THE head of one of the county’s most successful schools says his staff have taught him just what DIY can do.

Faced with funding and building a much needed student support centre and IT suite, Clive Lambert, head of St Mary’s RC High, set a test for his in-house talent.

And that talent delivered in the form of the school’s new Caritas Centre.

They brought the centre in well under budget – at a cost of £650,000, down from initial estimates as high as £1.3 million.

The project team was hand picked from inside the school itself. Together they took on all the practicalities of making the centre happen and went after the funding, which was topped off by a “generous donation” from Clive Richards, a long-term supporter of the school and all-round philanthropist for educational causes.

Mr Lambert said the “remarkable” achievement of his project team is a testament to the ethos of the school, consistently among the best performing in the county and country.

Caritas is a response to the “squeeze” that the St Mary’s site – celebrating 150 years of Catholic education in the county – has endured for some time.

It houses student support services on the ground floor and a state-of-the-art IT suite above.