Paul Hollingum, Executive Director of the St Mary Magdalene Academy Trust, writes:

Welcome to our website.

The Academy Trust has grown out of the success of the original St Mary Magdalene Academy, sponsored by the London Diocesan Board which provided the first new build all through school in the capital. The natural growth of this project has seen us add a Special School, the Courtyard, to our foundation. You can use the buttons at the top of this page to navigate to the individual areas for each of these schools.

St Mary Magdalene Trust is a Christian community which aims to nurture young people to become high achievers and to discover their vocation in the global society. We welcome families from all faiths and none, to all of our schools, each of which are inspirational communities of learning, achievement and enjoyment.

Our motto is: Show by a good life that your works are done by gentleness born of wisdom (James 3:13).

The motto succinctly captures our aspirations and sets in place for the leaders of each of the schools a requirement to take seriously their responsibility in developing a set of values which will allow our young people to grow into model, contributory citizens in our local, national and global community. The core values of humility, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, service, endurance, thankfulness, trust, and hope: clearly come from our Christian foundation but are appropriate to a life lived well in any community.

We have come to recognise over the first eight years of our existence that with the right level of commitment the impossible can be achieved with immediate effect; its only miracles that take a little longer. We expect that commitment from staff, pupils and parents. You may think we are asking you to do the impossible but our experience tells us it can be done, if the desire is great enough!

Our approach to our work can best be summed up in the words of Art Berg, a courageous American tetraplegic:

‘But remember this very important point: the well-lived life is never a destination, but a process. The joy of this adventure is not in finishing it, but in undertaking the journey itself. The joy is in learning how to call forth your courage and your wisdom in times of need. It is in teaching yourself how to grow mentally and spiritually, not in spite of life’s tough times, but because of them.’