St Peter's Catholic Comprehensive School
Encyclopedia
St Peter's Catholic Comprehensive School is a Roman Catholic Academy
in Bournemouth
, Dorset
, England. It is run under the joint trusteeship of the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Portsmouth
and a religious order of teachers, the De La Salle Brothers. The headmaster is Martyn Egan.
St Peter's has achieved both drama and sports specialist school status. It has more admissions than it can deal with and is above capacity. The nearest catholic church is Our Lady Queen of Peace and Blesséd Margaret Pole
.
:
on the 29 September 1936 with 34 boys. Father Bellanti was the first headmaster and the school was run by Jesuit priests.
The school has changed a lot over the years, all the bedrooms have now been removed and the swimming pool was demolished 10 years ago due to Building problems.
brothers. The last Jesuit community consisted of nine fathers and two brothers. One of the Jesuit priests who was a housemaster at St Peters was Fr. Gerard Hughes S.J., the author of the best-selling religious book "God of Surprises" in which he observed St Peter's boys were "affable and undemanding".
and Cambridge
. At the same time its performances and production of Gilbert and Sullivan
operas were reviewed in the local press as being easily of "professional class". Under the headmastership of Brother Alan Maurice, the school became a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
(HMC) association of public schools. Boater
s were allowed to be worn by sixth formers.
The reorganisation of local education and the changes wrought by the Labour
government in 1974 offered the opportunity for the school to examine whether it might serve the interests of the wider Catholic community in Bournemouth by becoming non-selective. The community decided that their founder St John Baptiste de la Salle had been motivated above all by the desire to widen educational opportunities for those who could not afford it. It was therefore during this time that they oversaw the integration of the combining of the St Peter's, the St Thomas More and the Boscombe
Convent schools. The notice of intent was published on the 13 October 1978. By 1980 Boscombe convent and St Thomas More had merged. All then joined under the same name of St Peters.
status in September 2000 and in September 2004 became one of only three schools in the country to hold dual specialist status in Arts and Sport. Both curriculum areas have developed considerably in the time since this and in doing so have impacted across the school and community.
One of the highlights of the school's Arts College status was being shortlisted for Sky 1's Hairspray: The School Musical
television series. Although the school did not win, losing to Kingsmead School in Enfield
, various performing arts students spent a week being interviewed by the shows hosts and performing for them.
, is situated in the bottom playing field of St Peter's School. The school was built on the site of Hengistbury
Airfield where he had a fatal accident in 1910, the first air-accident death in England.
In 2010 St Peters is celebrating Charles Rolls after 100 years by having a fair on the Headmaster's Lawn at the Southbourne site, they are also restoring the Statue. The Central Band of the RAF will perform in the school hall.
s which inevitably absorb the top pupils. At A-level, it is slightly below average but better than most comprehensives. Only two state non-grammar schools in Bournemouth have sixth forms: the other is Oakmead College of Technology
(a secondary modern school
).
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
in Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
, Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, England. It is run under the joint trusteeship of the Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
Diocese of Portsmouth
Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth is a Latin Rite Roman Catholic diocese in England. The episcopal see is the Portsmouth Cathedral and is headed by the Bishop of Portsmouth...
and a religious order of teachers, the De La Salle Brothers. The headmaster is Martyn Egan.
St Peter's has achieved both drama and sports specialist school status. It has more admissions than it can deal with and is above capacity. The nearest catholic church is Our Lady Queen of Peace and Blesséd Margaret Pole
Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury was an English peeress, one of two women in sixteenth-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband, the daughter of George of Clarence, the brother of King Edward IV and King Richard III...
.
Sites
The school operates from two sites in BournemouthBournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
:
- the Lower School from Holdenhurst Avenue, Iford. This is just off Castle Lane East (A3060) towards the Royal Bournemouth HospitalRoyal Bournemouth HospitalThe Royal Bournemouth Hospital is an acute general hospital in Bournemouth, Dorset, UK. It has 692 beds and is part of The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.-Location:...
in LittledownLittledownLittledown is a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset. Originally it was a small settlement to the south of the much more important Holdenhurst Village, and for centuries it existed as a huddle of farm buildings clinging on to the edge of the heathland....
