North Yorks
Headmaster: Peter Roberts
Takes: boys and girls, aged 13-18
Originally founded for 70 boys by the Benedictine monks at Ampleforth Abbey in 1802, Ampleforth has around 500 pupils today, of whom 70 per cent are Catholic. Pupils come from all over the UK, some from as far as Dundee and Plymouth. Day pupils remain under 20 per cent. The school is popular with Brits who live abroad and international students. Exam results are consistently good with approximately 70 per cent going on to Russell Group universities although the school welcomes pupils of all abilities.
Although the monastery is not involved with school governance, the Benedictine ethos remains strong. A monastic chaplain is attached to every house, and there are prayers, retreats, student-led Lectio Divina, Mass at least weekly and many Chaplaincy activities.
Pupils can choose from many activities after lessons and at weekends with Friday afternoons devoted to extra-curricular pursuits. The choice of musical ensembles is broad (including a bagpipe band), plus drama, art, sports, dance, CCF, numerous academic societies from model United Nations to eco-engineering, community work, charity fundraising, countryside pursuits, jewellery- making, gardening, canoeing and cooking. Facilities include shooting ranges, an equestrian school, a dance studio, the school’s own shoot, and fishing lakes.
The school’s headmaster Peter Roberts, a convert to Catholicism, took over in 2023.
Boarding fees: £14,430 per term Day fees: £10,040 per term
Somerset
Headmaster: Andrew Hobbs
Takes: boys and girls, aged 13-18
Approximately three-quarters of the pupils at Downside are boarders and more than 70 per cent are Catholic. The school is proud to nurture a wide range of abilities. Headmaster Andrew Hobbs has been in the role since 2018 having previously been deputy head for 10 years. He is popular with pupils all of whom he knows by name. Staff and pupils, including the headmaster himself, all sit together at meal times in the school’s grand and historic dining room, which serves excellent food (the beef stroganoff is especially good).
Art, drama, design and technology as well as music are popular; concerts take place in the abbey church while pupils act in plays in a 450-seat theatre. The full range of sports is available and the surrounding sports fields are beautifully maintained.
Now the monks have left for Buckfast, the Chaplaincy team, headed by the young and approachable Fr Michael Patey, who previously taught maths at the school, is assisted by a lay Benedictine community, the Manquehue community, who are based close to the school and offer support by leading Lectio Divina groups and assisting with the pastoral side of things.
Boarding fees: £10,100 to £13,550 per term Day fees: £6,850 to £8,130 per term.
West Sussex
Headmistress: Antonia Beary
Takes: girls, aged 11-18
Founded by Mother Cornelia Connelly just over 150 years ago, Mayfield is one of the UK’s oldest and most prestigious all-girls senior schools. Based in the Sussex countryside, it welcomes day girls and boarders aged 11-18, from the UK and abroad. Mother Cornelia’s vision for the school, educating girls to respond to the needs of the age, is still very much alive today. She wanted the girls to use their talents in order to move society forward, to reach out to those less fortunate than themselves.
The School’s “Actions not Words” programme, run by Lay Chaplain Ron- an Lavery, encourages community service and provides opportunities for girls to help both loc-ally and further afield. Outreach work includes hosting lunches and teas for the elderly and plenty of charity fundraising activities.
Mayfield does well academically and last year achieved 84 per cent A*-B grades at A level, with over 10 per cent achieving Oxbridge places. Three Lower Sixth students were recently placed second (out of 140 entrants) in a nationwide engineering competition, with their innovative plan to reduce carbon emissions across the school and local community.
While maths and science are among the most popular subjects at A level, the School is also known for its creative side, with art, ceram-ics, music and drama all proving popular. “This is very much by design as these are all subjects that allow room for experimentation and making mistakes. The importance of allowing girls the time and space to make mistakes at School is seen as key to learning fundamental life skills such as resilience, adaptability and teamwork,” the school explains.
