Discover St Leonards
Open Days
We welcome individual visits by appointment on weekdays throughout the year. During your visit you will have the opportunity to meet with the Head, Mr Simon Brian and for Junior School visits, our Head of Junior School, Mrs Claire Robertson.
We also have a virtual tour of St Leonards, which gives those unable to visit us in person the opportunity to look around the grounds and see inside some of our buildings. Virtual tours can be guided live by a member of our Admissions Team by arrangement, or you can take a self-guided 360º tour.
Our School
St Leonards prides itself on being a ‘big-small’ school, with just over 600 pupils – boarding and day – coming from all over the world to study here in St Andrews, the Home of Golf and of Scotland’s oldest university. The ethos of the International Baccalaureate permeates life at St Leonards. Pupils are encouraged to be inquirers, communicators, risk-takers, knowledgeable, principled, thinkers, open-minded, caring, balanced and reflective.
As a through school, pupils are welcomed from age five up to 18, with boarding available from age ten. The boarding houses have recently undergone an extensive refurbishment, and serve as stylish yet comfortable ‘homes from home’ within the secure school grounds.
History
Forward-thinking yet steeped in tradition, St Leonards has been at the forefront of education in Scotland, and in the UK, since its foundation in 1877. From its inception as a pioneering school for girls through to becoming fully co-educational, St Leonards has demonstrated a progressive spirit. It became an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School in 2006, and today is one of just two schools in the UK to actively offer all four IB programmes.
St Leonards is renowned for being the ‘cradle of lacrosse’, the first game of women’s lacrosse having been played at the School in 1890. So charmed by the first and second headmistresses – Dame Louisa Lumsden and Dame Frances Dove – upon watching a men’s lacrosse match in Canada in 1884, that they introduced it at St Leonards, founding the sport as it is now known for women the world over.
The school motto is ‘Ad Vitam’, interpreted as ‘for life’, and this was inspired by Prior John Hepburn, one of the two founders of St Leonard’s College, which stood on the school site from 1512. Situated within medieval walls, between the sea and the historic university buildings of St Andrews, St Leonards boasts a truly special location: an unrivalled place to live and learn.
Scholarships & Bursaries
Scholarships are awarded at St Leonards to current and new pupils based on achievement, recognising exceptional talent in academic studies, art, music, drama, sport and golf. A scholarship day is held during the Autumn Term (Sixth Form) and Spring Term (other year groups) for assessment purposes.
Means-tested bursaries are available at St Leonards for pupils in Years 7-13, and follow an academic assessment. Our fees in the youngest years are highly competitive to make our school as accessible as possible from Year 1 upwards. Applications have now closed for the 2024-2025 Academic Year.
Discover more in our Scholarships and Bursaries booklet – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F6r7T_DtFoRVNb0_nv0DV-izX46LcOqh/view
Co-curricular Activities
The inspiring IB curriculum is complemented by over 50 co-curricular activities, from sport to music, drama, art, debating, outdoor learning and more. A thriving Beach School ensures pupils benefit from St Leonards’ location, bringing learning to life by the water’s edge, whilst the dedicated Music School and bustling Art Department are always hives of activity. Not to mention the beehives themselves, which are tended to by pupils and staff, who produce St Leonards honey each year and plant the grounds to attract bees and other wildlife.
A leading six-tier Golf Programme caters for every level of golfer, from the beginner to the elite, delivered in partnership with the St Andrews Links Golf Academy. Pupils enrolled on the programme benefit from state-of-the-art tracking technology, facilities, and access to seven Links golf courses, including the famous Old Course.
https://www.stleonards-fife.org/co-curriculum-2/
Exam Results
St Leonards is globally recognised for our excellent academic achievements and was recently named the Scottish Independent School of the Year for Academic Performance in 2024 by the Sunday Times, St Leonards recently announced the continued success of its IB graduates, achieving some of the following results:
Almost 80% of grades were 7/6/5 (A*-B equivalent) in Higher Level subjects, whilst 85% of pupils secured places at their university of choice.
Alina K (international boarder from Russia) scored the maximum of 45 points – a feat achieved by typically fewer than 1% of pupils globally who sit the qualification and equivalent to a remarkable 5 A* grades at A Level.
Other notable achievements came from Sophie C (day pupil, St Andrews), scoring 43 points who has a place at either St Andrews or Durham to read Combined Social Sciences; Sam C (day pupil, Fife), scoring 41 points who has a place at Glasgow School of Art to read Architecture; and similarly Amanda (Ruihan) Y (international boarder, China), who has a place at UCL to read Biomedical Sciences.
It was also a joy to share in the success Maryna B (international boarder, Ukraine) achieved. She has thrived at St Leonards since arriving only two years ago and scored a remarkable 36 points (equivalent to AAA at A Level). Maryna has a place at Dundee University to study International Business.
The most popular universities this year were Durham, Glasgow, UCL and Warwick, with other destinations for the IB students in Scotland ranging from St Andrews, Heriot-Watt and Aberdeen.
Each year, typically one third of St Leonards pupils go on to Scottish universities, one third to destinations elsewhere in the UK, and one third overseas. This year’s international places include Bucconi, Maastricht and University of California, San Diego.
Contact
Address
St Leonards School
St Andrews
Fife
Scotland
United Kingdom
KY16 9QJ
Contact Email