The school was founded by Elizabeth Joan Goldthorpe in 1993 out of the closure of Upper Chine School with 14 primary aged pupils based in Shanklin. During her ownership, the position of headteacher was taken over by her daughter, Katherine, and the school expanded up to GCSE level. In 2009, the school was sold to parent Edmund Matyjaszek, who introduced improvements as noted by Ofsted in 2010 and expanded the school to A Levels in 2010. The school received a Good Schools Guide Award for boys at an English Independent School taking Biology GCSE in 2010. In 2015 it received a further Good Schools Guide Award for teaching Additional Science at GCSE to boys. In April 2012, a teacher was suspended and investigated in reference to alterations to exam scripts without pupil knowledge. Further to a ban on dealing with exams and invigilating, the teacher returned in a teaching position in September. It achieved 100% pass rates at GCSE & A Level in 2016 & 2017. In the Department of Education League Tables, published in February 2018, Priory School was ranked best on the Isle of Wight for A Levels, best on the Isle of Wight for GCSE English & Maths, and ranked 21st out of 4417 Secondary Schools in England for A Levels. The 2012 pass rates for the school were 100% 5+ A*-C for Year 11 with 81% A*-B and 100% A*-C for 11 subjects, Maths, Further Maths, Statistics, Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Religious Studies, ICT and Art. For A Level, the school had 94% pass rate with 69% A* to C and 50% A* to A. The school was rated as good with outstanding features in its latest Ofsted inspection in May 2018. The Principal praised the positive report from Ofsted and commented he believed that Queen Victoria would be pleased with the school being at Whippingham, where she herself had founded a school in 1864. HRH Princess Beatrice of York visited the school on 16 June 2014 to unveil a plaque to commemorate 150 years of continuous education on the Whippingham site. In September 2017, to reflect the Christian ethos, the school name was extended to Priory School of Our Lady of Walsingham with approval of the Bishop of Portsmouth, Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and Custodian of the Basilica at Walsingham.
Location
Originally located in the Broadway, Sandown, the school moved to temporary accommodation at Landguard Manor, Shanklin before relocating to Alverstone Manor, also in Shanklin, in 2005. After an initial rejection to this new location, temporary planning permission for 2 years was given to the school in 2005, with the time limit subsequently removed in 2007. Having sought a new building since coming under new ownership, the school purchased and moved into the former Whippingham Primary School, built by Queen Victoria in 1864 to the design of Prince Albert, in February 2012.
