Mayfield is one of the area’s oldest and most prestigious all-girls senior schools having been set up by Mother Cornelia Connelly in 1872. Ahead of its 150th anniversary Eileen Leahy meets headmistress Antonia Beary to discover more of its history and why the world needs more Mayfield girls…
8 | June 2021 | SO Magazine
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sually one would associate a head teacher’s office as being a rather serious and sterile space but on entering Antonia Beary’s at Mayfield School it’s as if you’re visiting an old friend’s sitting room. Of course the usual hallmarks of an official office are all here: rows of academic books, framed certificates, piles of paperwork and a large desk. But nestled in amongst these are more familial touches such as students’ ceramic sculptures, framed photos and a comfy sofa festooned with cushions. There’s even a dog – named Tilly – who is stretched out at Miss Beary’s feet panting happily after a run around the school’s glorious grounds. Not your conventional head teacher’s
Photographs: Rose Bainbridge Creative Direction: Lee Smith
Cover feature
HQ scenario – but then Mayfield is no ordinary school… As I take a seat on the cosy sofa, I’m offered a cup of coffee and a slice of delicious homemade cake. I feel instantly at home and that, as I discover during our chat about the history of Mayfield and its Catholic educational ethos, is very much the way the school wants everyone to feel upon arriving. Mayfield was established in 1872 by Mother Cornelia Connelly who founded the Society of the Holy Child Jesus order in 1846. Cornelia was no ordinary nun though having been married and a mother of five children. She founded the Holy Child order as a result of her profound Catholic faith and passion for ensuring young women were
given an enlightening education; seeing and appreciating the creativity in everything they did. Cornelia was already presiding over the Holy Child school at St Leonardson-Sea when she and a few of her pupils came for a picnic to the Old Palace at Mayfield in May 1863. Within a very short timeframe an acquaintance of hers, the Duchess of Leeds, had bought the site for Cornelia. The restoration of the Old Palace began in 1864 and the ruins of the 14th century hall were transformed into a church 14 months later. Although the nuns educated a small number of orphans on site almost immediately, it was not until 1872 that young girls from St Leonards were brought over to be the
first pupils at the school. “The first day Cornelia brought those girls on a picnic here there was one French and an Italian so even at the very beginning the school has always had that international element,” explains Miss Beary, who has been headmistress since 2008 and welcomes approximately 20 per cent of overseas students. “Cornelia herself was American and opened sister schools in America, Africa and Ireland so Mayfield has always promoted that sense of feeling part of something bigger, a wider community. It’s all about broadening horizons and giving back.” Currently Mayfield has around 28 different nationalities making up the school’s cohort of 400 pupils
