St Mary's School (Gerrards Cross)

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, be curious, ask questions to take their learning further and show 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 neuroscientists 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.

Pastoral care and wellbeing

Pastoral care is at the heart of everything we do because we know that girls achieve their best when happy. 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.