Do you know any schools named after women?

[noblegiraffe]

Schools are far more likely to be named after men than women.
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/multi-academy-trusts-6-times-more-likely-to-be-named-after-men-than-women/

I'm wondering which women schools are named after. Is it vast majority Notre Dames and Our Ladys? I can think of a few schools that are named after famous men who weren't saints or bishops or kings.

Any female historical gems near you?

@noblegiraffe ChatGPT offered these 10, but if you point it to a list of all school names in England (e.g. from school census data) I expect it will tell you which are named after women, giving you a definitive list:

1. Marylebone Girls' School – London

Named after the area, but indirectly connected to St. Marylebone, which itself honors the Virgin Mary.

1. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School – London

Named after Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman to qualify as a physician and surgeon in Britain.

1. Henrietta Barnett School – London

Named after Dame Henrietta Barnett, a social reformer and founder of Hampstead Garden Suburb.

1. Jane Austen College – Norwich

Named after the famous English novelist Jane Austen.

1. Queen Elizabeth's School – Several across England (e.g., in Barnet, Wimborne, and Luton)

Named after Queen Elizabeth I or Queen Elizabeth II, depending on the school's history.

1. St Hilda’s CE High School – Liverpool

Named after St. Hilda of Whitby, an Anglo-Saxon abbess and saint.

1. Dorothy Stringer School – Brighton

Named after Dorothy Stringer, a former local education leader and advocate for environmental education.

1. The Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls – Romford

Named after Frances Bardsley, a headmistress and educational pioneer.

1. Dame Alice Owen's School – Potters Bar

Named after Dame Alice Owen, a 17th-century philanthropist who founded the school in London before it moved.

10. Lady Margaret School – London Named after Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII and a noted patron of education and religion.

Katherine Warington in Harpenden. After a botanist who did research at Rothamsted. A relatively new secondary school and great that a local woman’s work has been acknowledged.

There's a Rachael MacMillan nursery school in Deptford which I visited as a student. They were pioneering women working with girls and young women. They started with a night shelter in Deptford because girls were being abused in their own homes at night. The girls often brought along younger siblings and they realised there was a great need for nursery provision. When I visited the nursery they still had a big bath on high legs where they had washed the children as they came in, they were so dirty (not in the 80s when I was there obviously, in the early days). I didn't know their work reached as far as Bradford but I haven't read your link yet.

Edit: I've read it now and it seems they spent more time in Bradford than South London although there is a park named after Margaret Macmillan in Deptford and there used to be Rachel Macmillan teacher training college until some time in the 70s.

None near us that aren't saints or Queens.

Bedfordshire:
Lady Ziah Wernher
&
Dame Alice Harpur

Not sure now but when my sisters were at St Felix Southwold all the boarding houses were named after women.

• "Historically, the school houses were named after major contributors to the emancipation of women, such as Mary Somerville, Jemima Clough, Florence Nightingale, and Elizabeth Fry.
• Nightingale and Fry later merged to form Fawcett House, named after Millicent Fawcett. "

My school played hockey against Mary Hare. I wasn't in the team but apparently they were very good and it was quite eerie because they played silently.

There's Dame Alices - several. Dame Alice Owens and Dame Alice Harpur (now merged)

Edith Cavell is a primary school.

Lots here named after Tudor royals and saints.

But, yes, more men. The majority are named rather prosaically after their location or tweely after some fictitious bucolic idyll.

I think probably we should stop naming schools after people. It only causes Woke Wars furore when something is unearthed or when the school chooses to change name. There was that poor primary head who got absolutely savaged by certain sectors of the press for changing the school name after a pupil vote (which sadly Schooly McSchoolface did not win)

I wonder also about school houses. At my school all 4 were men.

Amy Johnson Primary (female pilot)
St Philomenas

I've name changed for this.

I live in France and my granddaughter will be going to College Rosa Parks next year. Great name.

Where on earth is that Lady Ziah Werner??

Dame Alice is now Bedford Girls' after a merger.

Sarah Bonnell in Newham. Founded in West Ham in 1769 https://sarahbonnell.ncltrust.net/

Ah, just found it. Special school in Luton. Recently opened so thoughtfully named!

There is Dorothy Barley Primary in Barking and Dagenham.
I went to Frances Bardsley. It was named after the first headteacher of the school in the early 1900's, when it was called Romford County High School. The school had several moves before it settled in it's current location. It was renamed as The Frances Bardsley School in the early 1970's when the LA decided to go comprehensive and merged the two local girls schools to become FBS. The secondary modern that merged with RCHS, was actually housed in the building that had been the second home of RCHS and where Frances Bardsley herself had worked. Frances Bardsley School

Oh this is great.

Cadbury and her husband played a great role in the development of Bournville and she opened the 200th house there. In 1909, she opened the Woodland Hospital, which became the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. She also built The Beeches, to provide holidays for slum children. She chaired the Birmingham school medical service committee and worked energetically to provide medical inspection in schools. Together with her husband, she participated in the reform of industrial working and living conditions through supporting the welfare, health and education of women and children in Bournville

During and immediately following the First World War, Cadbury led local efforts to provide housing and schooling for young refugees from Serbia and Austria who came to Birmingham to escape conflict and poverty in their home countries.[6]During the Second World War, she worked with Belgian refugees, and after that war continued her efforts with the International Council of Women.[1]

Not just about chocolate then.

Brontë Girls Academy and Brontë House School, both in Bradford

Just on a point of order, that article is about MATs, which I think is the point it's trying to make. In other words, lots of these are recently named trusts and still named after more men than women.

You find more legacy state school named after saints, royals and Intrepid Types (we have a Scott and a Raleigh round here, as well as Cavell). We also have schools named after High Sherrifs and an author (but now again lost that name since academisation).

Thank you, I did not know about Rachael. They both did hugely important work from the sound of it and should be more widely known. Even just in the case of campaigning for free school meals which was only one aspect of their work they deserve recognition.

Excluding RC schools I'm struggling to think of schools named after people.

The only ones I can come up with are Victoria & Albert Primaries about half a mile apart.
Although Albert has since closed. But it took me years before I twigged the significance of the names.

All the others are Area or Town Name School, or street name.

Ruth Gorse Academy, Leeds. Named after a PE teacher who died of cancer. What a woman she must have been to make such an impact they renamed the school after her.

Leaving out the saints there's Lady Manners in Bakewell and Mary Swanwick in Chesterfield. Most schools locally seem to named after the place rather than a man or woman.

The ones named after women generally seem to be more deliberately chosen Good People.

I am now wondering about hospitals!

Queen Ethelburga
Queen Margaret
Both private

The Cadburys were never 'just about chocolate'!

See also : the Rowntrees and the Frys.