Having catered for the education of the poor, Bishop Moran was anxious that the same advantages of a Catholic Education should be available to the better-off members of the community, and so a pension school, or pay school, was opened by the Sisters, again in their first year in Callan - April 1873
At that time, class distinction was so great in the country that it was unthinkable that the rich and poor would be educated together. These pension schools (started by in Carlow and Cork)aimed at educating the children of the middleclass, who could not afford the high fees demanded in private and mainly non Catholic pay schools.
The Callan pay school, called St. Anne's School for Young Ladies, opened its doors in April 1873 - 45 pupils registered. every branch of a young lady's education was to be found in this school. As well as religion and the 3R's, St. Anne's excelled in the teaching of foreign languages, literature, art, painting in oils and water colours, fancy needlework, book-keeping, algebra and Geometry, instrumental music and singing, deportment, speech and drama and all the accomplishments and social graces necessary for a young lady. St. Anne's served the needs of the middle and upper classes and imparted a sound Catholic education until 1928, when it merged with the Girls' Convent National School - much to the disappointment of some parents who still wanted a separate and elite education for their daughters.