St Mary's College

[Window Cleaner]

It's gone right downhill recently and got a terrible Ofsted report in December. Quite a few parents took their kids out the school.

 

It never was that great anyway. Way behind King Edwards, Tauntons, GG and St Annes (not that St Mary's took girls in my day anyway) and even Itchen. Plus I think they only took Catholics...might be wrong there though.

[Wes Tender]

Son number 1 was there in the mid 90s. The school was very good at that time. Daughter was at the Atherley at the same time, which was also decent then.

[Wes Tender]

It never was that great anyway. Way behind King Edwards, Tauntons, GG and St Annes (not that St Mary's took girls in my day anyway) and even Itchen. Plus I think they only took Catholics...might be wrong there though.

 

My son was not a catholic when he was there.

[Window Cleaner]

My son was not a catholic when he was there.

 

No probably not, but going back to the 60's my parents didn't even consider it because it had a reputation as a Catholic place with friars and the like. Anyway I wanted to go to Taunton's and was respectable enough academically to be accepted.

[hypochondriac]

During lockdown I've had enough time on my hands to look up some of the schools where I mis-spent my youth. I was only at St Mary's for a couple of years before moving elsewhere but still I'm surprised how the Brother Jack case seemed to have completely escaped my attention. I would be interested to know what the final outcome was, as apart from pre-trial news, there are zero indications online of what happened. I still have a clock that he helped me assemble - the only DT project that I managed to finish.

 

Some of you might find the photo archive accessible via this link brings back some (hopefully better) memories:

 

https://www.stmarysindependentschool.co.uk/old-simmarians/

 

Looking through the photos, what struck me is how many of the teachers would have stayed on basically for their entire careers. Some of them even had hair once upon a time.

Think it was dropped and he moved away.

[hypochondriac]

It's gone right downhill recently and got a terrible Ofsted report in December. Quite a few parents took their kids out the school.

Tbf with respect to the ofsted I don't think they were meant to have it but someone didn't fill out the paperwork properly. They've got a few more modern facilities now than when I was there but most of the teachers with character retired a long time ago.

[spyinthesky]

One thing I remember was, as a 15 year old, playing cricket against St Marys and having to shout 'Howzat' Brother when appealing for a dismissal.

 

Actually scored 22 off one over (short boundaries!!) and then being cleaned bowled the next over.

 

Also ripped a brand new pair of trousers trying to jump over a fence after the game. My Mum wasnt too happy!!

[hypochondriac]

Gone into administration so unlikely to survive sadly. Think it's gone to hell a bit recently though so maybe for the best.

[ooh it's a corner]

Gone into administration so unlikely to survive sadly. Think it's gone to hell a bit recently though so maybe for the best.

 

Where have you heard that?

 

I went to St Marys in the mid 1980s. It was a reasonable school then (despite some dreadful teachers), achievements were a long way north of the city comprehensives, but the city comps have closed the gap (and over-taken) St Mary's, which has suffered from under-investment.

 

I think the city and the educational powers-that-be have been gunning for the school for a few years.

 

I have some fond memories of the place, but wouldn't lose sleep over its demise. But I also have some friends whose kids go there today and of course, that is a big wrench if they lose their place.

[hypochondriac]

Where have you heard that?

 

I went to St Marys in the mid 1980s. It was a reasonable school then (despite some dreadful teachers), achievements were a long way north of the city comprehensives, but the city comps have closed the gap (and over-taken) St Mary's, which has suffered from under-investment.

 

I think the city and the educational powers-that-be have been gunning for the school for a few years.

 

I have some fond memories of the place, but wouldn't lose sleep over its demise. But I also have some friends whose kids go there today and of course, that is a big wrench if they lose their place.

I only think in the last decade or so it's really lost its way.

[whelk]

Nice bit of land there to develop

[ooh it's a corner]

Thanks for posting that hypo, it is sad.

 

But I agree with Whelk - it is 17 acres of prime, inner-city development potential. Either as a school, or student flats, which is what we seem to be keen on.

