Saint Martin's Catholic Academy (formerly Saint Martin's Catholic High School) is a coeducational 11-16

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

located in Stoke Golding, near to

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbor ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is part of the

Diocese of Nottingham The Diocese of Nottingham, England, is a Roman Catholic diocese of the Latin Rite and a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Diocese of Westminster. The diocese covers an area of , taking in the English counties of N ...

, and is built on the same grounds as the former Dominican nunnery.

History

Saint Martin's was originally established in 1948 by the

Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena The Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena is a Dominican congregation of religious sisters under the patronage of St. Catherine of Siena. It was founded by Fr. Juan de Sto. Domingo, O.P., in 1696 for Spanish women onl ...

based in King William's Town, South Africa as an independent girls' school, Blessed Martin in the Fields at Stoke Lodge, Stoke Golding. This branch of the Dominican order was founded in 1877 by a group of women from Augsburg in Germany. Although now a state funded Catholic academy, the school grounds and buildings are still owned by the Dominicans. The site of Stoke Lodge convent was adjacent to the current school site. The current school building was constructed in 1963. Due to poor condition of the old Lodge, it was demolished in 1971 and the convent was rebuilt. The convent chapel was dedicated to The Holy Spirit and St Martin. The convent finally closed in 2011 and the land sold for housing. The current school site retains a significant area of the former grounds of the Lodge; many of the old trees on the site give evidence of its former landscape. The school itself is named after Saint

Martín de Porres Martín de Porres Velázquez (9 December 1579 – 3 November 1639) was a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of mixed-r ...

, a Dominican saint from Lima in Peru. In 1963 Saint Martin's became a Voluntary Aided Co-ed Catholic School and in 2014 it converted to an Academy, part of the St Dominic's Multi-Academy Trust. This Trust was incorporated into the St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust in 2018, a federation incorporating all the state-funded Catholic Schools in Leicestershire. Saint Martin's motto is 'Veritas' (Truth) and their mission statement is 'Learning the best that has been thought and said and knowing that we are loved by God.'

Gallery

Dominican Missionary sisters.jpg, St Martin in the Fields Convent School.jpg, St Martin in the Fields Convent School Saint Martin's Catholic School, Stoke Golding.jpg, The new Building circa 1963 The Convent, Stoke Golding.jpg, The new convent that replaced the old lodge. Saint Martin's Catholic School, Stoke Golding view 1.jpg, The school building Saint Martin's Catholic School, Stoke Golding view 2.jpg,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Martin's Catholic Academy Secondary schools in Leicestershire Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Nottingham Educational institutions established in 1948 1948 establishments in England Academies in Leicestershire