St Peter's Catholic Comprehensive School


St Peter's Catholic 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. Former headteacher, David Todd, joined the school in 2013 and converted the school into an academy. The current headteacher is Mr Doyle.
St Peter's has achieved both drama and sports specialist school status. The nearest Catholic church is Our Lady Queen of Peace and Blesséd Margaret Pole.
The Lower Primary School is located on Holdenhurst Avenue, Iford; the Upper School is located on St. Catherine's Road, Southbourne. The Upper School site includes the De La Salle Theatre, which seats 470 people.

History

Jesuits

St Peter's was opened as a boys' boarding school on 29 September 1936 with 34 boys. Father Bellanti was the first headmaster and the school was run by Jesuit priests.
Subsequently, the bedrooms have now been removed and the swimming pool was demolished due to building problems, now serving as the school's Sixth Form Centre, after a refurbishment.

De La Salle Brothers

In the summer of 1947, the school was handed over to the De La Salle brothers. The last Jesuit community consisted of nine fathers and two brothers. One of the Jesuit priests who was a housemaster at St Peter's was Father Gerard Hughes S.J., the author of God of Surprise in which he observed St Peter's boys were "affable and undemanding". At the time of transition there were 145 boys in the school.

Independent Grammar School

From the time of the first De La Salle headmaster, Brother Bernard Brady in 1947, until 1980, under Brother Bernard Hayward, St. Peters was a fee-paying independent Grammar School, and together with Boscombe Convent School, served the Bournemouth area, and particularly the Catholic community. During this time, the De La Salle brothers improved, enlarged and ran the school, so much so, that thirty years later, numbers had increased to nearly 800 pupils across the school from 8–18 years of age.
In 1973 it sent nearly 14% of its graduating Sixth Form students to Oxford and Cambridge. Under the headmaster-ship of Brother Alan Maurice, the school became a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference association of public schools. Boaters were allowed to be worn by Sixth Form students and boarders wore grey suits on Sundays' as opposed to the normal blue, during the school week, when going to Mass and Benediction.
A significant development took place in 1970, when it was decided to admit to the Lower Sixth, girls wishing to follow a mainly science-based course of study to A Level, thus beginning the trend towards co-educational teaching in the school.
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. The decision was taken therefore during this time to oversee the integration and combining of the St Peter's, the St Thomas More and the Boscombe Convent schools. The notice of intent was published on 13 October 1978. By 1980 Boscombe Convent and St Thomas More had merged. All then gradually joined under the one site and name of St Peter's, by 1986.

Headteachers

In 1992, the brothers withdrew from the day-to-day running of the school, and the first non-religious headmaster, Anthony McCaffrey was appointed. He retired at the end of the 2011 academic year after 19 years of leadership of St Peter's. The De La Salle order still remain trustees of the school.
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.

Academy status

The school achieved its Academy Status at the beginning of September 2011. Martyn Egan led the school throughout its first year as an academy. The headteacher from 1 September 2012 is David Todd. The Headteacher David Tood resigned on 31 August 2019, acting Headteacher from 1 st September 2019 is Mr Ben Doyle
From 1 September 2014 St Peter's became an "all-through" school, with the establishment of two Reception classes at the Iford site. In September 2016, Years 7 and 8 joined the main site at Southbourne, leaving the Iford site for the sole use of the primary school.

Arts and Sports College status

St. Peter's School gained Arts College status in September 2000 and in September 2004 gained dual specialist status in Arts and Sport.
One of the highlights of the school's Arts College status was being shortlisted for the Sky1 programme . 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.

Commemoration

A circular memorial to mark the motoring and aviation pioneer Charles Rolls, is situated in the bottom corner of the playing field at the Southbourne site of St Peter's School. The school was built adjacent to Hengistbury Airfield where Rolls had a fatal accident in July 1910. There was a large air show taking place, as part of Bournemouth's centenary celebrations. Rolls' aeroplane crashed; this being the first air-accident death in England.
In 2010, St Peter's marked the centenary of the death of Charles Rolls by having a fair on the Headmaster's Lawn at the Southbourne site. The memorial was also refurbished. The Central Band of the RAF performed in the school hall and there was an exhibition of Rolls-Royce aviation memorabilia, including an aero-engine.

Former Pupils