St Mary Spital Secondary School

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St Mary Spital Secondary School (St Mary Spital, SMSSS or 'the Spit', as it is called by students) is a co-educational state school in Spitalfields, London, England. It's intake is age 11 to 18.

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History

Founded in 1929 as a way to combat the poor reputation of Spitalfields, St Mary Spital aimed to turn out wholesome, well-educated young men and women who could help rebuild their borough. Unfortunately, WWII left much of the school in ruin and after it was renovated in 1951, it fell into what made the East End so notorious. Its location offered no hope for the original intent of the school to ever return, and changing times were the nail in the coffin.

Now more notorious for having a wealth of skinheads and other gangs, St Mary Spital has suffered budget cuts and has been threatened with closure almost yearly since the early 1990's.

But the school itself also had a reputation for difficult curriculum and over-qualified teachers who simply had nowhere else to go. In the late 1970's, it saw a resurgence in the wholesome doctrine as some teachers attempted to reign in their unruly students, but by the mid-1980's, this was all but overshadowed by violence and the impressive amount of absences.

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School Life

St Mary Spital's offers much of the same curriculum as all state secondary schools. English, maths, science, art, music and physical education classes. The school has only two sports teams (boys and girls football).

There are approximately 1,196 students at the school, with approximately one teacher per every thirty students. The population is primarily working class and lower, and there is a gang problem in the higher grades.

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