. It is just east of Portchester SchoolPortchester SchoolPortchester School, or Portchester Sports College, is a specialist sports secondary school in Bournemouth, England, for boys aged 11–16. The school was located on Portchester Road but was knocked down and moved to a new site in Harewood Avenue...
and Avonbourne SchoolAvonbourne SchoolAvonbourne School or Avonbourne Business and Enterprise College is a secondary school in Bournemouth, Dorset, England. It is a single-sex all-girls school for 11-16 year olds and is a foundation school. It is a Business and Enterprise College....
. - the Upper School from St Catherine's Road, SouthbourneSouthbourne, DorsetSouthbourne is a suburb of Bournemouth. It is the most easterly part of the borough, between Boscombe and Christchurch, Dorset. The area was previously known as Stourfield....
. It is situated just off Belle Vue Road (B3059) in Southbourne in the east of Bournemouth close to the HampshireHampshireHampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
boundary. As part of the site is the De La Salle Theatre, which seats 470 people.
Jesuits
St Peter's was opened as a boys' boarding schoolBoarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
on the 29 September 1936 with 34 boys. Father Bellanti was the first headmaster and the school was run by Jesuit priests.
The school has changed a lot over the years, all the bedrooms have now been removed and the swimming pool was demolished 10 years ago due to Building problems.
De La Salle Brothers
In the summer of 1947 the school was handed over to the De La SalleDe La Salle
De La Salle is the name of several educational institutions affiliated with the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, also known as the Lasallian Brothers, a Roman Catholic religious teaching order founded by French priest Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle:* Lasallian educational...
brothers. The last Jesuit community consisted of nine fathers and two brothers. One of the Jesuit priests who was a housemaster at St Peters was Fr. Gerard Hughes S.J., the author of the best-selling religious book "God of Surprises" in which he observed St Peter's boys were "affable and undemanding".
Independent grammar school
From the time of the first De la Salle headmaster, Brother Bernard Brady in 1947, until the last, Brother Bernard Hayward in 1993, the De la Salle brothers improved, enlarged and ran the school. In 1973 it sent nearly 14% of its sixth form to OxfordUniversity of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. At the same time its performances and production of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas were reviewed in the local press as being easily of "professional class". Under the headmastership of Brother Alan Maurice, the school became a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference is an association of the headmasters or headmistressess of 243 leading day and boarding independent schools in the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and the Republic of Ireland...
(HMC) association of public schools. Boater
Boater
Boater may refer to:*Boater, a type of hat*Boater, one of the first disposable diapers*Someone involved in boating...
s were allowed to be worn by sixth formers.
The reorganisation of local education and the changes wrought by the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government in 1974 offered the opportunity for the school to examine whether it might serve the interests of the wider Catholic community in Bournemouth by becoming non-selective. The community decided that their founder St John Baptiste de la Salle had been motivated above all by the desire to widen educational opportunities for those who could not afford it. It was therefore during this time that they oversaw the integration of the combining of the St Peter's, the St Thomas More and the Boscombe
Boscombe
Boscombe is a suburb of Bournemouth. Located to the east of Bournemouth town centre and west of Southbourne, It developed rapidly from a small village as a seaside resort alongside Bournemouth after the first Boscombe pier was built in 1888...
Convent schools. The notice of intent was published on the 13 October 1978. By 1980 Boscombe convent and St Thomas More had merged. All then joined under the same name of St Peters.
Comprehensive
To this day it remains one of the very few schools in England to have navigated the transition from an elite selective fee-paying establishment to a comprehensive school. The long-serving headteacher, Anthony McCaffery, retired at the end of the 2010/11 academic year after 19 years leading the school.Academy Status
The school achieved Academy Status at the beginnining of September 2011. Martyn Egan, formerly one of the deputy headteachers, will lead the school throughout the 2011/12 academic year.Arts and Sports College status
St. Peter's School gained Arts CollegeArts College
Arts Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, the performing, visual and/or media arts...
status in September 2000 and in September 2004 became one of only three schools in the country to hold dual specialist status in Arts and Sport. Both curriculum areas have developed considerably in the time since this and in doing so have impacted across the school and community.
