The history of our Camp Hill is also the history of the King Edward VI Foundation from which it originated.

But, one could argue, its history goes back even further in time to the reign of Richard II when the Guild of the Holy Cross was founded in 1382, from which the King Edward VI Foundation later derived its funds. The Foundation still has a deed dated 28th October of that year, granted to four wealthy local businessmen: “to found a Chauntry endowed with lands, tenements and rents in Bermyngehame and Egebaston”.

The Guild was later dissolved and its funds confiscated by King Edward VI’s commissioners but a group of its members Mr Coleshull, from Coleshill, Mr Goldsmyth, a goldsmith, William atte Slowe and Thomas Sheldon, petitioned the King to restore part of its funds for the foundation of a school.

And so a charter was granted in 1552 for a Free Grammar School of King Edward VI “forever to endure”. In 1751, four teachers were appointed to give free instruction in English to boys and girls in Birmingham, the first lasting expansion of the Foundation’s activities.
In 1837, several King Edward VI elementary schools were started leading to four branch schools, one of which, the Meriden Street school in Digbeth, had 125 boys and 120 girls. From 1878 onwards, these were known as Lower Middle Schools.

In 1881 so few pupils lived near Meriden Street, that the governors searched for a new site elsewhere.

At Meriden Street, under the direction of its first headmistress Miss Harriet Grundy, the curriculum for girls was a simple one, consisting of mainly reading, writing, arithmetic, needlework, drawing and a little history, geography and scripture.

Miss Grundy, the first head of Meriden Street since 1876 and then later Camp Hill, retired in 1903 due to ill health after 27 years’ service.

Eventually, Camp Hill House was found in three acres of land and purchased for £8,000. The house was suitable for a girls’ school and there was enough land to build a boys’ school immediately next door.

During the ten-year tenure of Camp Hill House, an important change took place. Only ten heads have led the school since 1876, and in many ways the school’s history is also theirs. This was in 1883 when the Lower Middle Schools became Grammar Schools, with a much wider curriculum and improved status. This was when King Edward VI Grammar School for Girls, Camp Hill, was born, with Miss Grundy appointed as headmistress.

At this time, girls could enter the school at 8 years old and stay until 16. Numbers steadily increased until, 1891, when they decided to pull down Camp Hill House and re-build on the same site.

The school was temporarily re-homed in The Poplars, a large house on Stratford Road, during rebuilding.

The new building at Camp Hill was opened in 1893 by the Bishop of Durham (an Old Edwardian) Dr Westcott. During the 65 years in the Camp Hill building, growth was steady.

The new building is now known as The Bordesley Centre and has been a Grade II listed building since July 1982.

Under the headship of Londoner Miss Helen Sullivan (1903–1913), the previous Chief Assistant Mistress at Camp Hill, greater emphasis was placed on academic work, and in her time the first inspection of the school took place in March 1909.

In a conversation with the Daily News at that time, Miss Sullivan referred to the remarkable developments which had taken place in the education of women.

At a Prize Day one year a local Bishop gave out the prizes and, in his speech, advised girls to do domestic work when they left school. Miss Sullivan was reported to be furious and said he knew nothing about grammar schools!

On her retirement, the Old Girls presented Miss Sullivan with a beautiful brooch, consisting of opals set in silver. In her will Miss Sullivan left this to her secretary, Miss Fearnside, who in turn bequeathed it to the school to be worn by the current Head on school occasions.

It was after the arrival of the third headmistress, Miss Mary Keen (1913-1943) that girls began to take public examinations for the first time.

The age of leaving was also raised and Sixth Form work developed so that it was no longer necessary for girls looking to go to university to be transferred to another school.

Miss Keen was praised for her devotion to the work and spirit of the school, especially during the early years of the war when the school was twice evacuated and later brought back into operation in two sections some 20 miles apart!

She was certainly far ahead of her time with her ideas on the education of girls. A tribute paid to her said:

She was primarily responsible for modernising the school on the academic side. By the end of her time as headmistress, the school was working to School Certificate in Higher Education, sending girls to university and in due season they began to take Firsts.

Yet she never allowed students to regard examinations as an end in themselves and took the liveliest interest in games and everything else.

