Portal:Schools/Selected biography/13

Frances Mary Buss (16 August, 1827–24 December, 1894) was a headmistress and an English pioneer of women's education. At age sixteen, she was teaching and occasionally left in charge of her school in Hampstead, London. To help the family finances her mother set up a private school in Kentish Town in 1845, at which Frances assisted. The Buss's school was renamed the North London Collegiate School and moved to larger premises in 1850. Buss was its first Principal and remained so for the rest of her life. Under her headship, the school became a model for girls' education. Buss was at the forefront of campaigns for the endowment of girls' schools, and for girls to be allowed to sit public examinations and to enter universities.