Welcome To Maryward Kindergarten

The Mary Ward tradition of excellence in women’s education began in 1609 when Mary Ward founded a religious order (the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary IBVM) and opened her first school for girls in St Omer.

Mary Ward had a compelling vision “that women in time to come will do much”. She believed passionately in the capacity of women, through education, to make a profound difference for good in the world.

Her rich legacy inspires all involved in her schools today to be “seekers of truth and doers of justice” (Mary Ward).

She was called to follow Jesus from an early age. For a Catholic child in Elizabethan England, this could only mean suffering for the faith. But God had a plan for her, and Mary Ward answered the divine call.

At Loreto our vision is to offer a Catholic education which liberates, empowers and motivates students to use their individual gifts with confidence, creativity and generosity in loving and responsible service.

Here is Mary Ward as a little girl. Born in Yorkshire in 1585, she had a bright destiny ahead of her.

This picture is taken from her Painted Life, a series of over fifty pictures which were painted after she died in 1645. They were intended to demonstrate the great courage she had in being faithful to the will of God. For Mary Ward had an extraordinary vocation, one which is hugely important in today’s Church and world. She was called to be an active apostolic woman, rather than an enclosed nun. So what did she do to follow God’s will?

Mary Ward was staying with her cousins when she first realised that God was calling her.

Later she wrote about her sense of vocation: ‘When I was about fifteen years old, while living in the hou2 nd mary wardse of a relation of my mother, I had a religious vocation. This grace has been so continuous that not for a moment since then have I had the least thought of embracing a contrary state.’ She went on to pray: ‘ O Parent of parents and Friend of all friends, without entreaty thou tookest me into thy care, and by degrees led me from all else that at length I might see and settle my love in thee.’

Mary Ward sets off with her first friends to St Omer in continental Europe.

They set up house together; they travelled extensively. This balance of being at home and being prepared to travel would characterise their life together.

They taught girls and, as well, they taught adults about God by helping them listen to the divine call within.

Years of struggle would follow as Mary Ward kept trying to understand God’s call to her. This sense of vocation deepened. But the Church found it difficult to recognise that God might be calling women to something so radical and new.

Mary Ward’s vision was tried and tested. With her sisters, she prayed earnestly. Her sense of vocation prevailed. When she died, her tombstone would say just this, that she persevered in her fidelity to God’s call.

In this picture the first companions discuss their way of life – or institute – together.

Nowadays Mary Ward’s sisters still form an open circle, a world-wide community known as the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

They are still concerned about spiritual growth, about education, social well-being, about justice and about truth – especially for women.