Founded in 1875 by Mrs. Selina Martha Shrubsole as a private (independent) day (and for a time, boarding) school for girls and young boys. Its first premises were at 38 (later 20) Havelock Square, in the Broomhall area of Sheffield. In 1885 the school relocated to 'Broomfield', a house on Twentywellsick (later Twentywell) Lane in the Dore district, where it was in existence until 1922.

The school was re-opened in 1924 by Miss Dorothy A. Trott, a former pupil at Broomfield, in St. John's church rooms, Abbeydale. She and the school moved to Brook House on Grove Road, Totley Rise, in 1933.

In 1939 there were over 200 pupils at the school which by the 1950s occupied three large houses on Grove Road. Laboratories and a gymnasium were added to the site after the war. The gradual decline in pupil numbers in the 1960s led to the school's closure in July 1966. The school buildings were subsequently used by Sheffield Polytechnic until their demolition in 1978.

Image taken from school prospectus, 1964 (Sheffield City Archives: DT/1 No. 6).