girls were not permitted to eat in the street and had to wear gloves on the journey to and from school. In the beginning, the sixth form was very small with as few as 6 pupils in a year. Transfer to King Edward VI High School for Girls for sixth form studies was not unusual. The school was built on a slope, there are two ground floors, and originally the gymnasium was located in the room on the lower ground floor later used as a Music room. Since the renovation of the church (bought by the school) into a music centre, this room is now used as an ICT suite. To celebrate the centenary of the school in 1983 a new block was built to house a meeting room and the changing rooms for the sports field. In 1997 a new Sixth Form block was built with the help of the King Edward VI Foundation fund. In 2005, the new sports hall was built, using sponsorship money from companies such as O2, and a church organ was bought by the school to be renovated and used for music studies. The school also gained specialist performing arts status. 2011 saw the building of a new library by the field; a modern building with a slanting roof and colourful window panes. This includes a mezzanine area upstairs with computers. Latin was also removed from the curriculum in 2004 and replaced with drama, which had previously been on the curriculum in the late 20th century. Houses School Houses were introduced at the beginning of the 20th century, with each House having its own name and colour. Nightingale house was mauve, Kingsley house was green, Fry was pale blue and Browning was brown. By the 1930s there were awards given for winning competitions against other houses in sports. In the beginning there were House notices in the Playroom and a strict House conduct system. In 1939 four more Houses were added and they were renamed after the different royal Houses – Windsor, Stuart, Tudor, Hanover, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Normandy. In the 1970s the houses were rearranged again and given names of precious stones – Amethyst, Coral, Garnet and Topaz, because of the school's proximity to the Jewellery Quarter. At the end of the 1990s they were renamed once more after famous women – Brontë, Pankhurst, Franklin and Nightingale, and when an extra form group