St Mary’s School is an independent day school for girls aged 3-18 in the heart of Gerrards Cross. Our commitment to academic rigour and excellent pastoral care ensures that the education we provide is bespoke to each individual student to ensure she achieves her very best.
Set in the heart of Gerrards Cross – just 3 miles from the M40 and 20 minutes from Central London by train – Gerrards Cross is ideally located for commuting families and those based more locally.
Academic Approach
At St Mary’s we create lovers of learning who are ambitious, determined in their pursuit of success, recognising equally their own strengths and talents and playing to these.
We provide a rich and broad curriculum from Nursery through to Year 13 which enables students to try expressive arts, humanities, languages and a wide range of sports alongside STEM. Students embrace warmly the opportunity to learn, are curious, asking questions to take their learning further, and showing their sense of adventure to share opinions and contribute to a vibrant learning environment.
Our classes are purposefully small, creating opportunities for students to engage fully with their learning and to build strong relationships with their teachers. Students enjoy being challenged to fulfil their academic potential under the gentle tutelage of their teachers who know them, what they can achieve and how they can thrive. Our staff are dedicated members of our community who are passionate about bringing the best out in students through a varied and interesting curriculum offering.
Knowing each student means that challenge in work is adapted for each individual and we provide opportunities for them to excel with the support and guidance of our academic teams. Where possible, we take learning outside the classroom, embracing the benefit of our proximity to central London to attend lectures and workshops or visits to venues known for this learned value. Bringing learning to life through theatre visits, workshops on Romeo and Juliet, lectures by leading Neuro Scientists on how the brain works as part of biology and psychology show that for St Mary’s private school students, learning has no boundaries.
Creating a culture of academic success comes through a focus on showing students how to learn and focusing on the development of the character values that we hold central to our community. We support and challenge our pupils to be ambitious, to be adventurous through the pursuit of something new, to be resilient through their learning journey, learning what success looks like through failure and how success is within everyone’s grasp. Our students embrace the challenge to be ambitious in the pursuit of their own excellence.
Classroom learning is interactive, discussion focused and engaging. Students make excellent progress during their time at St Mary’s and achieve excellent examination results at GCSE and A Level. Technology enriches learning and we challenge our students to think critically and be curious every step of the way.
Pastoral Care and Well being
Pastoral care is at the heart of everything we do because we know that girls achieve their best when they are happy and feel a sense of connection to the community to which they belong.
We pride ourselves on getting to know students really well so that we give our utmost attention to ensuring each and every student receives the care and support she needs to flourish and achieve her potential academically and personally. Support at St Mary’s comes in many forms, is accessible through many routes and is available at every moment of the day to ensure everyone can access the right support: for her to ensure she exceeds her potential. There is no ‘one size fits all’, and with the expertise and provision we have within our staff, each student is treated as an individual.
Character education is a deliberate and purposeful part of our pastoral support. Our goal is to nurture in our students the social and emotional qualities that promote the character virtues in TAKE CARE so that they can create positive relationships and navigate social situations in a constructive manner. Through our pastoral programmes, we help our students to develop the attitudes, behaviours and strategies that underpin success both in educational and professional settings. They become resilient, confident and ambitious, and have a strong set of core values and an assured sense of their own identity and roles and responsibilities in the world. They are ready to embrace challenges that they will encounter in life after St Mary’s. Students are encouraged to reflect upon how their kindness and empathy impacts on themselves, their peers, teachers, and the overall community.
We endeavour to nurture our students’ confidence and well-being and safeguard their mental health – this applies to every student from our youngest to our oldest so that they should feel safe and emotionally secure.
We are incredibly proud to recently have been Highly Commended in the National Muddy Stiletto awards for our Outstanding Pastoral Care.
Visit us at our upcoming Open Morning on Saturday 12th October to explore St Mary’s for yourself – sign up here
