Bishop of Arundel and Brighton celebrates Foundation Day at Woldingham School

The Right Reverend Kieran Conry, Bishop of Arundel and Brighton made a special trip to Woldingham School, on Thursday 14th December 2006 to celebrate the School?s Foundation Mass and Bless the House Banners.  This Mass marked the founding of the School by the Society of the Sacred Heart and Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat and is a key event in the catholic school?s Foundation Day celebrations.

On 8th December 1842, Mother Madeleine-Sophie Barat foundress and Superior General of the Congregation fulfilled a life-long ambition to establish a Sacred-Heart School in England.  She arrived in Berrymead, Acton with two children to begin the boarding school which today stands in the First Division of independent girls? schools in the country.  The school moved to Roehampton in 1850 and eventually settled in 1946 in Woldingham, Surrey.

Among its traditions, Woldingham School continues to place a great deal of emphasis on the Sacred Heart values of Personal Growth, Faith, Social Awareness and Scholarship & Intellectual values.  These form the basis of the school?s community and are reflected in the way in which the girls conduct themselves both academically and socially today.

Foundation Day culminated in a formal dinner at the school and a private performance of a Variety Show put on by the Lower Sixth year.