In 1923 the first copy of the school magazine, 'Twixt Road and Rail, was produced.

A few years before 1977 the name was dropped as being no longer appropriate to the school's location; in the editorial for the 1977 Jubilee edition there was a request for suggestions for a new name.

One hundred years after the very first issue, the school newsletter is called the "Camp Hill Girls' Chronicle" and is published electronically at the end of each half-term.

By the mid to late 1920s it became evident that the school site, enclosed in a corner between a busy main road and railway, was unsuitable and likely to become even more so with the great increase in road traffic.

The building was actually condemned by HM Inspectors but, due to the gathering storm clouds of another war in Europe, nothing was done until 1945 when Governors bought the Priory Estate as the future home of a new Camp Hill School.

During World War II, the school was evacuated to Warwick on September 4th 1939, returning to Birmingham in July 1940. Whilst in Warwick the school shared the buildings of the High School, who used them from 8am to midday, and then Camp Hill used them from 2pm to 6pm.

The school re-opened at Camp Hill on 4th September 1940, and was then evacuated to Lichfield on November 26th 1940. During the interval, a member of the third form was killed in an air raid and an incendiary bomb destroyed part of the roof of the school hall, and was prevented from destroying the rest of the building by Mr Young, the porter, who put out the fire before it took hold. A few days after the evacuation to Lichfield, the school windows were blown out and the roof badly damaged.

In Lichfield, the school shared the buildings of the Friary School; and by the end of the year a headquarters had been found in Lichfield. It was not large enough to accommodate the whole school, and some remained at the patched up building in Birmingham, with staff regularly travelling between the two locations to teach.

The two parts of the school were reunited when the evacuation came to an end in the summer of 1943.

In November 1964 a small group of former Camp Hill evacuees, representing the Old Girls’ Club, and accompanied by Miss Miller, attended a special service of dedication in Lichfield Cathedral. On behalf of the Old Girls, Miss Miller handed to the Dean of the Cathedral a cheque for the Cathedral Fabric Fund, in thanksgiving for the hospitality shown by Lichfield people to Camp Hill during the war. The visit led to a happy re-union between one evacuee and her former “billeters”.

During the summer term of 1930 an optional school uniform was introduced. It was recorded in the Editorial for the Summer 1930 edition of 'Twixt Road and Rail thus:

"A uniform, in the school colours, either blue or green, has this term come into being. As it is not compulsory, the uniform is not general throughout the School, but those who have it present a most neat and business-like appearance. (An appearance which does not give a false impression, we hope)."

This is the official photograph celebrating the school’s jubilee 1883-1933. The image has been restored and made available as a high-resolution download for you to explore.

In 1935, in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of 1933, the Old Girls' Club presented the school with a stained-glass window. Unfortunately it was shattered by the blitz in 1940. The fragments were preserved and reassembled. The Golden Jubilee Window was designed by Donald Brooke and is installed above the doors leading from the West Staircase into Reception in the school's main building at King's Heath.

The school’s new headmistress, Miss Muriel Mandville, had already joined the school on the retirement of the long-serving and very appropriately named Miss Keen after 30 years.

Under the new leadership of Miss Mandville (1943-1962), the school was brought back together, although great problems had to be overcome, with war damaged buildings, planning for the new school, and a rapid increase in school numbers.

During her almost 20 years as headmistress, the school owed much to her guidance.

Miss Mandville retired in December 1962, the picture shows her with the tablecloth, designed by Miss Crump and embroidered by the entire staff, which depicted places with which she had been associated, including Oxford and King's Heath.

The years between 1943 and the move to a new school in 1958 saw increasing overcrowding and the need for more space for school use.

Numbers grew from just 340 girls in 1943 to 550 in 1957, but the waiting ended in July 1958 when the move to the present school site in Kings Heath, Birmingham, took place.

The site was formerly occupied by a large Victorian house, known as "The Priory", which was for many years the home of the Cartland family who owned the whole estate now occupied by the two Camp Hill Schools.

The new school buildings were officially opened on Monday, May 25th 1959 by Sir Charles Morris, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University and former Head Master of King Edward's School.

