Traditions
The school introduced a house system during the academic year 2000-2001. The houses are named after Sue Ryder, a charitable woman, Barbara Hepworth, a modern artist and Helen Sharman, the first Briton to enter space. The houses are assigned to whole form groups, and they can gain house points by taking part in various school events, such as the annual Sports Day, interform sports, or Pink Day (in support of Cancer Research UK). The system is not very different from the interform system previously in place, with girls in the same form all being placed within the same house. However, the house system has created a link between different year groups and has encouraged wider participation in school events other than the interform.
The House colours are Green for Sharman, Yellow for Ryder and Red for Hepworth. Each form is given the initial of their house, to come before the initial of their form tutor, e.g. 10SW, is a Year 10 form, in Sharman House, and they have Mrs Wallace as a form tutor. Voting is currently underway for the name and colour of the new house.
The school also has a 6th Form Entertainment, produced by the year 13 students - sometimes with assistance from the staff - at the end of the Autumn term. This tradition was suspended for several years after a script was deemed to be offensive to members of the staff. It was resurrected in The academic year 2004-2005, with greater involvement and participation from the staff. The new format the entertainment took was of a variety show, with music and dancing displays, followed by a panto-like skit. The skit is often based around a famous story or event, but with students playing the roles of teachers. Previous years included Cinderella (1999), Big Brother (2000), The Wizard of Oz (2001) and The Sound of Music (2005). Each Christmas, there is also a Decorated Classrooms competition, where students take a theme and decorate their classrooms, often acting out performances while being judged.
The original houses, in use at least up to 1965, were named after Katharine Stewart-Murray Duchess of Atholl, Charlotte Brontë/Emily Brontë/Anne Brontë, Edith Cavell, Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale and Queen Margaret . These were all named after strong women. Each form had some members of each house. There were inter-house sports competitions and a music competition. Also house points were awarded for mentions on a termly? sheet with a line for each subject. These could be negative (unsatisfactory) as well as several grades of positive. The points were totalled and a shield awarded.
The entertainment mentioned above was a tradition that was alive in 1958-1965 and probably many years before and after that time too.
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