07 Dec The Sunday Times ranks St Mary’s Lower School Colchester as the top performing prep school in Essex
The Sunday Times has identified St Mary’s Lower School as the top performing preparatory school in Essex as well as placing the school in the top 20 best preparatory schools in the country!
Based on the most recent, pre-pandemic examination outcomes, the Lower School, located in Copford, Colchester, was placed 11th in England. St Mary’s Senior School, in Lexden Road, Colchester, was also placed 11th in the top fee-paying schools with small or no sixth forms in the Sunday Times ‘Parent Power’ academic rankings published on Friday 3 December 2021.
“We are absolutely thrilled by these rankings” said Mrs Nicola Griffiths, Principal of St Mary’s Colchester. “These results are made even more impressive by the fact that we have a broad academic intake. It showcases the excellence of the education on offer here at St Mary’s Lower School and Senior School, along with the support and dedication of our highly experienced staff.”
The latest Parent Power listing ranks schools according to the average outcomes of the national Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs) in reading, maths, and spelling, punctuation and grammar taken by Year 6 children and the proportions of GCSEs awarded at grades A*/A or 9-7 between 2017 and 2019. The rankings also showed the success of single-sex education, where five of the top ten independent schools were single sex schools, and four out of the five were girls’ schools.
“Whilst this position is a reflection of our girls’ academic ability, we work very hard to get the balance right between academic achievements and a brilliantly balanced education,” continues Mrs Griffiths. “Our girls not only get a fantastic grounding in the core academic subjects, they are also encouraged to take advantage of all that St Mary’s has to offer – from Forest School to Philosophy, and from Fine Art to Statistics!”
“These results once again prove that ‘happy girls are high achievers’, concludes Mrs Griffiths. “Our pastoral support is at the centre of all that we do – our girls thrive in confidence as a result of our warm and happy environment.”
