Following the fall of France in 1940, the Polish Government in Exile and a substantial part of the Polish Forces, some with their families, were evacuated from ports in the south of France to the UK. The Polish Government in Exile, now based in London, recognised that they needed to make provision for the education of young people who managed to flee Poland.

In February 1941 the Office for National Education (Urząd Wychowania Narodowego) of the Polish Government in Exile in London decided that a school be established to cater for Polish girls living in Great Britain.

Scone Palace in Perthshire, once the crowning place of the Kings of Scotland and the  rightful home of the celebrated Stone of Scone - also known as the Stone of Destiny,  opened its doors in March 1941 to  the Marie Curie-Skłodowska  Polish secondary school for girls.

Despite the difficulties, new teaching classes were gradually introduced beginning with the upper forms and adding the lower forms as the school developed. By December a school chapel was added, a choir and girl guides were established  and enough books were collected to open a modest library.

The Dunalastair estate, situated  in the southern part of the Scottish Highlands about 18 miles from Pitlochry, lies along the river Tummel between Tummel Bridge to the east, and Kinloch Rannoch to the west. The estate was home to Clan Donnachaidh, which includes names such as Robertson, Duncan and Reid, and the estate contains the burial ground of the chiefs of the Clan Donnachaidh. 

Requisitioned during World War II this magnificent 2-storey, square-plan Baronial mansion, with 3-stage circular turrets, forty three spacious rooms and  extensive grounds,  proved to be ideal for the school, enabling it to evolve and expand.  The pupils, teachers and  headmaster Dr. Mieczysław Pawłowski were delighted with their new premises.

With more space and without the need to compromise with others sharing the building, the school became not only academically successful, but was also able to embrace to the full, Polish tradition and  culture expressed in song and dance. Some of these activities were taken into the local communities, where the  girls gave displays of Polish Regional Dance in Glasgow, the military school in Falkirk and  delighted wounded Polish solders recovering at the Polish Military Hospital no.1 in  Taymouth Castle

Over the next few years the school underwent  many changes.  A new principal, Mrs. Zofia Niedźwiedzka took over in 1943 and eight new teachers joined the existing staff. The school was now accepting new students.  Some were children that had been deported to the USSR with their families and had to do a lot of catching up because of serious gaps in their education. 

The Hall was built in 1880 in the Jacobean style by the Revd Randolph Piggott, Rector and Squire of Grendon Underwood for his brother, although his brother never took up residence there.

With the onset of World War II, the Government purchased  the hall  for use by MI6.  In 1942 when MI6 and SOE (Special Operations Executive) became separate organisations it became an SOE base known as wireless station 53a, one of four home based receiving stations for messages from overseas agents. The house was run by a staff of 40 women belonging to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY).  Nissen huts were built in the grounds to accommodate  the staff  of  signallers and coders who worked with Marconi CR100 machines.  One of these is on display in Bletchley Park Museum.

Probably the two best known agents, who are thought to have had connections with Grendon Hall, were Odette and Violette Szabo.

Grendon Hall,  with 22 rooms of various sizes, spacious grounds including two smaller dwellings, a number of outbuildings,  stables and the Nissen hut barracks left over from the war, became an ideal location to house a boarding school for Polish girls.