ST MARY'S SCHOOL (COLCHESTER) LIMITED

Registered charity 309266 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

INDEPENDENT DAY SCHOOL FOR GIRLS AND DAY NURSERY FOR GIRLS AND BOYS

Objects

TO PROMOTE AND PROVIDE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION AND IN CONNECTION THEREWITH TO CONDUCT, CARRY ON, ACQUIRE AND DEVELOP IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND ELSEWHERE ANY DAY OR BOARDING SCHOOL OR SCHOOLS FOR THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN & AS ANCILLARY THERETO:- (A) TO ACQUIRE AND TAKE OVER AS A GOING CONCERN THE SCHOOL HERETOFORE CARRIED ON BY ST. MARY'S SCHOOL (COLCHESTER) LIMITED. (B) TO ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN THE SAID SCHOOL AND AS AN INDEPENDENT OBJECT TO ESTABLISH OR ACQUIRE AS A GOING CONCERN, AND CARRY ON OR MANAGE ELSEWHERE ANY SUBSIDIARY, AFFILIATED OR OTHER SCHOOLS FOR THE EDUCATION OF BOYS OR GIRLS AND TO GIVE TO SUCH PUPILS GENERAL OR SPECIALISED INSTRUCTION OF THE HIGHEST CLASS BUT SO THAT EACH SUCH SCHOOL SHALL BE CARRIED ON AS AN EDUCATIONAL CHARITY. (C) TO CARRY ON ANY SCHOOLS ACQUIRED BY THE ASSOCIATION AS EDUCATIONAL CHARITIES FOR THE PROMOTION OF EDUCATION GENERALLY, INCLUDING PROVISION FOR THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF INTENDING ENTRANTS TO ANY OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OR COLLEGES OR ANY OTHER SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES OR PLACES OF EDUCATION.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a surplus of £102,981 for the year ended 31 August 2025, despite absorbing part of the VAT increase on fees and facing rising operational costs. Per the trustees' report, free reserves fell to £697,207, which is below the historical policy target of one term's expenditure, though the charity carries no debt and maintains adequate cash reserves to meet obligations.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Griffin Chapman. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Top pay band moved from £100,001 - £110,000 (FY2024) to £80,001 - £90,000 (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Ofsted (Office For Standards In Education). This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Mrs Justine Tierney — Registrar (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.2 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (98% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andrew Hampton
• Anthony Bell
• Craig Woods
• Debbie Hamilton
• Dr Nicole Rae Baerg
• Esther Eddy
• Katharine Jill Abbott
• Katherine Taylor
• MR R G LAMBERT
• MR W MAGILL
• Samuel Flower
• Sarah O'Laoi
• Victoria Spencer-Allen

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Essex · Suffolk

Income and spending

Common questions

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE NEW GIRLS SCHOOL.

• THE NEW GIRLS SCHOOL income £1.9m
• VITA ET PAX SCHOOL (COCKFOSTERS) LIMITED income £972k
• ST MARY'S SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE income £13.3m
• BOOTHAM SCHOOL income £13.7m
• ST JOHN'S COLLEGE LIMITED income £7.1m
• DURSTON HOUSE SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL TRUST LIMITED income £6.9m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.