St. Anna Catholic School

Saint Anna Catholic School is a fully accredited PreKindergarten through eighth grade school located in Leominster, Massachusetts. St. Anna has been providing a quality education to students for over 50 years. We enroll about 190 students with a focus on increasing enrollment each year. We have one class per grade and a strong sense of community. Older students (6-8) do a buddy program with our PK-K classes. They attend weekly masses together and do projects throughout the year. St. Anna's has a focus on STEM education and many activities that strengthen student's learning of Technology, Engineering, Math and Science. Middle School students participate in eCybermission. We also offer Design Squad and Math Club to students in grades 4-8. There are also opportunities for extra curricular art/music programs. We have violin, band, drama and choir.

St. Anna School teaches Catholic virtues in a faith-centered community, preparing students to become strong, intelligent persons, who love God and accept life-long responsibility for themselves and others. St. Anna has been serving students in Leominster and neighboring towns for over 50 years. St. Anna School, with grades Pre-Kindergarten to 8, is part of the Catholic School Department of the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts. The idea of opening a parish school began shortly after World War II. Up until then, children of the parishioners of St. Anna Parish had enrolled in other parochial schools in the city of Leominster. Because of overcrowding conditions city-wide, the parochial schools were forced to limit their enrollment to the children of their own parishes. Realizing the necessity of a Catholic education for the children of the parish, the parishioners of St. Anna decided to begin their own school by constructing two classrooms in the church hall. As St. Anna School became a reality, the parish called upon the Venerini Religious Teachers, who had initially come to St. Anna in 1952 to teach Christian Doctrine, to staff the proposed school. The doors of St. Anna School opened for the first time in September 1953 as 40 pre-primary children and 40 first graders entered the new classrooms to be greeted by the Venerini Sisters, who lived in Fitchburg, the city closest to Leominster. Each year a new classroom was added by using portable dividers which also served as blackboards. Hot lunches for the students were prepared daily in the kitchen of the church hall. The classes were large; the teachers young and dedicated. Each day, twice a day, parishioners volunteered to drive the sisters to and from their convent in Fitchburg. Ground was broken for a new school building adjacent to the St. Anna Rectory on Lancaster Street, across the street form the church. Dedication ceremonies for the new St. Anna School and Auditorium were held on September 8, 1957, and students and teachers moved into the new building which housed nine classrooms, a cafeteria, and a combination gymnasium and auditorium. In June, 1961, the first eighth grade class graduated from St. Anna School. In 1987, plans were finalized for the construction of a ?Little Red Schoolhouse" which opened officially right after the spring school vacation in 1987. The Little Red Schoolhouse is home to our PreK3 and PreK4 programs. Kindergarten through Grade 8 classrooms are in the main building. St. Anna Catholic School continues to flourish because of the dedication and hard work of the faculty and administration who work together to create an educational environment that promotes academic excellence in an atmosphere of faith and Christian values. We look forward to many more years in the service of our Church, our community and our children.