The Mount School, York

The Mount School
The Mount School
	The Mount School York
Address
	Dalton Terrace; York, North Yorkshire, YO24 4DD; England
Coordinates	53°57′08″N 1°05′52″W / 53.95235°N 1.09771°W
Information
Former names	Trinity Lane (York) Quaker Girls' School
Type	Private day and boarding school
Motto	Latin: Fidelis in Parvo; (Faithfulness in small things)
Religious affiliation(s)	Religious Society of Friends; (Quaker)
Established	1785
Founders	Quakers
Department for Education URN	121726 Tables
Principal	David Griffiths
Gender	Girls
Age	3 to 18
Enrolment	~290
Houses	Cadbury; Frys; Terry's; Rowntrees;
Affiliations	Girls' Schools Association; Independent Schools Council;
Website	www.mountschoolyork.co.uk

The Mount School is a private Quaker day and boarding school for girls ages 3–18, located in York, England. The school was founded in 1785, and the current principal is David Griffiths. The Mount School is one of seven Quaker schools in England. In 2020, it became the first girls' school in the North of England to become an All-Steinway School.^[2] The school is also a member of the Girls' Schools Association and the Independent Schools Council.^[3]

History

The school, under the name Trinity Lane (or York) Quaker Girls' School, was founded in 1785 by Yorkshire Quaker, Esther Tuke, wife of William Tuke.^[4]^[5]

In 1831, Esther and William's grandson Samuel Tuke, along with William Alexander, Thomas Backhouse and Joseph Rowntree, moved the school to Castlegate House with Hannah Brady registered as the superintendent (1831–42).^[4] She was followed by Elizabeth Brady (1842–47), Eliza Stringer (1847–1853), and Rachel Tregelles (1853–1862),^[6] who oversaw the move of the school to its current premises, The Mount, in 1856.

In 1866, Lydia Rous returned from her work with the Underground Railroad during the American Civil War to become the new superintendent, eventually retiring in 1879.^[7]

From 1890 to 1902, Lucy Harrison was identified as the headmistress of The Mount; Harrison endeavoured to bring many of the conventions of the school in line with contemporary norms at the time, particularly those surrounding health and wellbeing. This included the development of a gymnasium and the increasing the amount of outdoor space designed to be useable by students.

From 1946 to 1966, Margery Willoughby was the head teacher.^[8]

Traditions

The Mount School has many long-standing traditions, including a game event called Games in the Dark which takes place on Bonfire Night. Year 11 students arrange a treasure hunt challenge for the younger students to take part in and it often involves many pranks. College-aged pupils traditionally present two events to the school, one at the end of each term, respectively, the College I Pantomime and the Leavers' Play, at which previous head girls are presented with gifts by their successors.^[9]^[10]

The Foundation Meeting (or Speech Day) summarises the year and introduces the new head girl team; awards and scholarships are presented to students from every year group, during this event.

Curriculum

In 2012, the school introduced the PeaceJam Ambassadors programme into the school curriculum.^[11] The school has "pillars of excellence" in the subject areas of sciences, math, history, music, sports, art, drama and foreign languages.^[12]

Sports

The Mount has yearly activities in orienteering and fencing, netball, hockey and swimming in the winter, rounders, tennis and athletics in the summer. College girls are able to choose the sports, lacrosse and whether or not to use a fitness suite.^[13] The school has a team for hockey, netball, tennis, rounders, swimming, athletics and cross country.

Creative arts

The Mount is an All Steinway School^[14] and holds annual concerts. Extracurricular creative art groups include both Senior and Junior Orchestra, Senior and Junior Choir, a Wind group and a Swing Band for woodwind and brass instruments. The school follows the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) syllabus and there is usually a school and college play performed every year.

Accolades

In The Times League Table, the school is ranked 2nd by A-level results in the York area. In the Yorkshire Post, the school was ranked in the A-level results table for Yorkshire in 2012.^[15]

Notable alumnae

Isobel Barnett, Scottish radio and television personality
Virginia Beardshaw CBE, Founder Fellow of the King's Fund Institute
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astrophysicist^[16]
Kate Bellingham, BBC technology presenter and engineer
Laura Busson, BBC Radio 2 Commissioning Executive
Dame A. S. Byatt, author^[17]
Ruth Cadbury, politician
Margaret Crosfield, palaeontologist, one of the first 13 female fellows of the Geological Society of London in 1919.
Dame Judi Dench, actress
Dame Margaret Drabble, author^[17]
Audrey Evans, paediatric oncologist, co-founder of Ronald MacDonald House^[18]
Professor Ruth Finnegan, social anthropologist^[19]
Mary Sturge Gretton, historian and magistrate^[20]
Jean Henderson, lawyer and Liberal Party politician
Rachel Howard, artist
Noni Jabavu, South African writer and journalist
Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman, former Conservative MP
Rose Neill, BBC Broadcaster
Nuzo Onoh, British-Nigerian writer
Helen Osborne, journalist and critic^[21]
Tessa Rowntree, aid worker in Czechoslovakia
Winifred Sargent, mathematician^[22]
Anna Southall, director of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales
Nicola Spence, biologist
Cheryl Taylor, controller of CBBC^[23]
Kathleen Mary Tillotson, literary scholar^[24]
Mary Ure, actress
Elfrida Vipont, children's author
Hilary Wainwright, feminist and Guardian writer
Anna Walker, BBC Tomorrow's World and Sky presenter
Frances Wilson, English author, academic and critic
Elizabeth Young, journalist and literary critic

