The school was renamed the
North London Collegiate School for Ladies and moved to larger premises in Camden Street on 4 April 1850. Buss was its first headmistress and remained so for the rest of her life. Under her headship, and with the help of family members, the school became a model for
girls' education. By 1865 the school had 200 day girls, with a few boarders, but was still run as a private, family concern, with her father teaching art and her brother Septimus,
scripture. In July 1870 Frances Mary Buss handed over the school to trustees, and in the following year she founded the
Camden School for Girls with the aim of offering more affordable education for girls. Buss was at the forefront of campaigns for the endowment of girls' schools (see
Endowed Schools Act 1869), and for girls to be allowed to sit public examinations and to enter universities. She became the founding president of the
Association of Head Mistresses in 1874, a position she held until 1894, and she was also involved in establishing the Teachers' Guild in 1883 and the Cambridge Training College (later
Hughes Hall) for training teachers in 1885. In 1869 she became the first woman
Fellow of the
College of Preceptors, helping to establish the College's professorship of the science and art of education along with her co-fellow
Beata Doreck in 1872. Her election to a Fellowship of the College in 1873 was the only public recognition she ever received. She was also a member of the Council of the Teachers' Training and Registration Society. Buss was also a
suffragist, participating in the
Kensington Society, a woman's discussion society, and the London Suffrage Committee. She is buried in the churchyard of
Theydon Bois in Essex. ==Legacy==