Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron)
Miss Minchin is the headmistress of the school which Sara attends and considers etiquette and discipline more important than imagination and character. She rules over the girls with an iron fist and makes them all follow a rigid, strict daily schedule.
Along with bossing around her younger sister Amelia (Rusty Schwimmer), she has no patience with slow students and shows little mercy when giving out punishments as well.
In the beginning when Sara arrives at the school, Miss Minchin considers her a troublemaker right from the start but keeps her opinions to herself because of Sara's father.
She herself has amassed quite a fortune, draining the pockets of her students rich parents justified by large sums of money that she spends on the girls.
Miss Minchin begins to dislike Sara even more after discovering that she speaks even better French than her and embarasses her in front of Monsieur Dufarge (Lomax Study) who is the French teacher at the school. Discovering that Sara also has an active imagination and believes that all girls are princesses doesn't help very much either.
After Sara's father is declared killed in action, Miss Minchin becomes furious after discovering that she will not be compensated for the expenses that she had spent on Sara. She makes Sara a servant girl and confiscates all of her belongings
including a locket which is Sara's only memory of her mother.
Sara and Becky manage to get back at her by dumping a bucket of soot down the chimney while she is playing her harp in the room.
On night, Miss Minchin bursts into Sara's room after discovering that the locket she had confiscated was missing. To her surprise, she finds the room decorated in silk and comfortably furnished. She accuses Sara of stealing these things and Sara denies it. She decides to call the police to take her away and locks Sara and Becky in their rooms.
When the police arrive and discover that Sara is trying to escape to the house next door on a plank, Miss Minchin nearly gets Sara killed after trying to grab her.
Luckily, Sara manages to grab on to a ledge after falling and pull herself up and escape into the house.
After Miss Minchin discovers that Sara's father is still alive and Sara claims him to be her father, Miss Minchin denies it and tells the police that Sara has no father. Luckily, Sara's father manages to regain back his memory in time and clear everything up.
Due to Miss Minchin's mistreatment towards Sara, her assets are seized and she becomes a chimney sweep while the school is put under the care of Charles Randolph (Arthur Malet).
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