- The Quaker day and boarding school was founded by the Religious Society of Friends in 1785 as the York Friends’ Girls’ School. It moved to The Mount in 1856. It is run according to the Quaker values of simplicity, truth, equality, peace, social justice and sustainability.
- Pupils can join choirs, vocal groups, an orchestra, a wind band, a swing band and many other groups, which perform concerts in venues including York Minster. The Mount is one of 25 all-Steinway schools in the country, with 14 performance-quality Steinway pianos.
- The four houses are named Cadbury, Fry, Rowntree and Terry, after Quaker families whose daughters attended the school; the mid-morning break is still referred to as “choc lunch”.
- As well as being assigned to a tutor group, girls have peer mentors under the school’s traditional Nutcracker system.
- Former students include the author Margaret Drabble and the actress Dame Judi Dench.
Sign up to The Times and The Sunday Times weekly parenting newsletter