Loreto College, Manchester

Infobox_University
name = Loreto College
motto = "Freedom, Justice, Sincerity, Truth and Joy" .......
Old Motto was = " having first been warned, be seekers of Justice "
established = 1851 by women of the Institute founded by Sister Mary Ward
city= Manchester
country= United Kingdom
type = Public
website= [http://www.loreto.ac.uk/ www.loreto.ac.uk]

Loreto College is a Roman Catholic Sixth Form College in the Moss Side area of the english city of Manchester.Loreto Collegeis one of four Loreto educational institutions in the UK, and primarily caters for the needs of students in the 16-19 age range.

It offers courses ranging from "Pathways to Independence" up to A Level and beyond. The College is noted for helping students of all abilities to excel: their value added scores have consistently been classed as outstanding. As it is a non-selective College, their success isn't marked just on A Grades or the number of students who get places at Oxford and Cambridge and the other Russell Group Universities. This reputation for helping all students, from the academically able to those needing to learn life skills, has earned the College the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education. This is an equivalent to an OBE for an institution [ [http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page5253.asp The Monarchy Today > Queen and public > Prizes and awards > The Queen's Anniversary Prizes ] ] .

Although primarily a Roman Catholic College, it also caters for young people of different faiths whose beliefs are consistent with the key values of Freedom, Justice, Sincerity, Truth and Joy. These key values derive from the educational philosophy of Mary Ward, a sixteenth century Englishwoman, who founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the order of religious sisters (often described as a female wing of the Jesuits) who founded the college in 1851.

There are approximately 1,800 students in the college.

The college was founded in the Hulme district of Manchester in the mid 1800's after the Irish Potato famine. Many Irish people fled to places like Manchester and were living in poverty, overcrowded conditions and had little educational opportunity. The Loreto sisters of the Irish Province were asked to come over by the parish priest of St. Wilfrid's and help overcome these social challenges. Several generations on, the result is the current College which is one of the best educational institutions (arguably the best Sixth Form College according to consistent OFSTED reports) in England. The College still has challenges to face situated in the inner city area of Moss Side of Manchester. The local area and the College itself has been dramatically redeveloped and is mostly new buildings from the 1980's onwards. The College has one of the oldest buildings in Hulme in the beautifully restored Chapel.

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