| The Abbey | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
 | |
Kendrick Road , , RG1 5DZ England | |
| Coordinates | 51°26′54″N0°57′47″W / 51.448333°N 0.963056°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Private day school |
| Established | 1887 |
| Department for Education URN | 110165 Tables |
| Chair of Governors | Liz Harrison [1] |
| Head | Will le Fleming |
| Gender | Girls |
| Age | 3to 18 |
| Enrolment | 1,006 (2020) [2] |
| Website | http://www.theabbey.co.uk |
The Abbey School is a private selective day school for girls, in Reading, Berkshire, England. [3] [4]
The Abbey School provides education for girls aged 3 to 18 years. The school is based in the centre of Reading, on Kendrick Road. The current Head is Will le Fleming. In 2006, the school had just over 1,000 students throughout the school, from Junior to Sixth Form. [5] The school became an International Baccalaureate World School in 2008. In 2020, the IB cohort averaged 39.6 points, compared to the global average of 30.[ citation needed ]
Founded in 1887, [6] the school moved to its present site in 1905 [6] under the leadership of headmistress Helen Musson.
Notable alumnae include the novelist and social activist Brigid Brophy, the novelist Elizabeth Taylor [7] the educationalist Baroness Brigstocke, [8] and the historian Lucy Worsley. Around 100 years before the school was founded in 1887, the novelist Jane Austen briefly attended Reading Ladies' Boarding School within the Abbey Gateway, [9] [10] [11] which is commemorated by, and incorporated into, the Abbey School's crest. In 2017, HRH The Countess of Wessex visited the school as part of their 130th anniversary celebrations.
The school was founded in 1887 by Francis Paget who later became an oxford bishop, named Reading High School, replacing the privately owned Blenheim House Ladies' School. It was located at London Road (in the building which became the Gladstone Club). The Church Schools Company, instrumental in founding the school, felt that Reading, with its growing population reaching 60,000, was in need of a new school. The school aimed to provide high quality education with a Christian ethos at an affordable price. When founded, the school had an enrolment of 40 girls, which steadily increased to 120 by 1902. [6]
In 1905, the school moved to its current Kendrick Road site. [12] On 16 March 1905 William Methuen Gordon Ducat, the Archdeacon of Berkshire, laid the foundation stone of the school, which featured the inscription, "In aedificationem corporis Christi". This motto, taken from Ephesians IV:12, can still be seen on the school's crest and promotional t-shirts. The new site was a vast improvement on the old site: there were six classrooms, a hall and space for playing fields. [6]
The school changed its name to The Abbey School in 1913, [12] after parting from the Church Schools' Company. The name was chosen to commemorate a former Reading school dating from 1835, which was based in the Abbey Gateway. A previous school in the Abbey Gateway operating in the 18th-century, named Reading Ladies’ Boarding School, included Jane Austen among its pupils. [9] [10] [11] The Abbey is now a day school, after ceasing to accept boarding pupils in 1946, and was a direct grant (C. of E.) grammar school in the 1950s . [6]
As of 2006, roughly 45% of entrants in the Upper Third (year 7) came from the Junior School. Also, students from other schools in Berkshire attended. [13]
As an independent school, Ofsted do not perform inspections of the school. [14] [15] However, Ofsted have inspected the Early Years Centre. [16] The independent schools Inspectorate performed an inspection on the whole school in 2002. [17] In 2004, Ofsted inspected the Early Years Centre only, that is, from ages 3 to 5. [18] The Good Schools Guide produced a report on the Abbey in 2005. [13] [19]
 | This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy.(July 2022) |
Reading Abbey is a large, ruined abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. It was founded by Henry I in 1121 "for the salvation of my soul, and the souls of King William, my father, and of King William, my brother, and Queen Maud, my wife, and all my ancestors and successors." In its heyday the abbey was one of Europe's largest royal monasteries. The traditions of the Abbey are continued today by the neighbouring St James's Church, which is partly built using stones of the Abbey ruins.
The Royal County of Berkshire, commonly known as simply Berkshire, is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London to the east, Surrey to the south-east, Hampshire to the south, and Wiltshire to the west. Reading is the largest settlement and the county town.
Elizabeth Taylor was an English novelist and short-story writer. Kingsley Amis described her as "one of the best English novelists born in this century". Antonia Fraser called her "one of the most underrated writers of the 20th century", while Hilary Mantel said she was "deft, accomplished and somewhat underrated".
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The Abbey Gateway was originally the inner gateway of Reading Abbey, which today is a large, mostly ruined abbey in the center of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. The gateway adjoins Reading Crown Court and Forbury Gardens and is one of only two abbey buildings that have survived intact, the other being the Hospitium of St John the Baptist. It is a grade I listed building, and includes a porters lodge on the ground floor and a large open room above the gate.
Blessed Hugh Faringdon is a Catholic state secondary school in Reading in Berkshire, England. The school has approximately 850 pupils on roll and around 100 teaching and non teaching staff. The school specialises in Mathematics and the Performing Arts. Blessed Hugh Faringdon is one of the many Catholic schools in and around Reading but the only secondary and is under the Trusteeship of the Diocese of Portsmouth. The school is a member of the Partners in Excellence group of schools.
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Reading Abbey Girls' School, also known as Reading Ladies’ Boarding School, was an educational establishment in Reading, Berkshire open from at least 1755 until 1794. Many of its pupils went on to make a mark on English culture and society, particularly as writers. Most famous is Jane Austen, who used the school as a model of "a real, honest, old-fashioned Boarding-school".
