St. Mary’s is a Voluntary Aided co-educational day school. It was originally founded in 1824 in York Street, next to the parish church. It cost £5000 to build – Mr. Tillard gave the huge sum of £4000, and we remember his gift on the memorial stone in the front of the present school.

St. Mary’s served a wide area until other local schools were built. Children were educated free, but later charged one penny, and then fourpence a week until free state education came in 1891. An Infants schoolroom was added in 1888 but was destroyed in an air raid in 1944.

After the war the school reorganised from its All Age Range status to being a Primary School.

In 1969 we moved to our current building in Enford Street.

Our Nursery (F1) class opened in the Autumn Term 2000. It was equipped entirely by the efforts of the school community as our Millennium project and was dedicated by the Bishop of London.

In 2010 we were awarded Confucius Classroom status by the Confucius Institute and this helps us to access more opportunities for our children, such as learning Mandarin and other Chinese cultural resources.

Our greenhouse was added in 2012 and provides fun and educational opportunities for the children.

Over the last two years the landscaping around the playground entrance and the boundary fence were re-landscaped to make this area a more inviting space after consultation with pupils, who shared their concerns and wishes about that space.

We’ve also recently earned the Eco Schools ‘Green Flag’ status.