About

History of the School

To understand the ethos of St Mary's School it is necessary to look back over many years to its origin. St Mary's was founded in 1922, by Miss Annie Margaret Sarson, Miss Beatrice Oughton-Giles and Miss Kathleen Sarson.

Miss Annie Sarson was born in Dover in 1890, the youngest of six children. She was a medical gymnast and a member of the Royal College of Physiotherapists. She was also an outstanding teacher. She and her sister, Kathleen, practiced together as Physiotherapists in Bournemouth before returning to London where, after replying to an advertisement, they met Miss Oughton-Giles who was then a hospital matron. Beatrice Oughton-Giles was born in Edinburgh and commenced her nursing training at Guy's Hospital. She spent time in Germany, nursing with a religious order, and later trained as a Physiotherapist at Guy's Hospital and became a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists. As Sister in Charge at the Hospital for Nervous Diseases she advertised for a Physiotherapist to lecture her nurses, and thus she met up with the two Sarson sisters.

A life-long partnership began, and their common dream of starting a special school became a reality in 1922. The first ‘St Mary's' was in a Georgian house in Chiselhurst, Kent. The children initially attended a nearby school for lessons and returned ‘home' for treatment and exercises.

By 1939 there were 13 children and huts were erected in the garden for classrooms. Now it could be really described as a school. In 1939 a new, larger property was purchased in Horam, Sussex. Following the declaration of war an air-raid shelter was built in the grounds, gas masks were issued and children took part in air-raid drill and black-outs. Refugee children, fleeing from Nazi Germany, were brought to Horam during the early period of war, as well as evacuees from London, and when war began in earnest in 1940, the whole school was evacuated to a country estate at Llwyn Madoc, in Wales.

On the return to Horam at the end of the war, in 1945, they found the house in a terrible state, and in 1946, the two Principals came to Bexhill to look for a suitable property. They had to choose between a property in Hastings Road, which later became Charters Towers, and a large house in Wrestwood Road, with extensive grounds which contained two follies, a Japanese garden with a pond, a pagoda, woodlands and lawns, greenhouses and a huge kitchen garden. It was to this house that the school moved during the Summer holidays of 1946.

In 1960, Miss Jane Shaw, a qualified nurse at Guy's Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street, who had had many years experience

looking after disabled children, joined the school. Miss Shaw became Head Matron, and in 1972, Principal. Her aim was to continue in the tradition of the co-founders, to maintain an independent residential school for 90 boys and girls who really needed the special care and education that the school offered.

In April 1991, Miss Shaw (now Mrs Crabbe) retired.

The new Principal, David Cassar, previously the Principal of a boarding special school in Hertfordshire, aimed to continue to foster a spirit of independence and learning, striving to achieve the highest possible standards of care and education for St Mary's children.

Since the 1990's, St Mary's has grown enormously. Many new buildings have been erected on site and property off site has also been purchased. The land adjacent to the school, which belonged to the Water Board, was purchased and used by the 6^th Form from September 1999. In 2002 the school changed from its independent status to that of a ‘non-maintained special school' and in 2002 the ‘educational' trust became a ‘children's' trust: St Mary's Wrestwood Children's Trust.

In September 2009, Gail Pilling, an experienced, residential headteacher became St Mary's Wrestwood Children's Trust's new Chief Executive Officer. She was eager to carry on the work of her predecessors. As well as being a skilled educationalist, Gail Pilling was a qualified and registered speech and language therapist and educational psychologist so brought highly relevant skills into the Trust.

Gail works collaboratively and was pleased to be part of a strong leadership group including:

Jo Whiteman, Headteacher, who has worked at St Mary's for many years, originally as a secondary trained Technology Teacher, then an Assistant Head Teacher and since 2003 has been Head of School / Headteacher.

Craig Ribbons, Head of College, who has a breadth of experience in leadership and management within a variety of residential and specialist education provisions, which equips him well for this role.

Simon Rogers, Head of Residential Services who has worked at a senior managerial level in special schools for the last 10 years and enjoys the challenge of working effectively in these unique environments.

Eileen Bristow, Director of Health Services, has now left St Mary's for pastures new. Gail Pilling will take on this role whilst we recruit to this important position.

St Mary's is not just a school. It is a Children's Trust where day and residential children receive first class therapy, nursing, care and education. At St Mary's well over 260 staff work for the benefit of the children. The Trust employs Teachers, Carers, Nurses, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, a Social Worker, an Art Psychotherapist, a Clinical Psychologist, family advocates, a Teacher for the Hearing Impaired who is also Audiologist and specialist, well-trained staff. St Mary's Wrestwood Children's Trust is well supported by our own Administration, Catering and Site Management staff.

Staff at St Mary's Wrestwood Children's Trust educate and care for up to 144 students between the ages of seven and nineteen, sharing with parents the responsibility of preparing them to become as independent as possible, ready to realise their full potential. St Mary's Wrestwood Children's Trust is a children's charity and as such receives no grants or donations from Local Government and only minimal funding from Central Government. Fees are usually by the pupil's Local Authority. A small number of children are privately funded.

If you wish to learn more about St Mary's Wrestwood Children's Trust please telephone 01424 730740 or write to St Mary's Wrestwood Children's Trust, Wrestwood Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex TN40 2LU. Alternatively, you can contact us by e-mail at adm@st-marys.bexhill.sch.uk