St Mary's School

Founded in 1872 by an Anglican religious community, St Mary's has spent more than 150 years educating girls in the centre of Gerrards Cross, and today it takes them the whole way from nursery at age three to A-level at eighteen. This is a small independent school by design, with around 439 girls across every year group, which means the prep pupils and the sixth formers share one site and one ethos rather than being parcelled into separate institutions. The result is continuity: a child can join the Early Years Centre and leave thirteen years later for university without ever changing schools. Academically it ranks first in Gerrards Cross at both GCSE and A-level. Its Church of England roots run quietly through daily life, but families of every faith and none are welcomed, and the modern strapline, Embrace Empower Excel, captures the tone better than the founding date does.

St Mary's was established by the Sisters of the Community of St Mary the Virgin, an Anglican foundation based in Paddington, and that origin still shapes the school's character, though lightly. Girls of all religions and denominations are admitted, and the Christian framing shows up more in the language of service and community than in heavy religious instruction. The four houses, Latham, Butler, Kirk and Temple West, are named after figures from the school's long history, and they give the day-to-day rhythm of a small school its competitive edge across sport, music and academic contests.

Because the whole school sits on one campus, the atmosphere is unusually familial. Older girls mentor younger ones as a matter of routine, not as an occasional scheme, a culture the prep CORI Programme deliberately reinforces through mixed-age teamwork. Warm and purposeful relationships between teachers and pupils are a defining feature, and staff respond quickly to individual needs, which is easier to achieve when class sizes are small and everyone is known by name.

The heritage is more than decoration. St Mary's counts among its former pupils Gwyneth Bebb, the first woman to gain a First in Jurisprudence at Oxford and a figure whose 1913 legal case helped open the legal profession to women, and Lin Huiyin, recognised as the first female architect in modern China. That lineage of women who broke into closed professions sits naturally with a school that still markets itself on empowering girls, and it gives the single-sex model a sense of purpose rather than nostalgia.

Head Lars Fox sets the register for the place. His stated ambition is for girls to find their voice and grow into confident, compassionate young women, and the school's single-sex, all-through model is built squarely around that aim. The early-years environment has its own dedicated Centre and outdoor space, where practitioners report that children make good progress from their starting points. It is a school that feels purposeful without being pressured.

St Mary's posts its strongest measurable results at GCSE. The school holds an England rank of 483 for GCSE performance, and within Gerrards Cross it ranks first. These are proprietary FindMySchool rankings, built from official data, and they place the school above the England average, within the top 25% of schools in England. That standing comes from a Year 11 cohort of around 54 and a broadly non-selective intake, so the rank reflects a school that admits across the ability range rather than creaming off the highest performers at entry.

A-level results tell a more measured story. The school ranks 685th in England for A-level and, again, first in Gerrards Cross, a separate proprietary FindMySchool ranking that places sixth-form performance in line with the middle 35% of schools in England, a solid rather than spectacular standing. The grade profile bears this out: in the most recent year, about 8% of entries were graded A*, 15% A and 45% B, so roughly two-thirds reached A* to B. Set against the England averages, St Mary's exceeds the figure of about 47% for A* to B, while trailing the England figure of roughly 24% for the top A*/A bracket. In short, the sixth form is reliable at pushing girls into the B-and-above band, with fewer reaching the very top grades.

These figures make more sense alongside the school's selectivity, or rather its lack of it. St Mary's is not academically selective in the way a grammar or a highly competitive London independent is, and the inspection finding that most pupils at GCSE and A-level meet or exceed their predicted grades matters here: the school adds value to the girls it takes, rather than simply harvesting strong starters. Small classes do much of that work, since a teacher facing six students has nowhere to hide and neither does the student. Parents comparing schools should read the rank as evidence of consistency for a broad intake, not as a proxy for an academic hothouse.

Teaching is the engine of a small school, and at St Mary's the small scale is the point. Sixth-form classes average six students, which makes genuine discussion and individual feedback the default rather than the exception. Across the school, teachers are confident in their subject knowledge and plan lessons around pupils' interests and needs, with a clear framework for setting targets and tracking progress. Across the prep years, teaching drives strong gains in reading, writing and mathematics, with the great majority of girls advancing at pace through the core skills, and support for girls with special educational needs and disabilities, and for those learning English as an additional language, is effective, with these pupils making progress in line with their peers.

