The Loreto Schools are a group of all-girl Roman Catholic schools throughout the world associated with the Sisters of Loreto and run by Loreto Educational Society (Loreto sisters), which in India runs 17 schools and 2 colleges. They originated in Ireland in the 1850s so as to combat the growing Protestant influence in English education in the then British-controlled Ireland. Its chief purpose was to ensure Catholic education for Irish Catholic girls. It spread to India and Australia in the 1870s.