The riding facilities, which include indoor and outdoor arenas, are a major draw, and girls may bring their horse to School. Mayfield has won more equestrian titles than any other school and is the current holder of the National Schools Inter-County Team Dressage title. Mayfield girls progress to prestigious universities including Oxford and Cambridge, and increasingly to the US and Europe, to study a wide range of subjects, with a regular stream of engineers, medics, vets, lawyers, economists and architects.
Day fees: £9,100 per term Boarding fees: £14,100 per term
Boreham, Chelmsford
Headmistress: Katherine Jeffrey
Takes: boys and girls, aged 1-18
New Hall School is a large day and boarding school for students aged 1 to 18. It is housed in Henry VIII’s Palace of Beaulieu and set in 70 acres. There are five divisions within New Hall’s 1,300+ student community: nursery, pre-preparatory, preparatory, girls’ and boys’, and sixth form. This, the school explains, ensures that students quickly feel at home in their smaller community while being an integral part of the whole school. This year, New Hall was shortlisted for the “Independent Prep School of the Year” award at the Independent Schools of the Year Awards.
Students meet every week in the historic and beautiful chapel, which has been a place for daily prayer for over 200 years. They participate in planning liturgies and take an active role in various ministries as servers, readers and musicians. In addition, the chaplaincy team holds Masses every Sunday and Wednesday, and at the start and end of each term. A smaller chapel in the preparatory school introduces the younger children to the Faith.
A distinctive aspect of New Hall is its “Diam-ond Model” where from ages 1 to 11 and in the Sixth Form, lessons are co-educational, whilst from age 12 to 16, students have single-sex lessons. The school believes that a key benefit of this style of education is the ability to tailor the pastoral and academic provisions to meet the needs of young people more sensitively during the natural progression of adolescence.
Outside the classroom students mix socially and in co-curricular clubs and activities. New Hall has more than three hundred clubs between the Preparatory and Senior Divisions across a variety of interests, including sport, performing arts, and even cookery with its own Leiths Cookery Academy programme. The school is dedicated to instilling the Christian values of service to others, with many volunteering through the New Hall Voluntary Service, which has hosted lunches for the elderly in the community for 45 years.
Girls and boys can board from Year 3 either as full or flexible boarders, the latter staying overnight for one to six days a week. The school attracts both international boarders and those who live within the UK, whether locally or slightly further afield. An unusual but highly successful aspect of New Hall School is its on-site farm, home to goats, sheep, ponies, pigs, ferrets, ducks, geese, rabbits, guinea pigs, peafowl, quail and a host of mini beasts. Students are encouraged to observe, hold and care for the animals as part of lessons, after-school clubs or the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Prep school day fees: up to £4,878 per term; Boarding fees: £7,818
Senior school day fees: up to £7,539 per term; Boarding fees: £11,991 per term
Weybridge
Headmistress (Senior): Rachel Owens
Headmaster (Junior): Antony Hudson
St George’s Weybridge is an ISI excellent, academically ambitious co-educational day school in Surrey. As the only Josephite Catholic school in the UK, St George’s has a unique ethos that infuses pastoral care with academic and charitable achievement. Built on this ethos, including the values of Politesse and Douceur, Honesty and Compassion, Zeal and Happiness, the school supports a strong sense of family, where all students are valued and encouraged to fulfil their potential.
The school achieves outstanding results in public exams yet purposely doesn’t take part in national league tables, and is passionate about “Value Added”, a measure of a student’s progress, and the difference brilliant teaching and learning can make to the raw ability of a student. St George’s Value Added is in the top 5 per cent of schools nationwide, helping students achieve grades at GCSE and A-level beyond those expected.
St George’s Weybridge has two sites, with the Junior School set in the heart of Weybridge on 70 acres and the College on the outskirts of town on a campus of 100 acres. There is also a St George’s boat house on the Thames at Walton. There is an Early Years building, swimming pool, Forest School and astro hock-ey pitch at the Junior School; and a state of the art Activity Centre, Tennis Centre, theatre and new science labs at the College. There over 100 co-curricular activities each week at both the Junior School and the College, including “Myths and Legends” and Lego Robotics, debating and chamber choir, ballet and football.
