St Mary's School | |
---|---|
Location | |
, , SP7 9LP England | |
Coordinates | 51°00′22″N2°09′54″W / 51.006°N 2.165°W |
Information | |
Type | Private day and boarding school |
Motto | Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam To the Greater Glory of God |
Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic |
Established | 1945 |
Founder | Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
Closed | 2020 |
Local authority | Dorset |
Ofsted | Reports |
Chair of governors | V Younghusband [1] |
Head teacher | Maria Young [1] |
Gender | Girls |
Age | 9to 18 |
Colour(s) | Green |
Publication | The Beech Tree |
Diocese | Plymouth |
Website | http://www.stmarys.eu/ |
St Mary's School was a private Roman Catholic day and boarding school for girls, founded in 1945 in a rural setting near Shaftesbury, England. The school had a sixth form and was a member of the Girls' Schools Association. After operating at a loss for some time, the school closed in July 2020.
Although the school's postal address was in Dorset, its site lay just over the county border in Wiltshire, within the parish of Donhead St Mary.
St Mary's was founded in 1945 [2] by the nuns of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (also known as the Sisters of Loreto) whose principles are based on the life and works of Mary Ward. Hence it had the same motto as its sister schools in Ascot and Cambridge.
The school became a registered charity [3] in 1995. It was managed by a board of governors, but retained its strong Catholic ethos.
In 2018, the charity had an income of £4.7 million. This was £866,000 less than its expenses, which included £943,000 in bursaries and scholarships that were granted to 96 pupils. [1]
As a Catholic school, pupils attended mass and worship services on a regular basis, and spirituality was considered an important part of school life. The houses took turns to lead services, giving pupils a chance to participate in the service themselves. Spiritual retreats were held by year groups throughout the year. [4]
There were three main houses which were named after places where Mary Ward had lived: Newby, Harewell and York.
The school's pastoral care was commended in the 2007 ISI inspection. [5]
Over half of the school's pupils were boarders, all of them full-time and organised by year groups into five boarding houses. [6]
St Mary's was one of the top performing independent schools in the county. [7] [8] It was one of the few schools in the county which did not suffer from the new GCSE grading system using the English Baccalaureate introduced in 2010, as candidates achieved a 100% pass rate. [9]
After operating at a loss for some years, the school entered administration in mid-July 2020 and was immediately closed. The school's governors wrote that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic had "wiped away" recent financial progress. [10]
Despite lying in Wiltshire, the site was purchased for £10.05 million in January 2021 by Dorset Council, which described it as "suitable for a broad range of services and community uses, which could include provision for Dorset children, supported living for our Dorset care leavers, provision for adults with disabilities, as well as a possible site for businesses to boost our local economy and more besides". [11]
Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, 6 miles east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. The A30 road, which connects London to Penzance, runs through the town. In the 2011 census the population of Sherborne parish and the two electoral wards was 9,523. 28.7% of the population is aged 65 or older.
Ampleforth College is a co-educational fee-charging boarding and day school in the English boarding school tradition. It opened in 1802 as a boys' school. It is located near the village of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England, on the grounds of Benedictine monastery Ampleforth Abbey. The school is located in the heart of a valley with state-of-the-art sports pitches, wooded areas, and lakes. The school holds the oldest purpose-built school theatre in the United Kingdom, a dedicated student pub, its own infirmary and was used to film several scenes from the Harry Potter films.
Donhead St Mary is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, on the county border with Dorset. The village lies about 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) east of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury and stands on high ground above the River Nadder, which rises in the parish.
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Albyn School is a coeducational private day school, founded in 1867 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Albyn was originally an all-girls school before becoming co-educational in 2005. The school has a nursery, primary school and secondary school; pupils can attend from 2 years old to 18 years old.
Sedgehill is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sedgehill and Semley, in the southwest of the county of Wiltshire, England. It lies to the west of the A350 primary route, about 3+1⁄4 miles (5 km) north of Shaftesbury, Dorset.
Ferne House is a country house in the parish of Donhead St Andrew in Wiltshire, England, owned by Viscount Rothermere.
East Knoyle is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, in the south-west of England, just west of the A350 and about 9 miles (14 km) south of Warminster and 5 miles (8 km) north of Shaftesbury, Dorset. It was the birthplace of the architect Sir Christopher Wren. The parish includes the hamlets of Holloway, Milton, The Green, Underhill and Upton.
Chinthurst School is an independent co-educational nursery, pre-preparatory and preparatory school in semi-rural surroundings in the village of Tadworth, Surrey, England, 15 miles south of the centre of London. As a member of the RGS Group, the school is associated with Reigate Grammar School and Reigate St Mary's School. Its pupils' ages range from two to eleven years.
Ludwell is a small village in south Wiltshire, England, approximately 3 miles (5 km) east of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury. It lies within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the A30 Salisbury-Shaftesbury road. For the purposes of local government, Ludwell is part of Donhead St Mary civil parish.
St Claudine's Catholic School for Girls is a girls' Catholic secondary school in Harlesden within the London Borough of Brent. It gained specialism in modern languages since 1996 and became an academy in September 2012.
Sandroyd School is an independent co-educational preparatory school for day and boarding pupils aged 2 to 13 in the south of Wiltshire, England. The school's main building is Rushmore House, a 19th-century country house which is surrounded by the Rushmore Estate, now playing fields, woods and parkland. Sandroyd School was originally established by Louis Herbert Wellesley Wesley as a small private coaching establishment for boys hoping to enter Eton College.
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William Grove, of Shaftesbury, Dorset, and Donhead St. Andrew, Wiltshire, was an English Member of Parliament and lawyer.
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