About St. Mary's

Welcome to St Mary’s C of E School

Welcome to St. Mary’s C of E (VA) School website. I hope you find your way around the site easily and can obtain any information you may need about the school.

St. Mary’s is a 5 class Church of England Primary school situated near to the promenade in Penzance. We have our own nursery that is part of our Early Years Foundation stage unit. 

I feel privileged and honored to be head teacher of St. Mary’s C of E School. Our children are friendly, polite, helpful and enthusiastic about their learning. Our staff are equally enthusiastic, hard working and creative in their approach to the curriculum. 

Our school provides exciting and memorable learning activities for the children often using our fantastic local environment to inspire learning.  We use local visits to engage and enthuse the children and the children have opportunity to take part in a range of outdoor learning experiences.

We strive for good attainment for all children and aim for all children to make the best progress they can during their learning time with us. We create a nurturing and supportive environment for each child in our care.  We aim for all children to develop into confident, articulate, caring and reflective individuals. We aim to ensure that all children in our care have a good childhood. We aim to equip children with attitudes and values that, in partnership with parents and carers, will build strong and secure foundations for a life time of learning. At St Mary's every one matters and every moment counts.

We believe in the uniqueness of each individual, child and adult, and that each child is worth caring for and spending time with. You can be assured that your child will be understood and valued as an individual at St. Mary’s C of E Primary School. OFSTED March 2023 state: 'Pupils enjoy attending St Mary’s C of E Primary School. They are polite, well-mannered and respectful. They work well with one another and are keen to share their ideas.'

Involvement with the wider community is a strong feature of school life. We aim to build positive relationships with our immediate school community, national and international community and for the school to be a hub of learning in the community. We have strong links with St. Mary’s Church, support local charities (The Food Bank and Children’s Hospice South West) through our Making a Difference activities take part in local community events such as St. Piran in Penzance celebrations and Mazey Day. We also have links across the globe with communities in France, Australia and developing links with Ethiopia.

We are strongly inclusive of all children; we recognise and celebrate the different cultures and languages spoken by our pupils using this in learning to build understanding and respectful appreciation of different cultures.  Our Eco Committee represents the views of pupils at our school, we value Pupil Voice in developing our community at St Mary's and there are many opportunities for children to become Pupil Leaders. 

We value partnership with parents and have a strong, committed and vibrant PTA, called FOSMS, Friends of St. Mary’s School.

Christian Values underpin all our work at St. Mary’s and the three that we feel are particularly important to our children  are values of Hope, Courage and Perseverance.

I hope from reading this you will want to find our more and visit our school to see the learning and our distinctive Christian ethos in action.

Mrs Helen Kershaw, Executive Headteacher