Ltd, was incorporated on 12 December 1901. Its board of directors was chaired by W. V. R. Fane. By early January 1902, the directors had issued 2,500 shares at a £1 each and proceeded to allotment. Margaret Lewer, from Lincoln High School, was appointed headmistress and the school scheduled its opening for after Easter. Shortly before the school opened, the board of directors had asked the county council for grant in aid towards equipping and maintaining the school buildings, but the Board of Education would not sanction it because the school was for-profit. The school opened on 6 May 1902 and had 23 girls in attendance on its first day, taught by Lewer and two members of staff; there were five boarders. 1902–19: Private school The school was arranged into three forms: the youngest (kindergarten) were under 8; the middle were juniors, aged 8 to 12; and the eldest (seniors) were aged over 12. Boys under the age of 8 could attend. Most students were fee-paying. The amount depended on their form; in 1905, the parents of a child in kindergarten paid £1 5s a term, while the termly fees for juniors were £2 12s and for seniors £3 3s. These fees covered the provision of a "main course", while parents would pay additional fees towards stationery and meals, and could opt (at further cost) for their children to partake in games and "extra" courses (see Curriculum). As soon as the school opened, the Technical Instruction Committee agreed to add the school to the list of places where the county's Minor Scholarships were tenable. These enabled girls to attend without paying fees, but there were relatively few and girls qualified by sitting the eleven-plus examination; the number of free places changed depending on the number of fee-payers. The school occupied Kirk's house on Southgate, where the main school room for juniors (with 21 desks) overlooked the long gardens which had been laid out as croquet and tennis lawns. The kindergarten room overlooked Southgate and doubled as the dining room, while the senior pupils occupied a room upstairs set up for 11 pupils. The headmistress, assistant mistresses and boarders also lived in the building. By 1904, a brick building had been added to the site (at the end of the house's garden), adding four classrooms, a music room and a cloakroom. A dining room and dormitory for boarders were added to