General Information
Our History

A DISTINGUISHED PAST

1899 form

At Manchester High School for Girls, we are proud of our history.  Our school archive is one of the most extensive in the country, attracting a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and containing material from the mid-19th century to the present day.  Since our foundation in 1874 by nine men and women who were prominent citizens of Manchester, we have remained passionately committed to their aim:  "to impart to the scholars the very best education which can be given and to fit them for any future which may be before them".

1905 lesson

The school expanded rapidly, changing premises to accommodate the growing numbers.  Having settled into new buildings at the Grangethorpe site in 1940, a sudden re-location occurred when the site was destroyed during the Manchester blitz.  Undaunted by this catastrophe, supporters of the school set about re-building at Grangethorpe: since then, there has been a continuous programme of refurbishment and improvement ensuring the highest standard of facilities, our most recent project being the construction of a new sports complex in 2005.

1899 tennis team

Our curriculum has always been forward-looking.  We were one of the first girls' schools to introduce science and before the First World War, Russian was taught as well as French, German, Latin and Greek.  Academic excellence has been accompanied by a tradition of sporting success.  Manchester High School old girls and teachers have swum the channel, played at Wimbledon and achieved representative honours in hockey, cricket and water polo.

Our character is reflected in the quality of our pupils.  The school's most famous alumni are the Pankhurst sisters but the first woman to study medicine at Manchester University, the first woman to be awarded a First Class degree in history at Oxford University, the first woman to become a solicitor and more recently, the first woman student at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, the first woman executive of Marks and Spencer and the first woman Chief Cashier of the Bank of England were all students at Manchester High School.

 

1955 orchestra