One of Britain's top independent schools, the School of St Helen and St Katharine in Abingdon, starts celebrating its 100th birthday on May 11.

Celebrations will include anniversary concerts and an evening gala performance, complete with champagne and fireworks.

Sunday's concerts in the afternoon and evening will be the final ones to be conducted by Andrew Tillett, who retires at the end of the academic year after 26 years as Director of Music.

Nearly 140 pupils will be joined by 50 old-girls singing and playing music by Gershwin and Dvorak.

Celebrations continue throughout the year and into 2004.

There will be a Centenary Saturday on June 28. All old girls have been invited back to share a day with current pupils.

There will also be a sponsored walk on October 1 to Wantage, where the idea for the school began with Anglican nuns.

In recognition of the centenary, the school governors commissioned a new choral work called Friendship in our World by the composer Bob Chilcott, whose daughter is a pupil at the school. As part of the school's 'St Kate's Day' celebrations on November 25, there will be a tree planting ceremony and a talk by Hilary Groves on her book Memories of the School.

And in May next year there will be a special church service and in the spring or summer a grand ball and the official opening of the school's new £3.5m new performing arts building -- which should be ready by the end of this year.

The school, in a house at the corner of Faringdon and Wootton Roads, was founded on May 11, 1903, and had 11 pupils, including a boy.

It was started by Anglican nuns from St Mary the Virgin in Wantage who wanted to establish a Christian education for girls in Abingdon.