Saint Mary's College College of the Immaculate Conception |
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Address | |
75 Frederick St. Port-of-Spain Trinidad and Tobago |
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Information | |
Type | Government assisted |
Motto |
Virtus et Scientia (Latin) Manliness and Knowledge |
Established | 1 August 1863 |
Principal | Nigel Joseph |
Teaching staff | 76 |
Enrollment | 1196 |
Campus | Urban |
Colour(s) | Blue and White |
Athletics | Water-polo/Mini-polo, Swimming, Cricket, Badminton, Football, Basketball, Hockey. Chess and Scrabble to some extent. |
Affiliation |
Roman Catholic (Holy Ghost Fathers) |
Website | [1] |
The main building of St. Mary's College. |
Saint Mary's College (popularly known as CIC, which stands for College of the Immaculate Conception) is a government-assisted Catholic secondary school situated on Frederick Street in the heart of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The school was established in 1863 with only a handful of students but enrollment today is close to 1200. The school's motto "Virtus et Scientia" is Latin for "Manliness and Knowledge". It is an all-boys school.
St. Mary's College is a seven-year school that prepares students for the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate known as "CSEC" at 5th Form and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) level examinations.
The school offers education in a vast number of fields in the sciences, humanities, business studies and economics. St. Mary's College is known as one of the best schools in the country and students completing their A-Levels from St. Mary's consistently win the prestigious national scholarships offered by the government for academic excellence, including the President's Medal in 2005. The school also produced the regional top performer in the Environmental Sciences category in 2011.
In 1859, the Queen's College School was founded on Abercromby Street in Port of Spain by the Trinidad and Tobago Government, which provided five teachers. In 1860, shortly after arriving in Trinidad, the Roman Catholic Archbishop Ferdinand English condemned the Protestant Collegiate school absolutely. For their secondary education, Catholics in Trinidad had either to disobey the Archbishop or attend St. George's College, which was moribund and had "never fulfilled the needs of the young".
Louis de Verteuil, the leader of the Catholic party and Mayor of Port-of-Spain since 1859, proposed a solution to the Archbishop and was commissioned by him to go to Rome where he attempted to persuade the Jesuits or Oratorians to found a college in Trinidad. This attempt failed but at the suggestion of Mgr. Talbot, Private Chamberlain of The Holy Ghost Fathers, whom Louis had appointed, Archbishop English got in touch with the newly founded Congregation of the Holy Ghost and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
On 7 June 1862, he wrote their superior General, Rev. Father Schwindenhammer, the letter at the top of this document requesting assistance in setting up a new college in Trinidad. Archbishop English died three months later, but the Holy Ghost Fathers - Fathers Guilloux and Sundhauser - still came, arriving in Trinidad on the morning of 7 July.