In the one hundred and seventy-three years that have passed since our School welcomed its first pupils, each passing generation has imprinted itself on our unique pedigree.
In 1841 Lady Mary Arundell opened a small girls’ school in Loughborough and persuaded Blessed Antonio Rosmini to send religious sisters from Italy to establish a convent. Her request was answered and, mainly through the generosity of Lady Arundell and a dowry from Mary Amherst, the arriving Sister Mary Francesca Panea and Sister Mary Anastasia Somorini helped to establish Our Lady’s Convent School in 1850.
The spirit of Loughborough Amherst School today is still inspired by the philosophy of Antonio Rosmini that ‘a pupil must be allowed to grow and develop as an integrated human person’.
Amherst School has developed and changed from those early beginnings but the treasured heart of our 10 acre site remains the convent building and chapel designed for the School’s opening by Charles Hansom, an acolyte of Augustus Pugin – a renowned architect who was at one time engaged to our very own Mary Amherst.
Following more than a century as an admired convent school for girls, the Catholic School extended its welcome to those of all faiths and none, taking boys aged 4-11 from Reception through to Primary department.
In 2015 the School joined the neighbouring Loughborough Schools Foundation Family, opening the Loughborough Nursery on our campus in 2016.
In 2018 our name changed to Loughborough Amherst School (in honour of Mary Amherst) in preparation for our becoming the town’s only co-educational independent school for children aged 4-18 years, welcoming boys into the Senior School from September 2019.
Through all these changes we remain what we have always been, a vibrant, caring and close-knit community that challenges its pupils but also cares for them, thereby building confidence for life.
Our pupils are and always have been our best advertisement. Confident but not arrogant; ambitious but not materialistic; and well equipped to face the worst and embrace the best that life has to offer.