A Cloistered Ethos? Landscapes of Learning and English Secondary Schools for Girls: an Historical Perspective

Abstract

The nineteenth‐century founders of academic girls’ secondary schools in England often used an existing building, frequently a former dwelling‐house, adding to it as resources increased and curricula developed, before moving to a purpose‐built school as the venture prospered. As municipal secondary schools for girls developed in England in the wake of the 1902 Education Act, and girls’ grammar schools flourished in the wake of the 1944 Act, new buildings were increasingly provided. The newer state‐maintained schools drew on longer‐standing patterns in the siting of girls’ schools related to both gender and class, which saw schools sited in former stately homes, around rail and bus networks, and in ‘healthy’ locations. The paper analyses entries in the Girls’ School Yearbook from 1906 to 1995, to demonstrate the ‘healthy’ siting of many girls’ schools on the brow of a hill. Well into the second half of the twentieth century, the height of a school’s position above sea level and the type of soil on which the school was built were frequently cited as significant features, taking pride of place before the aims of the school, its curriculum, examination and admission policy. For many state‐educated girls today, longstanding Victorian and Edwardian concerns that girls’ education was detrimental to health have a legacy in a trudge up hills in all weathers as the prelude to a day’s academic work at school.

Notes

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