The Orme Girls’ School

During the 19th century very few professional careers were open to women. Working class girls in North Staffordshire left school when they were seven or eight years old and started work. Some went into domestic service while others worked alongside their mothers in the pottery industry.

Although there was a boys’ grammar school at Newcastle-under-Lyme and private schools for boys in the Potteries, there were very few secondary schools for girls. Most middle class parents educated their daughters at home where they were taught household management and social etiquette.

Dr and Mrs Magnus opened a Seminary for Young Ladies and Gentlemen at Etruria Hall. The girls learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew and were taught music, drawing and dancing. When they left school, the young ladies were expected to marry pottery manufacturers or professional men and lead a life of leisure. An intelligent girl was denied access to higher education. Universities refused to accept female students. A woman could not train to become a doctor or a lawyer. The only careers open to her were nursing and teaching.

Girls from working class homes who had remained at elementary school until they were 13 could become pupil teachers. They served an apprenticeship with a qualified teacher and were examined annually by the school inspectors. When their apprenticeship ended the girls took the Queen’s Scholarship Examinations. Those who passed were employed as uncertificated assistant teachers. Girls who obtained the highest marks in the examination were given a government grant and sent to training college where they gained teachers certificates which enabled them to become headmistresses.

In 1876, Newcastle’s Endowed Schools Trust established a girls’ school. Called the Orme Girls’ School, it occupied temporary accommodation in King Street Congregational Church’s schoolrooms. There were 54 pupils whose ages ranged from eight to sixteen. A general’s daughter, Mary Frances Martin, who had taught at Cheltenham College, was the headmistress. Nearly all her pupils came from the Newcastle area but seven came from Stoke, three from Fenton, two from Hanley and two from Stone. A year later the school moved into its own premises in Victoria Road.

All over the country girls’ schools were being established in market towns and cities. In 1878, London University allowed women to study for its degrees. Two years later Manchester admitted them to its degree courses and from 1895 they were able to take degrees at Durham.

During 1881, a girls’ high school opened in Burslem’s Wedgwood Institute. Miss Offord, who taught Latin, was the headmistress. The school had two teachers and twelve pupils. School started at 9.30 am. There was a mid-morning break when the girls watched Miss Offord drink a raw egg. The school day ended at 1.45 pm  when the girls were given homework and sent home for lunch.

Copyright Betty Cooper – The Phoenix Trust 2010