# Girls' Schools Association

The Girls' Schools Association (GSA) is a professional association of the heads of independent girls' schools. It is a constituent member of the Independent Schools Council.

## History

The GSA can trace its history back to the Association of Headmistresses which was founded in 1874 by Dorothea Beale and Frances Buss. The aim was to agree which issues need challenging and which could be ignored. Buss served as the founding president.
Enid Essame of Queenswood School was an honorary secretary before she became president in 1960. She was succeeded by Diana Reader Harris in 1964. She was in post until 1966, and organised a response to the Plowden Report.
It was established in 1974 following the amalgamation of two of the AHM's sub-groups: the Association of Heads of Girls' boarding Schools and the Association of Independent and Direct Grant Schools. It moved from London to new headquarters in Leicester in 1984, where it shared offices with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) before moving to its current office, still in Leicester.

## Structure

The chief executive is Donna Stevens.

## Member schools

Below is a list of GSA member schools. Some members are the girls' sections of "Diamond Schools".

### United Kingdom
#### England

* Abbot's Hill School
* Adcote School for Girls
* Alderley Edge School for Girls
* Badminton School
* Bedford Girls' School
* Benenden School
* Berkhamsted School
* Blackheath High School
* Bolton School Girls' Division
* Bromley High School
* Bruton School for Girls
* Burgess Hill School
* Bury Grammar School (Girls)
* Bute House
* Channing School
* Cheltenham Ladies' College
* City of London School for Girls
* Cobham Hall School
* Cranford House School
* Croydon High School
* Derby High School
* Downe House
* Durham High School for Girls
* Farnborough Hill
* Francis Holland School Regent's Park
* Francis Holland School Sloane Square
* Glendower Preparatory School
* Godolphin and Latymer School
* Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls
* Halstead Preparatory School
* Harrogate Ladies' College
* Headington School
* Heathfield School, Ascot
* James Allen's Girls' School
* Kensington Prep School
* Kent College, Pembury
* King Edward VI High School for Girls
* King's High, Warwick
* Lady Eleanor Holles School
* Leicester High School for Girls
* Loughborough High School
* Malvern St James
* Manchester High School for Girls
* Manor House School
* Marymount International School
* Merchant Taylors' Girls' School
* Mayfield School
* More House School
* Moreton Hall School
* Newcastle High School for Girls
* Northampton High School
* Northwood College
* Norwich High School for Girls
* Notre Dame Senior School
* Notting Hill & Ealing High
* Old Palace of John Whitgift School
* Oxford High School
* Palmers Green High School
* Pembridge Hall School
* Portsmouth High School
* Prior's Field School
* Putney High School
* Queen Anne's School, Caversham
* Queen Margaret's School, York
* Queen Mary's School, Thirsk
* Queen's College, London
* Queen's Gate School
* Queenswood School
* Redmaids High School
* RGS Dodderhill
* Roedean School
* Sarum Hall
* Sheffield High School
* Sherborne Girls
* Sir William Perkins's School
* South Hampstead High School
* St Anthony's School for Girls
* St Augustine's Priory
* St Catherine's School, Bramley
* St Catherine's School, Twickenham
* St Christopher's School
* St Francis' College
* St Gabriel's School
* St George's School, Ascot
* St Helen's School
* St James Senior Girls' School
* St Margaret's School, Bushey
* St Margaret's School, Hampstead
* St Mary's School Ascot
* St Mary's School, Calne
* St Mary's School, Cambridge
* St Mary's School, Colchester
* St Mary's School, Gerrards Cross
* St Nicholas' School
* St Paul's Girls' School
* St Swithun's School
* St Teresa's School Effingham
* Stamford High School
* Stormont School
* Streatham & Clapham High School
* Sutton High School
* Surbiton High School
* Sydenham High School
* Talbot Heath School
* The Abbey School, Reading
* The Kingsley School
* The Marist School, Sunninghill
* The Maynard School
* The Mount School, York
* The Queen's School, Chester
* The Royal High School Bath
* Thornton College
* Tudor Hall
* Wakefield Girls' High School
* Walthamstow Hall
* Westfield School
* Wimbledon High School
* Woldingham School
* Wychwood School
* Wycombe Abbey School

#### Scotland

* Kilgraston School
* Mary Erskine School, Edinburgh
* St George's School, Edinburgh
* St Margaret's School for Girls, Aberdeen

#### Wales

* Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls
Northern Ireland
* Victoria College Belfast

##### Channel Islands

* The Ladies' College, Guernsey

### Overseas members

* San Silvestre School, Peru
* Unison World School, India
* La Vall School, Spain

## Former members

* Amberfield School – closed in October 2011
* Casterton School – merged with Sedbergh School in 2013
* Lodge School – closed in 2010
* Dame Alice Harpur School and Bedford High School – merged to become Bedford Girls' School (member school) in 2011 and 2012
* Peterborough High School – became coeducational in 2010 and renamed The Peterborough School
* St Joseph's Convent School – became coeducational in 2010 and renamed St Joseph's College
* St Margaret's School, Edinburgh – closed in June 2010
* St Mary's School, Shaftesbury – closed in August 2020
* Leweston School
* Rye St Antony School - merged with Headington School in 2024 and renamed Headington Rye Oxford