The prep curriculum has a distinctive strand of its own. The CORI Programme, run every Friday afternoon, is a STEAM enrichment scheme named after Gerty Cori, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in medicine. It runs in six-week modules, from building Infento kit cars and K'Nex engineering to Lego coding, stop-motion film-making and Forest School, with girls working in mixed-age teams so the older ones mentor and the younger ones gain confidence. The acronym stands for creativity, outside-the-box thinking, resilience and initiative, and the programme exists to prepare girls for jobs that do not yet exist. It is a concrete answer to a hard question: how does a prep school teach the skills that do not fit neatly into a maths book? Naming it after a Nobel laureate, in a school that has already produced pioneering women, is a neat piece of intent.

The senior phase carries that ambition into specialist teaching. With more than 27 A-level subjects available, girls in the sixth form work in small groups with subject specialists, and the prep school's own purpose-built blocks, including a dedicated Science Laboratory and the technology-equipped Cherry Tree House classroom block that opened in 2018, give younger pupils proper facilities rather than make-do classrooms. The throughline from EYFS enrichment to A-level specialism is the school's quiet strength.

St Mary's runs as a continuous school, so the main transitions are smooth by design. Girls move up through the prep years into the senior school, sit GCSEs at the end of Year 11, and most then continue into the school's own sixth form, which also welcomes new students from outside. The school's destinations data for the most recent leaving cohort shows the majority of leavers progressing to university, with a further share moving directly into employment.

The sixth form is built to support ambitious applications. A dedicated Higher Education Advisor guides the university process from first thoughts to final offer, and the school runs interview coaching with subject specialists for girls aiming at Oxbridge or at competitive courses such as medicine, dentistry and veterinary science. For students stretching towards selective STEM degrees, a fourth A-level in Further Mathematics is on offer, alongside the Extended Project Qualification for those who want to pursue an independent research interest in depth, the kind of independent work that admissions tutors at selective universities increasingly look for.

That structure matters most for the girls who arrive without a famous-name school on the application. Because the staff know each student over years rather than terms, references are personal and predictions are well grounded, and the small cohort means no one is lost in the crowd at the point where it counts. For families weighing the sixth form specifically, the realistic frame is a supportive launchpad into a wide spread of universities, with genuine specialist help for the most competitive routes.

St Mary's admits at several entry points: into the Nursery at age three, into Reception, at 11+ into Senior House, and at 16+ into the Sixth Form. As an all-through school, progression from the prep phase into the senior school is internal and continuous, so families joining early do not face a fresh 11+ scramble. Sixth-form places are offered to the school's own Year 11 students who meet the entry requirements, alongside external applicants. The school recently received approval to increase its registered capacity from 428 to 475 pupils, so there is genuine room to grow at each stage rather than a permanent waiting list.

Entry is not academically selective in the grammar-school sense, which makes St Mary's a realistic option for families who want an independent education without a high-stakes entrance exam at the gate. The Church of England foundation does not function as an admissions filter: girls of all faiths and none are admitted, so there is no certificate of religious practice or parish reference to navigate, a contrast with many Catholic and some Anglican schools where worship records gate the most sought-after places. Registration carries a fee of £100 for entry up to Year 2 and £200 from Year 3, with a returnable deposit of £500 charged in the first term and credited back when a girl leaves.

Families weighing the move should use the FindMySchool map and local hub tools to compare St Mary's against other independent and state options across south Buckinghamshire side by side, and to save a shortlist while deciding. Because the school is small, year groups fill at different rates, so it is worth registering interest early for the most popular entry points, particularly Reception and Year 7.

Pastoral care is where a small single-sex school tends to earn its fees, and St Mary's leans into that. The latest ISI inspection confirmed that the school's pastoral team responds promptly to individual concerns and keeps a close watch on girls' emotional and physical health, with staff attuned to needs across every year group. Comprehensive supervision means pupils feel safe, and safeguarding is effective, meeting all the required Standards, an assessment that held when the school's planned increase in pupil numbers was reviewed.

The school also makes a point of giving girls responsibility early. Pupils take on positions of leadership from a young age, and the culture encourages them to value learning about, and giving to, others, which threads service through school life rather than confining it to one charity week a year. The house system feeds this too, handing older girls captaincies and younger ones a team to belong to from their first weeks. Combined with the all-through structure, where a girl is known to the same staff over many years, the effect is a tight pastoral net that catches problems early.

The one caveat from inspection is structural rather than worrying: leaders were asked to monitor the consistency of personal, social and health education more closely, so that delivery is even across every level, and to tighten governors' oversight of relationships and sex education and of online filtering. These are process points in an otherwise warm and well-supervised setting, but they are fair questions to raise at an open morning.

