New Head for Mount St Mary's College

The Governors of Mount St Mary's College and Barlborough Hall school have announced the appointment of the College's third lay headmaster at the Jesuit school: Mr Laurence McKell, currently Deputy Head at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, will take up his post in September 2007.  His appointment follows the decision by the present headmaster, Philip MacDonald, to assume the headship of the City of London Freemans' School.  Mount St Mary's College is a Co-educational Boarding and Day school near Sheffield, with 400 pupils aged 11 to 18.

Laurence McKell is no stranger to Jesuit education; he attended St Aloysius College, Glasgow as a boy and after gaining his degree in Glasgow and travelling to the US, he returned to the UK and taught at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire (a Benedictine institute) before moving to Stonyhurst College.

Laurence will bring his breadth of experience in Catholic education to Mount St Mary's along with his considerable stamina - he ran in the last three London Marathons to raise money for Jesuit charities.

On learning of his appointment, Laurence said: 'I am delighted and looking forward to becoming part of the Mount St Mary's family and being of service to the Mount as it goes forward in the next stage of its development.' He will be moving across the Pennines in September with his wife Helen and their family of five young children.

Mount St Mary's College was originally founded by the Jesuits at Stanley Grange near Derby in 1620, and is one of the oldest foundations in the Midlands.  The present College opened on the Spinkhill site in 1842; its founder was Fr Randall Lythgoe SJ, who was Provincial of the Society of Jesus in England at that time.


 Mount St Mary's College