Sherborne School for Girls


Sherborne Girls, formally known as Sherborne School for Girls, is an independent day and boarding school for girls, located in Sherborne, North Dorset, England. There were 485 pupils attending in 2019–2020, with more than 90 per cent of them living on campus in the seven boarding houses. Recognition for Sherborne Girls has included a double "excellent" rating in its Independent Schools Inspectorate Report.

Curriculum

The school, founded in 1899 by John and Charlotte Wingfield Digby, requires all girls to take English, maths, a science subject, religion and a foreign language. Most girls take nine or ten GCSEs and three or four A-Level subjects. Sherborne Girls previously offered the International Baccalaureate programme.
Some subjects at AS/A-Level are taught jointly with Sherborne School for boys, under a cooperation scheme. Both also collaborate in activities and functions such as theatre productions, specialist societies and social activities.

Houses

The house system is based mainly on the boarding houses, as most pupils are boarders. The day pupils are distributed among them.
The seven boarding houses on campus are:
  • Aldhelmsted East
  • Aldhelmsted West
  • Dun Holme
  • Kenelm
  • Mulliner
  • Reader Harris
  • Wingfield-Digby

    Facilities

The campus includes Oxley Sports Centre, which opened in 2007, with a swimming-pool, a fitness suite, squash courts, badminton courts, a floodlit AstroTurf hockey pitch, a climbing-wall, a bouldering-wall, grass pitches and dance studio.

Notable alumnae

  • Maria Aitken, writer, producer and director
  • Leonora Anson, Countess of Lichfield
  • Camila Batmanghelidjh CBE, psychotherapist, founder and Director of Kids Company
  • Rosa Beddington, biologist
  • Nina Coltart, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist
  • Jane Cornwell, book editor
  • Margaret Dix, neurologist
  • Princess Elizabeth of Toro, Ugandan lawyer and politician
  • Diana Reader Harris, educator and public figure
  • Princess Rahma bint Hassan, Jordanian educator
  • Princess Sumaya bint Hassan, Jordanian science activist
  • Deirdre Hutton DBE, public servant
  • Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Indian cabinet minister
  • Diana Keppel, Countess of Albemarle DBE, youth and development activist
  • Sophie Kinsella,, author
  • Emma Kirkby DBE, early-music soprano
  • Mary Lascelles, literary scholar
  • Melanie McFadyean, journalist and lecturer
  • Margaret Macmillan, University of Oxford academic
  • Santa Montefiore, author
  • Daphne Oram, composer and electronic musician
  • Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, television personality
  • E. Arnot Robertson, novelist, critic and broadcaster
  • Kate Rock, Baroness Rock, politician
  • Winifred Spooner, aviator
  • Juliet Wheldon DCB, QC, civil servant