Headmistress Rachel Owens describes a perfect prospective student as “sparkly-eyed” at the opportunities available at St George’s. Students are active in the local community, sup-porting charities and state schools including two weeks of Georgian Outreach each summer, in which they take part in projects such as conservation of local green spaces, providing company and entertainment for care home residents, and helping the Salvation Army’s food bank. Sixth Form students run a year-round weekly club that provides fun, games and companionship for vulnerable displaced young people living in the local community.
Fees: Juniors: up to £5,970 per term; College: £8,055
Ascot
Headmistress: Danuta Staunton
Takes: girls, aged 11-18
One of the foremost Catholic girls’ schools in the country, St Mary’s Ascot has long been in the top drawer of independent schools and attracts the ambitious and socially well connect- ed. It regularly tops the league tables in both GCSEs and A-levels. Of the 390 girls, 98 per cent are Catholic; admissions favour daughters, sisters and early registrations (they suggest you apply at least two years in advance).
The chaplain, Father Dermot, is an important part of daily life and girls enjoy Mass in the school’s private chapel. Headmistress Danuta Staunton has made her mark with impressive results – she is now in her fourth year. Most pupils are full-boarders so weekends are packed with activity and the school is regarded as one of the best traditional boarding schools in the country, attracting international girls as well as from around Britain.
Day boarding fees: £10,155 per term Full boarding fees: £14,260 per term
Lancashire
Headmaster: John Browne
Takes: boys and girls aged 3 to 18
The Jesuit college educates close to 530 boys and girls, with around two-thirds boarding. At Stonyhurst St Mary’s Hall, the adjacent dedicated preparatory school, there are around 280 pupils aged 3 to 13 (boarding starts from the age of 9). Stonyhurst is set on a 1,000-acre estate in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, and is the oldest continuously active Jesuit school in the world. It was founded in St Omer, northern France (then the Spanish Netherlands) in 1593, and moved to its present site in Lancashire in 1794. Throughout the years of religious persecution in England, Stonyhurst educated the boys of the English Catholic aristocracy and gentry. Stonyhurst’s Jesuit mission and identity, and its sense of family, seem to set it apart from other schools. Pupils are urged to do as much as they can for others, following the example of Jesus Christ and the spirit and charism of the Jesuits, living by the school motto Quant Je Puis (As Much as I Can). The school achieves high academic results and offers an extensive range of co-curricular activities.
The Sixth Form offers three options for study: A-level, International Baccalaureate Diploma and the Cambridge Technical Diploma. Each route provides a wide range of subjects to choose from and a pathway to suit different learners. “At the centre of the educational miss- ion is the Jesuit ideal of finding God in all things, where young people develop the habit of reflec-tion and grow in their personal relationship with God,” the school explains. “Pupils are helped to appreciate what they have and learn to make the most of their talents. They are actively enc- ouraged to do their best in everything and to celebrate the successes of others through a spirit of gratitude and generosity.” The struct-ure for pastoral care is designed to ensure each pupil feels emotionally secure and knows whom to turn to for support. Pupils in Stonyhurst’s care are given the individual attention, resourc-es and space in which to grow intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. Supported by world-class facilities, Stonyhurst has a strong reputation for rugby, tennis, hockey, netball and cricket. Facilities include a nine-hole golf course, swimming pool, an all-weather pitch and a Grand Slam standard indoor tennis facility. The school’s co-curricular offer is rich and varied with over 70 activities taking place each year; as well as sport, music and drama, these include dance, fencing, debating, social enterprise, scuba diving and astronomy.
