About NHSG
NHSG supports, nurtures, and challenges every girl to be herself – to be everything she can be.
Our vision is to be champions of excellence in all-girl education, empowering girls to be leaders, trailblazers, and world shapers.
At Newcastle High School for Girls, we are committed to offering an outstanding all-girl education from age 3 to 18, allowing all girls to flourish academically and pastorally and guiding them to their place in the world.
Every girl has huge potential arising from her unique character, strengths and attributes. We support, nurture and challenge every girl to be the best version of herself, to achieve her potential and to approach life with real enjoyment and enthusiasm.
Every day at school we introduce our three year-olds to the wonders of the world, spark the intellectual curiosity of eleven year-olds, and intellectually stimulate and challenge our Sixth Formers to engage with their learning at the highest possible level.
The success of our approach is reflected not only in outstanding examination results at GCSE and A Level but also in the girls’ growth in knowledge, skills, aspiration and confidence.
At NHSG, your daughter will be inspired by teachers who are experts in tailoring the learning experiences to the needs of girls. Through our bespoke curriculum, which goes beyond national requirements, your daughter will discover her strengths and find her niche. She will study and grow in an environment characterised by high academic standards, excellent teaching, outstanding pastoral care and first-class facilities and resources.
She will learn without limits. And as one of the schools of the Girls’ Day School Trust, she will be part of a unique family of schools that puts girls first in every way and offers an array of opportunities beyond those available in the North East.
I do hope you will visit the School soon so that you can experience our happy yet purposeful atmosphere, and see for yourself the sheer joy of our pupils as they learn and grow together in our special community.
Mrs Amanda Hardie
Acting Head
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Resounding seal of approval from the Good Schools Guide.
Newcastle High School for Girls (NHSG) has been given a resounding seal of approval from the Good Schools Guide following a rigorous review conducted in November 2022 by the independent guide which supports parents in choosing the best education for their children.
We received high praise all round, with our Senior School and Sixth Form summarised by the Good Schools Guide (GSG) as offering ‘High quality teaching and learning, a broad modern curriculum and every kind of opportunity and challenge. Superb facilities, strong pastoral care and a very obvious commitment to inclusivity tailored to girls’ needs and interests. It’s a pretty compelling package’.
The review also highlighted NHSG’s ‘unique ethos of ambition and attainment in both academics and co-curricular in order to empower girls to be trailblazers and world-shapers’.
Our Nursery and Junior School also enjoyed an excellent GSG review summarising it as having ‘Great facilities in a lovely leafy environment, impressive co-curricular options that keep everyone busy and challenged, all wrapped up in a rock solid ethos about enabling girls to become confident young women in a modern world. Strong curriculum and highly qualified specialist staff ensure exceptional preparation for Senior School’.
Read the full reviews from the Good Schools Guide here:
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GDST. The UK’s leading network of independent girls’ schools.
We’re proud to be part of the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST). The GDST is the UK’s leading family of 25 independent girls’ schools including two academies. In all GDST schools, academic excellence is a given – at the GDST we develop character beyond the curriculum.
We focus not only on what is learned but how it is learned. Ensuring our girls are confident and fearless, determined to show what they can do. Nothing holds our girls back – they’re encouraged to embrace every role and subject. As a result, they trust their own abilities and are alive to every opportunity.
We concentrate on creating an environment where all can thrive and learn from one another. Physical and emotional wellbeing is paramount, which is why every GDST school provides an unsurpassed array of co-curricular activities and pastoral and wellbeing programmes.
Independent Schools Inspectorate 2017
Academic standards in the Senior School are high, building on the strong foundations laid in the Junior School.
Your daughter's future is in excellent hands.
The 2023-2024 Senior Leadership Team, focused on delivering an exceptional education for every girl.
Mrs Amanda Hardie
Acting Head
Overall responsibility for the strategic leadership of Newcastle High School for Girls, creating a shared vision which expresses the core values of the school alongside promoting excellence in teaching and learning and a culture of high expectation and achievement in which every girl is empowered to be the best version of herself.
Mrs Tori Snowdon
Deputy Head Academic 2023-2024
Leading the academic programme for Newcastle High School for Girls, including the development and implementation of the curriculum and ensuring outstanding teaching and learning and high academic standards across Senior School.
Mrs Emma Barnett
Head of Junior School 2023-2024
Responsible for leading and managing the Junior School in close partnership with the Head. Creating and communicating a shared vision within Junior School, which expresses the core values of the whole School and motivates and inspires others. Driving Junior School forward through excellence and innovation in teaching and learning.
