Considering our future at

St Mary’s Catholic Primary School has been at the heart of Catholic education within our community for many years. We are proud of our strong relationships with other Catholic schools, our parish family and the wider local community, all supported by the Archdiocese. We look ahead with confidence, continually striving to ensure our children are well prepared for the next stage of their learning journey and for life beyond school.

Over the past two years, our school has gone from strength to strength. We have made significant improvements to our environment, including the opening of our wonderful Early Years unit and a new, secure school entrance. Our outcomes have continued to improve, our Ofsted judgement has strengthened, and we are providing even more opportunities for our children to thrive and flourish.

This progress was recognised in our most recent inspection, where the report states that St Mary’s is a ‘warm and caring school community’ with a ‘calm and purposeful learning environment’. It also highlights the strength of our curriculum and the ‘positive impact on pupils’ achievement’ that it is having.

A key priority for us now is to build on this strong momentum. Education is constantly evolving, with changes to inspection frameworks and further national reforms on the horizon. As a school, we are committed to ensuring we are well placed to meet these changes while continuing to provide the very best for our children.

You may have seen in the press that the Archbishop of Liverpool has launched a new vision for Catholic education, “A Family in Christ: Our Future Together.” This strategy reflects the words of Pope Leo XIV, recognising that each school brings its own unique strengths, while also acknowledging that, together, we can do even more to strengthen Catholic education within our communities.

As part of this vision, all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese will become academies and join a Catholic multi-academy trust. This reflects a direction of travel already seen nationally, with the Government encouraging schools to be part of strong trusts, and many Catholic schools across the Archdiocese already making this transition.

St Mary’s has been identified to join the Pope Francis Catholic Multi-Academy Trust in the first wave of this process. We believe this presents a positive opportunity for our school to contribute to and benefit from a wider family of Catholic schools, while continuing to retain our own distinctive identity and ethos.

As part of this journey, we are keen to hear from our community. Your views, questions and feedback are incredibly important in helping to inform the next steps.

That is why we have created this microsite to enable everyone – staff, parents and carers, grandparents, parishioners, neighbours and the wider community – in fact, anyone with an interest in our school – to share their thoughts.

We warmly invite you to explore the information on this site and to share your views via the Have Your Say page. We look forward to hearing from you.

As Pope Francis reminds us, ‘Unity happens when we walk together’.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Preston
Headteacher

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