Her parents were Maria (born Westmacott) and Gabriel Stone Poole who was a solicitor.
[2] Her husband died 1883 and she was considered as a candidate to Girton College's mistress but she took the position of assistant mistress at the Girls' Public Day School Company's Sheffield high school.
Sandford taught divinity, history, and literature there until 1886 when she became the head of The Queen's School in Chester.
She extended the curriculum including languages, mathematics, chemistry, gymnastics, and she introduced a novel approach to art developed by Robert Aplett in Bradford.
In 1895 she had a public debate with the suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett on the question of women having the vote.