One of the highlights of the school's Arts College status was being shortlisted for Sky 1's Hairspray: The School Musical
Hairspray: The School Musical
Hairspray: The School Musical is a 2008 reality TV series, broadcast on Sky1 in the UK, charting the development of a comprehensive school's production of the Broadway and West End musical Hairspray.-Format:...
television series. Although the school did not win, losing to Kingsmead School in Enfield
London Borough of Enfield
The London Borough of Enfield is the most northerly London borough and forms part of Outer London. It borders the London Boroughs of Barnet, Haringey and Waltham Forest...
, various performing arts students spent a week being interviewed by the shows hosts and performing for them.
Commemoration
A statue in memory of the motoring and aviation pioneer Charles RollsCharles Rolls
Charles Stewart Rolls was a motoring and aviation pioneer. Together with Frederick Henry Royce he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in a flying accident, when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display near Bournemouth,...
, is situated in the bottom playing field of St Peter's School. The school was built on the site of Hengistbury
Hengistbury Head
Hengistbury Head is a headland jutting into the English Channel between Bournemouth and Milford on Sea in the English county of Dorset.At the end is a spit which creates the narrow entrance to Christchurch Harbour.-Location:...
Airfield where he had a fatal accident in 1910, the first air-accident death in England.
In 2010 St Peters is celebrating Charles Rolls after 100 years by having a fair on the Headmaster's Lawn at the Southbourne site, they are also restoring the Statue. The Central Band of the RAF will perform in the school hall.
Academic performance
St Peter's is the best performing comprehensive in Bournemouth for GCSE result, and well above the national average. However, Bournemouth has two popular grammar schoolGrammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
s which inevitably absorb the top pupils. At A-level, it is slightly below average but better than most comprehensives. Only two state non-grammar schools in Bournemouth have sixth forms: the other is Oakmead College of Technology
Oakmead College of Technology
Oakmead College of Technology is a mixed secondary school located in the northern outskirts of Bournemouth in southern England. There are approximately 1300 students between the ages of 11 and 18, a sixth form of about 150 students, and a nursery.- Oakmead :Oakmead College is divided into blocks A...
(a secondary modern school
Secondary modern school
A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...
).
Alumni
- Chris Butcherhttp://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=5718, England rugby international
- James Chiriyankandathhttp://www.worldwhoswho.com/public/views/entry.html?id=sl2170058, academic
- Leilani DowdingLeilani DowdingLeilani Dowding is an English former Page Three girl, glamour model, television celebrity, and Miss Universe contestant.-Early life:...
, model - Waldemar JanuszczakWaldemar JanuszczakWaldemar Januszczak is a British art critic. Formerly the art critic of The Guardian, he now writes for The Sunday Times, and has twice won the Critic of the Year award...
, art critic and journalist - Adam LallanaAdam LallanaAdam David Lallana is an English footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder for Championship club Southampton. Born in St Albans, Lallana began his career with Southampton as a youth player in 2000...
, professional footballer for Southampton F.C.Southampton F.C.Southampton Football Club is an English football team, nicknamed The Saints, based in the city of Southampton, Hampshire. The club gained promotion to the Championship from League One in the 2010–2011 season after being relegated in 2009. Their home ground is the St Mary's Stadium, where the club...
- Andy LongAndy LongAndy Long is an English rugby union footballer who plays at Hooker for Northampton Saints. He has 2 caps for England.Originally a product of the Bath academy, where he came to the attention of Bath coach Clive Woodward, having captained England U19 and U21...
, England rugby international - Henry McGeeHenry McGeeHenry McGee was a British actor, best known as straight man to Benny Hill for many years. McGee was also often the announcer on Hill's TV programme, delivering the upbeat intro "Yes! It's The Benny Hill Show!"...
, actor - Geva MentorGeva MentorGeva Mentor is an English international netball player. Mentor was selected for the England national team in 2000, debuting the following year against New Zealand...
, England netball international - Lance SecretanLance SecretanLance H.K. Secretan is perhaps best known for his work in leadership theory and how to inspire teams. From 1967 to 1980 Secretan was the Managing Director of Manpower Limited, based in the UK, part of the global Manpower Inc....
, author