Queen Mary's High School, situated on Upper Forster Street, just outside Walsalltown centre, is an all-female selective-education and grammar school and entry in Year 7 is by passing an entrance exam. It is twinned with Queen Mary's Grammar School, and like the Grammar School is part of the Queen Mary's Foundation. The main body of the school is girls only, but the Sixth Form is open to applicants of both sexes conditional on a minimum grade achievement at GCSE. This policy is similar to that of Queen Mary's Grammar School. However, there are a very small number of males who attend the school- no more than ten in a school of 1000. The school gained an outstanding level in the Ofsted report when it was last inspected in 2007. The school was a Language College and it is compulsory for pupils to take Mandarin, French, German, or Spanish from year seven to GCSE level; Japanese had until recently also been an option. In Year 8, pupils begin studying an additional language. Pupils visit Spain, France or Germany in Year 8, according to which of these languages they are studying. The school also sponsors exchanges with schools in Germany and Japan. Pupils can also take Latin or Greek every three years as an extra-curricular activity, culminating in an additional GCSE. Class sizes in the lower school are currently around 24 girls, with Design Technology classes being in groups of 16. However, Year 7 of the 13/14 academic year, and all subsequent years, have class sizes of around 30, as the school has increased the number of students it can take. Sixth-form classes have a minimum of about 8 students and a maximum of 20. The school is divided into houses named after famous 19th-century female authors - Austen, Bronte, Eliot and Shelley, the latter being a new house in the 2012/13 academic year. Each house has a member of staff in charge of it, a captain from Year 13 and a vice-captain from Year 12. After 11 years of being headteacher at the school, Diana Woods retired at the end of the 2008/09 term. She was replaced by the deputy headteacher at Wolverhampton Girls School, Dr Alison Bruton, who is also a Physics teacher, and achieved her doctorate near the end of the 12/13 academic year. QMHS also has an Old Girl's Club which was formed to promote and maintain contact between former pupils and with the school. It has a membership of over 300 with an active committee who support and get involved with the interests of the school whilst maintaining contact with its members through an Annual Reunion Luncheon, annual newsletter and social events. The club tries not to lose touch with the girls who leave the school. Famous alumni of the school include Meera Syal.