References

^ "The Mount School: A Day in the Life of the Mount School Headgirl's Team". Living North Magazine, Late Winter / Early Spring 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
^ "The Mount in York becomes North Yorkshire's first all-Steinway school". York Press. Newsquest International. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
^ "Girls' Schools Association". Girls' Schools Association. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
^ ^a ^b "History & Heritage". The Mount School. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
^ "Tuke, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27810. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Biographical Catalogue: Being an Account of the Lives of Friends and Others Whose Portraits are in the London Friends' Institute. Friends Institute. 1888. pp. 827–829. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
^ "Rous, Lydia (1819–1896), headmistress". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48673. Retrieved 8 October 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ "Headmistress held in great respect". York Press. 14 June 2001. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
^ Living North, Spring 2013
^ "A Day in the Life of The Mount Headgirls". Living North (Spring 2013).
^ Hayward, Jo (28 August 2012). "Teaching peace in the classroom". The Guardian.
^ [1]"Quality Mark Case Study" Historical Association
^ "Mount School York". Sports Facilities UK. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
^ "The Mount is North Yorkshire's First All Steinway School". Attain. Pressburst. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
^ Roberts, John (25 August 2012). "Praise as private school tops table on A-levels". Yorkshire Post.
^ Lewis, Haydn (24 August 2021). "York Mount School's Jocelyn Bell Burnell gets Copley Medal". York Press. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
^ ^a ^b Kastan, David Scott, ed. (2006). The Oxford encyclopedia of British literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 351. ISBN 978-0195169218. When she [Byatt] was thirteen, she and her younger sister—the novelist Margaret Drabble—were sent to Mount School, a Quaker boarding school in York.
^ "Audrey 90th Birthday Event Video". YouTube. 5 June 2015. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
^ "Professor Ruth Finnegan, FBA, Social and Cultural Anthropology, other branches, Elected 1996". Retrieved 7 January 2022.
^ Reid, Ellie (2020). "Gretton [née Sturge; first married name Henderson], Mary Gertrude Sturge (1871–1961), historian and magistrate". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.59036. ISBN 9780198614128. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
^ Coveney, Michael (9 January 2004). "Helen Osborne". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
^ "Winifred L. C. Sargent". Newsletter of the Association for Women in Mathematics (v. 11-15). Association for Women in Mathematics (U.S.): 7. 1981. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
^ Conlan, Tara (9 December 2012). "Cheryl Taylor interview: CBBC 'is where we want the BBC journey to begin". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
^ "The Papers of Professors Geoffrey and Kathleen Tillotson". Royal Holloway Archives and Special Collections, University of London. Retrieved 25 March 2024. she attended Ackworth School, Pontefract, and The Mount, York

External links

[1] "The Mount School: A Day in the Life of the Mount School Headgirl's Team". Living North Magazine, Late Winter / Early Spring 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2016.

[2] "The Mount in York becomes North Yorkshire's first all-Steinway school". York Press. Newsquest International. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2020.

[3] "Girls' Schools Association". Girls' Schools Association. Retrieved 25 February 2021.

[mounthistory-4] "History & Heritage". The Mount School. Retrieved 4 March 2019.

[dnb-tuke-5] "Tuke, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27810. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[FI1888-6] Biographical Catalogue: Being an Account of the Lives of Friends and Others Whose Portraits are in the London Friends' Institute. Friends Institute. 1888. pp. 827–829. Retrieved 4 March 2019.

[7] "Rous, Lydia (1819–1896), headmistress". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48673. Retrieved 8 October 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[Press-8] "Headmistress held in great respect". York Press. 14 June 2001. Retrieved 26 April 2022.

[9] Living North, Spring 2013

[10] "A Day in the Life of The Mount Headgirls". Living North (Spring 2013).

[11] Hayward, Jo (28 August 2012). "Teaching peace in the classroom". The Guardian.

[12] [1]"Quality Mark Case Study" Historical Association

[13] "Mount School York". Sports Facilities UK. Retrieved 25 February 2021.

