Fonds BAR - Bar Convent School, York

York-born nun Mary Ward began a mission to educate girls in the Catholic faith in order to continue future generations of Catholics. She launched her convent run schools on the continent, where Catholicism was still legal, and built up a community around her to direct them. After her death the Sisterhood returned to York in 1686. Wishing his daughters to be given a local, Catholic education, Yorkshire businessman Thomas Gasgoine gave the Sisterhood £500 to start a small school – the Bar Convent Girls School. Gaining a good reputation, the school grew in popularity, and the Convent block in the Lower School site was built to accommodate a boarding school and a Convent.

In the 1800's, an extra wing was added to accommodate a day school, and in 1925 the Bar Convent School became a Grammar School, enabling locals to apply for scholarships.

Boys were accepted in the mid 1970's and in the early 1980's, on the abolition of the Grammar School system, to secure the future of free education for the Catholic community around York, the responsibility of the school passed from the Sisterhood to the Diocese of Middlesbrough. The school was re-opened as All Saints Roman Catholic School.
All Saints Roman Catholic School, 1985-present.