Future developments

For more than a century, St Mary’s have been empowering young women with knowledge, curiosity, resilience, and confidence, shaping them into extraordinary leaders of tomorrow.  

In order to continue to do that we regularly fundraise and invest in facilities across our Preschool, Junior School, Senior School and Sixth Form to update and maintain the ability to deliver a 21^st century education. The School also actively seeks donations, grants, sponsorships, and legacy gifts from individuals including alumnae, trusts and foundations, commercial and charitable organisations, and government-related funding streams from across our domestic and global networks to support our general charitable purposes.

The Magnolia Truth Bursary Programme

In addition to fundraising for these capital projects and to celebrate our 125^th Anniversary we have launched a new Magolia Truth Bursary Programme.

St Mary’s has been at the heart of the Cambridge educational ecology for over a century and has become one of the UK’s leading schools for girls' education. Part of our mission is to draw out truly defining talents as girls enter the critical Sixth Form stage of their education, at which point they begin to sharpen their focus or intensity of study in a particular area and/or in a particular geography.

In the reality of a competitive and evolving world for those making Sixth Form choices, our experience shows that several personal pressures and/or a perceived lack of opportunities mean young women in particular are closing doors to future studies and careers in which they could flourish. We want to help to break down those limits and free our girls to explore their true potential – especially in areas where we, as a School, have an exceptional track record and longstanding recruitment success with top university partners. So much (important) funding is aimed at the university sector to aid lower-income students at the moment of entry into higher education and later research, but we believe strongly and our experience has shown that their journey starts much earlier – right here at A Level – and HE admissions support can often come too late.

This signature bursary initiative will target support towards 15-18 year old female future leaders from a socio-economically diverse range of backgrounds who are studying, or about to study, defining A Level qualifications. A target £4M fund will provide over 250 Sixth Form fee and personal development awards over the next decade with an emphasis on applications from:

• girls who can demonstrate academic excellence and potential;
• girls from lower participation neighbourhoods (low income families) across the UK, with a particular focus on those applying from the wider Cambridge area and bordering counties;
• girls seeking to specialise at A Level in one of three pathways: STEM; Arts & Culture; Global partnerships.

The Mary Ward Educational Suite

As part of a £6m refurbishment within Phase I of the School’s capital development plan, St Mary’s is creating a new c£1.5M educational suite comprised of four new state-of-the-art, versatile teaching and learning spaces.

The new spaces will:

• increase the teaching staff’s ability to bring together larger groups of students for shared and interactive learning;
• upgrade our ability to host small events for School and community benefit purposes, and provide better accessibility for all students;
• improve in-class technologies and learning tools to enhance the student experience.

In addition, the new educational suite will be part of a new ground floor development at St Mary’s which will greatly improve the space, providing a more welcoming ‘front door’ to both students and the wider student community. This is an important effort to improve our overall welcome and hospitality as a School to all of our community audiences, including prospective students and their families.

The educational suite will be opened formally in January 2024 on Mary Ward Day.

Discover what we've achieved so far...