Girls Grammar School

Halstead's Girls' Grammar School in the Colchester Road was opened in 1909 with accomodation for 100 pupils on a fee-paying basis. Its first Head was Miss Amy Brooks. There had been a Boys' Grammar School in Halstead since the sixteenth century but no special provision was made for girls except that parents desiring higher education for their daughters could arrange private tuition. The view seems to have been that the role of the female was to run a home and family and that advanced education was not necessary for them and would therefore be a waste of money. However, in the early years of the twentieth century Government was forced to concede that all children needed technical education, but for girls it was still mainly confined to training in domestic subjects.