Bedford Girls' School


Bedford Girls' School is an independent school for girls which opened in September 2010 located in Bedford, in the English county of Bedfordshire. The school is a result of a merger of Bedford High School and Dame Alice Harpur School, and is operated by the Harpur Trust. The school became fully operational in September 2012.

History

The Harpur Trust had a long history of providing education for boys in Bedford, and in 1882 it opened two schools for girls, Bedford High School and Bedford Girls' Modern School, on the same site at Bromham Road, Bedford. While Bedford High School remained at the site, the Girls' Modern School moved to Bedford town centre by the end of the 19th century, and then in 1938 it relocated to Cardington Road, where new buildings were built on part of the playing fields the school already owned there. In 1946 it changed its name to Dame Alice Harpur School, in honour of the wife of the founder of the Harpur Trust.
In July 2009, the Harpur Trust announced its intention to merge Bedford High School and Dame Alice Harpur School, a decision arrived at because both schools had seen a fall in pupil numbers over the previous twenty years: In 1990 more than 2,000 girls had been on the rolls of the two schools, while in 2009 there were only 1,500. The trust estimated that once started, it would take three to five years to merge the schools.
In November 2009, the trust released further details of the merger. It was announced that the new merged school would be called Bedford Girls' School and would be located on the current site of Dame Alice Harpur School. It would offer the International Baccalaureate as part of its curriculum, but would not offer boarding facilities for pupils.
In December 2009, Jo MacKenzie was appointed as the first head of the Bedford Girls' School. Miss MacKenzie assumed her post over Easter 2010. The junior department of the school opened in September 2010, when the junior schools of Bedford High and Dame Alice Harper merged on the Cardington Road site. The senior department of the school opened in September 2011, with the full merger of the old schools, including the sixth form departments completed in September 2012.