[2] Although no girls were admitted to Bury Grammar School when it was founded, on its re-founding by Rev’d Prebendary Roger Kay in 1726 he bequeathed money specifically for girls’ education, his bequest stating: "I charge my Estate called Warth in Rattcliff with the payment of five pounds yearly" in order that ten poor girls born, or to be born, in the parish and town of Bury might receive an education "to make them perfect in their Reading the Bible, to teach 'em to write well, and to be good Accountants to fit 'em for Trades or to be good Servants".

Mr. Henry Webb, Bury's representative on the Hulme Trust, had moved a resolution that "it is desirable that a High School for Girls be formed."

There were 23 girls in attendance and lessons (Latin, French, science, mathematics, English, music, needlework and games) were taught from 9.00am to 1.00pm, with a half hour break each day.

Gone would be the cramped conditions of the old town house where the girls had to traipse all the way upstairs in order to change their outdoor boots for indoor shoes and whose only claim to fame was a gravel tennis court and instead there would be spacious classrooms, an art room, a laboratory and, in the none too distant future there would be a glorious central hall.

[7]With both the boys' and girls' sides of the building filled, the cornerstone of a new, shared assembly hall was laid (with full Masonic ritual)[6] in 1906.

First called simply The New Hall, it was soon renamed after its donor, Henry Whitehead,[8] High Sheriff of Lancashire and a descendant of Roger Kay.

[11][12] One James Law wrote on behalf of himself and another Bury man, both serving on Ajax, who visited the school in March 1916.

There are also letters referring to support for the Church Army, the Minesweepers' Fund, the Red Cross Comforts Section and various refugee organisations.

In World War II, the girls were found knitting for the troops and the Merchant Navy, making of camouflage nets, offering financial and material help to refugees and those in bombed areas.

Expanding to fill the available space, the girls' school reached 1 000 pupils in 1984, during the headship of Miss Joyce Batty.

Their choice is made from a wide list of subjects including art & design, business studies, drama, food & nutrition, geography, history and textile technology.

[16] Pupils leaving the school proceed to a wide range of universities, including Oxbridge, as well as directly into industry and commerce.

Music groups annually go on tour in Europe and over the past few years have performed in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, and have also visited the United States.

[14][23] Although still functioning as separate institutions, the boys’ and girls’ schools have long shared a single board of governors.

He went up to Magdalene College, Cambridge, and after graduation became the curate of Bury Parish Church, a living in the patronage of the Earl of Derby.

Dunster left his posts in Bury in 1640 when, like many other Puritans dissatisfied with developments in both church and state, and probably in anticipation of a civil war, he emigrated to Massachusetts.

[24] Derek Calrow, an Old Clavian, a Governor and Chair of the Schools' Development Committee, serves as the Patron of the Henry Dunster Society.