St Mary's Senior School, private secondary school, Colchester, Essex

St Mary’s appoints new Principal

15 January 2021

A new Principal of St Mary’s has been appointed to succeed Mrs Hilary Vipond, who will retire in August after 25 years of distinguished service to the school. Following a rigorous selection process, Mrs Nicola Griffiths, currently Deputy Head at Ipswich High School, was selected from an outstanding field of candidates.

Educated locally, Mrs Griffiths attended Colchester County High School for Girls and The Sixth Form College, Colchester. She then went on to study at St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford, reading Biological Sciences.

Mrs Griffiths has a wealth of experience and expertise in educating girls; she is currently Deputy Head at Ipswich High School, formerly Ipswich High School for Girls, GDST, and prior to that worked for eight years at fellow Girls’ Schools Association school, Benenden School, an all-girls boarding school in Kent.

Growing up in Mersea, Colchester, Mrs Griffiths developed a love of the outdoors. She is a particularly accomplished sailor, having even competed in national events.

Mrs Griffiths stated that she is “absolutely delighted to be appointed the next Principal of St Mary’s School; it has been my career ambition to return to my home county and to lead a wonderful girls’ school which places the needs of every individual girl at the forefront of everything that it does. I am also looking forward to working with the school community to continue Hilary’s amazing work over the forthcoming years.”

Mrs Griffiths will take up the post of St Mary’s Principal on 1 September 2021.

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