Southend High School for Girls

Grammar school in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England

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Southend High School for Girls is a grammar school with academy status situated on Southchurch Boulevard in the east of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. It caters for students from the age of 11 through to 18 years old.

Academics

As of 2022, the school's most recent Ofsted inspection was in 2011, when it was judged Outstanding.^[1]

The school has a specialism in languages. All Key Stage 3 students study French and German or French and Spanish (replacing Latin in 2002, which is now available as an additional subject studied off-timetable).^{[citation needed]}

The school also offers other additional languages to the students, for example Chinese, Russian or Polish, but these come at a personal expense to the student themselves.

The school achieves excellent results at A level and other examinations, consistently above national averages, in part because of the selective entry system.^[2]

In Science, Mathematics, English and Geography all students take a two-year Key Stage 3 qualification allowing them to start their GCSE studies early.^{[citation needed]}

Demographics

According to the school's most recent Ofsted report:

"Most students are from a White British heritage, and a broadly average proportion is from minority ethnic backgrounds. No students are in the early stages of learning English. The proportion of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities is low and the proportion known to be entitled to free school meals is below average."^[3]

Notable former pupils

Prof Lorna Casselton, Professor of Fungal Genetics at the University of Oxford and expert in the sexual behaviour of mushrooms^[4] from 1997 to 2003
Prof Deborah Ashby, Professor of Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials at Imperial College London and expert on Bayesian statistics^[5]
Brigadier Jill Field CBE, Matron-in-Chief of the Army and Director of Defence Nursing Services from 1989 to 1992
Jo Richardson, Labour MP for Barking from 1974 to 1994
Sarah Wilhelmy, Former Great Britain international Athlete and representative at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Ruby Tandoh, runner-up on series four of BBC's The Great British Bake Off in 2013
Rachel Riley, co-host of Countdown from 2009.^[6]
Michelle Agyemang, Footballer for Arsenal Women’s team

Arson

In April 2003 the school was closed for two days following a fire in an art room started by a student.^[7]^[8] On the day of the re-opening another fire was started; eventually three students were arrested in connection with the incidents.^[9] There was also another fire started in Room 8 on the middle floor of the towerblock. The second fire was started in close proximity to gas pipes. In total three fires were started in the space of a single month leading to several parents withdrawing their daughters from the school.^[10]

The school was again attacked in December 2005 causing several thousand pounds worth of damage to the school kitchen and a number of classrooms at the front of the school. The damage was so extensive that the Christmas holiday break was extended for students of years 7 and 8.^[11]^[12] Reconstruction work took almost a year whilst a new kitchen, dining room and reception area were constructed and a number of classrooms had to be fully refitted.^[12]^[13]

References

^ Wheatley, Ted (2012). "Southend High School for Girls". Ofsted. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
^ "Performance results for Southend High School for Girls". BBC News. 13 January 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
^ "Southend High School for Girls inspection report" (PDF). Ofsted. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2015.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Professor conducted studies into sexual behaviour of mushrooms". Oxford Mail. 10 April 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^ "ASHBY, Prof. Deborah". Who's Who 2015. Oxford University Press. November 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
^ "Rachel Riley: 'Southend feminist headteacher shaped my life'". Echo. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
^ [1]^{[dead link]}
^ "School fire 'may be arson'". BBC News. 29 April 2003. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
^ "Three arrests in school arson case". BBC News. 22 May 2003. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
^ "Southend: School fire heightens arson fear". Echo. 2 May 2003. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
^ [2]^{[dead link]}
^ ^a ^b "Suspected arson at girls school". BBC News. 3 January 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
^ [3]^{[dead link]}