Brighton Girls

Brighton Girls, formerly Brighton and Hove High School, is a private day school for girls aged 4 to 18 in the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England and is part of the Girls' Day School Trust.

Brighton Girls GDST is ISI rated ‘Excellent’. The school was founded in 1876 and has 450 pupils. The school has a Prep School (Early Years, Key stages 1 & 2), High and Sixth Form, making it the only all-through girls’ school in Brighton.

Brighton Girls is one of the schools of the GDST (Girls' Day School Trust). Its main site is at Montpelier Road and includes the Temple building in the Montpelier area of the city with the Prep School opposite on Temple Gardens. In addition to netball courts, sports hall, gym and dance studio, the school also has its Astroturf playing field and further sports facilities on nearby Radinden Manor Road.

The Head of Brighton Girls is Rosie McColl, who started in the autumn term of 2019.

The Good Schools Guide describes Brighton Girls as a school that is “certain of its own value and ethos, with individual encouragement producing fantastic results and grounded girls”.

History


Brighton Girls School was the tenth school founded by the Girls' Day School Trust in 1876. The first head of the school was Edith Creak who at twenty years old appointed the first staff. Creak had broken glass ceilings as one of the first women to study at Cambridge and to graduate from London University.

Its founders had radical ideas about education for women. The school founders' names are now used as the houses, Stanley, Lyttleton, Grey and Gurney. Their Latin motto is translated as "Truth is the way".

Academics
Entrance examinations consist of: 11 + Maths, English & VR; 13+ Maths, English, Science, MFL; 16+ Minimum of 5 GCSE passes (including English Language & Maths) with 8/7 s in subjects to be pursued; applicants are also interviewed.

Pupils can take part in a number of societies and extra-curricular activities. School pupils are divided into four Houses: Grey, Gurney, Lyttelton and Stanley; the Houses compete in a series of events and competitions to earn points, which go towards the House Cup, also known as the Banfora Cup, at the end of each academic year.

In 2021, 26 per cent of the school's GCSE grades were grade 9, the highest, and another 26 per cent were grade 8.

Rebranding
The school underwent a rebranding in late 2019, including the change of name (from 'Brighton and Hove High School' to 'Brighton Girls'), as a well as an updated logo.

Notable former pupils

 * Karen Barber, ice dancer
 * Alexandra Bastedo, actress
 * Blanche Baughan, poet, writer, penal reformer
 * Jasmine Birtles, financial and business journalist, author and presenter
 * Elizabeth Beresford, creator of The Wombles
 * Rosemary Coogan, astrophysicist, astronaut
 * Beth Cordingly, actress
 * Helen David, artist
 * Grace Eyre Woodhead, Philanthropist, pioneer of disability rights and mental health care
 * Constance Garnett, translator
 * Sally Greengross, equality campaigner, politician
 * Louise Gullifer, Professor of English Law
 * Margaret Joachim, politician and campaigner
 * Martha Kearney, journalist
 * Barbara Levick, historian
 * Amy Levy, poet and writer
 * Ida Lupino, actress
 * Louisa Martindale, surgeon
 * Hilda Martindale, British civil servant and author
 * Suzy Menkes, Editor of the International Herald Tribune, journalist
 * Gwenda Morgan, artist
 * Maureen Muggeridge, geologist and gemologist
 * Geraldine Newman, actress
 * Lindsay Northover, Baroness Northover, politician
 * Karen Pickering, swimmer
 * Frances Stead Sellers, journalist
 * Rebecca Stott, author
 * Faynia Williams, international director, BBC Producer of drama and documentaries
 * Fiona Murray, Dame Fiona Elizabeth Murray DCMG CBE is the Associate Dean for Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management
 * Theodora Lisle Prankerd, British botanist who worked on the growth of ferns, and lectured at Bedford College and the University of Reading
 * Silkie Carlo, Advocate
 * Janet Mary Campbell, Physician and Medical Officer

Notable staff

 * Gabrielle Lambrick (1913-1968), civil servant, educator and historian taught at the school.