St Wilfrid's School, Exeter

St Wilfrid's was founded by The Reverend John Gilberd Pearse, Rector of All Hallows-on-the-Wall Church, in 1870 following the introduction of the Elementary Education Act 1870 making education compulsory for all children. Initially named the 'Forty School' due to having forty spaces, the school was attended by many children attending school for the first time. In 1890 the school moved into rooms at the Mint Methodist Church because it needed larger premises, and numbers quickly doubled. In 1950 the orphanage run by the Sisters of St Wilfrid's on St David's Hill closed. Having outgrown the space at the Mint, the Junior School moved into Sandford Hall and the Senior school moved into the old orphanage, its present location. Until 1967 St Wilfrid's was primarily a girls’ school although some boys were admitted in the lower years. However, in 1967, following the closure of Mount Radford School, the decision was made for St Wilfrid's school to become fully co-educational and so it became the first independent co-educational school in Exeter. During the 70's and 80's, St Wilfrid's pupils were well known for taking food parcels to elderly residents of local almshouses and singing Christmas Carols in the High Street. For many years traffic was stopped as pupils processed to Exeter Cathedral for an annual St Wilfrid's Day service every October. Up until 1988 the school had been taught entirely by nuns, however, with increasing curriculum demands it was decided they were no longer able to fully run the school and so the Senior department became a separate school with its own head-teacher and financial control. The Junior department continued under the Sisters’ leadership for a while longer until by 1994 there were only two remaining Sisters: Sister Elsie (who died in 1997) and Reverend Mother Lillian (who died in 2004 at the age of 107) at which point the juniors rejoined the seniors and moved into the current site on St David's Hill. Today the school still has senior and junior classes. The current proprietor, Mrs Alexandra Macdonald-Dent, stepped down as headmistress in 2017, to be replaced by the current headmaster and former pupil, Mr Ross Bovingdon. ==Academic environment==