St Mary's Catholic College (SMC) is a Catholic secondary school located in

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the mouth of the River Mersey, on the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county bou ...

, Wirral, in

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

. St Mary's is one of four Catholic secondary schools in the

Metropolitan Borough of Wirral The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of (), and encompasses of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebingt ...

. The others are St Anselm's College, St John Plessington Catholic College and

Upton Hall School FCJ Upton Hall School FCJ is a Catholic girls' grammar school with academy status located in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1849 by the Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ). Admissions It is one of four Catholic schools in the Metropolit ...

. St Mary's is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

secondary school and

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

with academy status (since November 2016) located in

, Wirral,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. St Mary's Catholic College (SMC) is part of St John Plessington Catholic College (SJP) and works in very close relationship to further both schools.

Pastoral care

There are numerous pastoral systems in place in SMC which care for a student's college life. The two most notable pastoral system are the form and year-group systems. Each year-group comprises eight forms which are each named after one of the forty Catholic martyrs of England and Wales and then divided up into two half- year groups named Alpha and Beta. These eight forms are: Alpha Half-Year: * JB - abbreviating St. John Bosco. * VP - abbreviating

St. Vincent De Paul Vincent de Paul, Congregation of the Mission, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was an Occitans, Occitan French Priesthood in the Catholic Church, Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving ...

. * MT - abbreviating

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...

. * TL - abbreviating St. Therese of Lisieux Beta Half-Year: * BH - abbreviating

Basil Hume George Basil Hume (born George Haliburton Hume; 2 March 1923 – 17 June 1999) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1976 until his death in 1999. A member of the Benedictines, he was made a cardinal i ...

* SB - abbreviating St. Bernadette of Lourdes. * OR - abbreviating St. Óscar Romero * MK - abbreviating Maximillian Kolbe. House System: As well as the year-group system, there is also a house system. Every student in the school is placed into one of six houses which are named after saints or prominent Catholic figures. These houses are: * Romero - Named after

Óscar Romero Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (15 August 1917 – 24 March 1980) was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador, Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular ...

. * Kolbe - Named after Maximillian Kolbe * Teresa - Named after

. * Bosco - Named after St John Bosco * Hume - Named after

. * Bernadette - Named after St Bernadette of Lourdes. The school also enables and encourages students to report incidents of bullying, theft, crime or any unwanted behaviour in confidence to their school 24 hours a day via the TextSomeone system the school has introduced, along with the CallParents and Truancy Call systems, introduced to free up staff time usually consumed with administrative tasks.

Notable former pupils

* Timothy Brown (bassist) (b. 1969), bassist with

The Boo Radleys The Boo Radleys are an English alternative rock band who were associated with the shoegazing and Britpop movements in the 1990s. They originally formed in Wallasey, England, in 1988, with singer/guitarist Simon "Sice" Rowbottom, guitarist/songwr ...

. *

Michelle Butterly Michelle Butterly (born 5 February 1970) is an English actress. Career She graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has played Julie Oldroyd in ''Soldier Soldier'' in 1997, Melanie Dyson in ''Casualty'' from 1999 to 2001, and ...

(b. 1969), actress. *

Martin Carr Martin Carr (born 29 November 1968) is an English musician and writer who was the chief songwriter and lead guitarist with the band The Boo Radleys. Born in Thurso, Scotland, he was raised in Wallasey, England. Life and career Carr was born ...

(b. 1968), chief

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and

lead guitarist Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featured ...

with

. *

Louise Delamere Louise Alexandra Delamere (born 17 June 1969) is an English actress, best known for her roles as Lia in the Channel 4 comedy drama ''No Angels'' and Colette Sheward in the BBC medical drama ''Holby City''. Career Delamere appeared in ''Agatha ...

(b. 1974), actress. *

Jonathan Walters Jonathan Ronald Walters (born 20 September 1983) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as a forward (association football), forward. He is sporting director of Stoke City F.C., Stoke City. Walters started his seni ...

(b. 1983), Premiership footballer. *

Ken Sloan Professor Kenneth Mark Sloan (born 1972) is a British educational leader who has been Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of Harper Adams University since 2021. Early life and education Ken Sloan was born on 26 1972 in Wallasey, Merseys ...

(b. 1972), Vice-Chancellor of Harper Adams University

Campus

From 2002 to 2004, a £12.5 million building programme took place at St. Mary's. This almost doubled the accommodation size of the whole school. This enabled the school to comfortably deal with rising pupil numbers. The building programme also addressed all of the accommodation shortfalls highlighted in the Ofsted report of March 2002. In April 2003, the Science and Technology Building opened, along with a new school chapel, extended library, Sixth form common room and study base, extra classrooms and two computer resource bases. In May 2004, the new Arts Block was opened, in time for the school to become a Specialist College for the Arts in September. There were two new drama studios, a fully equipped dance studio, three art rooms, two new computer rooms and five additional classrooms. The Music Department now has its own recording studio and soundproof practice rooms. The buildings include 19 classrooms (16 general and 3 Design and Technology), larger PE changing rooms, expanded and upgraded office/reception areas, improved access for students with limited mobility, three refurbished laboratories, and more dining room space. The current buildings' capacity can accommodate up to 1,850 students. Eight forms of entry and an anticipated sixth form roll of 300 +. In 2018 the school removed a wall in front of the girls' toilets to cut down on juvenile delinquency; in response parents pulled their children out of school and complained.

Significant events

On 1 December 2011, students from St. Mary's College were invited to perform for HM The Queen and HM The Duke of Edinburgh when they officially opened the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton. On 1 November 2016, St Mary's Catholic College became an

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

References

External links

GOV.UK information

Ofsted reports
{{authority control 1972 establishments in England Secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Wallasey Academies in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral