The wheel and cross were joined in the ancient celtic cross, and more recently, in Abingdon, they were brought together when two schools merged.

St Katherine School from Wantage (wheel) and St Helen School from Abingdon (cross) merged in 1938 to form St Helen & St Katherine School.

The first pupils moved into the current school building (the one-time St Helen School) in 1906, 100 years ago. St Katherine’s started a little earlier. Both were initially taught by nuns and gave the girls a fairly strict religious education, in keeping with the times.
There is a recently redesigned drive across the front of the school. At one end of the entrance is the Chapel of the Holy Cross from the 1920s. The Holy Cross is a reference to St Helen finding a relic of the Holy Cross. Inside I believe there is a statue of St Katherine.

The School hymn “St Katherine’s hymn” is about the life of the saint who gave her name to a firework (the Katherine Wheel). The final verse brings the saints together…

“Martyr Katherine, Empress Helen,
Called in different ways to share
Faith and hope and love that ventures
All to give and all to dare…”
More modern buildings have been added including science laboratories, a modern language block, a Performing Arts Centre, an exhibition gallery and two sports halls. And any differences of tradition forgotten as this has become a school which according to the school website has: ‘an excellent academic record, being placed in the Premier League by the Daily Telegraph for both its 2005 GCSE and A-level results.’