All Saints Catholic School, West Wickham

School in West Wickham, London, England

51°21′51″N 0°00′22″W / 51.36421°N 0.00612°W / 51.36421; -0.00612InformationReligious affiliation(s)Roman CatholicClosed2007Local authorityBromleyDepartment for Education URN101677 TablesOfstedReportsGenderCoeducationalAge11 to 18

All Saints Catholic School was a Catholic secondary school located on Layhams Road, West Wickham, London Borough of Bromley. Formerly known as 'St. John Rigby Catholic College', its name was changed in 2004 as a rebranding because of falling pupil numbers and substantial debts following the departure of former headmistress Colleen McCabe.

The site was originally a teacher training college before opening as a school in 1979. It was an amalgamation of the former St Joseph's School for Boys, Orpington, itself a former Victorian orphanage, now a housing estate opposite Orpington Hospital and a girls' school.

Mr. Tranter was the first Deputy Headmaster.

The site is now being developed for housing .

Fraud and closure

Colleen McCabe was convicted in 2003 of stealing around £500,000 from her school over a period from 1994 to 1999, which she spent lavishly both on herself and on gifts for her friends. The story was the subject of the 2006 BBC docudrama, The Thieving Headmistress^[1] Money was diverted away from the school's budget resulting in the children being without books in a dirty, unheated school. The fraud was only detected when the school's grant maintained status was reverted and control was returned to the local education authority. McCabe was sentenced to five years in prison.^[2]^[3]^[4]

After a consultation period, in April 2006 Bromley Council approved the proposal to close the school with effect from August 2007.

Notable former pupils

Skream, DJ and producer
Jason Puncheon, professional footballer
Liam Fontaine, professional footballer
Michael Carberry, cricketer
James Dasaolu, athlete, 100m & 4 × 100 m
Craig (Spider) Richards, professional boxer

References

^ "BBC Two - Programmes". Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
^ "Head denies stealing school funds". 8 May 2003.
^ "Independent Catholic News". Archived from the original on 18 June 2006. Retrieved 24 August 2006.
^ "Headmistress sentenced to five years for £500,000 theft".