Established | 1904 |
---|---|
Type | Independent day school |
High Mistress | Sarah Fletcher |
Chairman of Governors | The Hon Timothy Palmer |
Founder | Worshipful Company of Mercers |
Location |
Brook Green London W6 7BS England |
Local authority | Hammersmith and Fulham |
Students | 770 |
Gender | Girls |
Ages | 11–18 |
Former pupils | Old Paulinas |
Website | www.spgs.org |
St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England.
St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part of the endowment of the foundation set up by John Colet, to create a girls' school to complement the boys' school he had founded in the sixteenth century. The governors hold proprietorial responsibility, and some are representatives of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London.
The buildings for the school were designed by the architect Gerald Horsley, the son of the painter John Callcott Horsley and one of the founder members of the Art Workers Guild.
The school has had several distinguished directors of music, most notably Gustav Holst (1905–34) and Herbert Howells (1936–62). Holst composed his St Paul's and Brook Green suites for the pupils at the school. Holst also composed what is arguably his most well known work, "The Planets", while teaching at St Paul's.
St Paul's girls have regularly performed extremely well in the GCSEs and A Levels. Over half of girls at the school get all A*s in their GCSEs and many take extra languages or maths GCSEs. In 2014, 99.3% of GCSEs were graded at A*s or As with 93.6% graded at A* alone. This was the highest ever A* percentage achieved by the school and in the country. In 2016, the school achieved the highest A Level results in its history with 60.0% of entries achieving an A* grade and 93.8% of entries achieving A* or A grades.