St Anne's Catholic School (known as St Anne's Convent School until 2006[3]) is an 11-18 secondary school in Southampton, England, for girls. The school's sixth form is coeducational. The school is close to the city centre, and has pupils from all round the city and beyond. The school converted to academy status in August 2012. As of 2025[update], the school and sixth form had 1239 pupils.[2]
History
St Anne's Convent School was established in 1904 by the La Sainte Union Sisters and is still under their trusteeship.
Girls from this school joined Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth during WW2 as they were moved to safety. That school was open throughout the war.[4]
St Anne's was the first direct grant grammar school to convert to a comprehensive intake.[5] After over a century of single-sex education, boys were admitted into the sixth form for the first time beginning in the 2006-07 school year. The word "convent" was dropped from the school's official title to reflect this change.[3][6]
In 2024, the school's former headteacher, in post until 2023, was charged with child sexual abuse.[7][8] The police said that four other teachers at the school were also under investigation.[7][8] In 2025, another former teacher was charged with rape and abuse of a position of trust.[9] The school made a statement that "While we do not know the full details of the allegations, there is no shying away from the severity of the charges".[10]
Premises
The school occupies a site on the corner of Carlton Road and Carlton Crescent back to Rockstone Place. Nos. 11 and 12 Carlton Crescent are Grade II listed buildings. The westwards extension of No. 12 was built in 1961, for which the architects, Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners, received a Civic Trust design award;[11] this was described as "a model of neighbourly treatment in terms of scale character and materials, and an outstanding example of a modern building meeting present-day requirements yet harmonising beautifully with an earlier style".[12]
Academics
The school annually achieves significantly better than the national average.[13] The progress students make from starting at age 11 places it in the top 10% of schools nationally.[14] The school's 5A*-C indicator has been in the 70-80% range for the past four years. It achieved an English Baccalaureate result of 47% in 2015.[15] It regularly ranks at the top of the A Levels results table for non-independent schools in Hampshire.[3]
Ofsted inspection reports
The last full inspection of the school by Ofsted was in 2016. The inspection team rated the overall effectiveness of the school as Outstanding in all areas, including the sixth form.[16][17] A short inspection in 2022 repeated the judgement of Outstanding.[18]
^Donnison, David, ed. (1970), Report on Independent Day Schools and Direct Grant Grammar Schools, Public Schools Commission, Second Report, vol. 1, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, p. 55, ISBN978-0-11-270170-5.
