Saint Felix School is a 2–18 mixed,

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

day A day is the time period of a full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours, 1440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds. In everyday life, the word "day" often refers to a solar day, which is the length between two so ...

and boarding school in Reydon,

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the English North Sea coast in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is ...

, Suffolk, England. The school was founded in 1897 as a school for girls but is now co-educational.

History

The school was founded in 1897 as a girls' school by Margaret Isabella Gardiner. By September 1902, the present site of the school had been purchased and the first four boarding houses and teaching block completed. In 1909 Lucy Mary Silcox took over as headmistress from the founding head. The student roll grew and in 1910, the Gardiner Assembly Hall and a Library were built and Clough House followed in 1914. Miss Silcox

Silcox was able to bring leading thinkers and artists to the school and money was found to buy sculpture and paintings. The modernist paintings inspired pupils like the artist

Gwyneth Johnstone Gwyneth Johnstone (18 June 1915 – 8 December 2010) was an English painter who worked on oil and created landscapes containing individuals in modern landscapes starting from the 1950s. Born as the illegitimate daughter to the musician Nora Brow ...

who remembered seeing work by Chistopher Wood at the school. Silcox directed the girls in ancient Greek plays. The students knew she was President of the local

National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In 1919 it was ren ...

as gave talks in surrounding villages in support of women gaining the vote. The school continued during the 1914-18 war and during the 1916-1917 school year there was an outpost of the school at

Penmaenmawr Penmaenmawr (, ) is a town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, which was formerly in the parish of Dwygyfylchi and the traditional county of Caernarfonshire. It is on the North Wales coast between Conwy and Llanfairfechan and was an ...

as some parents were worried about their students' safety. The whole school was evacuated three times and the school took in some Serbian refugees.

Today

The school accommodates babies and toddlers in the St Felix Nursery, and children up to the age of 18 in the Sixth Form. The school offers boarding throughout the term, weekly, or 'flexi' boarding. The current head is Mr James Harrison.

Notable former pupils

* Griselda Allan - artist * Jane Benham MBE – artist and sailor who worked to preserve Thames sailing barges * Dorothea Braby – artist and illustrator * Dorothy Elizabeth Bradford - painter * Stella Browne – feminist and abortion law reformer * Natalie Caine – woodwind playerNatalie Caine
''The Guardian'', 2009-02-17. Retrieved 2013-01-05. *

Constance Coltman Constance Mary Coltman (née Todd; 23 May 1889 - 26 March 1969) was one of the first women ordained to Christian ministry in Britain. She practised within the Congregational Church. A decade earlier Gertrude von Petzold became minister at Narborou ...

– the first woman

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

Christian ministry In Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith, the prototype being the Great Commission. The '' Encyclopedia of Christianity'' defines it as "carrying forth Christ's mission in the world", in ...

in BritainElaine Kaye
‘Coltman , Constance Mary (1889–1969)’
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. * Katherine Laird Cox – model, magistrate * Nora David, Baroness David, politician and life peerBaroness David
''The Daily Telegraph'', 2009-12-07. Retrieved 2013-01-05. * Phyllis Gardner – artist and dog breeder *

Nick Griffin Nicholas John Griffin (born 1 March 1959) is a British politician and white supremacist who represented North West England as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2014. He served as chairman and then president of the far-righ ...

– Former BNP leader and MEP for North West England (1999–2014) * Lilias Rider Haggard MBE, daughter of Sir Henry Rider Haggard and an author in her own right‘HAGGARD, Lilias Margitson Rider’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200
accessed 5 Jan 2013
/ref> *

Norman Heatley Norman George Heatley OBE (10 January 1911 – 5 January 2004) was an English biologist and biochemist. He was a member of the team of Oxford University scientists who developed penicillin. Norman Heatley developed the back-extraction technique ...

–

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of "biological c ...

Eric Sidebottom, ‘Heatley, Norman George (1911–2004)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2008; online edn, Jan 201
accessed 4 Jan 2013
/ref> *

- painter * Emily Beatrix Coursolles Jones – novelist * Nancy Lyle – tennis player * Violet Helen Millar, later Countess Attlee, wife of

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Min ...

* Mother Maribel of Wantage – Anglican nun and artist *

Anna Russell Anna Russell (born Anna Claudia Russell-Brown; 27 December 191118 October 2006) was an English–Canadian singer and comedian. She gave many concerts in which she sang and played comic musical sketches on the piano. Among her best-known works a ...

– singer and comedian‘RUSSELL, Anna’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200
accessed 5 Jan 2013
/ref> * Enid Russell-Smith DBE – civil servantJonathan Bradbury, ‘Smith, Dame Enid Mary Russell Russell- (1903–1989)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 5 Jan 2013
/ref> * Mary Snell-Hornby – translation scholar *

Constance Tipper Constance Tipper (born Constance Fligg Elam; 16 February 1894 – 14 December 1995) was an English metallurgist and crystallographer. She investigated brittle fracture and the ductile-brittle transition of metals used in the construction of wa ...

–

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sci ...

and crystallographerAnna Leendertz Ford, ‘Tipper , Constance Fligg (1894–1995)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 5 Jan 2013
/ref> *

Hannah Waterman Hannah Elizabeth Waterman (born 22 July 1975) is an English actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Laura Beale in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' (2000–2004). Early life Waterman was born on 22 July 1975 in London to actor Denn ...

– actress * Dame Barbara Woodward - diplomat

Notable staff

* Lucy Mary Silcox, headmistress from 1909 to 1926 * Anne Mustoe, headmistress from 1978 to 1987Anne Mustoe
– ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' obituary, 11 December 2009.

References

External links