Queen Mary's High School
The main body of the school is girls only, but the Sixth Form is open to applicants of both sexes conditional on a minimum grade achievement at GCSE (no fewer than 7 GCSEs above 'B' Grade). This policy is similar to that of Queen Mary's Grammar School. However, there are a very small number of males who attend the school- no more than twenty in a school of 1000.
The school gained an outstanding level in the Ofsted report when it was last inspected in 2021.
The school was a Language College and it is compulsory for pupils to take Mandarin, French, German, or Spanish from year seven to GCSE level; Japanese had until recently also been an option. In Year 8, pupils begin studying an additional language. Pupils visit Spain, France or Germany in Year 8, according to which of these languages they are studying. The school also sponsors exchanges with schools in Germany and Japan. Pupils can also take Latin or Greek every three years as an extra-curricular activity, culminating in an additional GCSE.
Class sizes in the lower school are currently around 30 girls. Sixth-form classes have a minimum of about 8 students and a maximum of 25.
The school is divided into houses named after famous 19th-century female authors - Austen (after Jane Austen), Bronte (after Emily Brontë), Eliot (after George Eliot) and Shelley (after Mary Shelley), the latter being a new house in the 2012/13 academic year. Each house has a member of staff in charge of it, a captain from Year 13 (upper sixth form) and a vice-captain from Year 12 (lower sixth form).
Alumni of the school include Meera Syal.
Notable staff
- Barbara Foxley was head here
References
- ^ "Specialist Schools Home". DfES. July 2006. Archived from the original on 3 August 2006. Retrieved 2 August 2006.
- ^ Beddoe, D. (2004-09-23). Foxley, Barbara (1860–1958), educationist and campaigner for women's rights. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 29 Jan. 2018, see link