A LOOK BACK


The need for change in response to academic demand is in keeping with the School’s 120+ year history.


“Tere is a very strong culture at BHS:


high expectations, good habits and strong work ethics. Te measure of success of a good school is not really about the top-of-the-class stories, because the best students will be successful pretty much anywhere. It’s about each and every student finding her strength,


her voice and her confidence, helping her reach a level of excellence way beyond what she ever


dreamed possible. Setting the bar high works in a culture where there is a lot of support, and where it is okay to take risks.” MARIETTE SAVOIE,


Chair, BHS Board of Trustees, Mother of three alumnae


Inspired by a mother seeking to educate her six daughters, BHS has been recognised for its academic excellence and achievement from its very beginning. Founded by Mrs. Grosvenor Tucker, who wished to provide her daughters the same high level education they would have received in England, the school opened on September 17, 1894 with 51 pupils and three teachers in two rooms of a rented house on Reid Street. In its opening year the school adopted the Cambridge Local Syndicate examination, underscoring the importance of external examinations and thereby setting the tradition, right from the start, of establishing the highest international standards that is a hallmark of the school today.


BHS also has early philanthropic roots. Knowing that the Reid Street property was inadequate for so critical a mission as educating young girls, in the 1890s Mr. and Mrs. William Barr donated the land on which BHS now sits. Philanthropy continued to serve a prominent role throughout the next century. This history includes occasions where a chronic need for space and other capital improvements inspired its governing body, as well as leading Bermuda citizens, to act. The Hastings building, in fact, is named after General Hastings who created the first building fund and oversaw construction of the Tucker Centre, named in honour of the school’s founder. Some ten years ago, a $3,000,000 campaign helped to expand the IB Renaissance Centre to support the rigorous requirements of the coeducational IB curriculum.


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