St. Mary's High School is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

primary and secondary school for boys, located in

Peshawar Cantonment Peshawar Cantonment ( ur, , ps, د پیښور کنډک) is a garrison located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Although the cantonment is located within Peshawar City District, it is an independent municipality under control of the M ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. Founded in 1957, the school has been run by the

Marist Brothers The Marist Brothers of the Schools, commonly known as simply the Marist Brothers, is an international community of Catholic religious institute of brothers. In 1817, St. Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist priest from France, founded the Marist Brothe ...

since 1970.

Administration

The school is run by the Diocesan Board of Education of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi The Catholic Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi (Lat: ''Dioecesis Islamabadensis-Ravalpindensis'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Pakistan. There is anecdotal evidence that St. Thomas the Apostle passed through Ta ...

. The Bishop of the diocese is the chairman of the board. The school is administered by the Marist Brothers, who took over the administration in 1970.

Academics

The school conducts classes from Prep to Class 10 (Secondary School Certificate of the

Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Peshawar The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Peshawar or BISE Peshawar is a government examinations conducting and assessment body on intermediate and secondary education levels located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. History BIS ...

). The medium of instruction is English.

History

The school was opened in 1957 in the presbytery of St. Michael's Church on Mall Road, Peshawar Cantonment with fourteen boys who had passed Standard III from Presentation Convent School located next door to St. Michael's Church. Fr. Thyssen was the founder and first principal. The other teachers were Fr. Pingstern and Fr. Heideman. All three were Dutch citizens belonging to the Catholic order of Mill Hill Fathers (London). Before his transfer to Peshawar, Fr. Thyssen was at Burn Hall, Abbottabad and before the Great Partition, he had served in Kashmir. In 1958, the school moved to Air Force Barracks, on Roberts Road, as St. Mary's PAF Cambridge School. Classes available at the time ranged from Prep to Standard V. Fr.Joseph Beemster from Holland joined the teaching staff around this time In 1962, the first batch of ten students sat for the Matriculation (SSC) Examination and the success rate was 100%. In the same year, five of its students qualified for GCE 'O' Level of Cambridge University (three in First Division). The present site of St.Mary's High School was acquired for the school by Fr. Michael Grant, an Irishman and the second principal of the school and the foundation stone laid by Lt. Gen. Altaf Qadir on 29 October 1963. Many parents contributed to the construction of the school by donating a truckload of bricks. In 1970, the Marist Brothers took over the administration of St. Mary's from the

Mill Hill Mill Hill is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is situated around northwest of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until 1965, when it became part of Greater London. Its population counted 18,45 ...

Fathers. Br. Patrick Faulkner took over as the first Marist principal. In 1977, Br. Francis Sales Fernando became the school's tenth principal. During his tenure as principal, many new buildings were added. The fully equipped auditorium, library, squash courts, hall for indoor games, children's park and mini zoo are some of those additions. Technical education was also introduced, with fully equipped workshops, around this time. In 1993, Br. Charles Fernando took over as the principal. He was replaced by Br. Shanthi Liyanage who led the school until September 2005. During his tenure, a new spacious staff room was added to St. Mary's. In 2005, students of St. Mary's secured the first position, third position and sixth position in the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education SSC examination.

Golden Jubilee

On 29 March 2007, the school celebrated the Golden Jubilee of its foundation. At the time, the principal was Br. Devasiri Fernando FMS. The school had 1,302 students and 70 academic and administrative staff.

Past Principals

Faculty

* M Taha Khan, academic and author

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's High School, Peshawar 1957 establishments in Pakistan Educational institutions established in 1957 Marist Brothers schools Catholic elementary and primary schools in Pakistan Catholic secondary schools in Pakistan Schools in Peshawar Boys' schools in Pakistan