Truro High School for Girls is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

day and boarding school for girls in

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

, Cornwall. The school consists of a girls-only prep school, senior school and sixth form. It is a member of the

Girls' Schools Association The Girls' Schools Association (GSA) is a membership association for the heads of independent and state girls' schools in the United Kingdom. It is a constituent member of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), and works with the Association ...

History

The school was founded in 1880 by the future archbishop

Edward White Benson Edward White Benson (14 July 1829 – 11 October 1896) was archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 until his death. Before this, he was the first Bishop of Truro, serving from 1877 to 1883, and began construction of Truro Cathedral. He was previousl ...

, then

Bishop of Truro The bishop of Truro is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown De ...

. As well as establishing Truro High School, Benson also oversaw the building of

Truro Cathedral The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. His ...

before moving on to become

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

.Mark D. Chapman, ‘Benson, Edward White (1829–1896)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200
accessed 4 March 2017
/ref> The school was started as an all-girls school with just seven pupils and moved to its present site in 1896. By the 1950s, pupil numbers were up to almost 500. During the early 1970s it was a

direct grant grammar school A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

before becoming independent when the

tripartite system The Tripartite System was the selective school system of State school#United Kingdom, state-funded secondary education between 1945 and the 1970s in England and Wales, and from 1947 onwards in Northern Ireland. It was an administrative implementa ...

was abolished in 1976. Both boys and girls were in both its nursery and sixth Form at various stages in its development. Its first headmistress was Amy Key, well known as the writer Mrs. Henry Clarke. A history of the school was written by her daughter Amy Key Clarke. Over the last 20 years, the school has subsumed the previous Daniel Girls' Secondary School site to provide the Daniel Road campus which houses English, art, drama, modern foreign languages Departments as well as the performing arts studio and studio theatre.

Notable former pupils

Morwenna Banks Tamsin Morwenna Banks (born 20 September 1961) is a British actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She appeared in the Channel 4 comedy sketch show '' Absolutely'', and wrote, produced, and appeared in the British ensemble film ''The Announc ...

, comedian *

Vicki Young Vicki Young (born 1971) is a British journalist. She has been the Deputy Political Editor of BBC News since October 2020 and the presenter of Politics Live since June 2025. She was formerly the chief political correspondent and has contributed ...

(b. 1970), political journalist *

Barbara West Barbara Joyce Dainton (née West, 24 May 1911 – 16 October 2007) was the penultimate remaining survivor of the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'' on 14 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. She was the last living survivor ...

(1911–2007), second-to-last remaining survivor the

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

sinking Shipwrecking is any event causing a ship to wreck, such as a collision causing the ship to sink; the stranding of a ship on rocks, land or shoal; poor maintenance, resulting in a lack of seaworthiness; or the destruction of a ship either intent ...

Lilian Knowles Lilian Charlotte Anne Knowles (née Tomn; 9 October 1870 – 25 April 1926) was a British historian and Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics (LSE). She was the first female Dean of the Economic History Faculty in th ...

(1870-1926), professor of economic history at

LSE LSE may refer to: Education * London School of Economics, a public research university within the University of London * Lahore School of Economics, a private university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan * Lincoln Southeast High School, a public gove ...

and Britain's second professor of the subject

References

External links

*
Profile
on the

Independent Schools Council The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a non-profit lobby group that represents over 1,300 private schools in the United Kingdom. The organisation comprises seven independent school associations and promotes the business interests of its ...

website {{Authority control Girls' schools in Cornwall Truro Private schools in Cornwall Educational institutions established in 1880 1880 establishments in England Member schools of the Girls' Schools Association Boarding schools in Cornwall

History

Notable former pupils

Further reading

References

External links