St Catherine's School, Bramley

History

St Catherine's School opened in 1885 with seventeen pupils, 11 boarders and 9 day pupils. Miss Susan Burnett was the founding headmistress. The school was founded during a time when various movements within the Church of England and other Christian denominations were pushing for more freedom for women, especially in matters such as participating in services and in education. A group of local country gentry formed a committee to establish a school for ‘middle class’ girls – among them were Revd. Canon Musgrave, Revd. John Sapte, the Rt.Hon George Cubitt (later Lord Ashcombe), Joseph Merriman, Headmaster of Cranleigh and the MP for South Surrey William Brodrick.

A notable feature of the campus is the chapel, which was completed in 1894 and is known for its Kempe stained glass windows and the 1899 Father Willis organ. In September 2011 the school celebrated 125 years of education for girls and young women and in July 2011 it marked the opening of the 125th Anniversary Halls, a new set of facilities for sports and the arts. In 2019 a new Prep science facility, the WonderLab was opened, in 2021 a new Sixth Form Centre was added 'The 6' and in 2022 a major extension to the creative arts was unveiled - a new Art & MakerSpace.

Academics

In the year 2023, 60.3% of the students scored A*/A at A Level and 88% Grade 9-7 at GCSE .

Scholarships

Academic scholarships are offered for entry at 11+ and for year 11 and/or Sixth Form, alongside additional awards for excellence in art, sport, and music.

Extracurricular activities

Over 100 clubs are on offer from Debating to Medical Reading Club, Astrophysics to Gardening, Construction to Eco-Club. The girls take part in a wide range of sports, including netball, tennis, cricket, swimming, and lacrosse. The school has four lacrosse pitches and a reputation as winner of the 'triple' in the Lacrosse National Schools Championships.

The school hosts a variety of creative arts, with the students regularly taking part in art, textiles, design technology, home economics, drama and music lessons.

Pastoral care

Houses

All pupils, both day girls and boarders, are assigned to one of the six houses. The houses compete in Inter-House competitions throughout the year. Boarders of 26 different nationalities make up around a quarter of its pupils while day girls travel from villages and towns such as Woking, Haslemere, Dorking, Cobham and Cranleigh. The senior school houses are:

• Ashcombe (red)
• Merriman (purple)
• Midleton (royal blue)
• Musgrave (pink)
• Russell Baker (light blue)
• Stoner (green) And for the Prep School the houses are:
• Pankhurst (red)
• Teresa (green)
• Curie (yellow)

There are four boarding houses at the school which are Bronte, Symes, Keller and a separate house for the Sixth Form, called 'The 6'.

Spiritual

As a Church of England school, pupils attend chapel weekly and actively participate in the service. Some pupils sing in the Guildford Cathedral girls' choir. The school began offering organ scholarships in 2006 to encourage more girls to participate in church music.

Patron

The patron of the school since 2015 is Queen Camilla, whose great-great grandfather George Cubitt, 1st Baron Ashcombe, and his wife Laura, Lady Ashcombe were among the founders of the school.

Notable former pupils

• Sara Crowe - actress
• U. A. Fanthorpe – poet
• Joan Greenwood - stage, film and television actress
• Isabel Hardman – Political Journalist, Assistant Editor of The Spectator
• Ann Hogarth – puppeteer Jane Phillips, 'Hogarth, Ann (1910–1993)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, 2004 accessed 10 Feb 2017
• Davina McCall – television presenter
• Dianna Melrose – British Ambassador to Cuba (2008–2012) and High Commissioner to Tanzania (2013–)
• Joan Shenton – broadcaster
• Juliet Stevenson – stage, film and television actress
• Francine Stock – journalist and radio presenter
• Philippa Stroud, Baroness Stroud – Conservative peer
• Barbara Euphan Todd – children's writer
• Dorothy Tutin – stage, film and television actress
• Lily Travers – film actress
• Poppy Drayton – film and television actress
• Lucy Watson – reality tv performer

References

References

1. "Staff List 2016–2017". stcatherines.info.
2. "History". stcatherines.info.
3. "Chapel". stcatherines.info.
4. "St Catherine's School Review, Rankings, Fees, And More". Britannia UK.
5. [https://archive.today/20120915070403/http://www.stcatherines.info/jg.html St Catherine's School Homepage/Scholarships]
6. "Houses". stcatherines.info.
7. (2 November 2006). "Girls at the organ". [[Church Times]].
8. "HRH the Duchess of Cornwall to be the Patron of St Catherine's School, Bramley".
9. (7 February 2012). "'Cheese woman' Sara Crowe talks Guildford roots". Surrey Live.