Mrs Lucy Franks-Doyle
Senior School Deputy Head Pastoral
Leading on the provision for pastoral care within the school. Working alongside the Pastoral Leadership Group to develop and implement a wide range of initiatives to support the personal development and well-being of all the girls within Newcastle High School for Girls.
Mrs Helen Harrison
Director of Sixth Form
Responsible for creating and maintaining an outstanding Sixth Form experience which will ensure each girl achieves the best academic results she can and is equipped with the skills for the 21st century. Pastoral welfare is paramount, as well as ensuring the girls' continuous focus on achieving their aims.
Mr John Crosby
Director of Finance and Operations
Responsible for the smooth running of the School's finances and support functions including estates coordination, travel planning, administration, ICT support, facilities and catering.
Mrs Janice Graves
Director of Marketing and Communications
Leading the marketing, communications, admissions, alumnae, administration and philanthropy areas of the school. Ensuring that our values and ethos are shared with prospective and current parents and pupils as well as delivering excellent services and experiences. Supporting and working with our powerful network of alumnae.
Inspection reports.
2019 ISI Regulatory Compliance Inspection
The key findings in the ISI inspection report state that Newcastle High School for Girls “meets the standards in the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, relevant requirements of the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and associated requirements, and no further action is required as a result of this inspection.”
2017 ISI Inspection on Educational Quality and Focused Compliance
This was NHSG’s first ISI Inspection following the merger of Central Newcastle High School and Church High School in September 2014. NHSG met all the requirements in the Focused Compliance Inspection and in the ISI Education Quality Report Inspectors found that the quality of the pupils’ development at NHSG was excellent and that the quality of academic and other achievement was good. To receive an Inspection Report of this calibre at that stage of the NHSG journey was very impressive, with NHSG achieving a great deal in a short time. Since 2017 we have continued to focus on building our strengths and developing excellent tracking, monitoring, and academic stretch. This work has since been reflected in the significant uplift in in the 2019 public examinations as well as our award as the Sunday Times North East Independent School of the Year in 2020.
Downloadable reports
Our School Governing Board.
Our Governors provide support and guidance. They come from a variety of backgrounds and, through their expertise, assist the School in delivering our vision to empower girls to be leaders, trailblazers, and world shapers.
Chair
Patricia Alexander
Managing Director, Shared Interest
I have been Managing Director of Shared Interest Society, an ethical lending organisation since 2006. Prior to this, I was MD of Saint-Gobain Quartz Group having held various roles within the manufacturing sector over my career. I am passionate about fair trade and am a Trustee and Treasurer for the Fairtrade Foundation.
I am a member of the UK Fair Trade Leaders’ Forum, a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) and sit on the Newcastle Business School Advisory Board. I am treasurer of my Parish Council and have been involved with several local charities having also served on the CBI Regional Council and the Industrial Development Board at One North East. I am a qualified accountant with an MBA from Durham Business School. I am working to widen links between the School and other organisations world-wide and to share my passion for fair trade with the girls.
Tim Bowman
CEO Star Partners
I have been a CFO in design, advertising and research businesses for the last twenty years. Following ten years working within the WPP Group of companies for clients such as Unilever, Mars, SABMiller, Vodafone and Diageo, I have worked with independent, owner-managed, businesses. My main focus has been on professionalising those businesses to provide operational efficiency and drive shareholder value. I now provide consulting CFO services to a number of design and advertising companies within the marketing services sector.
More recently, through my consulting business, I have been appointed as a non-executive director of a number of companies and have a passion for supporting entrepreneurs to start, scale-up and sell their businesses.
A former pupil of the RGS, I have returned to Newcastle after thirty-four years living and working in London. I am passionate about education, and guiding young people as they develop as individuals, so I have been delighted to be appointed as a governor at NHSG.
Gillian Hall
Gillian Hall Consulting
Yousaf Khalid
Chief of Operations, Hedgehog Lab App development, NED, Investor
Lesley Moody MBE
Managing Director, AES Digital Solutions Ltd, Chair, NEECC
Ruth Plummer
Clinical Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine, Newcastle University
I am Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine, Newcastle University and an honorary consultant medical oncologist in Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. I direct the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre within the Northern Centre for Cancer Care, which is a dedicated early phase clinical trials unit based within the regional cancer centre. I also lead the Newcastle Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and also the CRUK Newcastle Cancer Centre. I attended Central Newcastle High School before going to train at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, obtaining both a medical degree and scientific PhD before moving back home to Newcastle and settling with my family in Northumberland.
Nationally I sit on a number of grant funding committees, for CRUK, MRC and NIHR, and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018 for my working developing new cancer treatments for patients. As a Governor I hope to be able to bring my passion for STEM to the School and support the girls in making this choice of career.
