered a general “shortage of everything else”.