[14] "The Mount is North Yorkshire's First All Steinway School". Attain. Pressburst. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2021.

[15] Roberts, John (25 August 2012). "Praise as private school tops table on A-levels". Yorkshire Post.

[16] Lewis, Haydn (24 August 2021). "York Mount School's Jocelyn Bell Burnell gets Copley Medal". York Press. Retrieved 24 August 2021.

[Byatt-17] Kastan, David Scott, ed. (2006). The Oxford encyclopedia of British literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 351. ISBN 978-0195169218. When she [Byatt] was thirteen, she and her younger sister—the novelist Margaret Drabble—were sent to Mount School, a Quaker boarding school in York.

[:02-18] "Audrey 90th Birthday Event Video". YouTube. 5 June 2015. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2019.

[19] "Professor Ruth Finnegan, FBA, Social and Cultural Anthropology, other branches, Elected 1996". Retrieved 7 January 2022.

[20] Reid, Ellie (2020). "Gretton [née Sturge; first married name Henderson], Mary Gertrude Sturge (1871–1961), historian and magistrate". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.59036. ISBN 9780198614128. Retrieved 13 September 2020.

[21] Coveney, Michael (9 January 2004). "Helen Osborne". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 May 2016.

[22] "Winifred L. C. Sargent". Newsletter of the Association for Women in Mathematics (v. 11-15). Association for Women in Mathematics (U.S.): 7. 1981. Retrieved 25 March 2024.

[23] Conlan, Tara (9 December 2012). "Cheryl Taylor interview: CBBC 'is where we want the BBC journey to begin". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2012.

[24] "The Papers of Professors Geoffrey and Kathleen Tillotson". Royal Holloway Archives and Special Collections, University of London. Retrieved 25 March 2024. she attended Ackworth School, Pontefract, and The Mount, York

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v t e Schools in North Yorkshire^*
Primary schools	Burnsall Primary School Scarcroft Primary School
Secondary schools	Acklam Grange School All Saints Catholic School Archbishop Holgate's School Barlby High School Bedale High School Boroughbridge High School Brayton Academy Caedmon College Eskdale School Filey School Freebrough Academy Fulford School George Pindar School Graham School Harrogate Grammar School Harrogate High School Holy Family RC High School Huntcliff School Huntington School Joseph Rowntree School King James's School The King's Academy Lady Lumley's School Laurence Jackson School Macmillan Academy Manor CE Academy Malton School Millthorpe School Nidderdale High School Northallerton School Norton College Nunthorpe Academy Outwood Academy Acklam Outwood Academy Bydales Outwood Academy Easingwold Outwood Academy Normanby Outwood Academy Ormesby Outwood Academy Redcar Outwood Academy Ripon Outwood Academy Riverside Richmond School Risedale School Rossett School Ryedale School Rye Hills Academy Sacred Heart RC Secondary St Aidan's CE High School St Augustine's RC School St Francis Xavier School St John Fisher RC High School St Peter's RC College Scalby School Scarborough University Technical College Selby High School Settle College Sherburn High School The Skipton Academy South Craven School Stokesley School Tadcaster Grammar School Thirsk School Trinity Catholic College Unity City Academy Upper Wharfedale School Vale of York Academy The Wensleydale School York High School
Grammar schools	Ermysted's Grammar School Ripon Grammar School Skipton Girls' High School
Independent schools	Ampleforth College Ashville College Aysgarth School Bootham School Fyling Hall School Giggleswick School Harrogate Ladies' College The Mount School Queen Ethelburga's Collegiate Queen Margaret's School Queen Mary's School Read School St Olave's School St Peter's 2-8 St Peter's School Scarborough College
Special schools	Beverley School Breckenbrough School
FE & sixth form colleges	Askham Bryan College Craven College Harrogate College Middlesbrough College Northern School of Art Prior Pursglove College Redcar & Cleveland College Selby College Scarborough Sixth Form College Scarborough TEC York College
Defunct schools	Ashfield Secondary Modern School Bentham Grammar School Blue Coat School Grey Coat School Bramcote School Burnholme Community College Clifton House School Elmfield College Eston Park Academy Gillbrook Academy Great Ayton Friends' School Hall Garth Community Arts College Harrogate Tutorial College King's Manor School Knavesmire Secondary School Malsis School Menwith Hill School The Minster School New College, Harrogate Newlands School FCJ Norwood College Queen Anne Grammar School Raincliffe School Rathmell Academy St David's School St George's RC Secondary School St Martin's Ampleforth St Mary's College Scarborough Convent School Scorton Grammar School West End Preparatory School Woodleigh School
^*including schools in Redcar and Cleveland, Middlesbrough and York.