Saint Felix School

The school was founded in 1897 as a girls' school by Margaret Isabella Gardiner.{{fact|date=December 2023}}

By September 1902, the present site of the school had been purchased and the first four boarding houses and teaching block completed.{{cite web |title=History |url=https://stfelix.co.uk/about-us/the-school/history/ |website=St Felix School |accessdate=3 June 2019}} In 1909 Lucy Mary Silcox took over as headmistress from the founding head. The student roll grew and in 1910, the Gardiner Assembly Hall and a Library were built and Clough House followed in 1914.{{Cite web|url=https://www.blythburgh.net/history/felix.php|title=St. Felix School Historical Notes|website=www.blythburgh.net|access-date=2020-03-26}}

File:Miss Silcox.png in 1925]]

Silcox was able to bring leading thinkers and artists to the school and money was found to buy sculpture{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-53822|title=Silcox, Lucy Mary (1862–1947), headmistress and feminist|date=2004 |language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/53822|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=2020-03-26 |last1=Oldfield |first1=Sybil }} and paintings. The modernist paintings inspired pupils like the artist Gwyneth Johnstone who remembered seeing work by Christopher Wood at the school.{{Cite news|last=Harrod|first=Tanya|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jan/06/gwyneth-johnstone-obituary|title=Gwyneth Johnstone obituary|date=2011-01-06|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-26|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} Silcox directed the girls in ancient Greek plays. The students knew she was President of the local National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies as she gave talks in surrounding villages in support of women gaining the vote.

The school continued during the 1914-18 war and during the 1916-1917 school year there was an outpost of the school at Penmaenmawr as some parents were worried about their students' safety.{{Cite journal|date=January 2020|title=PENMAENMAWR|url=https://stfelix.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Old-Felicians-Newsletter-January-2020.pdf|journal=Old Felicians|pages=32}} The whole school was evacuated three times and the school took in some Serbian refugees.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/southwold-boarding-school-to-offer-places-to-syrian-refugees-1-4224310|title=Southwold boarding school to offer places to Syrian refugees|last=Ryan|first=George|website=Lowestoft Journal|language=en|access-date=2020-03-26}}

The school accommodates toddlers from 2 years of age in the Little Saint Felix Nursery, and children up to the age of 18 in the Sixth Form. The school offers boarding throughout the term, weekly, or 'flexi' boarding.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/08/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/935_6007.stm Saint Felix School] Having joined the School in September 2023, Mr Matthew Oakman is the current Head. Educated at the Perse School in Cambridge and then Oxford University, Mr Oakman joined Saint Felix School with extensive academic and leadership experience from positions held at Wellington College.

{{see also|Category:People educated at Saint Felix School}}

• Griselda Allan – artist
• Jane Benham MBE – artist and sailor who worked to preserve Thames sailing barges
• Dorothea Braby – artist and illustrator
• Dorothy Elizabeth Bradford – painter
• Stella Browne – feminist and abortion law reformer
• Natalie Caine – woodwind player[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/feb/17/obituary-natalie-caine Natalie Caine], The Guardian, 2009-02-17. Retrieved 2013-01-05.
• Constance Coltman – the first woman ordained to Christian ministry in BritainElaine Kaye, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/50/101050351/ Coltman, Constance Mary (1889–1969)], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Katherine Laird Cox – model, magistrate
• Nora David, Baroness David – politician and life peer[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/6753796/Baroness-David.html Baroness David], The Daily Telegraph, 2009-12-07. Retrieved 2013-01-05.
• William Ellard – swimmer{{cite web |title=William Ellard looking to impress in Paris after incredible breakout year |url=https://www.swimming.org/sport/paris-2024-paralympic-games-william-ellard/#:~:text=Despite%20all%20of%20his%20success,part%20of%20the%20same%20one. |website=Swimming.org |access-date=6 September 2024 |date=27 August 2024}}
• Phyllis Gardner – artist and dog breeder
• Nick Griffin – Former BNP leader and MEP for North West England (1999–2014){{cite news| last1=Toolis |first1=Kevin |title=Race to the right |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2000/may/20/weekend.kevintoolis |accessdate=3 June 2019 | newspaper=The Guardian |date=20 May 2000}}
• Lilias Rider Haggard MBE – daughter of Sir Henry Rider Haggard and an author in her own rightHAGGARD, Lilias Margitson Rider, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U57091, accessed 5 Jan 2013]
• Norman Heatley OBE – biochemist{{cite ODNB| first=Eric | last=Sidebottom | title=Heatley, Norman George (1911–2004) | date=January 2011 | edition=online | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/93128 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/93128 | access-date=4 January 2013 }}
• Gwyneth Johnstone – painter
• Emily Beatrix Coursolles Jones – novelist
• Nancy Lyle – tennis player
• Violet Helen Millar, later Countess Attlee, wife of Clement Attlee
• Mother Maribel of Wantage – Anglican nun and artistSister Janet, Mother Maribel of Wantage Published by SPCK, London (1973) {{ISBN|0281027285}} pg 10
• Anna Russell – singer and comedian‘RUSSELL, Anna’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U33451, accessed 5 Jan 2013]
• Enid Russell-Smith DBE – civil servantJonathan Bradbury, ‘Smith, Dame Enid Mary Russell Russell- (1903–1989)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/65870, accessed 5 Jan 2013]
• Mary Snell-Hornby – translation scholar
• Constance Tipper – metallurgist and crystallographerAnna Leendertz Ford, Tipper, Constance Fligg (1894–1995), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/60337, accessed 5 Jan 2013]
• Hannah Waterman – actress
• Dame Barbara Woodward – diplomat
• Sonia Tumiotto, athlete and influencer{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCBYv5fikEPbYmNYuxqw5vA |title=Sonia Tumiotto YouTube Channel|website=YouTube }}

• Lucy Mary Silcox, headmistress from 1909 to 1926{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-53822|title=Silcox, Lucy Mary (1862–1947), headmistress and feminist|date=2004 |language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/53822|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=2020-03-26 |last1=Oldfield |first1=Sybil }}
• Anne Mustoe, headmistress from 1978 to 1987[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/6790125/Anne-Mustoe.html Anne Mustoe] – The Daily Telegraph obituary, 11 December 2009.
• Ivey Dickson, pianist'Ivey Dickson', obituary in The Daily Telegraph, 20 November 2014, p. 33

• List of schools in Suffolk

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|https://stfelix.co.uk/}}
• [http://www.isc.co.uk/schools/england/suffolk/southwold/saint-felix-school Profile], Independent Schools Council

{{Schools in Suffolk}}

{{authority control}}

Category:1897 establishments in England

Category:Educational institutions established in 1897

Category:Private schools in Suffolk

Category:Boarding schools in Suffolk

Category:Reydon