The student body is divided into five different houses - Annay, Clairvaux, Cîteaux, La Plaine and Rievaulx as of June 2024.

[1] It was widely believed that the house was built for Angela Burdett-Coutts but that she never lived there as Queen Victoria did not approve of her marriage to the much younger William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett.

The school remained there for 14 years, with pupils including the future Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin.

Beginning with a school for 12 French students, the educational work of the Bernardines has evolved enormously.

[4] and now forms a large mixed Voluntary Aided Grammar School for some 900 students, aged 11–18.

In 1906, a nearby house was bought and opened as St Joseph's day school "for children of all denominations".

[3] The convent, set in extensive grounds with fields, a vegetable garden, orchard and cemetery, provided an oasis of peace and prayer for those who visit.

A large house - Stella Maris - in the monastery grounds served as a small pastoral centre.

[13] On 28 June 2006 Claire Gill, a student at St Bernards hanged herself in a school cubicle after writing a suicide note.

The day is entirely planned by students -to give thanks for all their hard work- and staff are provided free food and other services.