Woodside Priory School
Woodside Priory School is an independent, co-educational, Benedictine Catholic, college-preparatory, day and boarding school in Portola Valley, California, United States. It is located within the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco">Catholic Church">Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco and is roughly equidistant from San Francisco to the north and San Jose to the south.
History
The 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 ranch and over the years has expanded significantly to the point that the campus now encompasses some.
Originally the school was made up entirely of 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; the first coed senior class graduated in 1995. There have been female boarders since 2004.
The Priory was granted a seven-year accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the California Association of Independent Schools and the Western Catholic Education Association in June 2019.
Athletics
The Priory offers football, cross country, volleyball, tennis, water polo, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, swimming, track and field, and baseball.In March 2025, Priory's Boys Basketball team won the California Division IV Championship in Sacramento with a 83-66 victory over Fresno Christian School.
The Priory basketball gym was prominently featured in Stephen Curry: Underrated a documentary about Stephen Curry.