De La Salle School

Story

De La Salle School, St Helens is an 11-16 mixed comprehensive Roman Catholic high school which is linked to the world wide La Sallian community. The school in its current form was created in 1987 after the amalgamation of several Roman Catholic high schools in the area (West Park, Notre Dame, St. Edmund Campion and Mount Carmel). Its trustees are the De La Salle Brothers, who have a House nearby.There are 1200 pupils, and about 140 staff. Seven associated primaries provide the majority of pupils who join, aged 11: Corpus Christi, St. Austin's, St. Bartholomew's, St. John Vianney, St. Julie's, St. Teresa's and St. Thomas of Canterbury.HistoryGrammar schoolsTwo of the former schools were called West Park Grammar School and Notre Dame High School, which were both direct grant grammar schools.ComprehensiveIt became a comprehensive.CampusThe school completed a large building programme in June 2013. Nearly half of the building stock was rebuilt, while almost all of the remainder was substantially remodelled. The new buildings capture some simple principles which the school developed with contractors and St. Helens Council: each academic area is clearly defined, with its own staff base and bespoke I.C.T. provision; while there are some open learning areas, the majority of classrooms are light and airy, as well as being very well sound-proofed; there are many double learning spaces, separated by sound-proofed partitions; each of the school's year groups has its own Base, with social seating for the pupils and I.C.T. areas, the year group leaders are (as of 6/9/17) Year 7 - Michelle Croft, Year 8 - Mark Leggett, Year 9 - Liam O'Callaghan, Year 10 - Catherine Mallalieu and Year 11 - Gareth Fletcher; there are six enclosed and secure external areas, including the spacious Founder's Quad, and Our Lady's Quad, in addition to defined learning areas for Art, Performing Arts, science and Enrichment.