 

I hope the city can continue to use it as a school, but somehow doubt it.

[Badger]

Always sad to see a longstanding school, institution, or business fail and go this way.

 

Note that Begbies Traynor are appointed. Perhaps Mark Fry will look to put his book of Southampton contacts to good use; wonder if Micky Fialka wants to buy a School ?

[Guided Missile]

A great shame to read about St. Mary's School, but it was subject to the same financial rules as any charity. It wasn't covid 19 that did it, but the following ill judged investment, leaving the school with no means to pay. There must have been an assumption that they would be bailed out:

During the academic year 2017-18 the following improvements to the School's estate were achieved:

• Full renovation of school dining hall and kitchen

• Installation of new ICT suite with state of the art equipment

• Refurbishment and landscaping of Early Years playground and outdoor classroom

• Electrical rewire of the White House

• Speed bumps installed

• Installation of code locks to enhance security and access control

• Improvements to water system: industrial TMVs installed, refurbished toilet facilities

• Improvements to fire alarm system and emergency lighting

• Upgrade of first aid facility

• Improvements to water tanks and boilers

• Upgrades to external and security lighting around campus

The School invested half a million pounds into the estate during the academic year. IT facilities were upgraded by installing a new network, cabling and wifi. A new ICT suite was created in the Senior department to afford students a state of the art facility for learning, supporting the introduction of Computer Science as a core part of the curriculum at Key Stage 3. The School also completely renovated the kitchen and dining hall to provide a warm and welcoming space that is used by all pupils and many staff on a daily basis and also provides great scope for events and community use. The School undertook an ambitious programme of renovation work around the school site, including the extensive electrical works.

[hypochondriac]

Tbf some of that stuff was actually essential. Having no locks on the upstairs windows and not having enough fire doors was a real hazard and I remember quite a few occasions havibg to wear my coat in the classroom when the boiler failed. You're right though that some of that was definitely unnecessary.

[Ted Bates Statue]

I would agree that a lot of those projects were necessary, and based on my experience there, overdue. I was amazed to see on Google Maps that the school looks identical to how it did 20-30 years ago. Compare that to others, it seems like St Mary's were really playing catch-up.

 

Personally speaking I felt like the school layout gave the wrong impression. The brown uniform for starters, as already mentioned. I always thought the blue 6th form uniform was brought in as a trial before rolling it out across the rest of the school, so I was a bit surprised to see it was in existence for at least the whole of the 80s. Yet they persevered with brown for decades.

 

What I found worse though was the playground location helped make the whole place like a prison, especially with the window protection everywhere. On the other hand, from the meadow side it looked perfectly fine, but it's a bit pointless when you (and more importantly, prospective parents) hardly ever see the school from that side. Maybe if they could have put a 5 a side pitche or two down where the main pitches are, they could have then landscaped the front and made it look a lot more welcoming. Unfortunately they clearly never had the funds to even consider that.

 

Until I looked back at the photo archives it never fully dawned on me how small the school was. When I was there it seemed to be accepted that most would go to sixth form elsewhere, but across the board I now see they really struggled to attract pupils, with a few exceptions such as the empty prospect of going grant-maintained and allowing girls to join. Maybe Coronavirus was a factor but I should imagine that Ofsted report turned off any remaining prospective parents. Even if it wasn't meant to take place, it's hard to ignore how damning it was.

 

Anyway, that is sad news and it feels weird considering that until a few days ago I'd not really paid very much attention to the school in the last decade or so. As a boy who hated PE, I felt they played a blinder with their sports curriculum with Mr Richardson, Mr Shiner and Mr Keenan taking skiing at the dry slope in the winter term and kayaking (and raft walking...) on the Itchen in the summer term. Unfortunately that left me even worse at football than when I joined, but hey ho, I actually looked forward to those lessons for once. I can't say I liked all the teachers there but considering how small the school was, I think they did a decent job on the whole and for the most part, punched above their weight - similar to what I look for from the football team nearby, funnily enough.