St Leonards School

Updated on Jan 08, 2024

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Established 1877 Students 550~ Founder Louisa Lumsden Motto Ad vitam; ("For life")		Headmaster Dr Michael Carslaw Phone +44 1334 472126 Founded 1877 Local authority Fife

Type Independent day and boarding school Founders Professors from the University of St Andrews Location The Pends St Andrews Fife KY16 9QJ Scotland Address The Pends, St Andrews KY16 9QJ, UK Profiles Facebook Twitter

St Leonards School, formerly St Leonards and St Katharines School, is an independent school founded by the University of St Andrews in the nineteenth century. It is located in St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland, today situated on one site in private grounds, just south of the town's historic cathedral and within the walls of the medieval Priory. Although originally established in 1877 by University of St Andrews professors and their wives amid the increased demand for women's education, the school is now fully co-educational, taking boys and girls aged 5 to 18, with the option of boarding from age 12. In 2005, The Sunday Times named St Leonards its "Scottish Independent School of the Year".

Overview

St Leonards has approximately 530 pupils between the ages of 5 ¹⁄₂ and 18 St Leonards was one of the first schools in Scotland to offer the IB Diploma Programme and is the only one in the country to have an all-IB Sixth Form.

History

The school was established in 1877 by the St Andrews School for Girls Company. Madeline Daniell, the educationalist and campaigner for women's right to higher education, was one of two founding secretaries of the Company.

Dame Louisa Lumsden was appointed the School's first Headmistress in 1877. The belief of the School was that "a girl should receive an education that is as good as her brother's, if not better." In 1999 St Leonards Sixth Form and St Katharines Prep School opened their doors to boys for the first time; the school soon became completely co-educational.

St Katharines and St Leonards-New Park

St Katharines School was the original prep school of St Leonards, making full use of the campus and facilities while retaining a degree of autonomy. In March 2002 it was announced that the prep school would be relocated to the main building and renamed St Leonards Junior and Middle Schools. Following a further announcement in March 2005, St Leonards junior and middle schools merged with New Park School, also located in St Andrews, operating as one unit under the name St Leonards-New Park. In June 2011 it was announced that the junior school would be known in future as St Leonards Junior School. At the same time, work commenced on a £2.5m redevelopment of the junior school.

Lacrosse

The school is believed to be the first place in the world to have played women's lacrosse.

Headmistresses and headmasters

For the first 124 years, (when the school was an all-girls school) the Head of St Leonards was always a woman. The first Headmaster was appointed in 2003.

1877 – 1882 Dame Louisa Lumsden

1882 – 1896 Dame Frances Dove

1896 – 1907 Julia Mary Grant

1907 – 1921 Mary Bentinck-Smith

1922 – 1938 Katharine Howard McCutcheon

1938 – 1955 Janet A. Macfarlane

1956 – 1970 Janet S. A. Macaulay

1970 – 1987 Martha Hamilton (Mrs R Steedman)

1988 – 2000 Mary James (Married to Mr Lawrence James)

2001 – 2003 Wendy Bellars

2003 – 2008 Robert A. J. Tims

2008 – to present Dr Michael Carslaw

St Leonards has largely followed the English, rather than the Scottish education system. Pupils take GCSEs and IGCSEs rather than Scottish Standard Grades. Sixth Form students follow the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. St Leonards is an IB World School, one of only three schools in Scotland to have attained this status.

Notable seniors

Former Pupils of St Leonards are known as St Leonards School Seniors, as is the style at the sister schools Wycombe Abbey and Benenden School.

Betty Archdale – early barrister; pioneer of women's education in Australia

Elspeth Barker – author of "O, Caledonia!", formerly married to poet George Barker

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham – leading abstract painter, based in St Ives, Cornwall

Hilda Bruce – zoologist, discoverer of the Bruce effect

Hazel Byford, Baroness Byford DBE – Shadow Minister for Food and Rural Affairs

Jackie Forster (Jacqueline Moir Mackenzie) – actress, TV personality, feminist and lesbian campaigner

Louisa Garrett Anderson – medical pioneer, social reformer, suffragist

Fiona Gaunt – television actor, mother of Genevieve Gaunt

Kitty McKane Godfree – Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Champion, 1924 and 1926

Margaret Haig Thomas (Lady Rhondda) – founder of political magazine Time and Tide

Betty Harvie Anderson (Baroness Skrimshire) – Conservative politician and peer

Anji Hunter – former Director of Government Relations, 10 Downing Street

Mary James – former Headmistress of St Leonards School

Christina Keith (1889-1963) – academic and author

Kristin Linklater – vocal coach to many well-known actors, based at Columbia University

Anne Macaulay (née Russell) – musicologist, antiquarian and author

Chrystal Macmillan – barrister, feminist and pacifist

Catherine Marshall suffragist and pacifist

Elizabeth Mavor, writer

Anna McElligott – musician

Max McElligott, lead singer of Wolf Gang

Kathleen Ollerenshaw DBE – mathematician and educationalist

Tessa Ransford – founder of the Scottish Poetry Library

Louise Robey – actress, singer, model

Rosabelle Sinclair – honoured in U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame, Baltimore

Dr. Alice Stewart (née Naish) – pioneering epidemiologist

Stella Tennant – supermodel

Penny Thomson – film producer and former Director of Edinburgh International Film Festival

Fiona Watson – UN official killed in the Canal Hotel bombing, Baghdad

Audrey Withers – editor of Vogue from 1940 to 1960

References

St Leonards School Wikipedia

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