Development
The last twenty years have seen the completion of several major development projects at the school, catering to the academic, creative, performance, pastoral and boarding needs of the girls.
The Mary Breen Courtyard
The Upper Sixth accommodation, formally named the Mary Breen Courtyard in honour of the Headmistress whose vision it represents, comprises 64 en-suite bedrooms spread across five houses gathered around an attractive central courtyard. Each house has a large kitchen and dining area, and there are also three new residential staff houses.
In addition, there is a light and spacious pastoral centre containing an amphitheatre-style lecture hall, a multi-use space for modern dance, yoga and entertaining, a reading room, a kitchen, and a series of rooms for meditation, prayer and reading, with clear views across the field and open spaces beyond. The pastoral centre is designed to create a peaceful, calm atmosphere which will be welcoming and inviting for the Upper Sixth pupils.
The Orchard Centre
The Orchard Centre is our state of the art indoor sports complex, named after two former Headmistresses and sisters, Sr Mark Orchard and Sr Frances Orchard. The Centre comprises a main sports hall accommodating four badminton courts as well as indoor cricket nets, basketball, netball, a fitness suite, two glass-backed squash courts and two dance studios, one of them mirrored.
Outdoors, there is a 6-lane/8-straight athletics track with external field areas, two floodlit AstroTurf pitches, which become 21 tennis courts in the summer, two further floodlit tennis/netball hard courts, three further floodlit tennis hard courts, a grass football pitch, a cricket pitch, and a 25m heated indoor swimming pool.
The Rose Theatre
The Rose Theatre is our state-of-the-art performing arts centre. Flexible seating provides a spacious auditorium which can accommodate up to 440 people. It can stage full orchestra performances, major musicals with a live band, and theatre productions, both proscenium arch and in-the-round. It is also used for lectures, debates, cinema presentations and the schools’ now legendary film competition Premiere and Awards Ceremony.
The smaller Rufus Sewell Studio is used for rehearsals and more intimate or informal productions. The Rose also contains well-designed dressing rooms and generous storage space for scenery, props and costumes, enabling us to host visiting performing companies, as well as giving our own pupils a truly professional theatrical experience.
The Senior Library and Reading Room
The building of the Rose Theatre allowed us to convert the former concert hall. This beautiful building now houses the Senior Library, a quiet, studious space where Year 11 and Sixth Form pupils are able to work throughout the day and evenings, and on weekends. The adjacent Atrium is a spacious and well-lit social area where girls can meet up together or with staff to chat over coffee. Just round the corner is the Reading Room, a lending library and study space for girls in Years 7-10.
The Library and Reading Room are open from 7:30am until 10:00pm every day. As well as substantial lending resources and academic journals, girls can access plenty of online material, including JSTOR, Student BMJ, and a broad range of periodicals. The Sixth Form team, including the Director of Sixth Form, have their offices in the Senior Library, so advice and support are always available.
The Refectory
Food is very important to us at St Mary’s, and it sits at the heart of school life, in every sense. With a long wall of folding glass doors opening onto St Cecelia’s lawn, the Refectory provides a bright, open space for the girls to eat. Well-designed kitchen and servery facilities enable our in-house catering team to provide a wide range of hot and cold meals options, including daily home-made soups and salads, meat and vegetarian hot food, and a stunning range of desserts. The Refectory is also used for catering major events such as our Open Day and Shrove Tuesday celebrations.
