Description: An article from the Guardian Journal from 1973 reads as follows: 'There's no uniform for sixth-form girls at Nottingham's Manning Grammar School - they can even wear trousers if they like. 'We simply ask them to dress as smartly as they would to go to work,' says headmistress Mrs Brenda Hall. A far cry indeed from the charity girls of 1788 at the old High Pavement Grammar School (Manning only assumed a separate identity when it moved into it's own buildings on Gregory Boulevard in 1931). Partly dressed from school funds, the 20 girl pupils were required to bring their grey wool dresses and capes (with white straw bonnets for winter and white muslin tippets trimmed with brown ribbon in summer) to school each Monday morning. Girls - accepted for lessons in reading, writing and sewing - usually joined the school between the ages of 8 and 12, but rarely stayed more than two years. There are grim glimpses of child labour in the school register entries: 'working, never came,' or 'had to support parents, never attended.' Though High Pavement offered art and practical science courses long before other 19th century schools, the girls' education also emphasised the housewifely arts. When the school moved to Forest Fields in the 1890's, the girls had a Laundry lecture room complete with coppers, mangles, ironing boards and drying racks. And a pupil remembers Room 12, the cookery room 'where selected morsels were prepared for the Headmaster's afternoon tea, and the fortunate girl whose culinary effort was chosen was generally suitably rewarded with two pen-nibs.' Though retaining fraternal links with High Pavement - today there is a joint sixth-form society and frequent joint drama and music productions - the girls have led a totally independent existence since Ald. E.L. Manning opened the building named after him, in April 1931. With a new badge (the Manning family arms) came a new uniform of grey and green with 'pork pie' hats - the colours later changed to grey and red - and an airy one-storey building featuring verandas opening on to two quadrangles. Despite 1970's traffic, the school still looks spacious and open on its site opposite The forest - but the only solution to Goose Fair is a school holiday! Last year, the school celebrated it's 40th birthday with a Charity Fair, opened by the Lord Mayor, which raised over £300. Other community service projects include regular help by senior girls at the Sherwood Hospital and the Hyson Green Community Centre. Manning has a flourishing Madrigal Society, sports including ice-skating and squash, holds the city girls' swimming championship, averages five passes per pupil at GCE 'O' level, and, for the second year running, two of its pupils have scooped a £100 travel scholarship awarded by the Nottingham Chamber of Commerce.'