Putney High School GDST

Putney High School (PHS) was founded in 1893 by the Girls' Public Day School Trust, the Victorian charity that established 26 girls' schools across England as the female equivalent of the great public schools. The school is part of the modern Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) — the national network of 26 schools with 19,500 pupils and 3,500 staff. Putney High has occupied the same Putney Hill site since its 1893 foundation and educates around 1,067 girls aged 4-18 across the Junior School and Senior School. The Headmistress is Suzie Longstaff. The school's distinctive purple uniform — its colour since the original 1893 uniform was established — remains a defining visual feature.

PHS is a member of the GSA and the GDST. The school's A-Level performance places it consistently in the top tier of London girls' schools by Oxbridge offer numbers.

The Old Putneian alumni list runs unusually strong in costume design and the arts. Jenny Beavan, the costume designer who has been nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won three (A Room with a View, Mad Max: Fury Road, Cruella), was educated at Putney High; her career across the Merchant Ivory films, the Mad Max franchise, Sherlock Holmes, Black Beauty and Cruella defines several decades of cinematic costume design. The Thick of It and Sherlock actress Olivia Poulet is another Old Putneian.

In publishing: Ursula Owen CBE, the co-founder of Virago Press in 1973 with Carmen Callil — the foundational feminist publishing house that brought the Virago Modern Classics list into print and republished work by Sylvia Townsend Warner, Christina Stead, Antonia White and many others. In politics and public service: Dame Virginia Bottomley, the former Secretary of State for National Heritage and Secretary of State for Health under John Major; Camilla, Baroness Cavendish, former Director of Policy at 10 Downing Street; Olly, Baroness Grender, former Head of Communications for the Liberal Democrats. In international finance: Sandie Okoro, Senior Vice-President and General Counsel of the World Bank Group. In intelligence: Milicent Bagot, the first female Assistant Director of MI5. In journalism: the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning correspondent Ramita Navai and the Times and Spectator columnist Melanie Phillips. The school operates a substantial bursary programme via the Girls' Day School Trust.