Who we are
Our History
150 Years of Harnessing Rebellion
Founded in 1875, Oxford High School GDST continues to blaze a trail for generations of pioneering women. Committed to academic excellence, innovation and empowering young women, Oxford High School has always been ahead of its time. In an era when girls’ education was limited, we set new standards, shaping future leaders across fields like medicine, law, the arts, politics and science.
The Girls' Public Day School Company (GPDST) was founded, aiming to provide girls with an education similar to that of boys’ public schools.
Oxford High School opens under the headship of Ada Benson in the Judge’s Lodgings on St Giles. It is the eighth school in the Company and fees are held at nine guineas a term in Kindergarten and fifteen guineas in the Senior School so as to attract girls from a wide social range. The fear that daughters of the gentry might catch ‘High School manners’ soon proves unfounded and the school’s emphasis on academic achievement helps obliterate social distinction.
A new purpose-built school opened at 21 Banbury Road, designed by Oxford architect Sir Thomas Jackson, marking the school’s growth and establishment of its traditions, including the adoption of the motto Ad Lucem and the sunflower emblem.
Following the resignation of Ada Benson due to ill health, Miss ME Bishop, who was on the original teaching staff, returns to OHS as Headmistress.
Two OHS girls win scholarships to attend university at a time when girls still weren’t eligible to receive degrees from orthodox universities (though by the 1870s women were allowed to study at Oxford and Cambridge without matriculation).
Miss Lucy Soulsby arrives as new headmistress from Cheltenham Ladies’ College. She introduces Chemistry to the curriculum with the mollifying addendum that needlework must continue to ‘hold its own in spite of the modern demand on girls’ brains.’