Hena Zaman
My school years were spent at Mt Hermon School, Darjeeling, an American boarding school in the foothills of the Himalayas. I obtained my medical degree from Manipal University in India following which I completed my medical internship in both rural and hospital settings before moving to the UK. After two years in London and Cardiff I moved once more with my family to Manhattan, New York for a further two years before finally settling down in Newcastle.
I’m a mother of four. Of my three daughters, Zara and Zoya are NHSG alumnae and Zeah is currently in Senior School.
One of the pleasures of having spent 15 years with the School is the interaction with the whole School community – staff, pupils and parents. My family now has a special relationship with the School which I hope will continue long after Zeah finishes Sixth Form.
I am already involved in School life and have a good working knowledge of the School. I would love to help NHSG continue to build on its successes and bring ever evolving ideas to the School.
Jasmine Summers
I originally joined Central Newcastle High School in 2007 on a bursary scheme and was a member of the first cohort to graduate from Newcastle High School for Girls in 2015. I studied Economics at the University of Edinburgh, before moving to London to pursue a career in investment banking. I spent two and a half years at Lazard, where I worked on numerous high-profile M&A transactions. Selected experience includes advising Rolls Royce on its sale of ITP Aero to Bain Capital, advising Lone Star Funds on its sale of STARK Group to CVC Capital, and advising RateSetter on its sale to Metro Bank. During my time at Lazard, I was reverse mentor to Cyrus Kapadia, Lazard London’s CEO of Financial Advisory, and led Lazard London’s Women’s Leadership Network. Inspired to follow my passion for entrepreneurship, I recently left Lazard and I am currently exploring opportunities in the venture capital space.
Having recent experience of school life, I hope to offer a fresh perspective to the Board and relish the opportunity to inspire younger generations of girls whose position I was recently in. Given my background, I’m especially keen to support the school with its bursaries and scholarships programme, as I strongly believe that nobody’s future should be limited by their childhood circumstances.
John Wilson
Our School Policies.
Our School Polices are focused on putting our pupils' welfare first. You can read them here by clicking on the button below.
We’re proud to be on our journey of Diversity and Inclusion
Every one of us at NHSG is listening, learning and making a difference for our community.
We’re proud of our diverse community and are committed to ensuring that each and every pupil is treated equally and with respect regardless of the many differences between them. Staff training, PSHE lessons, co-curricular clubs and assemblies are just some of the ways we continue to educate ourselves and our pupils about embracing difference and respecting all cultures and lifestyles. Celebrating Black History Month and Diversity Week, teaching about different religions and faiths, all of these practices go some way towards keeping diversity and inclusion on the agenda. Our school policies state our commitment to deal with prejudice and discrimination firmly. We want our school to be a safe and happy place for everybody.
Working towards the GDST Undivided Charted for Action also means that the whole family of GDST schools has the same ethos and goals – to ensure that the wellbeing of every young person comes first, and where every girl – no matter her background – can learn without limits. Our Senior Leadership Team liaise closely with the Undivided Steering Group which meets regularly to ensure that all GDST schools are supported on an ongoing basis.
Whilst we’re an all-girls’ school, of course not all girls are the same. The NHSG community is made up of people from all backgrounds, of all ethnicities and religions, of different genders and sexualities and from all cultures. Every single member of the community deserves equal respect. We’re all here for the same reason – to provide an outstanding education without limits and open doors to bright and successful futures in which our pupils can achieve anything they aspire to.
Feeling happy, comfortable, accepted and respected at school is a huge part of doing well and succeeding both academically and emotionally while still retaining that uniqueness that makes you, you! We want our pupils to be part of the wonderful NHSG community but also to be themselves; that’s why diversity and inclusion are so important to us.
Above all, we encourage our community to be proud of who they are, comfortable in their own skin and accepting of others.
We have 150 years of experience in educating girls.
In September 2014, Church High School and Central Newcastle High School merged to become Newcastle High School for Girls. Founded in 1872, and 1876 respectively, both were established to offer girls an exceptional education and to ensure girls and young women could have an equal place in the world. Their success is noted in the education of thousands of girls from the North East of England who passed through their doors and whose trailblazing spirit is today at the forefront of NHSG's vision and mission.
When NHSG was formed in 2014, we were determined to reflect the School's roots, which are so firmly planted in the city and surrounding area. Our iconic seahorse emblem symbolises our strong links with Newcastle – two mythical seahorses appear in Newcastle’s heraldic coat of arms, dating back to the 16th century. The seahorse represents patience, friendship, generosity, and persistence – everything that embodies our pupils.