St Mary's College, Crosby

Infobox School
name = St Mary's College, Crosby


motto = "Fidem vita fateri" - Show your faith by the way you live
established = 1919
affiliation = Roman Catholic
type = Independent
principle = Mrs. J. Marsh, BA, MSc
free_label = Chairman Of The Governors
free_text = Mr. Henry B. Hitchen, FCA
free_label2 = Chairman of Parents Association
free_text2 = Mrs. Carla Howard Murphy
free_label3 = Head Boy and Girl
free_text3 = Peter Murphy, Alexandra McKenna
free_label4 = Student Council
free_text4 = Timothy Old, Peter Murphy, John Legett
athletics = Basketball, Athletics, Hockey, Cricket, Cross-Country, Netball, Rugby, Swimming, Tennis, Football
campus type = Suburban
location = St Mary's College
Everest Road
Crosby
Liverpool
L23 5TW
country = United Kingdom
information = 0151 924 3926
Principal = Mr. M. Kennedy,
website = 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).

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 1989.

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.

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.

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 [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. [http://www.nospank.net/n-b54.htm] ] . 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' preparatory 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.

In 2008 the last Christian Brothers associated with the school will move to alternative placements. The school will be holding a mass of thanksgiving for the brothers on the 25th June 2008. Although there has been some discussion locally as a way to mark the occasion, it is uncertain as yet whether there will be an apology issued by the school regarding its former years of violence and abuse.

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.

Exam results

While St Mary's exam results are on average poorer than those of other local independent schools, the results attained nonetheless tend to exceed national averages. [BBC Education League Tables: St Mary's College, Crosby [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/03/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/343_6128.stm] ] 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. [ [http://www.stmarys.ac/ www.stmarys.ac ] ]

Headteacher

New headmaster, Michael Kennedy [ [http://www.stmarys.ac/ www.stmarys.ac ] ] , recently took over the helm from the first female head, at the beginning of the new school year. Like his predeceser Kennedy, the school's third lay head, will take the title Principal. It is hoped as yet again with a new era at the school that Mr. Kennedy will issue an apology for the schools many years of abuse and violence towards its pupils.

Former Headteachers

*Jean Marsh
*Wilfred Hammond
*Brother Ryan
*Brother O'Halloran
*Brother Francis
*Brother Gibbons
*Brother Coleman
*Brother Thompson
*Brother Delaney

Notable former teachers

*Eugene Genin (1902-1983), CBE - former lead viola with the RLPO. Played in the pre-1933 Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
*Hugh Rank (1913-2006) - Viennese-Jewish teacher of German Literature [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/dec/15/obituaries.mainsection Obituary, "Guardian", 2006] ]

Famous alumni

Politics and Industry

* Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC
* Brian Quinn, Director General, International Institute of Communications
* Anthony Redmond, Chairman and Chief Executive, Commission for Local Administration, and Local Government Ombudsman
* Sir David Rowlands, Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport, 2003–07
* Lord Birt, erstwhile Director General of the BBC and advisor to the Blair administration
* John O'Sullivan CBE, Conservative columnist, former adviser to Margaret Thatcher
* Kevin McNamara KSG, veteran Labour MP
* Mike Carr, Labour MP for Bootle, May-July 1990
* John Coyne - first Green Councillor on Liverpool City Council

Diplomats and the Law

* Sir Ivor Roberts KCMG, former HM Ambassador to Ireland and Italy; current President of Trinity College, Oxford
* Andrew Mitchell, HM Ambassador to Sweden
* John McDermott, QC, barrister
* Vincent Fraser, QC, barrister
* Richard Pratt, QC, barrister

Clergy

* The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham
* The Right Reverend John Rawsthorne, Roman Catholic Bishop of Hallam
* Father Gerard Weston, MBE - Roman Catholic priest, killed by the Official IRA in the 1972 Aldershot bombing
* Father Brian Foley - Roman Catholic priest and hymnist

Authors and Broadcasters

* Professor David Crystal OBE, broadcaster and professor of linguistics
* Major John Foley MBE, military author and broadcaster
* Roger McGough CBE, poet, playwright, broadcaster and children's author
* Laurie Taylor, broadcaster and sociologist, thought to be the model for Howard Kirk in Malcolm Bradbury's novel "The History Man"
* Nicholas Murray, historian and biographer, "Kafka, Matthew Arnold, Aldous Huxley, Bruce Chatwin"
* Will Hanrahan, BBC TV reporter

Entertainers

* Tony Booth, the "Scouse Git" in "Til Death Us Do Part", and father-in-law of Tony Blair
* Chris Curtis, drummer with 1960s pop group The Searchers
* Tom O'Connor, comedian and former game-show host
* Steve Gribbin, stand-up comedian and musician
* Rachael Russell, singer

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". In 2007, the school formed a new alumni association.

The School song

The former [http://www.titanictown.plus.com/oldboys/oldboys.avi "School Song"] , composed in the 1920s by music master Frederick R. Boraston (1878-1954), is fondly remembered by former pupils who sang it, most notably at the annual Speech Day, formerly held in Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall.

:The song is written as a march, with repeated crotchet notes in the opening melody. The unusual seven-bar phrases, and alternating major and minor keys, produce a feeling that is at once rousing and wistful. The words anticipate the day we leave school, and the "broad highway of Life" lies before us. We look forward to reaping "a golden harvest not yet sown", but shall "sometimes pause a moment" to think of yesterday, and the old school and its associations will find a place in our hearts "most wondrous kind." Thoughts of games, songs, and the friends we made give way to thanks that the school has taught us wisdom in both thought and deed. In the the soaring finale, pupils past and present raise their voices to cheer St. Mary's, and wish her long life, with the repeated Latin exclamation "Vivat!"

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.

In fiction

While not explicitly mentioned by name, Anthony Burgess's posthumous novel "" makes reference to the Christian Brothers, and Crosby, and it is known the author had relatives at the School. [ [http://www.francobrain.com/literae/burgesby.htm "Byrne", Chapter I, by Anthony Burgess, 1996] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.stmaryscrosby.co.uk/ "St. Mary's College - Crosby"] - St. Mary's College official page; updated regularly
* [http://www.nospank.net/n-b54.htm "No brother to me"] - 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.
* [http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=liverpool-helped-me-to-succeed%26method=full%26objectid=12324599%26page=3%26siteid=50061-name_page.html "Liverpool helped me to succeed"] - John Birt's school memories, good and bad.
* [http://www.titanictown.plus.com/oldboys/oldboys.avi "When our boyhood days are over"] - karaoke version of the School Song, played on a digital church organ.
* [http://www.classof1973.co.uk/teachers.htm "Class of '73"] - reminiscences, photos and rendition of the School Song
* [http://dailyreferendum.blogspot.com/2007/02/is-corporal-punishment-answer.html - "Is Corporal Punishment The Answer?"] - provides dates of abolition of corporal punishment in UK schools.