Loreto College

Loreto College was founded in St Albans in 1922 by members of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The IBVM is a religious order of women founded by a Yorkshire woman, Mary Ward, in the seventeenth century, for the "care of the faith" of Catholics in England. Since 1609, Mary Ward's Institute has spread all over the world: Loreto schools are to be found in England, Wales, Ireland, Gibraltar, Spain, Australia, Africa, including South Africa, Mauritius, India, South America, Canada and the U.S.A. For more details on the Loreto network, click here. The order's most famous teacher is Mother Teresa, canonized in September 2016, who taught religious Studies and Geography at the Loreto Convent in Calcutta for 15 years before being appointed its Principal. For more on her life and her connection to Loreto, click here. When Loreto College opened in St Albans, it was the first school to provide a secondary education for local girls. Since then it has made a considerable contribution to Catholic education in the city and surrounding areas. It has changed character several times over the years, in 1978 becoming a comprehensive school for girls, with an open Sixth Form.