The Cartland Family & The Priory Estate
The Cartland family first lived at The Priory between 1843 and 1851; according to the census returns John Cartland was a brass founder who lived in the house with his wife Ann, their eight children and four servants. The eldest son, John Howard Cartland, was the great-uncle of Dame Barbara Cartland; he died in 1940 just 27 days before the two heirs to the Cartland estate, Ronald and Tony Cartland were killed in the retreat from Dunkirk.

The great avenue of trees of the main drive was marked on the Tithe Map of 1843, as were the pine trees in front of the school and the pond and its surrounding trees.

The Parent-Teacher Association was founded in 1945 “to increase the occasions when Home and School can meet so that each can better understand the other, and thus co-operation become even more fruitful”.

Previously, meetings for parents and staff had been held at irregular intervals, two or three times a year. Having a formally constituted body, with a regular programme of meetings, talks and discussions has proved an immense asset to the school. In addition, the PTA has given the school several valuable gifts - including benches for the playground and sports trophies - as well as raising money for equipment and events.

In 2012 the PTA changed from a PTA to an Association of Friends of the School (AFS) with a new constitution. The constitution was accepted at the Annual General Meeting on 2nd October 2012.

When Miss Joan Miller became headmistress she was no stranger, as a former member of staff at King Edward’s in nearby Handsworth. She was a genius for winning the technical and financial aids the school needed at the time.

An able administrator, she kept the school at the forefront of modern development.

During a period of financial stringency and the curtailment of building schemes, she instigated extensions to a school building only nine years old.

Part of an appreciation of Miss Miller stated:

"Her wide and progressive outlook was soon reflected in the widening of the curriculum, the encouragement of experimental courses and methods and the provision of improved conditions and equipment to allow staff and girls to work to best advantage. The Sixth Form in particular expanded under her leadership and another project she had very much at heart was the building of a swimming pool in the school grounds (available from 1972)."

A Sixth Form block was opened on September 12th 1968 by the Bishop of Birmingham.

The boys' school used the ground floor and the girls' school used the first floor.

The first extension to this building was officially opened in January 2000 by Mrs Judith Dorricott, then Bailiff of the King Edward's Foundation.

A much larger extension was completed in 2018 to accommodate the increasing size of the Sixth Form of both schools.

After a great deal of fundraising, construction of the swimming pool started in 1968, and it was available for use from early 1972.

The pool was officially opened, and blessed by the Bishop of Aston, in 1973. (The Bishop confessed he had never blessed a pool before.)

The June Howard Memorial Sports Hall, built as an extension to the Gym, was opened by Miss Miller in the presence of Miss Mandville, her predecessor, and Miss Percival, her successor.

In 2006 the June Howard Memorial Sports Hall was replaced with a large Sports Hall complex that is shared with the boys' school. It also houses the office of the King Edward's Consortium, providing school-based initial teacher training.

Miss Anne Percival was educated at the King Edward VII Grammar School in Coalville, and intended to become an industrial librarian after graduating in Physics from the University of Birmingham.

But she chose teaching instead and taught physics for 20 years at the King Edward VI High School for Girls, for much of the time as Second Mistress.

Miss Percival led Camp Hill into the technological age, introducing more computer-based work, and increasing co-operation between Camp Hill Girls’ School and the Boys’ School next door, especially at Sixth Form level.

The economic climate of the 1980s, with trade depression, restrictions on public expenditure and high unemployment, and the problems caused by declining child populations, inevitably imposed some agonising decisions on her as an administrator.

Additionally, political prejudices against grammar schools (still a factor today) added extra pressures. In her safe tenure, the school celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Princess Anne was present at the Service of Thanksgiving before the lunch at King Edward's Handsworth. Former Camp Hill Headteachers Miss Mandeville and Miss Miller also attended the celebrations.

The Governors gave every student a "silver" centenary medal, bearing the head of King Edward VI.

The school had special sweaters designed and made, and one group of girls organised the manufacture of Centenary Rock in school colours.

An exhibition of memorabilia spanning 100 years was mounted in the Sports Hall, a flowering tree was planted at the front of the School, and a "Time Capsule" was made and filled with 100 items chosen by the Forms to reflect life at the school.

