EDUCATION SCHOOL PROFILE
Old habits…
Former editor of the Catholic Herald and Marymount alumni Cristina Odone
kicks-off a new series on schools with her reflections on what it means to be a
convent girl and asks: Have convent schools moved with the times?
h en I arrived in London to edit the which hasn’t called itself a convent for years, have transferred
W
Catholic Herald, I was 30 and my years the management of the school from nuns to laymen; some
at convent school a faded memory. Yet have even opened their doors to – whisper it – boys.
everywhere I went, someone – usually a What do they offer, these 21st century convent schools,
middle aged man with a twinkle in his eye – made some to parents and daughters? For one thing, fully-qualified
allusion to “those convent girls”. I knew better than to take teachers with an experience of professional life. Sister Francis
their excitement as a personal compliment – it was simply Xavier who was good with numbers and Sister Loretto
proof of the enduring myth of the Catholic girl. who was fond of plants were not necessarily the perfect
For me, Marymount had been short on glamour and long pedagogues for aspiring mathematicians and biologists. Liz
on its list of no-nos. No tights because they looked too much Hunt, columnist and assistant editor of the Daily Telegraph,
like stockings, no patent leather shoes because they reflected attended Bellerive Convent in Liverpool in the seventies.
our knickers, no reading horoscopes because they were the She remembers feeling constrained by the nuns, the Faithful
work of the devil, no wearing tampons because they might Companions of Jesus, who ran the school. “Standards were
compromise our virginity. high and academic excellence expected…. But I remember
The many “don’ts” made for a protected environment asking the careers teacher about journalism, something
that filled me with impatience – and my parents with that fired my imagination from an early age, and being
satisfaction. For them, a convent school was just the given short shrift.”
place for young girls to blossom. Most were situated in Today’s convent schools are staffed mainly with lay
the countryside, or at least away from the temptations of teachers, with an eye on the glittering prizes as well as a
London. And they were led, and staffed, by the closest thing place in heaven. A number of the schools are attaining
there is to a host of guardian angels – nuns. great academic results. Two, St Mary’s Ascot and St Mary’s
The nuns, especially if they Shaftesbury, are included among
belonged to some of the great
“Here, we regard all girls
the top 100 independent schools
teaching orders like Blessed Mary in the Best Schools guide,
the Virgin or the Congregation of as worthy of respect. measured on A level results.
Jesus (the female Jesuits), gave us
a solid academic grounding. More
Increasingly, parents want
The convent school’s unique
selling point, however, lies in
importantly, they filled us with
this for their daughters”
regarding League Tables and
Top: The chapel at
that mystical “ethos”, which was a academic one-upmanship as New Hall School in
mixture of discipline, respect, self-
 ,  ’ 
Chelmsford, Essex.
being only part of the story. As Right: Girls at St
sacrifice and a healthy scepticism Richard James, head of St Mary’s
Mary’s Shaftesbury
in Dorset.
about our importance in the grander scheme of things. We Shaftesbury, explains, “parents can tell, from the way we
Far right: St Mary’s
Ascot school in
graduated from their establishment with a formidable sense celebrate success and deal with failure, that our values are not
Berkshire.
of certainty. At every step of the way, we knew where we had those of the material world. Here, we regard all girls as worthy
to be, when; what we had to do and why. of respect. Increasingly, parents want this for their daughters.”
Today, convents stand empty and silent, with scarcely Mr James acknowledges that keeping spiritual values
a novice in sight. Many an order has, literally, died out. In in an increasingly secular culture is an immense challenge.
England and Wales, there are just over 1,000 nuns, most of But he says he has retained the influence of the nuns of the
them elderly. Vocations continue to decline: in 2004 there Congregation of Jesus in the school schedule: weekly Mass
were only seven vocations, last year, ten. The impact on is compulsory for the 60 per cent of the student body who
convent schools has been enormous: many have been forced are boarders; a second Mass is held on Fridays; each class
to close; others like St Mary’s Cambridge, a catholic school year has a spiritual retreat; stations of the cross are
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18 FIRST ELEVEN SPRING 2010 WWW.FIRSTELEVENMAGAZINE.CO.UK
pp18-20FE_SPR10 Convent FINAL.indd 18 28/1/10 17:31:01
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