For a school of its size, St Mary's offers a remarkable breadth of activity, with over 120 clubs running each term and a Co-Curricular Challenge that recognises sustained participation and leadership through Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum awards. If a girl's interest is not on the list, the school encourages her to start her own club, which tells you something about how seriously it takes student initiative rather than just attendance.

Sport is a real strength rather than a token offering. The school has a Sport England full-size Sports Hall and a floodlit multi-use games area that keeps netball, hockey and tennis going through winter evenings, plus an athletics field in the grounds. The results follow: the netball squad has reached national finals, and gymnastics has earned top placings nationally, both notable for a school this small, where every successful team is drawn from a shallow pool of pupils. Girls play across gymnastics, hockey, netball, tennis, rounders, football, badminton and swimming, so there is a genuine route into competition whatever a girl's sport, and gymnastics scholarships run from as young as the U9 age group.

Music and drama run deep too. Choirs, an orchestra and bands give girls performance opportunities from the prep years upward, and in the senior school the Senior Choir and Senior Chamber Choir offer more advanced ensemble singing for those who want to specialise. Drama and dance clubs sit alongside, and the school awards scholarships in music, art, drama, dance and gymnastics at 11+, which signals that the creative arts are a serious pathway here, not an afterthought. The breadth means a musically inclined girl and a sporty one can both find a home, and the small numbers mean each gets stage time and game time rather than a place on the bench.

The sixth form extends the co-curriculum into more grown-up territory. The Luminary Programme brings distinguished speakers from a range of disciplines into school, broadening horizons beyond the syllabus, while Model United Nations sharpens debate and diplomacy and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award pushes girls outdoors and into community service. Student-led societies, from current affairs to art history and film, round out a programme that asks older girls to lead rather than simply attend.

The prep school day starts at 8:30am, with girls expected in by 8:40am, and finishes between 3:15pm and 3:45pm depending on year group, the youngest leaving earliest. Wraparound care is available for families who cannot manage the standard drop-off and collection times; the school publishes the current hours, so confirm the arrangement that suits your family directly. For nursery fee details, see the school website. Government-funded hours are available for eligible families; see our guide to nursery funding.

St Mary's sits on Packhorse Road in the heart of Gerrards Cross, a short walk from the railway station, which puts it within easy reach of the surrounding south Buckinghamshire towns and the Chiltern line into London. That central position makes the daily commute manageable for families across the area rather than tied to one immediate catchment, and it is part of why a small school can draw enough pupils to field competitive teams.

It is fee-paying, and the fees climb steeply with age. Day fees for 2025-26 run from £2,760 per term for the Nursery up to £8,892 per term for Years 7 to 13, all inclusive of VAT and lunch. A small number of means-tested bursaries support girls entering Senior House, and subject scholarships of 5 to 10% are awarded at 11+ and 16+, with two Sixth Form Excellence Awards worth up to 50% for the strongest mock results. Even so, the senior fees are a significant commitment, and financial aid reaches relatively few families.

A-level outcomes are solid rather than elite. The sixth form ranks first locally but sits in the middle 35% of schools in England for A-level, with fewer girls reaching the very top A*/A grades than at the most academically selective independents. Families chasing the highest possible grade profile should look closely at the most recent results before committing.

The Christian foundation is real but light-touch. St Mary's is genuinely a Church of England school in origin and ethos, with service and community woven through daily life, although it admits girls of all faiths and none. Families who actively want intensive religious instruction, and equally those who want none of the Christian framing at all, should check that the balance suits them.

A couple of governance and oversight points are flagged for improvement. The most recent review asked the school to strengthen governors' oversight of relationships and sex education and of online filtering, and to monitor the consistency of personal and social education more closely. These are process notes rather than failings, but fair questions to raise at an open morning.

St Mary's is a small, warm, all-through girls' school that does the unglamorous things well: it knows its pupils, supports them carefully, and moves them up from nursery to sixth form without the disruption of changing schools. It ranks first in Gerrards Cross at both GCSE and A-level, its sport and co-curricular life punch above the school's size, and the CORI Programme and Luminary lecture series show a school thinking seriously about the skills girls will actually need. A heritage that includes pioneering women in law and architecture is matched by a present-day model built to empower the next cohort. It is best suited to families who want a nurturing, non-selective independent education for a daughter, value continuity and small classes over a hyper-competitive academic culture, and are comfortable with a gentle Church of England character. The main caveat is cost set against an A-level profile that is reliable rather than top-tier, so parents fixed on the highest grades, or on means-tested aid, should weigh the latest results and bursary terms carefully before they commit.