St. Mary's Catholic Academy

St. Mary's Catholic Academy is a Catholic academy school located in Blackpool, United Kingdom. It provides education to children of compulsory school age in the Blackpool area. The academy follows the admissions policies typical of state-funded academies in England. It offers a range of academic subjects, extracurricular activities, and pastoral care rooted in Catholic teachings. As an academy, it operates with state funding but has greater autonomy over its curriculum and management compared to maintained schools.

In February 2017, the academy's CCTV system was compromised as part of a broader hack affecting multiple UK schools. Attackers exploited cameras lacking password protection and accessed live feeds from eight cameras monitoring playgrounds, corridors, and neighbouring school premises. The compromised footage showed students during classroom transitions and pickup routines, as well as staff activities. The live streams were broadcast on a public website, enabling global unauthorized access to the surveillance feeds. Following detection, the school strengthened its security credentials and removed the cameras from the illicit platform. The incident prompted an investigation by data protection authorities into the breach of surveillance data.