St Dominic's Sixth Form College is a selective

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

sixth form college A sixth form college (pre-university college in Malaysia) is an educational institution, where students aged 16 to 19 study typically for advanced post-school level qualifications such as GCE Advanced Level, A Levels, Business and Technology Edu ...

Harrow on the Hill Harrow on the Hill or Harrow-on-the-Hill is a locality and historic village in the borough of London Borough of Harrow, Harrow in Greater London, England. The name refers to Harrow Hill, ,Mills, A., ''Dictionary of London Place Names'', (2001) ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

founded in 1878, originally founded as a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

. The college was opened and initiated by Cardinal Hume. The college was awarded ’Sixth Form college of the year’ from The Times newspaper in 2017.

Grounds

There are five main buildings on the school grounds: the Aquinas building, the Catherine building, the Hume building, the Siena Building (Sports Hall) and the Chapel. Each of the buildings was named after a notable figure in Christian theology;

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

Basil Hume George Basil Hume (born George Haliburton Hume; 2 March 1923 – 17 June 1999) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1976 until his death in 1999. A member of the Benedictines, he was made a cardinal i ...

and St

Catherine of Siena Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa (25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), known as Catherine of Siena, was an Italian mystic and pious laywoman who engaged in papal and Italian politics through extensive letter-writing and advocacy. Canonized in 1461, ...

. The Aquinas building contains the Open Access Computer suite, the Science department and the Music department. The Catherine building was the original school building and was completely remodelled to form the library, the Mathematics department, the Languages department, the IT department and the English department as well as the canteen and the Careers Office and Theatre suites. The Hume building contains the Reception, the Business studies department, the Art department, the Humanities department, an Examination hall, the admin department and various other staff rooms including the Principal's and Vice Principal's office. The Siena building has the psychology department, as well as a gym and the Sienna Hall. The chapel has services on Fridays with regular public speakers visiting the college to give lectures to students. In 2006 large covered, outside seating areas were built as the courtyard and canteen had become overcrowded. There is also a field towards the back of the site with a football pitch, and a small area with a pond which is used for fieldwork.

History

The college was established in 1979 from St Dominic's Independent Grammar School for girls which had been run by nuns of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

. Catherine Bathurst and her Sisters from

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

set up a girls' boarding school in 1878 at the invitation of Cardinal Manning in the Mount, Harrow-on-the-Hill, moving later to a new building in the convent grounds when day pupils were admitted. In 1937 the school was extended but the boarding school closed in 1948 and the junior department shortly afterwards (Harrow, including Pinner : Education 1971). At its peak in the early 1970s the school had three form entries per school year. Over the years the sisters' involvement in the school had diminished with the dropping in the number of vocations although the school was run, until it closed, by one of the order. In the mid-1970s it became apparent that the school could not continue in its existing form with constant pressure from the Local Authority to cease any grants. Eventually plans were made to close as a school and reopen as a Catholic

. From 1975 onwards there was no new intake of girls to prepare for this time and in March 1978 Cardinal

laid the foundation stone which is now displayed outside the Hume Building. At the same time, nearby secondary schools such as Salvatorian College lost their sixth forms with this reorganisation. In July 1979 the convent school closed and the remaining nuns transferred to the Dominican convent in

Stone, Staffordshire Stone is a market town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England; it is situated approximately 7 miles (11 km) north of the county town of Stafford, 7 miles (11 km) south of Stoke-on-Trent and 15 miles (24 km) north of Rugeley. As a notable c ...

, the convent building on Sudbury Hill having been sold the previous year for conversion to flats. The remaining students transferred whilst in the middle of O Level exams, to nearby Catholic school, Sacred Heart High School. Over the subsequent years the site has been developed to provide facilities for the students but with the consequent loss of open space. The original tennis courts are now the Hume Building, the rounders field is now called the Siena Building which contains the new Sports Hall and Gym, the cloister garden a courtyard seating area, convent grounds the Aquinas Building and school front lawns a car park. On the site of the grounds are the well preserved remains of an Elizabethan signal, or, watch-tower. This was part of the relatively sophisticated signal system, which was established to alert local militia and the Crown of the Spanish Fleet, or, Armada, which was spotted off the English coast in 1588. Staff and students at the College have been excavating the Beacon since 2018. Work was granted Heritage Lottery Funding.

Academics

There are a variety of courses to choose from including the conventional GCE 'A' Levels and vocational BTEC Qualifications. The college has been awarded many different accolades by both universities and examining bodies and has achieved Beacon Status. In its latest

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

inspection all departments were rated as 'Outstanding'. It has partnerships with local secondary schools, Sacred Heart High School, Harrow and Salvatorian College.

Notable alumni

Conn Iggulden Connor Iggulden (; born ) is a British author who writes historical fiction, most notably the ''Emperor'' and ''Conqueror'' series. He also co-authored '' The Dangerous Book for Boys'' with his brother Hal. In 2007, Iggulden became the first pe ...

(b. 1971) – author. * Tamara Lawrance (b. 1994) – actress.Slater, Anna
"Teen wins national poetry competition"
'' Harrow Times''. 20 March 2012.

St Dominic's Independent Grammar School for Girls

* Dilys Laye (1934–2009) – actress * Denise O'Donoghue (b. 1955) – television production company executive *

Kay Burley Kay Elizabeth Burley (; born 17 December 1960) is an English broadcaster. She was a presenter on Sky News and hosted the breakfast slot on the channel. She has also worked for BBC Local Radio, Tyne Tees Television, and TV-am. On 5 February ...

(b. 1960) – television presenter

References