Woodside Priory School

The Woodside Priory School, commonly known as The Priory, is an independent, coeducational, Benedictine Catholic, college preparatory, day and boarding school located in Portola Valley, California, United States. It is located within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco and is thirty minutes from San Francisco to the north and San Jose to the south.HistoryThe Priory was founded in 1957 by a group of seven Hungarian Benedictine Monks from Saint Martin's Archabbey in Pannonhalma, Hungary. In 1974, the monks affiliated with Saint Anselm Abbey in Goffstown, New Hampshire.The school began on an 18acre ranch and over the years has expanded significantly to the point that the campus now encompasses some 50acre. Originally the school was made up entirely of all-male boarders, but over the years the ratio of boarders to day students changed, and today the boarding school accounts for a smaller percentage of the upper school student body. In the early 1990s, the school began admitting females to the day program, with the first coed senior class graduating in 1995. The Priory's boarding program was expanded to include girls in 2004.