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?

From this thread a lot of them seemed to be named after the women who founded them.

Can you think of schools that are named after not good people? I mean, Colston springs to mind but he founded those schools and they've changed their names now.

There was an Edith Cavell S.M. school in London, think it was Hoxton area.

Yes, there seemed to be much more of a tradition of Good Works with the rich back in the day.

I imagine quite a lot of the monarchs and long dead historical people were complete bastards.

They're Quakers.

Wealth collecting wasn't really their thing. Benevolence was.

In my town I can only think of primaries named after men

I am pretty sure at least three of my school's 4 houses were complete tossers but I shan't say , as it's definitely outing!

The Mary Erskine school in Edinburgh. She was a philanthropist who gave money to fund a girl’s school in Edinburgh founded in 1694. It was originally the Merchant Maiden’s Hospital hence the first line of the school song we sang every year - ‘Sing the honour of our school, Merchant Maidens of today’. Unfortunately from August next year it will merge entirely with the boys school and become fully coed under the name ‘Erskine Stewart Melville’.

There's a lot of schools named after the rich people who founded them.

I had a vague memory of Zuckerberg starting a school so I googled, and it has literally just shut down. https://nypost.com/2025/04/28/business/mark-zuckerberg-priscilla-chan-to-close-tuition-free-school-for-bay-area-kids/

Keeble Gateway Academy. Opened 2019.

Named after Dame Reena Keeble, successful primary headteacher amongst her credits.

She continues to be a trustee of the MAT.

Ellen Wilkinson secondary in Ealing
Ava Lovelace (close to Ealing)

Mary Ward Centre - adult ed in Stratford, East London

More about Mary Ward - there are more than 200 schools that bear her name

Mary Ward (1585-1645) was an English Catholic religious sister who founded the Congregation of Jesus and the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto. She is considered a pioneer of women's education and religious life, challenging the traditional cloistered lifestyle for women in the Church.

Mary Ward's legacy lives on through a network of over 200 schools worldwide that bear her name. She was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

I used to play hockey against the Mary Erskine gells!

HelKats in Abingdon (St Helen and St Katherine's)

Yes, I meant specifically the Quakers didn't collect wealth.

I wonder if it is more likely that rich men who found schools want them named after them.

London is doing well in the nicely named schools tally (Woke, if you must DM).

Naming a school after someone who is still alive feels...risky.

I guess Sylvia Young and Italia Conti were both named by their founders.

Anna Seward Primary School in Lichfield. It’s a new school so definitely not founded by her.

There's Dame Janet Primary in Ramsgate (named after the first female mayor of Ramsgate). Then there's several of Queen Elizabeth's School, including one in Faversham (all named for Liz the First I believe) Also in Kent we have QEQM hospital, named after the late Queen Mother.

Are we going to see a load of QEII schools open?

Have any schools got buildings named after people?

We do and they are all men , expect two - one is a very small room no one goes in and the other get shortened to her surname (and further shortened to a male nickname) so no one knows it is named after a trailblazer in girls' physical education any more.

Harriet Costello was named after a former head.
https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/24052382.flashback-history-costello-school-basingstoke/

There's Rachel Madocks, a special school in Waterlooville, which may also be named after a former head, not sure. I did try to find out previously and failed. Friend who worked there was also useless on this matter.

Jessie Porters nursery school. She was a nursery school pioneer and the founder of the first purpose built nursery school in Dundee. She’s commemorated on Dundee’s women’s trail - a trail of twenty-five plaques to commemorate remarkable Dundee women.

Also in Barking and Dagenham is Jo Richardson school

McAuley Catholic High school in Doncaster was named after Catherine McAuley.

In 1803, McAuley became the household manager and companion of William and Catherine Callaghan, an elderly, childless, and wealthy Protestant couple. When they died, she inherited everything.

Catherine McAuley inherited a considerable fortune and chose to use it to build a house where she and other compassionate women could take in homeless women and children to provide care and education for them.

Good for her.

Wikipedia says she didn't mean to set up a group of religious women but it eventually became the Sisters of Mercy.

So the Sisters of Mercy was founded with Protestant money.