St Martin's Ampleforth

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St Martin’s Ampleforth (SMA) was a private preparatory school in Gilling East, North Yorkshire, England. It was a Roman Catholic Benedictine institution for boys and girls, serving ages 3 to 13, with both day and boarding options. SMA was the preparatory school for Ampleforth College and closed in July 2020.

For many years SMA operated at Gilling Castle, which sits on the southern side of a valley opposite Ampleforth College. Gilling Castle has medieval roots and was bought by the Benedictine monks from Ampleforth Abbey in 1929, then refurbished to house pupils. The school’s history began as Gilling Castle Preparatory School in 1930 and later merged with Ampleforth College’s junior section to become Ampleforth College Junior School. In 2001 the Junior School merged with St Martin’s, a prep school at Nawton, and the institution became known as St Martin’s Ampleforth. The College later moved its junior department to St Martin’s, and SMA became the junior department for the College.

In January 2018 a plan was announced to close the Gilling Castle site, with pupils moving to a new junior house at Ampleforth College. The castle remained under the Abbey’s ownership, and by 2022 it was vacant and listed for sale.

SMA prepared pupils for the Common Entrance Exam in Year 8, with many winning scholarships to other independent schools. The boarding program was open to both sexes, offering full or flexi-boarding. Older pupils lived in Castle House, while younger ones stayed in Foal Yard. School life featured rugby and cricket for boys, netball and rounders for girls, and hockey for both genders, along with a strong Music Department whose choirs performed at Ampleforth College and on radio and television.

In November 2017 an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse heard that abuse occurred at the schools. Several monks and lay teachers were convicted of offences against pupils from the 1960s to the 2010s, including cases involving Father Piers Grant-Ferris. The inquiry criticized how the situation was handled at the time.