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San Silvestre Legacy

San Silvestre was founded in 1932, when Miss Nellie Kufal taught a small group of British
children in Miraflores. Her teaching skills quickly gained recognition and the number of students grew
until the group was officially recognized by the Peruvian Ministry of Education in 1938. That same year the
school was accepted by the Cambridge University Examinations Syndicate and in 1939 the school was proud to
announce that three of its students had earned the first Cambridge University Certificates in Peru.

Miss Kufal died in 1944 and the school continued under the direction of a group of dedicated teachers. The new Headmistress who arrived from England in 1946, Miss Evans, radically reorganized the school. Recognizing the benefits of an all girls’ school she laid the foundations for the institution that San Silvestre is today. Two years later, the system of Houses was introduced; the four Houses established were Kufal, Hope, Commonwealth and Cambridge. A Head Girl, House Captains and Prefects were appointed, giving those girls the opportunity to exercise leadership and take on responsibilities.

At the same time, they were taught the value of working as a team. The first School Magazine appeared in 1950, under the direction of a group of girls appointed as Magazine Editors. When Miss Evans retired in 1968, Cambridge House became Evans House in honour of her; in recognition of her excellent qualities and outstanding leadership of the school. Although the school has had several headmistresses since Miss Evans, the permanent link between the San Silvestre spirit and the Peruvian system was the “Directora”. Sofia de Conroy (Topy) was appointed to this post in 1978 and dedicated her life to San Silvestre for many years.

In acknowledgement of her hard work and dedication, the name of Commonwealth House was changed to Conroy House. Although the school has grown exponentially since its beginnings, its goal remains unchanged: to provide a well-balanced education based on the best aspects of the British and Peruvian educational systems, giving the girls a sound bilingual formation. This is made possible thanks to the strong traditions that date back more than 80 years.

In 1990, the then Deputy Head, Mrs Rina Bayly, was appointed Headmistress. Graduate and post-graduate of London University, Mrs Bayly came to San Silvestre School in 1978 as Head of English. She became Head of Secondary, Deputy Head of the school and then Headmistress, a post she held with wisdom, dedication and love for 27 years. In recognition of her services to education and reflecting the prestige of San Silvestre School in providing an excellent education, Mrs Bayly was named Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (M.B.E) by Her Majesty the Queen of England.

In 1995 the school was granted membership into the prestigious Girls’ Schools’ Association of Great Britain and has gained a reputation as a school that best prepares girls to meet the demands and challenges of the XXI century.

Miss Ruth Percival, Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Masters in Education was appointed Headmistress in 2017 and was part of San Silvestre until the end of 2021. She introduced several important changes that ensured our school continued to innovate and maintain its excellent educational level. Ruth worked tirelessly to make San Silvestre part of Round Square, an internationally diverse network of 200 like-minded schools in 50 countries on six continents that connect and collaborate to offer world-class programmes and experiences. Our school was admitted as members in 2020.

Our previous Headmistress, Ms. Debra Gregory, was part of San Silvestre until July 2023. Debra was an experienced international educator, with over 30 years of experience teaching in 8 countries. She came to San Silvestre in 2019 as Whole School Deputy Head and was appointed Headmistress in 2022. Ms. Debbie successfully led the return to presential classes after the pandemic, with all that this implied in terms of academic, emotional, social and logistical issues, for the entire San Silvestre community.

 

 

Our Old Primary Building

We kindly invite you to navigate around the old Primary building, clicking in the image below.