About Us

St Mary’s is truly a college for the 21st Century and is the first choice for over 1,300 students in East Lancashire. We are a fully inclusive Catholic College with a long history of excellent achievement with our results for all courses being in the top 10% in the country. We are also able to offer a wide range of courses and the flexibility of choice necessary for today’s students.

Provision for 16 – 19 year old students

We offer a very wide range of AS/A levels with an annual pass rate of over 99%. We have a developing range of vocational courses at levels 3 and 2 all with an annual pass rate of 100%. A key element of our provision is the outstanding support we offer all students through our tutorial programme, our virtual reality learning environment, our one-to-one support and our student guidance.

Other provision

We also offer a range of degree programmes, both full and part-time in conjunction with Liverpool Hope University and UCLan. We are the only centre which offers evening degrees in East Lancashire, meaning students can combine their studies with work, family and other commitments. We pride ourselves on the support we offer our students and this was reflected last year when 26% gained First Class Honours.
We have a thriving Essential Skills department which provides free short courses in Numeracy and Literacy that can be studied during the day or in the evening, making it easy to fit a course around work and other commitments. This allows members of the local community to gain nationally recognised qualifications, increase everyday confidence, ensure English and Maths qualifications are up to date and boost job prospects.
In addition, St. Mary’s has two nurseries for children aged six weeks to five years old. One nursery is on our College campus and the other is located in Wensley Fold Children’s Centre.

Facilities

Over the past few years, St. Mary’s has spent over £13 million on developing a 21st Century campus. All our teaching and sports facilities are on-site and new provision has been created for the Performing Arts, Media, Film, Information Technology and Computing, the Sciences and the Social Sciences. Our latest project was our two-storey Enterprise Centre, opened in September 2011 which will allow us to develop enterprise skills, courses and initiatives for our students, for pupils in partner schools and for the wider business community. It is equipped with the latest IT resources and will house classrooms, seminar areas and a multi-functional room which can be used by up to 100 people at a time.

Experience

Our staff are extremely experienced in Level 3 teaching which includes AS/A Levels, National Diplomas, Extended Diplomas and Certificates. Many of the staff also act as examiners and Chief Examiners for a range of examination boards. We also have significant experience in our Student Guidance department which is demonstrated by our outstanding university and employment progression rates. A large number of our students progress to Russell Group universities, including Oxford and Cambridge.

In these challenging times, you can be confident that our expertise, experience and proven track record is here to help all our students get on to the next step of their education, training or employment.