Oxford High School (Oxford)

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If you're looking for the high school in California, see Oxford Academy.

Oxford High School (OHS) is a private girls' school based at Belbroughton Road, Oxford, United Kingdom, made up of around nine hundred pupils aged three to eighteen. Current fees are £2,621 per term. Its Junior Department is composed of Greycotes and The Squirrel, both on separate campuses; the Squirrel pre-prep department also educates boys between the ages of three and seven. It is a member of the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST), an association of private girls' secondary schools in the UK. It is one of the top academic girls' schools in the country.^{[citation needed]} It is led by headmistress Felicity Lusk (originally from New Zealand) and the two deputy heads; the pastoral Deputy head Olwen Curry (MA, MSc Oxon - Biology) and the academic Deputy head Dr Peter Secker (BSc PhD Birmingham - Mathematics).

The school consistently occupies a high place in national league tables, although it does operate a selective admissions procedure and it has been accused by some of putting these results ahead of education and welfare. The school appears to suffer on the national league tables in GCSE results, purportedly because the IGCSE in Mathematics that students sit is not recognised in the majority of league tables. The subjects OHS offer are predominately academic although Art, DT, Textiles and IT can also be taken.[1] In 2001, Oxford High School was successfully taken to court by the Freud family, who accused the school of excluding their daughter because her academic results were not of a high enough standard.[2]

In 2006, Oxford High School announced that it was taking the unusual step of making Mandarin Chinese a compulsory subject for pupils in their first year. These pupils will then have to take either French or Mandarin on to GCSE. Currently French is compulsory for all students until they reach sixth form. The school is also in the process of opening a twin school in Shanghai[3].

The Good Schools Guide has labelled Oxford High School as an "unbeatable start in life" with both excellent pastoral and academic provisions.^{[citation needed]}

1 History
2 Headmistresses
3 Houses
4 Alumni
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

The school began life on 3 November 1875 with twenty-nine girls and three teachers under headmistress Ada Benson, at the Judge's Lodgings (St Giles' House) at 16 St Giles', central Oxford. Pupils were given a holiday when the Assize Judge visited. The school moved to 38 St Giles' in 1879 and then to 21 Banbury Road at the start of 1881. Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) taught logic to girls at the school in the late 19th century [4].

Rapid expansion led to the ultimate removal of the school to Belbroughton Road in 1957. It became independent in 1976. The Junior Department at Belbroughton Road was opened in 1989, with 100 pupils aged 9–11, and closed in 1999 following the 1997 merger between OHS, Greycotes and the Squirrel School.