You may have entered Maria Assumpta Girls' Secondary at Ħamrun with the temerity of a candidate in the examination hall or then as a sprite young lass in your joyful school days spent there.
My first encounter with the Ħamrun girls' school came by way of my teaching practice in 1979, as a 20-something-year old, sent to present myself there by my tutor. I can very well remember making my approach to the head's office with the cautious restraint of a novice; she had a reputation for being a formidable lady who brooked no nonsense and I was expected to make an impression. Ms. A. Borg Grech was in every way her staff and students had described her: an assertive and buoyant personality who left little doubt as to who called the shots at her school.
She sat me down on a chair in front of her desk, duly handed me a personalised time-table and proceeded to sort me out as a temporary member of her staff. I may have been looking forward to being assessed positively and to being farmed out as a fully-qualified teacher but there was nothing to foretell then, that I would be returning to the same office some twenty-three years later to lead the school, and to see it through its 50th eventful year in the service of Maltese education. As destiny would have it, I am also the first male incumbent in the history of the girls' school. So, it makes one think it was in the crystal ball all the time.
In 50 years of history, Maria Assumpta has nurtured a scholastic tradition and an ethos of is own. Just like other schools, it boasts of a crop of famed personalities in the area of local art and craft, writing and academia, who have spent some of their teaching careers on the staff.
Many of its ex-alumni, the first batches of whom have just about broken their 60s, have carved up successful lives and careers of their own too. I know that many of them loved the school and still consider themselves to be proud old girls of Maria Assumpta, and still have anecdotes to tell. Even its present profile makes it an interesting school. The students are, OK, on the whole, if one had to overlook their typical adolescent devilry.
The staff is marvellous too. We are fortunate to have a hard-working staff, on the youngish side, but all determined to work as a team to achieve set goals for the students and job satisfaction for themselves. Teaching mixed ability classes makes for a variety of experiences and the teaching demands here make us strive even harder. It is indeed interesting to teach here, our mission being equally academic and pastoral.
We are a caring school, which also strives for results. The end results have never been lacking and every year Maria Assumpta boasts of a good crop of students who make it to post-secondary education.
A good percentage still leaves our school for the world of work and it remains our mission to prepare our students for life.
It is also a school where we strive to foster the important values of modern society like self-dependence, autonomy, solidarity, discipline, self-esteem, good taste and a love of life and kindred.
The school has seen a succession of nine heads, and a higher turn over of deputies and teachers. Although their leadership and teaching styles must have varied across standards of time and personality, the going has always been demanding in terms of energy and a firm hand.
Historical highlights
Maria Assumpta Technical School for girls, situated in the commercial town of Ħamrun, started services as one of the three technical schools constructed with UNESCO funds in the 1950s. The first technical school in Malta, it opened its doors in 1958-59. In the 1970s, with the introduction of secondary school for all, Maria Assumpta became one of the area secondary schools and registered its first marked decrease in student intake.
In 1972, the selective system was abandoned and comprehensive education was introduced. The traditional grammar-cum-technical-options curricula were phased out and the school premises readapted to take on a different school population based on catchment area. It then came to be known as Maria Assumpta Girls Secondary School, as it is still known today. Concurrently, trade schools were opened for students who had reached the age of 14 but Maria Assumpta retained its role as a general secondary.
In the 2003-2004 scholastic year, due to the dire need of refurbishing the adjacent girls' secondary school, Adelaide Cini, it was decided to take the bold step of merging the two schools under one administration and with a joint staff. Two schools which had hitherto been neighbouring but separate, which had co-existed in tandem, albeit autonomously, merged as Maria Assumpta, with a 1,000-strong population, a staff of 140 and catering for 17 different localities. Even if the school has been gradually downsized since then, Maria Assumpta still vaunts the unique status of the biggest area-secondary school with a renewed character and a strengthened ethos. It is a school catering for varying abilities and is largely inclusive. In 2007, in line with the introduction of college networks, Maria Assumpta started to form part of San Ġorg Preca College which roughly comprises the stock of schools in most of the harbour environs.
Maria Assumpta Girls Secondary School sprawls over a sizeable area with ample spaces for learning and recreation. The school is built on the British model of a block plan. Blocks A, B and C house the home classes for a school population of about 700 students, the administration, as well as three fully-equipped computer rooms. The two home economics blocks, the art block, the needlecraft block and the newly refurbished science block provide the facilities for the optional curriculum subjects.
Furthermore, there is a well-stocked library, media and printing rooms. The other big central block houses the school assembly hall with a seating capacity of 700, three guidance rooms, conference room, music room and gym. There are outside sports facilities for netball, basketball and volleyball. The recreational highlight is an ever-busy canteen where the students can relax over a snack, socialise, or even play table-tennis. Alternatively, there is also an open picnic area with tables for a short reprieve in the sun.
A traditional pride in stage-performance, a culture of dance and celebration are high on our agenda as are sports and a commitment towards helping the community.
The students themselves assume as much responsibility as their teachers to create dance, catwalk and stage productions that have often enthralled audiences. The highlights of the school calendar reach a peak at Christmastime and Prize Day when the school opens its doors to parents, friends and the public. The girls are all prima donnas and simply like showing off.
Former students of the school will recall their own school days as having been quite similar. The school albums and press cuttings show old photos of former ministers of education, school personalities and girl choristers on the self-same stage, all of whom are looking much younger and as large as life. The school's old admission registers bear these girls' names as 11-year-olds with their former personal particulars, now more of a curio but occasionally still useful.
The head-teacher's daily log was just as religiously followed with meticulous entries in ink and neat penmanship, recording the highlights of every day, even for the sake of making an entry. The present electronic school information system has changed all this in an age of databases in the place of archives, of e-systems accounting in the place of book-keeping. Much will change, and yet, much will remain the same. By the way, the staff also enjoys a good nosh-up together to mark those very special occasions of collective reprieve, such as the end of term. That has also been a well-preserved long-standing tradition.