St Joan of Arc School The forerunner for St Joan of Arc School for Girls was a small school for girls established in 1905 in Basing Cottage, Rickmansworth by an order of French nuns, the Filles de Jesus. The sisters had been invited to Rickmansworth in 1904 by Fr Henry Julien of the Augustinians of the Assumption who were responsible for the Mission there. The Parish priest for Rickmansworth, Fr Julien, later bought a house, ‘Englefield', at 11 High Street, Rickmansworth, which was to become the main school building for St Joan of Arc School until 1922 when the Mother Superior (Mother Septima) and Fr Julien acquired ‘The Elms’ to accommodate the growing number of school pupils. The Elms was a grand Georgian estate built in 1728 consisting of a house set in eleven and a half acres with a stream running through the grounds. (The novelist George Eliot lived at The Elms at the time that she was writing 'Daniel Deronda'). The school grounds back on to the River Chess and Chess Valley and a 14th-century barn that once belonged to the Abbot of St Albans Cathedral is located at the boundary of the grounds. The school continued to grow in size and reputation during the 20th Century and was granted grammar school status in 1951. In 1978, St Joan of Arc became a co-educationalcomprehensive school. In 2012, St Joan of Arc converted to become an academy as the founding school of the 'All Saints Catholic Academy Trust' (ASCAT). The file comprises correspondence on the School's Development Fund, 1980; a copy of the Catechism for Infants and Standard 1; 'St Joan's 1904-1984, A Short History' by Sister St James, Headteacher 1965-1978; 'St Joan of Arc School, Its History 1904-2004, by Jane Fallon and Daphne Honey 1980-2004