A party of Headteachers from South Africa visited Crosby recently to find out more about one of the area's leading independent schools.

St Mary's College welcomed the group from Christian Brothers' schools in this year's World Cup host country.

Although St Mary's is now run as an independent trust it was set up by the Christian Brothers, and the school remains committed to supporting the spiritual, educational and charitable principles of Edmund Rice, founder of the Christian Brothers movement.

The Heads stopped off on Merseyside as part of a three-week visit to the UK and Ireland organised as a follow-up to a successful teacher exchange programme.

During the visit they attended a joint conference of South African, Irish and English Heads in Dublin and toured a number of historic sites in southern Ireland linked to the life and work of Edmund Rice.

In addition to their meeting at the St Mary's senior school the group also dropped in at The Mount prep school and found time to view Antony Gormley's Another Place at Crosby beach.

St Mary's College Principal. Mike Kennedy, commented: "We were delighted to host this visit by our South African colleagues as we are always very keen to strengthen the links between Christian Brothers schools around the world.

"We had an interesting discussion about the educational systems in our respective countries and the key principles that are central to the teaching in Christian Brothers' schools, wherever they are based."

The South African Headteachers are pictured with Mike Kennedy (far left) and Andrew Bridson (far right), Deputy Head of St Ambrose College in Altrincham who helped to co-ordinate the visit.