Our Lady's Abingdon is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, co-educational, private day school in

Abingdon-on-Thames Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Thames in the Vale of the White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. The Historic counties of England, historic county town of Berksh ...

, Oxfordshire, England, for pupils aged 7–18.

History

Our Lady's Convent was founded in 1860 by Sister Clare Moore of the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

, who worked closely with

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...

. The school's main auditorium is named after her, the Clare Moore Auditorium, known as the CMA. The school began educating boys and girls from the local area, with 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 ...

created in 1866. The school was reconstituted independently of the Sisters of Mercy in 2004 as a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

in England & Wales, formally titled Our Lady's Abingdon Trustees Ltd. The Sisters have since left Abingdon in 2011 but they maintain a representative on the Board of Governors. In 2009 the school began admitting boys into the senior school. The school name was changed to Our Lady's Abingdon to reflect the change. Since the 2013–14 academic year, it has been fully co-educational. As of 2016, there appeared to be a 50/50 split of boys and girls. Daniel Gibbons, formerly Deputy Head of

Downside School Downside School (formally The College of St Gregory the Great, Downside but simply referred to as Downside) is an 11–18 mixed, Roman Catholic, independent, day and boarding school in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, England. It was establish ...

, took over as Head from September 2021.

Academics

A-level results 2020 Overall pass 99% Grade A* – B 75% GCSE results 2020 Overall pass 97% Grade A* to B 67% Grade A* to C 81%

Extracurricular

Extra-curricular music includes choir, orchestra and wind-band. Other activities include Drama, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Languages, Poetry, Reading, Science and Textiles. Students in Year 11 and sixth Form take part in a team challenge expedition and community work overseas. The PE department run sports clubs Monday to Friday both at lunchtime and after school. Activities include swimming, netball, hockey, cross-country running, trampolining, fitness, football, badminton, rounders, athletics, tennis, basketball, synchronised swimming, dance and gymnastics. Pupils are encouraged to participate in extra-curricular sports clubs regardless of their ability, and they offer a range of after-school fixtures which gives the pupils the opportunity to compete against other schools and take part in county and national competitions.

Pastoral Care

As a Catholic school,

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

and

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

s are regularly celebrated and open to parents and visitors. The school is located within the Parish of Our Lady and St Edmund and is regularly visited by the parish priest, who is also a member of the Board of Governors.

References

External links

Our Lady's Abingdon website
*
Profile
on the

independent schools Council The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a non-profit lobby group that represents over 1,300 private schools in the United Kingdom. The organisation comprises seven independent school associations and promotes the business interests of its ...