A History of Girls at Reed's
Girls at Reed’s were an integral part of the school from its very beginning in 1813 when Amelia Nash, the daughter of an Excise officer, became the first pupil to be admitted (she is pictured below as an adult). Three years later the first boys entered the school. By 1818 a total of 64 children were in the care of the charity - 37 girls and 27 boys.
Seven years later our Founder, Reverend Andrew Reed, saw his vision become a reality when, in July 1825, the children were moved into a new permanent home for the school in Clapton. The girls and boys were kept segregated, apart from mealtimes and chapel services but there was a distance maintained between them under strict supervision.
The boys’ first Headmaster was Reverend Robert Heath who also performed the role of Chaplain for the whole school. It seems the Governors had a challenge selecting and retaining a Headmistress for the girls as between 1825 and 1834 a succession of candidates came and went, and it wasn’t until 1834 that a widow, Mrs Anne Freeman, became the school’s fourth Headmistress, a position she held for nineteen years, the longest serving Headmistress in the school’s history.
Anne Freeman proved to be an efficient and steadying influence after a rather turbulent beginning for the girls at Clapton, but it was her successor, Miss Matilda Brandenburger, who became the first Headmistress to have a significant impact on the development of the girls’ education. A former pupil herself between 1832 and 1839, Miss Brandenburger developed and maintained extremely high standards for her girls and staff alike and the visiting school inspector in 1864 commented that the excellence in every aspect of the school, “happily relieves me with the necessity of offering any suggestive remarks.”
Following a deadly outbreak of typhoid the school moved to a new site adjacent to Watford Railway Junction and opened in 1871. The greenfield site was purpose built and, like the design at Clapton, the boys and girls were kept apart except for mealtimes and chapel services. Within three years of settling at Watford the number of pupils stood at 525.
The arrival of Miss Edith Haines as Headmistress in 1909 proved to be a significant step change. She changed the girls’ dress code, introduced self-governance and encouraged self-expression. The introduction of House names gave each girl an identity and a sense of belonging. Miss Haines forged strong links with former pupils, something that had never been done before but which continues to this day. She set up and actively supported numerous clubs and societies such as the Guides and Brownies, the Debating Society, the Shakespeare Club, the Science Club, House Singing, music, drama productions, form libraries and garden clubs. Wherever possible and practical she encouraged supervised trips to the theatre, historic monuments, art galleries and exhibitions.
“She found an institution, but made it a school into which she brought an entirely new spirit, creating through her own keen enthusiasm a desire in all to make it proud of itself and not sorry for its orphanhood.”
Her arrival in 1909 heralded the beginning of a forty-six-year period which saw three successive Headmistresses transform the school. Between them, Edith Haines, Sarah Orsborn and Kathleen Mills left an indelible mark on successive generations of “Watfordian Girls”, one that developed a desire to make the best of what came their way and led to a deepening of each girl’s self-respect.
The outbreak of the Second World War led to the evacuation of all the pupils from Watford. The boys went to a closed hotel in Totnes, Devon and the girls were placed in several large country houses in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire. The dislocation of the school was immense, but those responsible for managing the process did an excellent job through extremely challenging times.
By the time the war in Europe had ended, the Governors had been looking at their options for re-establishing the school and getting it back on its feet as quickly as practicable. The site at Watford was no longer available as the Government needed the site as an administrative hub to begin the task of rebuilding the Country’s shattered infrastructure and housing stock.
The Governors had to act fast and by late spring 1945 a new site for the girls was found at Dogmersfield Park near Fleet in Hampshire and by October the first senior girls had moved in. As for the boys, the old Sandroyd School at Cobham became their new home and so ended their direct link with the girls.
Dogmersfield proved a very popular place, but soon after moving in the expenditure started to mount up. Inflation was a key factor and between 1947 and 1955 expenditure across both school sites exceeded income, a situation that became untenable for the charity. Eventually, after considerable deliberations on the part of the Governors, it was concluded that Dogmersfield must close. Cobham had been built as a school and required less adaptation. Dogmersfield was an older structure and would cost more to maintain. In July 1955 the Girls’ School closed.
Although a small number of girls came to the school during the 1970s and 1980s, it was thirty-six years after the closure of Dogmersfield before any significant numbers started to be admitted to Reed’s. In the spring of 1991 fifty boys and girls, the sons and daughters of expatriate Dutch workers in the UK, came to Reed’s. They were part of the Rijnlands Lyceum at Wassenaar and had been renting accommodation at the nearby American Community School in Cobham, but now these facilities were needed for their own use. “The Dutch School” as it was affectionately called proved to be a happy partnership and one that lasted nearly eighteen years.
In the coming years more girls joined the school’s Sixth Form. By the year 2000 there were 22 girls out of a total of 110 Sixth Formers. The number of girls has continued to rise and today there are 140 girls in the Sixth Form. A new era for girls at Reed's School was introduced in May 2026 when Governors announced that the school was to return to its roots by becoming fully co-educational. The first girls in Year 7 will arrive in September 2027 and the school will be fully co-educaitonal by September 2031.
