The McAuley Catholic High School

The McAuley Catholic High School is a coeducational Catholic secondary school in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The School takes its name from Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, the order which ran the School until the late 1980s.

As a school for the children of Roman Catholics, it was originally a girls private school until the move in the 1970s, when the School became coeducational. The school has a long-standing tradition of academic excellence, music and drama, pastoral and religious life.

The Convent Collegiate School can trace back its original foundation to 1887, but the current school was founded in 1981 by the amalgamation of the Catherine McAuley Grammar School (founded 1970 - now the Upper School) and St Peter's School (founded 1956 - now the Lower School).

In 2003 the school became a Specialist School for Performing Arts.^[1]

History

The school is named after the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, Catherine McAuley. Her legacy is recognised in centres of education and work with the poor worldwide which are associated with the Sisters of Mercy, the Catholic religious order that she founded.

Born at a time of anti-Catholic bigotry in Ireland, McAuley was deeply touched by the faith of her father who welcomed the poor of Dublin to his door, cared for them and taught them the Catholic faith. James McAuley died when Catherine was a child, and her mother some years later, yet despite the anti-Catholic feelings of the relatives who took Catherine and her brother and sister into their care, Catherine held on to the faith of her father.

At 40 years of age McAuley inherited a fortune from a childless couple she had befriended. With the inheritance she bought a property in an affluent part of Dublin, where she was determined to bring the needs of the poor to the attention of her wealthy neighbours. With like-minded women McAuley engaged in the practical work of housing poor women and children and educating them through academic schooling and training in practical skills.

Eventually McAuley and the other women who had joined in her work became a formal religious order taking the name Sisters of Mercy. They were among the first nuns to leave their convent to visit and care for the poor. Soon other houses of mercy were founded throughout Ireland, and McAuley then founded the first convents to be built in England since the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century.

The work of the Sisterhood of Mercy spread throughout the world after McAuley's death, and her passion for education as a means of improving quality of life was always at the centre of the Sisters' activities, so that schools as far apart as Australia and North America bear the name of Catherine McAuley.

The school's former houses represented the patron Saints of the United Kingdom: St George, St Patrick, St David and St Andrew. In September 2013 four houses named Red, Orange, Purple and Yellow were introduced to the school.

The current Head Teacher (from September 2011) is Catherine Brown.

In 2014, McAuley got permission to become an Academy.^[2]

The convent

In Doncaster, a convent of the Sisters of Mercy was established in 1887, and the original catholic school was founded. After decades of work in the area, The Convent Collegiate School on Rutland street closed (it now Hill House St Mary's Preparatory School) and the sisters had a vision for Catholic education in Doncaster which led to their sacrificial investment in the land and buildings that now house the Upper School and the Convent of Mercy on Warning Tongue Lane. The new 1970 school was named after Catherine McAuley.

Notable former pupils

• Kevin Keegan - Born 1951 (football player and manager)
• Michael Dugher - Born 1975 (MP - Barnsley East)

References

External links

• The McAuley School site
• Hallam Diocese
• OFSTED page for McAuley