Perse School for Girls

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**The Perse School for Girls**
Head	P M Kelleher
Founded	1881
School type	Private, Female
Religious affiliation	Church of England
Location	Cambridge, United Kingdom
Enrollment	roughly 700 students
School surroundings	Urban
School colours	Blue

The Perse School for Girls is an independent, fee-paying day school for girls aged 7–18 (also accepting boys 16-18 from 2008) situated near the centre of Cambridge, England. (MAP)

The Perse Girls', as it is known, has a strong reputation for academic excellence (see GCSE results 2004) ^[1].

The school recently received planning consent for a major new development of the Senior School site. The area around the school hall will be completely redeveloped over the next 18 months, creating a new school hall, dining room, offices and classrooms.

1 History
2 Site
3 Students
4 Extracurricular activities
5 Trivia
6 Notable alumnae
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

The Perse School for Girls was founded in 1881 and is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The name of Dr Stephen Perse, a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (who died in the 1600s) is associated with the school.

Ronald Searle has suggested that the Perse School for Girls was an inspiration for his St. Trinian's novels.

[edit] Site

The school site occupies a city "block", three sides bordered by residential streets and the fourth by the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry.

The school owns two sites nearby, one is occupied by the Junior School (7-11) and the other the Sixth Form Centre. There are also games fields (including a new multi-sport surface and pavilion) which are a short walk away.

[edit] Students

There are currently approximately 700 students, with 180 in the Junior School and 80 in the Sixth Form.

[edit] Extracurricular activities

The Perse School for Girls holds the British Council International School Award in recognition of the work the school undertakes with schools in Finland, Hungary, Portugal, Italy, France, Russia, Spain, Germany and Japan.

Several Perse Girls teams compete regionally in hockey, rounders and netball and several students compete at National level in their chosen sports. In 2002, the school's equestrian team won the National Show Jumping Competition at Hickstead.

Music is also an important part of the school. Individual instrumental teaching is available on a range of instruments and concerts throughout the year are held, sometimes in the University of Cambridge's West Road Concert Hall.

[edit] Trivia

"Perse" in Finnish and Estonian is a profanity. Coupling it with "School for Girls" is especially vulgar, meaning "Arse School for Girls".

Ronald Searle based his St Trinian's books on The Perse Girls and the Cambridge High School, which is no longer in existence.

There are six school houses- Cattley, Clark, Kennett, Pollock, Rose and Street. Each has its own colour - respectively, royal blue, yellow, red, white, green and light blue.