Sherborne School for Girls

Sherborne Girls, formally known as Sherborne School for Girls, is an independent day and boarding school for girls, located in Sherborne, North Dorset, England. There were 485 pupils attending in 2019–2020, with more than 90 per cent of them living on campus in the seven boarding houses. Recognition for Sherborne Girls has included a double "excellent" rating in its Independent Schools Inspectorate Report and the title of Best Public School of The Year at the Tatler Schools Awards 2017/2018.

Curriculum

The school, founded in 1899 by John and Charlotte Wingfield Digby, requires all girls to take English, maths, a science subject, religion and a foreign language. Most girls take nine or ten GCSEs and three or four A-Level subjects. Sherborne Girls previously offered the International Baccalaureate programme.

Some subjects at AS/A-Level are taught jointly with Sherborne School for boys, under a cooperation scheme. Both also collaborate in activities and functions such as theatre productions, specialist societies and social activities.

Houses

The house system is based mainly on the boarding houses, as most pupils are boarders. The day pupils (about 10 per cent) are distributed among them.

The seven boarding houses on campus are:

• Aldhelmsted East
• Aldhelmsted West (lower fourth and upper fourth aged 11–13)
• Dun Holme
• Kenelm
• Mulliner (upper sixth)
• Reader Harris (formerly Ealhstan and Thurstan)
• Wingfield-Digby (formerly Aylmar and Wingfield)

Facilities

The campus includes Oxley Sports Centre, which opened in 2007, with a swimming-pool, a fitness suite, squash courts, badminton courts, a floodlit AstroTurf hockey pitch, a climbing-wall, a bouldering-wall, grass pitches and dance studio.

Notable alumnae

• Maria Aitken (born 1945), writer, producer and director
• Leonora Anson, Countess of Lichfield (born 1949)
• Camila Batmanghelidjh CBE (born 1963), psychotherapist, founder and Director of Kids Company
• Rosa Beddington (1956–2001), biologist
• Nina Coltart (1927–1997), psychoanalyst and psychotherapist
• Margaret Dix (1902–1991), neurologist
• Princess Elizabeth of Toro (born 1936), Ugandan lawyer and politician
• Diana Reader Harris (1912–1996), educator and public figure
• Princess Rahma bint Hassan (born 1969), Jordanian educator
• Princess Sumaya bint Hassan (born 1971), Jordanian science activist
• Deirdre Hutton DBE (born 1949), public servant
• Rajkumari Amrit Kaur (1889–1964), Indian cabinet minister
• Diana Keppel, Countess of Albemarle DBE (1909–2013), youth and development activist
• Sophie Kinsella (Madeleine Sophie Townley), (born 1969), author
• Emma Kirkby DBE, (born 1949) early-music soprano
• Mary Lascelles (1900–1995), literary scholar
• Melanie McFadyean (1950–2023), journalist and lecturer
• Margaret Macmillan (born 1953), University of Oxford academic
• Santa Montefiore (born 1970), author
• Daphne Oram (1925–2003), composer and electronic musician
• Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (1971–2017), television personality
• E. Arnot Robertson (1903–1961), novelist, critic and broadcaster
• Kate Rock, Baroness Rock (born 1968), politician
• Winifred Spooner (1900–1933), aviator
• Juliet Wheldon DCB, QC (1950–2013), civil servant

References

External links

• School Website
• Profile on the Independent Schools Council website
• Ofsted Boarding Social Care Inspection Reports
• Independent Schools Inspectorate Inspection Reports
• Independent Report on The Good Schools Guide