SOUTH EASTPUBLICthan grades alone. It feels like a hap-
py place with a strong sense of
community.’ The school’s 22 acres
are jam-packed with facilities and
anything they don’t have they pop
across the road to borrow from the
Abingdon boys. There are many
practice and performance spaces for
music and drama, including a 120-
seat studio theatre, a buzzing music
department (providing over 400
music lessons a week), a dance
studio and the impressive Yolande
Paterson Hall. Last year, ‘HelKats’
was ranked as the sixth independent
girls’ schools in the country for sport- the new Head of Athletic
Development & Health has
proved a huge success, encourag-
ing the girls to learn more about
their physical potential, and the
gym is constantly buzzing with
athletes undertaking training.
ST MARY’S ASCOT
St Mary’s Road, Ascot,
Berkshire SL5 9JF
Website st-marys-ascot.co.uk
Head Danuta Staunton, PGCE,
from September; previously on Senior
Management team Pupils 380 girls:
18 day, 362 boarding Faith RC
Ages 11–18 Term Fees Day: £9,530;
boarding: £13,380 Oxbridge 18%
Registration At least two years before
entry; £300 fee Admission School’s
own exam Alumnae Lady Antonia
Fraser DBE, Alex Polizzi,
Louise Minchin
To say a certain recent visitor
loved St Mary’s Ascot would
be a vast understatement: ‘How
do they manage to take a group
of girls at 11 and 13 of
mixed ability and achieve such
impressive results across the
board at both GCSE and A Level?
Surely it’s too good to be true? It
would appear not.’ Last year,
St Mary’s topped the league tables
for GCSEs with 84 per cent
of girls attaining A* and 98 per
cent A*–A. The A-level tally
was equally impressive with 33 per
cent achieving A*, 69 per cent
A*–A and 18 per cent of the year
group gaining Oxbridge places.
This is a phenomenal record
of value added for a school withan admission process that looks
way beyond pure academic ability
when offering places – St Mary’s
chooses cheerful and hardwork-
ing girls who are committed to
the Roman Catholic faith and are
looking for an all girls, full-
boarding education. Their stellar
results are in no small part due
to the inspirational leadership of
Head Mary Breen, last year’s
winner of Tatler’s Lifetime
Achievement award. It’s to her
credit that nine members of her
staff have gone onto headships at
other schools – she trains them
well here. Mrs Breen is handing
over the reins to the delightful
Danuta Staunton who has taught
English at the school for the last
nine years. Breen and Staunton
have worked in unison this year
and so it’s expected to be a
seamless transition. Old Girls
take note: the food is now excep-
tional with the menu including
delicious salmon teriyaki and red
onion and brie galettes. In keep-
ing with St Mary’s brilliant pasto-
ral ethos, there’s even a finger
print scanner sign-in for meal
times so that eating can be
discreetly monitored.ST SWITHUN’S
Alresford Road, Winchester,
Hampshire SO21 1HA
Website stswithuns.com Head Jane
Gandee, MA, since 2010; previously
Director of Studies at City of
London School for Girls Pupils 500
girls: 275 day, 225 boarding Faith
C of E Ages 11–18 Term Fees Day:
£6,992; boarding: £11,592
Oxbridge 9% Registration One to
two years before entry; £200 fee
Admission Pre-test, school’s own
exam and interview Alumnae
Emma Walmsley, Gabriella Wilde,
Emma Chambers
PREP Head Rebecca Lyons-Smith
Pupils 184 day girls (two boys)
Ages 4–11 Term Fees £4,843
Pastoral care is a top priority at this
academic girls’ school, who log all
pastoral observations to provide a
full profile of each girl during her
time at the school. Head Jane
Gandee has been bringing her
energy and enthusiasm to the
rather imposing architecture and
expansive grounds since 2010. She
knows if something is a waste of
time or not worth it; she is very
progressive and constantly inter-
acting with her girls. Super fit, she
has placed a strong focus on sportsand has identified the emerging
girls’ sports as cricket and football.
A recent visitor was struck by how
‘relaxed, unselfconscious and
polite’ the girls were, all very bright
and ambitious with lots of future
medics in the mix. Enormous
effort is made to ensure mixing
between the houses and year
groups and the junior house has a
brilliant new Housemistress called
Jackie, who has introduced life
classes including laundry, personal
finance, changing beds and, par-
ticularly important in this social
media age, the art of conversation.
Across the school, there’s heaps
going on: socials and drama
productions with Winchester,
astronomy club, the Swithun’s
choir which sings in Winchester
Cathedral and ‘Assist’, the school’s
charity programme. There’s no
Saturday school – even for full
boarders – and a fleet of school
buses ferries pupils to and from
London. Known to be an acade-
mic school, results are fittingly
strong: 29.5 per cent of 2018
entries achieved the top grade 9 in
the new GCSE and IGCSE
courses, and nine per cent of girls
gained places at Oxbridge. ]ST SWITHUN’S10-19-Schools-Guide-PublicSouthEast.indd 41 14/08/2019 22:16