Full boarding fees: from £10,345 per term Day fees: £5,185 per term
Croydon
Headmaster: Dominic Rose
Takes: boys aged 11 to 18
The Cedars is one of three schools founded by a group of Catholic parents and educators seeking to work in partnership to help each pupil acquire moral, intellectual and social virtues within a framework of Catholic principles.
Parents looking for a single sex education are being drawn to The Cedars, now in its 11th year, where an understanding of what motivates young men and a recognition of their unique purpose informs both curricular and pastoral decisions. The development of the four core human virtues of personal responsibility, good judgment, resilience and self-control are pivotal to the success of The Cedars.
The school, whose ethos is inspired by Opus Dei, draws pupils from across its local area and there is a clear sense of an ethnically diverse but socially united school. Though there are currently fewer than 300 students on roll, the number continues to grow. The most recent ISI report highlighted the excellent personal development of the students, who demonstrate an outstanding sense of community. The school motto In Gaudio Serviamus (May we serve joyfully) is inspired by the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes which expresses that we only find ourselves through making a sincere gift of ourselves.
The school has a strong music department; despite being small, it is developing a steady reputation in sport as the boys compete against some of the best local schools.
Mass is available throughout the week and there are regular opportunities for Confession and adoration; the school chaplain is Fr George Boronat. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of The Cedars is the tutorial system, the goal of which is to help each pupil, through fortnightly meetings, to reach his potential in every area of his life. In line with the PACT vision which sees parents as primary educators, tutors stay in close contact with parents throughout the year so as to provide an effective reinforcement of the values at home.
Fees: £5,650 to £5,950 per term
Croydon
Head: Linda Sanders
Takes: girls aged 11 to 18
In 2021, the Laurels moved to its current location in south-east London which it shares with its brother school The Cedars. The school building was originally an orphanage set up in 1857 by an order of French nuns named The Lady of Fidelity. There are a number of ambitious plans afoot as the school grows into the new site, including a new Robotics programme. STEM subjects are popular at the school, with a number of girls going on to study in the various related fields.
Unusually for a day school, each girl has her own personal tutor who offers advice and formation on the path to adulthood. The philosophy of education is based on a “character first” approach, inspired by Opus Dei. The Arete programme overarches every aspect of school life. It is not just another set of lessons, but a way of learning, studying, thinking and living that takes seriously the interconnectedness of knowledge; its personal and civic aspect helps the girls to flourish.
The recent ISI report was excellent and highlighted as particular strengths the level of maturity in personal relationships, the strong sense of self-understanding and the high level of responsibility that the girls have for their own behaviour. The school attracts pupils from a wide geographical area across south London and Surrey, and pupils of all faiths and none are comfortable in The Laurels where Christian values form the basis of school life.
The Laurels is truly a family school where the educational rights of the family come first. Of particular note is the partnership with parents. A number of events held throughout the school year are aimed at strengthening the bond between home and school. Mass is available throughout the week for those who wish to attend and there are regular opportunities for Confession and adoration.
Fees: from £5,650 to £5,950 per term
West Sussex
Headmaster: Stuart McPherson
Takes: girls and boys, aged 11-18
Some 500 acres of pretty Sussex countryside are the backdrop to Worth, which has for over 60 years been a top choice among affluent Catholic families. Originally boys only, Worth became fully co-ed in 2012. Small yet sophisticated, the school is in the grounds of the Benedictine Worth Abbey and its ethos is rooted in the Benedictine educational tradition. Eight monks in the chaplaincy team teach the importance of Lectio Divina (sacred reading), liturgical worship and community living and services. Pupils regularly teach English and IT skills at the refugee detention centre at nearby Gatwick airport, and pilgrimages are arranged to Lourdes, Taizé and the Camino to Compostella. Worth offers IB and A-levels and was described as academically “outstanding” in a recent inspection report. The abbey choir has sung at a Mass in St Peter’s in Rome attended by the pope and in the Sistine Chapel.
Day fees: £9,800 per term Boarding fees: £14,390 per term
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