MAXIMISING THE MOUNT
IT’S NON-STOP INVOLVEMENT AT MOUNT ST MARY’S COLLEGE near Sheffield
Peter Willcocks SJ explains
We hear a lot these days about independent schools and their charitable status. There is the suggestion - or threat - that such schools could lose their charitable status if they don’t serve the local community by sharing their facilities with local schools, clubs and other organisations. Mount St Mary’s, as a Jesuit school, has no need of threats to make it want to do this, and, indeed, for several years now, the school has been a magnet for all sorts of people from the local area.
The Mount Sport and Leisure Club uses our gyms, swimming pool and indoor sports hall, and our outdoor pitches are available for rugby, football, cricket and tennis, whilst the floodlit all-weather pitch is used for a variety of sports. Membership is limited to 750 and, naturally, there is a waiting list.
The floodlit astroturf is, in fact, a hockey pitch but is used in the evenings by no less than 22 local teams, of all ages, for training in football hockey, rugby and netball. It is also the home for the Grasshopper Ladies Hockey Team and their junior team, the Mini Grasshoppers.
In the summer, the games fields are used by the Eckington and Spinkhill cricket clubs, and in winter by five local football clubs. The Mount also sponsors a ladies netball team, consisting of staff members and local players. During the school holidays the buildings and grounds are used by a host of different groups. In the summer - for about six weeks - and during the Easter vacation, we run activities for local children between the ages of 4 and 14.
Other groups that come regularly include local diocesan clergy, who have their annual retreat here; the National Children’s Orchestra, for a week at Easter and three weeks in the summer; the Rugby League National Academy and the O2 Rugby Course (sponsors of England Rugby Union), both of whom run training courses and, finally, Calix, a Catholic support group for recovered alcoholics. Some list!
Perhaps the most ambitious project we run is a three-week summer language school for students from Jesuit European secondary schools; besides a fairly intensive teaching schedule, there are plenty of activities, trips and social events. Now in its fourth year, we are already fully booked. We can cope with ten schools sending fifteen students along with their teachers.
Every school represented last year has booked again this year; we must be doing something right! Oh, and in between all this activity, we run a very happy and popular school.
We hear a lot these days about independent schools and their charitable status. There is the suggestion - or threat - that such schools could lose their charitable status if they don’t serve the local community by sharing their facilities with local schools, clubs and other organisations. Mount St Mary’s, as a Jesuit school, has no need of threats to make it want to do this, and, indeed, for several years now, the school has been a magnet for all sorts of people from the local area.
The Mount Sport and Leisure Club uses our gyms, swimming pool and indoor sports hall, and our outdoor pitches are available for rugby, football, cricket and tennis, whilst the floodlit all-weather pitch is used for a variety of sports. Membership is limited to 750 and, naturally, there is a waiting list.
The floodlit astroturf is, in fact, a hockey pitch but is used in the evenings by no less than 22 local teams, of all ages, for training in football hockey, rugby and netball. It is also the home for the Grasshopper Ladies Hockey Team and their junior team, the Mini Grasshoppers.
In the summer, the games fields are used by the Eckington and Spinkhill cricket clubs, and in winter by five local football clubs. The Mount also sponsors a ladies netball team, consisting of staff members and local players. During the school holidays the buildings and grounds are used by a host of different groups. In the summer - for about six weeks - and during the Easter vacation, we run activities for local children between the ages of 4 and 14.
Other groups that come regularly include local diocesan clergy, who have their annual retreat here; the National Children’s Orchestra, for a week at Easter and three weeks in the summer; the Rugby League National Academy and the O2 Rugby Course (sponsors of England Rugby Union), both of whom run training courses and, finally, Calix, a Catholic support group for recovered alcoholics. Some list!
Perhaps the most ambitious project we run is a three-week summer language school for students from Jesuit European secondary schools; besides a fairly intensive teaching schedule, there are plenty of activities, trips and social events. Now in its fourth year, we are already fully booked. We can cope with ten schools sending fifteen students along with their teachers.
Every school represented last year has booked again this year; we must be doing something right! Oh, and in between all this activity, we run a very happy and popular school.