Sutton High School, London

Sutton High School GDST
The school's oldest buildings including the 1886 front door which inspires the logo
Location
55 Cheam Road Sutton , Greater London [a] , SM1 2AX England
Coordinates	51°21′39″N0°11′51″W / 51.360880°N 0.197612°W / 51.360880; -0.197612
Information
Type	Private, GDST
Motto	Fortiter, Fideliter, Feliciter (with courage, with truth, with joy)
Established	1884
Local authority	Sutton
Department for Education URN	103022 Tables
Head	Mrs Beth Dawson
Gender	Girls
Age	3to 18
Houses	Dora Black, Frances West, Henrietta Stanley, Phyllis Mudford King
Colour	purple
Website	www.suttonhigh.gdst.net

Sutton High School is a private day school for girls aged from 3 to 18 in Sutton, Greater London. It is run by the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST).

It was founded in 1884 by the then Girls' Public Day School Trust (GPDST), and was a direct grant grammar school (some pupils having their fees paid by the local authority as in a state grammar school) until the system was abolished in 1976. The first headmistress was Miss Margaret Whyte, and there were 80 pupils on the opening day, 17 January 1884. It has been listed in "Top 100 Independent School" Sunday Times Parent Power Guide, November 2011. ^[1]

Buildings

The school's accommodation includes a mix of the purpose-built and the converted from a range of periods, and its oldest building predates the school's foundation in 1884.

The school opened in a residential property, Park House, in Cheam Road, which was rented by the Girls Day School Company. By 1886 this had been extended on both sides. This group of buildings is still at the core of the school, and the front door forms the basis of the school logo. In the period between the world wars the buildings were extended westward along Cheam Road, and in 1932 Suffolk House was acquired. The assembly hall was built in 1935, linking Suffolk House to the existing buildings. In 1930 Homestead House in the parallel Grove Road was acquired, to be followed by Hayes House and its neighbour, so that the school's grounds extended between the two streets. The Library was built in 1938, to the south of the core, and in 1959 the Lilian Charlesworth Room was added above it, named after Lilian Charlesworth who had been headmistress from 1939. ^[2] A new science and language block was opened in 1971 and a swimming pool in 1972. In the 1990s a new "Garden Building" was built, and the former Dene Hotel was bought and converted into a sixth form unit. The school opened its new sustainability-built prep building, Fernwood House, ^[3] and its new MUGA or multi use games area ^[4] in September 2022.

MUGA

Fernwood House

Notable former pupils

See also: Category:People educated at Sutton High School, London

• Alice Embleton (1876–1960), biologist, zoologist and suffragist.
• Dora Russell (born Dora Black, 1894–1986), author, feminist and progressive campaigner
• Phyllis Mudford King (1906–2006), Wimbledon ladies doubles winner 1931 ^[5]
• Joan Hutt (1913–85), artist
• Audrey T. Carpenter (née Smith) (born 1935), author ^{[6] [7] [8]}
• Susan Howatch (born 1940), author
• Helen Dunmore (1952–2017), novelist and poet
• Ruth Kelly (born 1968), politician
• Nikita Kanani (born 1980), medical director for Primary Care, NHS England and recipient of 2021 GDST Exceptional Contribution Award ^[9]
• Marianna Spring (born 1996), BBC journalist

House system

Since 2009 the school has had a house system. ^[10] The four houses are named after women connected to the school:

• Dora Black (1894–1986), author, feminist and campaigner, former pupil; granddaughter-in-law of Henrietta Stanley
• Phyllis Mudford King (1905–2006), tennis player, former pupil
• Henrietta Stanley (1807–1895), campaigner for women's education and one of the founders of the GDST; grandmother-in-law of Dora Black
• Frances West (1875–1969), the first SHS pupil known to have attended university (Somerville College, Oxford), and later headmistress of St Winifred's and Raven's Croft schools in Eastbourne. ^[11]

Notes

• ^  a: "Greater London" is not part of the postal address. The school lists its postal address as "55 Cheam Road, Sutton, Surrey SM1 2AX", reflecting the pre-1965 county boundary. The correct postal address as given by the Royal Mail is "55 Cheam Road, SUTTON SM1 2AX"
  

References

1. Sutton High School. "School history". Archived from the original on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 24 October 2007.
2. Hardwick, Lorna (2004). "Charlesworth, Lilian Edith (1897–1970), headmistress and promoter of international understanding" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/75431 . Retrieved 2 September 2020.(Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
3. "Sustainability & Environment underpin our new Fernwood House building". Sutton High School. 20 December 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
4. "Sutton High Introduces New Multi Purpose Astro Pitch". Sutton High School. 20 December 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
5. "Phyllis King: Hard-hitting ladies doubles champion at Wimbledon in 1931". The Times. 2 February 2006. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2007.
6. Carpenter, Audrey T (2011). John Theophilus Desaguliers: A Natural Philosopher, Engineer and Freemason in Newtonian England. Continuum (Bloomsbury Publishing). ISBN   9780826431486 . Retrieved 1 September 2024.
7. Carpenter, Audrey T (2017). Giovanna Sestini: An Italian Opera Singer in Eighteenth-century London. Kibworth Beauchamp, Leics., UK: Matador, an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd. ISBN   9781788038805.
8. Carpenter, Audrey T (May 2018). A Resouceful Rogue: Joachim Hayward Stocqueler (1801-1886). FeedaRead.com. p. 304. ISBN   9781788763707.
9. "Dr Nikki Kanani wins GDST Exceptional Contribution Award". Girls' Day School Trust. 9 July 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
10. "Our House System". Sutton High School. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
11. James, Sue. "The House Names" (PDF). Written for SHS Newsletter. Ravens Croft website. Retrieved 19 December 2012.

External links

• Official website
• "Inspection Report 2017" (PDF). Independent Schools Inspectorate. 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
• Inspection Report November 2022