This school started life as one of the United Charity and Sunday Schools that was in Gloucester Green until 1824 when it moved to a garden in Pensons Gardens. In 1835 the boys' school was given up and the girls' enlarged. In 1841 the school adopted the British system and from c.1854 it was known as the Oxford British School for Girls. In 1880 negotiations with the Wesleyans led to the opening of the Girls Central School in New Inn Hall St., in St.Michael's parish, where it remained until 1959, when the school closed, and the pupils transferred to the new Cheney School for Girls in Headington. See Introduction in the searchroom for further details of the school's history.
The records were transferred to the Oxfordshire History Centre and also deposited as Acc 2327 in 1984, as Acc 4119 in August 1996, as Acc 5490 in January 2006 and as Acc 5541 in June 2006 . Additions by Sophie-Elise Anker in July 2015 and Alison Smith in February 2018 and February 2023.