Advice and ambition in a girls' public day school: The case of Sutton HighSchool, 1884-1924

This article discusses the role played by founders, staff and girls in esta blishing a new direction for English middle-class girls' education in the l ate nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The source material is from a case study of the archives of one of the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) sc hools. The research used both qualitative and quantitative methodology, wit h the bulk of evidence being drawn from the school magazine. The focus is s pecifically on the girls' experience and use of their education. Speech day rhetoric is contrasted with an analysis of the girls' post-school occupati ons. Much has been written of the problems the founders and headmistresses faced in their attempts to modernise girls' education, whilst still apparen tly conforming to society's demands and parents' requirements. Reports of o ld girls' activities in the school magazines provide and insight into the p art that the girls themselves played in advancing female education and rede fining Victorian notions of femininity.