The corrugated cast-iron hut that stands to the right of 41 St Andrew’s Road (above) was once the premises of Miss Steff’s School, and forty pupils were taught here from about 1890 until Miss Steff's death in 1939. In October 2024 a planning application was approved to demolish the old hut and replace it with a new extension to the house(24/01226/FUL), plus 24/01226/CND relating to Condition 4 (Historic building recording)

Elizabeth Ann Steff was born at Beauchamp Terrace West in Leamington, Warwickshire near the beginning of 1858 and baptised at All Saints Church, Leamington Priors on 24 January that year. She was , the second daughter of William Steff of Suffolk and Sarah Hinton of Ducklington, who were both working as servants in Oxford when they were married at Holy Trinity Church in St Ebbe's on 3 March 1856. Their eldest daughter Sarah Hinton Steff was born in Oxford in 1857, but they were obviously in Leamington when Elizabeth herself was born a year later.

Soon after Elizabeth's birth the Steff family moved to Headington from Warwickshire, probably to join family there, as on 4 December 1854 at St Andrew's Church Mrs Steff's sister Rachel Hinton (20), described as a publican's daughter, had married Charles Taylor of the Swan Inn in the Croft. Rachel died in May 1858 aged 23, and nine months later on 28 February 1859 at Holy Trinity Church in St Ebbe's, Charles Taylor married his deceased wife's sister, the widow Elizabeth Hudson, née Hinton. The Steffs brought up the only child of the second Mrs Hinton's first marriage, Maud Hudson.

Hence the Steffs were in Headington when Elizabeth's younger brother William was baptised at St Andrew's Church on Christmas Day 1859. Elizabeth's father, who was described in the baptismal register as a servant, was the butler at the Rookery, employed by the Revd John W. A. Taylor and his family. Elizabeth's father appears to have lived most of the time at the Rookery, as he spent the census nights of 1861, 1871, and 1881 there, while his wife and children lived nearby in Church Lane (which was the name of both the present Larkin's Lane and St Andrew's Lane).

The 1861 census shows Elizabeth (3) living at Church Lane with her mother Sarah (described as a butler's wife), her sister Sarah (4), her brother William (1), and her 8-year-old cousin Maud Hudson.

Elizabeth's parents had four more children in Headington, all baptised at St Andrew’s Church: Harry in 1863, Kate in 1865, Edwin in 1867, and Alice in 1869.

In October 1867 W. Steff was listed as a tea dealer in Headington.

In 1871 Elizabeth (13) was still living at Church Lane with her mother Sarah (40) and her younger siblings William (11), Harry (7), Kate (5), Edwin (4), and Alice (1)

In 1873, at the age of 14, Elizabeth was a monitor at the Headington National School (now St Andrew's Primary).

By 1881 the family had moved to 41 St Andrew's Road (then Church Street), and the census shows Elizabeth (23), who was now working as a governess, living there with her mother and brothers William and Edwin.

At some point between 1881 and 1891 Elizabeth started up a small private school for infants aged 3–7 at her parents' house, and the class eventually numbered about forty children. It is not certain exactly when the cast-iron hut was erected to remove the teaching from the house.

At the time of the 1891 census Miss Steff was described as a schoolmistress, living with her retired parents at 41 St Andrew's Road (then described as Rookery Road).

The two Headington primary schools (Old Headington Infant School and New Headington Infant School) were constantly being castigated by the School Inspector for admitting children under the age of three, as they disrupted the work. This may have made Miss Steff's School more attractive, as it continued to thrive even after the Elementary Education Act of 1891 introduced free elementary education for children from the age of three. The children would have remained at Miss Steff’s School until they were seven, avoiding the infant schools, and many of them at the age of seven probably went on to the National School on the London Road (now St Andrew's Primary School) which catered for older children up to school-leaving age.

Elizabeth Steff's mother Sarah Steff died in 1897, and at the time of the 1901 census Elizabeth was living at 39 St Andrew's Road with her 82-year-old father. She was again described as a schoolmistress on her own account.

Her father died in 1908, and the 1911 census shows Miss Elizabeth Steff (53) living in the house on her own. The house was now listed as being "on the bank" in Old Headington, and Miss Steff was described as a private teacher. She was still living here alone, aged 63, at the time of the 1921 census.

Miss Steff retired at the age of 72 in 1931, and continued to live in the house while other teachers ran the school in the hut: first Mrs E. C. Steenbuck (who by 1935 had opened her own private school in Headington, St Anne's School) and then Mrs Ward (probably the Mrs Ward who also went on to run her own private school at 33 Old High Street).

Miss Steff was still living at 41 St Andrew's Road in 1939 when she died at the London Road Hospital (the former workhouse building) at the age of 81. Her funeral was at St Andrew's Church on 9 February, and she was buried in Headington Cemetery. Her effects came to over £2,576.

The school closed on her death. In 1943 and 1945 Kelly's Directory lists an Exclusive Brethren Meeting Room between 39 and 41 St Andrew's Road, so presumably they took over the old hut. By 1947 it was being used as the works building of the decorator A. Thomas, and he was there until 1958. It is listed as vacant in Kelly's Directory for 1960, and thereafter it was part of the house at No. 41.

• There is a photograph of Miss Steff's School in the 1920s in Within Living Memory: Recollections of Old Headington, Oxford

Was there a school at this house before the 1890s?

Mrs Connie Coppock of New Zealand believes that there was a school at this house much earlier. She is the great-great-granddaughter of William Taylor and Elizabeth Russell of Begbroke Hill Farm, and their daughters Elizabeth and Hannah Taylor were teachers in Headington. Their mother had inherited a house (thought to be 41 St Andrew’s Road) from her brother, Samuel Russell, in 1807. (They were the aunts of Charles Taylor, who married two of Miss Steff’s aunts.)