Loretto School-Cedar Herald Index

Loretto School, founded in 1827, is an independent boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 0 to 18. The campus occupies in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland.

History

The school was founded by the Reverend Thomas Langhorne in 1827. Langhorne came from Crosby Ravensworth in Westmorland. He named the school for Loretto House, his then home, which was itself named for a medieval chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, which had formerly stood on the site of the school. The school was later taken over by his son, also named Thomas Langhorne. The last link with the Langhorne family was Thomas' son John, who was a master at Loretto from 1890 to 1897, and later headmaster at John Watson's Institution. Loretto was later under the headmastership of Dr. Hely Hutchinson Almond from 1862 to 1903.

Loretto School

In the 1950s the school increased the accommodation in science laboratories, established arts as a part of the curriculum and introduced the chapel service as part of the daily school life.

Loretto School

The school originally accepted only boys, but in 1981 girls joined the sixth form and in 1995 the third form, so making the school fully co-educational by 1995.

Loretto School

In 2001 the film director Don Boyd published an article in The Observer detailing his systematic sexual abuse by a teacher in the school in the 1960s. The revelation led to further allegations about the teacher from other former pupils and subsequent calls for the teacher's prosecution. The teacher, then 79 years old, was charged, but the case was dropped on the grounds of his ill health. The teacher later died. In 2017, it was announced that the school would be investigated as part of Lady Smith's inquiry into child sexual abuse.

In 2021, Boyd told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that the late Guy Ray-Hills, a French teacher at Loretto, raped him in 1958 when Boyd was 10 years old. Loretto School admitted to the Inquiry that pupils had been abused by one of its teachers in the 1950s and 1960s and gave an unreserved apology.

In 2010 the school was sued by an employee for sex discrimination: the employee felt she had been treated unfavourably following the announcement of her pregnancy. Judge Stewart Watt rejected the sexual discrimination claim asserting that 'there appears to have been no ulterior motive to make [the employee] redundant during the review of the department; the only motive was to try to better organise the school', but he stated that the school had breached maternity regulations.

In 2013, Loretto School was informed by the Scottish Charity Regulator that it did not qualify for charitable status for failing to provide sufficient public benefit. Subsequently, the school modified its means-tested bursary provision and has remained a registered charity ever since.

Former Scotland rugby captain Jason White took his first steps into teaching with a role at the school in September 2017. In the same month it was announced that Jacob Slater, 15, a pupil at the school, would appear in the American-Scottish historical action drama Outlaw King about Robert the Bruce and the Wars of Scottish Independence.

Jamie Parker, former Loretto School pupil and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art student, was named Best Actor at the Olivier Awards in April 2017 for his performance as Harry Potter.

In September 2018, the employment of a teacher at the school, who had been accused of inappropriate behaviour towards students, was terminated.

Loretto School was listed as the fourth-highest Scottish independent school in the 2018 A level league tables.

Facilities

Loretto School is set in an campus and is made up of three parts: the Nursery for children aged 0–5, the Junior School ("The Nippers") for children aged 5–12, and the Senior School for those aged 12–18. Pupils attend as boarders, flexi-boarders and day pupils and are all attached to a specific house. Houses include Schoolhouse (day pupils), Seton House (boys' boarding), Holm House (girls' boarding), Balcarres House (girls' boarding), Pinkie House (boys' boarding), Hope House (boys' boarding) and Eleanora Almond House. It was announced on 27 June 2018 that Eleanora Almond House would be temporarily closed at the end of the academic year for renovation and extension.