St Marys Public School

Living and working in Ongole means dealing with the heat and the noise of the town every single day. St Marys Public School is tucked in here, and we’ve seen a lot of changes in the neighborhood over the years. Our building is solid but you can tell it’s been through many monsoon seasons. The paint might be peeling in a few spots, but the classrooms are always full and active. We start our mornings quite early before the sun gets too high. There’s always someone sweeping the hallways or moving benches around for an event. We don’t have a massive marketing team or anything; we just tell people where we are and what we do. The kids here come from all over the local area. Some walk, some come by rickshaw. We have a small staff room where we drink tea and talk about the kids who are struggling or the ones who are doing well. It’s a very normal, practical sort of place. We don’t promise anything crazy, just a place for children to sit down, open their books, and listen to their teachers. Sometimes the electricity goes out and we just open the windows wider to let the air in. We have some trees in the yard that give a bit of shade during the lunch break. It’s not a perfect setup, but it’s our school and we show up every morning to get to work for the families in 523001.