The Time Capsule is a cylindrical container, 3 feet high and 1.5 feet in diameter, blue-green in colour. It was constructed by I.M.I. (Witton) from titanium. On 15th July 1983 it was filled, each item placed within it sealed in a polythene bag to minimise degradation over time; the capsule was then filled with argon gas and sealed. On 9th September 1983, the Time Capsule was buried 2 metres below the main entrance to the school, in a brick-lined chamber.

The instructions document states that "Unless there is some compelling reason or cataclysmic activity to open this capsule prematurely, it is the earnest wish of the entire school that the Capsule is not opened for one hundred years, i.e. not before 15.7.2083 A.D."

Mrs Joan Fisher was a former grammar school girl. She recognised that the school had to move forward to reflect changes in society and several physical changes took place such as modernising the schools changing rooms and renovating the Sixth Form block.

Mrs Fisher was proud to develop the school’s friendly atmosphere and one of the most rewarding comments from an Ofsted report at that time stated that "the harmonious ethos of the school is a significant factor to its success".

Mrs Dru James, the former head of Wolverhampton Girls’ High School, continued to improve the school, in terms of the buildings and the opportunities offered to the girls. Building projects included new ICT rooms, renovating the library, additional science laboratories and geography rooms in the Learning Hub, and joint projects with King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys to improve the dining facilities, building a new Sports Hall, and cookery facilities.

The school also gained recognition as a specialist school: firstly for Maths and Computing, and then also for Languages as a result of being a High Performing Specialist School. She was also instrumental in the school gaining recognition for its work in aspects of Cultural Diversity, the Arts and International work. An Ofsted report for the school stated that:

There are many impressive features that combine to make this an outstanding school that gives excellent value for money. Standards are extremely high. The personal development and well-being of the students are exceptional. The outstanding curriculum and outstanding personal and social education very effectively prepare students for the future. The school’s specialist status has had a direct and beneficial impact on the school and the curriculum. Leadership and management are outstanding.

This was clearly due to the excellent leadership of the headteacher.

Mrs Johnson was promoted to Headteacher on the retirement of Mrs James; prior to this she had been Pastoral Deputy Headteacher at the school since joining us in January 2003. Building projects completed during her tenure as Head, included the Sixth Form block (jointly with Camp Hill Boys’ School) and the Percival Music Centre. Linda was responsible for the development and improvement of a number of areas within the school, including the upgraded locker area, the Psychology and Economics teaching rooms, the MUGA pitch and the recently installed main entrance doors, installed in the summer of 2022. Linda oversaw a rolling programme of refurbishment every year, both in terms of classrooms and office spaces.

Mrs Johnson taught History – a subject she has a huge passion for (especially Russian history). She always said that “teaching is the best job in the world” and she’s prided herself on delivering exceptional standards of teaching and quality experiences for students. Her leadership of numerous trips to New York and Washington over the years, have been some of her absolute highlights.

It was Mrs Johnson who introduced the House Festival and House Fair, which rapidly became staples of the Camp Hill calendar.

Her unfailing support of the King Edward Consortium has meant that hundreds of talented teachers have been trained and are making a difference in schools across the country, the city of Birmingham, and of course, particularly, at Camp Hill.

In recent years we have weathered the storm of covid lockdown disruptions, during which time Mrs Johnson’s experience and calm leadership was of immeasurable value to the school.

An Ofsted inspection during Mrs Johnson’s final year as Headteacher resulted in another Outstanding grading for the school and a report stating that King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls is an inspirational place to be.

Mrs Johnson left behind a culture of excellence, ambition, togetherness and resilience which had been cultivated under her leadership.

"Being your Headteacher has been a privilege and an honour, and has allowed me to influence some of the changes I hope have made Camp Hill a school that celebrates every individual (students and staff), recognising that we all bring something different to our community."

The Percival Music Centre, named after former Headteacher Miss Anne Percival, was opened for use in September 2020.

It provides the school with two dedicated music classrooms and six practice rooms, as well as an office for the Music department staff.

Ms Stevens was promoted to her current position as Headteacher on the retirement of Mrs Johnson.  Prior to this she had been a Deputy Headteacher at the school.