In 1904, a Muganda chief described the lack of a boarding school for girls as ”the muganda’s broken arm.” The ladies conference of CMS recommended that a school should be opened at Gayaza, where there was already a mission station on the land donated by Sir Apollo kaggwa.
On the request of sir Apollo kaggwa, the CMS missionaries established Gayaza high school in January 1905 with 4 girls.

Originally the school was for the daughters of the chiefs and of highly placed people in the society such as clan heads and clergymen.

Careful plans were laid for the care of the girls, including the provision of “only one permissible entrance or exit” and the rule that no girls should go out, even to cultivate, unless accompanied by a matron.
The school started as a girls boarding school. Although, parents didn’t like the freedom the school would give to their girls, chiefs were at first reluctant to let them board, for fear that they would forget how to cultivate.
Even the Europeans wondered whether the mothers would be ready to forego the help they provided for their girls at home and whether the fees. But school began, and by July 1905 there were 43 boarders.

Miss Alfreda Allen, the first headmistress of Gayaza wrote, ”My conviction is that we ought to give these people who are so eager and enthusiastic to learn, the best we can” Two years after the founding of the school. On March 24th 1906 Bishop Tucker opened the hall in the presence of Katikiro of Buganda and many chiefs. Guests arrived on foot or bicycles, rickshaws or donkeys to grace the occasion, on which girls performed a meticulous drill display and delighted the audience by singing. ”Oh dear, what can the matter be?”

The bishop congratulated Miss. Allen on the inauguration of the school, he said “There must be noble women in order to have noble men” in an undated letter to CMS, Miss Allen reports, the school has grown by leaps and bounds.” She continued that a second dormitory has to be built together with a hall, which Bishop Tucker opened later. She said that in his speech, Sir Apollo kaggwa had held special emphasis on the facts that whereas the daughters at home were often idle. The girls were taught useful things, and he was pleased. They were taught ordinary work of women and were not spoiled by being educated. He urged the women present who had no daughters in the school to persuade their husbands to sell a cow to pay for their daughter’s education. In fact some fees were sent to Mr. William’s farm at Namutamba. The income from them was paid to the school each year and provided available source of income, often being used to provide bursaries to help needy girls.

The first prize giving ceremony took place in 1907, where his highness the Kabaka Daudi Chwa aged 11, made his maiden speech; and when the governor visited the school in 1908 he found the Kabaka and his regents and all the chiefs waiting from there to receive him. The school and education of girls, was thoroughly established, and when the time came to marry it was to Gayaza that his highness looked for a bride. The first aim of Gayaza was to train christian wives and mothers to bridge the intellectual gap between husbands and wives.
The curriculum included cultivation, handwork, child care, needlework, scripture reading and writing, arithmetic and Geography.

In her annual letter to CMS, Miss Hattersley(in charge of the school during Miss Allen’s home leave), wrote; As we have no teachers especially for the Bible classes, i have trained some of the elder girls to help in Arithmetic classes, and it is very nice to see the young girls trying hard to teach the matron together with some quite small children the very simple rules of Arithmetic.

Discipline was a problem, as the cheif’s daughters were disciplined to obey the matrons whom they regarded as their social inferiors, even though they helped in the teaching of handwork and scripture. Girls who were slow to get up in the mornings found doors locked by the time darkness fell because there were no lights in the dormitories, for fear that they would write forbidden letters.