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| Bournemouth Church History |
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In 1959, a science block was added to the senior school building, and the following decade saw continuing extensions and improvements: a covered way to link the main convent building with the senior building; the present top floor of the senior building - the annexe - built to improve the accommodation for Home Economics and provide two Sixth Form rooms; the extension of the playing field made possible by the demolition of'Holyrood'.
But from 1965 onwards there was constant discussion about catholic comprehensive reorganisation and its possible effect on the school. The Sisters of the Cross felt that they should concentrate their teaching sisters on Oaklands School at Waterlooville as it became comprehensive, so in order to ensure that this school remained open for as long as it was needed to provide grammar school education for the catholic girls of the area. The Handmaids of the Sacred Heart agreed to Bishop Worlock's request for an amalgamation between the Convent of the Cross School and Marydale Convent School, Highcliffe. In September 1969, the first of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart came to teach in Boscombe. At the same time, the first girls, three of them, transferred to St. Peter's School, to study science courses at Advanced level. The boarding-school had finally closed in the previous July. Change was under way, but Boscombe Convent School, as it was now called, continued to thrive and expand. The community from Highcliffe, under Reverend Mother Isabel Aguilar, moved to Boscombe in August 1970. During that autumn term, the two communities worked together, until in December, Sister Mary Keyes, the last of the Sisters of the Cross at Boscombe, left to take up her new work in Cameroun. The discussions about comprehensive reorganisation continued, and in 1977, the catholic diocesan authorities suggested that the whole catholic position would be considerably strengthened, particularly in regard to catholic sixth form education, if the convent and St. Peter's School, Southbourne, were to merge as soon as possible, with a view to the joint schools becoming a Voluntary Aided Comprehensive School.  This merger began in September 1977, when the Lower Sixth Form teaching was based entirely at St. Peter's, and was completed by September 1980, when the new St. Peter's was formed from the present St. Peter's School, St. Thomas More's School and Boscombe Convent School.Since 1979, the Junior Department of Boscombe Convent School was rescued as a Charitable Trust and still survives today in the form of St. Thomas Garnet's Independent School. The main convent building is Grade II listed and was sold in 1979 to the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic. It would be impossible to record here the names of all the sisters and lay staff who have been associated with the convent at Boscombe over the years, but they will always be remembered by the pupils who were educated and cared for by them. The Past Pupils of the School which has served the community for almost a century, her '... children o'er the world, O Alma Mater Look up in gratitude and love to you.' and 'When Boscombe's children from her gates have passed May we be faithful to Our School's traditions And win God's crown of Victory at last.' |
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