St Mary's College, Crosby

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St Mary's College, Crosby
"Fidem vita fateri" - Show your faith by the way you live
Location
St Mary's College
Everest Road
Crosby
Liverpool
L23 5TW
United Kingdom
Information
Affiliation(s) Roman Catholic
Type Independent
Campus Suburban
Athletics Basketball, Athletics, Hockey, Cricket, Cross-Country, Netball, Rugby, Swimming, Tennis, Football
Established 1919
Information 0151 924 3926
Chairman Of The Governors Mr. Henry B. Hitchen, FCA
Chairman of Parents Association Mrs. Carla Howard Murphy
Head Boy and Girl Benjamin Trill, Michelle McDougal
Student Council Timothy Old, Peter Murphy, John Legett
Homepage http://www.stmaryscrosby.co.uk/

St Mary's College is an independent Roman Catholic day school for boys and girls aged 11-18. It is one of three Irish Christian Brothers schools in Merseyside all of which are now administered by laypersons (St Mary's; St Edward's College, Liverpool; and St Anselm's College, Birkenhead).

Contents

[edit] Location and buildings

The College is based on Everest Road in Crosby, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, near Liverpool. A preparatory school, The Mount, is located a short distance away in Blundellsands. The school was originally single-sex, taking boys only, but it began to take girls into its sixth form in 1983 and became fully co-educational in 1991.

The School originally comprised a mansion, Claremont House, on Liverpool Road, Crosby and the neighbouring property, Everest House, until the purpose-built school was built on Everest Road in 1930. Science blocks were added over the years, and an assembly hall in 1978.

St Mary's College has its own multigym (introduced by former Head of PE, Tony Askew) and sports hall, formerly the Mecca Bingo Hall on Liverpool Road, which is open for public use as well as to the students. There are seven laboratories, two workshops and a library. In 2005 a new Sixth Form Centre was built, consisting of a new common room (including a cafe and vending machines) and two computer rooms.

The college has its playing fields (20 acres) within easy walking distance on Little Crosby Road.

[edit] Founding and affiliation

The school was founded by the Christian Brothers in 1919. Schools such as St. Mary's were founded to ensure that Catholics in England did not lose the beliefs and morals with which they were raised, in an overwhelmingly Protestant country. Relatively few Christian Brothers remain in the United Kingdom.

St. Mary's College was one of twelve Brothers' Schools in England until it became an Independent Charity, St. Mary's College Crosby Trust Limited in January 2006. However, the college is still very committed to founder Edmund Rice's charism. The college is also a member of the HMC, having been a Direct Grant Grammar School until 1976 and fully independent since.

The Mount is the preparatory department for St Mary's, run for many years by Brother Tom Kelly.

[edit] Discipline

Like a large proportion of schools at the time, St Mary's employed corporal punishment over a period of many years. Although corporal punishment was outlawed in 1986 for public schools, some independent schools, such as St. Mary's retained its use until as late as 1998. Humiliation and physical punishment were the basis of discipline within the school. The main form of punishment was the "strap", a length of hard, stitched leather some ten inches in length, two inches wide and a quarter inch in thickness. Strappings were usually handed out in front of classmates, who were drawn into the cruelty of a public spectacle, and brutalised by it. To them it was normal - a frequent event handed out by adults in positions of authority and to whom respect was due. Contemporary recollections are weaker without a context of the existing social mores, but even so, it is now hard to believe that the nature and extent of such punishment was tolerated by teachers, parents and the educational authorities.

Some teachers had humorous nicknames for their straps - "Arty" Slade, the art teacher referred to his as Oscar. But for others, there was no humour in behaviour which was inappropriate, and of questionable motivation. Many boys have painful memories of Brother Brickley, who regularly used corporal punishment, and called his strap Excalibur [1]. Most teachers in the school possessed a strap although a few in later years considered it to be morally wrong. The use of the strap was abolished on the appointment of Brother Ryan as headmaster.

The use of the strap also extended to St. Marys' prepatory school, The Mount, which housed 4-10 year olds.

Saint Mary's has not formally apologised for this former use of violence, and whilst the Christian Brothers have apologised for its use in Ireland, such an apology has yet to be voiced in England.

[edit] Charity work

St Mary's is a supporter of the Christian Brothers' overseas missions, the Good Shepherd and CAFOD. It also does a fashion show each year, attended by the likes of Donatella Versace and Dolce & Gabbana.

The college has an active parents association which raises money for the school. Its major fundraiser each year is the autumn fair. The College and the Mount encourage pupils to provide prizes for a bottle tombola at the college's annual Autumn Fair. To add incentive, a night off homework is sometimes offered to classes who provide such prizes.

[edit] Exam results

While St Mary's exam results are sometimes poorer than those of other local independant schools, the results attained nonetheless tend to exceed national averages.[2] The school maintains that they try to develop the personal as a whole, not just academically but across lots of areas: spiritual, moral, intellectual, physical and cultural.[3]

[edit] Headteacher

The current headmistress is Jean Marsh, formerly of Stockport Grammar School. Due to Jean Marsh's retirement, a new headmaster, Michael Kennedy[4], will take over from September 2008, at the beginning of the new school year.

[edit] Famous alumni

The college had an alumni association, St Mary's Old Boys' Club, until 1999, when links were severed due to a scandal and resulting court case, Stringer v. Usher, Smith, Flanagan and Fleming[citation needed]. In 2007, the school formed a new alumni association.

[edit] The School song

The former School Song, composed in the 1920s by music master Frederick R. Boraston (1878-1954), is fondly remembered[citation needed] by former pupils who sang it, most notably at the annual Speech Day, formerly held in Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall. In the 1980s the song was replaced with a completely new song, with words more in tune with the School's co-educational, lay-teacher status. However, neither songs are regularly used or recognised by pupils or staff today.

[edit] References

  1. ^ former pupil Steve Boulton's recollections of physical and sexual abuse at St Mary's in the 1960s - reproduced here from The Guardian, April 23, 1998. [1]
  2. ^ BBC Education League Tables: St Mary's College, Crosby[2]
  3. ^ www.stmarys.ac
  4. ^ www.stmarys.ac

[edit] External links