The Camden School for Girls (CSG) is a comprehensive secondary school for girls, with a co-educational sixth form, in the London Borough of Camden in north London. It has about one thousand students of ages eleven to eighteen, and specialist-school status as a Music College. The school has long been associated with the advancement of women's education.
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History
Founded in 1871 by the suffragist Frances Mary Buss, who also founded North London Collegiate School, the Camden School for Girls was one of the first girls' schools in England. Although not a fee-paying school by then, girls in the mid-20th century wore a traditional uniform of dark green, with blue and green striped ties. The blazer badge showed a type of ancient sailing ship called a 'buss' to commemorate the founder's surname, with the motto "Onwards and Upwards". In its pre-comprehensive era it was a grant aided grammar school, and girls needed to pass the eleven-plus exam and be interviewed by the headmistress. The grant aided status gave it independence, but it had no endowments, unlike its sister school the North London Collegiate.
Evacuation in the Second World War
352 girls were evacuated to Uppingham School in September 1939, but it did not work as hoped. So, on Thursday 19 October 1939 the girls were moved to Grantham in Lincolnshire to be educated at Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, but 450 girls were intended to have been evacuated; Margaret Thatcher, Conservative prime minister from 1979–90, was one of the girls at the Grantham school. The music teacher Grace Williams, a Welsh composer, arrived with the Camden school, and composed pieces while at Grantham. Zoologist Hilda Mabel Canter, of the British Phycological Society, was one of the 352 girls evacuated. Girls from Grantham were taught in the classrooms in the mornings and the Camden girls were taught in the afternoon. The Camden school moved to Stamford High School, Lincolnshire in March 1941, having stayed in Grantham for five terms. The girls stayed in Stamford, Lincolnshire for seven terms, leaving in summer 1943. Stamford people were quite unaccustomed to city dwellers and local people noticed the distinctive green school uniform.
Grammar school
One of its most formative headmistresses, Doris Burchell, took on the school in the post-war years and developed it in both science and music, overseeing new building on the site. The Sir John Cockcroft science wing was built from funds raised by many means, including a series of Celebrity Concerts held at the school and involving many eminent musicians. The school was damaged in the war but rebuilt in 1957, the architect being John Eastwick-Field OBE. In 1973, the assembly hall roof collapsed following deterioration of its roof beams due to problems with the high-alumina cement concrete used.
Comprehensive
It became a comprehensive school in 1976, although only year by year. It was not fully comprehensive until 1981.
Academic performance
The 2005 Ofsted report said it was "a very good school with excellent features". The 2007 report stated that "Camden School for Girls rightly deserves the outstanding reputation it has among parents and in the community". The 2022 report stated that the schools overall effectiveness was "good", with a rating of "outstanding" being obtained in terms of behaviour and attitudes, sixth form provision and personal development. In 2025 "19% of A-level grades were at A* and 53% were at A* to A". In 2026, the school "achieved a record set of GCSE results, with an amazing 22% of passes at the highest grade 9 and 56% at grades 9 to 7".
Notable former students
The following people were educated at Camden School for Girls. Some of them only attended the sixth form.
Sally Beamish (born 1956), composer
Johnny Borrell (born 1980), musician
Sarah Brown (born 1963), PR consultant, wife of Gordon Brown
Sara Annie Burstall (1859–1939)
Bessie Carter (born 1993), actress
Julia Cleverdon (born 1950), charity worker
Charlotte Coleman (1968–2001), actress, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, expelled at the age of 16
Athene Donald (born 1953), Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge
Julia Donaldson (born 1948), author
Lily Donaldson (born 1987), model
Nubya Garcia (born 1991), jazz musician
Georgia Gould (born 1986), Labour Party politician and MP for Queen's Park & Maida Vale
Eileen Greenwood (1915–2008), artist, printmaker, and art teacher
Tamsin Greig (born 1967), actress
Geri Halliwell (born 1972), singer, Spice Girls
John Hassall (born 1981), musician, The Libertines
Fictional pupils
Prudence Harbinger, fictional character in The Sunday Telegraph, created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran
Notable former teachers
Carol Handley née Taylor - Classics teacher, Headmistress (1971-1985)
Annie E. Ridley - governor
Grace Williams – composer