We are delighted to announce that Mrs Marina Gardiner Legge has been appointed by the trustees as the new Head of Oxford High School.
Mrs Gardiner Legge has been Head of Heathfield School, a girls’ boarding school in Berkshire, since 2016, having previously been Director of Studies there.
Among the excellent candidates for this headship, Mrs Gardiner Legge impressed us with her vision for Oxford High School’s growth and development over the coming years. She is a passionate believer in the power of girls-only education to change lives, and will, we are confident, provide great energy as well as skills and experience.
Open, warm and enthusiastic, Mrs Gardiner Legge is described by colleagues as fiercely intelligent and a very capable and caring educationalist.
After reading English Language and Literature at Somerville College, Mrs Gardiner Legge worked for a decade in advertising, marketing and finally as the President of a charity based in Paris. She then studied for her Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Hong Kong University and shortly afterwards joined Rutlish School, a boys’ secondary school in Wimbledon, as an English teacher, where she rose through the ranks to become Head of Year, Assistant Head and finally Head of Careers. She then moved to Heathfield School as Director of Studies and, three years later, was promoted to Headmistress.
Those who have worked closely with Mrs Gardiner Legge describe her as fiercely intelligent and a very capable and caring educationalist. Open, warm and enthusiastic, she is able to deal with the most difficult issues in a calm and sensitive way. As Headmistress of Heathfield, she oversaw an excellent ISI inspection and the school was shortlisted for Boarding School of the Year 2020. Last year, she was shortlisted for ‘Head of the Year’ by Tatler magazine.
Married and with three grown-up children, in her spare time Mrs Gardiner Legge is a competitive scrabble player, a keen poet, and is learning to play the clarinet.
Mrs Gardiner Legge is looking forward to being a vital part of the GDST network as a Head, making sure girls at Oxford High continue to benefit from being part of our family of powerful and exciting schools.