St Bernard's Convent High School is a girls

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

bilateral

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located in Westcliff-on-Sea,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, with a mixed

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

.Official school website
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History

There has been a Catholic school on the site since 1875, however it was in 1910 that St. Bernard's Convent High School was created on the premises for young ladies by a group of Bernardine Sisters. St Bernard's school celebrated its centenary in 2010. In 2004 St. Bernard's school achieved Specialist Arts status, and in 2008 a Specialist Science status was also achieved. The school became an

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

in 2011.

Emblem

The school's emblem, which is featured on the school uniform as well as headed on letters from the school, is three swords within a double diamond. Below the diamond reads "Dieu Mon Abri" meaning "God Is My Shelter" in French.

Houses

There are currently 6 forms per year from years 7 to 11. Students in these years are placed in one of 6 different houses. These houses are: "A", "C", "F", "M" "R" and "H", which stand for Annay, Clairvaux, Fountains, Melrose, Rievaulx and Hyning, these being

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

s or monasteries which are in some way connected to Saint Bernard.

Notable former pupils

* Gemma Craven, actress * Dame Helen Mirren, actress"Helen speaks of horrid birth film at school"
''Basildon Canvey Southend Echo''. (25 October 2007). Retrieved 20 August 2020. * Anne Stallybrass, actress

References

External links

St Bernard's High School and Arts College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Bernard's High School Bilateral schools in England Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Brentwood Educational institutions established in 1910 1910 establishments in England Secondary schools in Southend-on-Sea Academies in Southend-on-Sea