Development & Alumni Office
50 Years of St. Clare's
St. Clare's, Oxford was founded in 1953 by Anne Dreydel and the late Pamela Morris. Miss Dreydel spoke of the founding of St. Clare's recently saying, "We wanted to create a place where students from different countries could come together in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and real learning." By 1956, as today, the College had a mix of native English speakers (then doing A-levels, now Liberal Arts and the International Baccalaureate) and those studying English as a Foreign Language combined with other subjects. "Language is, after all, just a tool," said Miss Dreydel. "It's of no value speaking three languages if you have nothing of interest to say."
In order to celebrate our 50th Anniversary several events are planned, both here in Oxford and overseas. We will be holding a weekend programme at the University of San Diego in April 2003, for alumni and friends, at which we will launch the North American Friends of St. Clare's. We are delighted that former US Senator Gary Hart has agreed to be our guest speaker at this event. We are also planning to visit and reconnect with our alumni in Brazil, Japan and elsewhere. In addition we are holding a number of events here in Oxford, three reunions for alumni, a Careers Information day for current students as well as a Finale event in late 2003 to which we will invite parents, governors and staff as well as people from the local community and official guests.
We are looking forward to celebrating St. Clare's Golden Jubilee year with our alumni, students, staff and friends and we hope that we will see you during this special year.