The Origins of BCS

The History of Bournemouth Collegiate School

Bournemouth Collegiate School was created in September 2009 through the merger of Wentworth College in Bournemouth and Uplands School in Poole. Wentworth College had joined the United Church Schools Trust in August 2008, and Uplands School in June 2009 – so it was UCST that brought the two together to create a strong and innovative new school. The merger provided an opportunity to take two long educational traditions in south Dorset and then stand back and ask what a 21^st Century school at the centre of the south coast of England should be like. The result is BCS - a combination of well-tried approaches drawn from Wentworth and Uplands, the huge experience and resources of UCST, and a chance to think freely about new values and new ways of doing things. We have thus been able to retain the ethos and essence of successful traditions while recognising and embracing change to meet the needs of 21^st Century learning and living. Our independence gives us the flexibility to adapt to local priorities, but our membership of the UCST group allows us to share experience and ideas with like-minded and enthusiastic staff and pupils.

Wentworth College

Wentworth College was established in 1899 in Poole to provide non-denominational education for young ladies with a strong Christian ethos (and with links to the United Reform Church). It was originally called Bournemouth Collegiate School, but after its move to much larger and grander premises at Wentworth Lodge (the former home of Lord Portman) in 1923, it gradually came to operate as Wentworth School, and fully met its target of offering a broad and high-quality education to a growing number of day and boarding girls. The school was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War, and then returned to Bournemouth to continue its steady growth. In 1960, the Milton Mount Trust (the foundation behind Milton Mount School in Sussex, founded 1873, closed 1960) transferred its support to Wentworth, and the new school was formally named Wentworth Milton Mount School, though over the following years it became known informally as Wentworth College. In 2008, the United Church Schools Trust took over the school at the point at which it had just become coeducational, and reorganised it in preparation for the merger that created Bournemouth Collegiate School in 2009.   

Uplands School

The School on the site in St Osmunds Road began as the Bourne School for Girls in the old Sandecotes Manor as a select girls boarding school.  They built School House, which was completed in 1895 and this building today houses the junior hall and the classrooms above it.  In 1900, Lord Wimborne bought Bourne School and it became Sandecotes School, and in 1903 a sister school was opened in St Leonards-on-Sea in Sussex which was called Uplands.  At both schools pupils were trained to be practical, refined and cultured and were encouraged to enter universities, medical schools and hospitals. The Schools continued through the First World War, raising funds for the Red Cross and entertaining wounded soldiers, but at the break of World War Two it was decided to take Uplands away from the danger threatening our channel ports by moving to Monmouthshire.  Meanwhile in Parkstone, the Sandecotes School was struggling and the Church Education Corporation decided to close it rather than evacuate it to another area.  During the war the School was occupied by the 2nd Battalion the Grenadier Guards and also by American soldiers as they prepared for the D-Day landings.  In 1946 it was decided to move Uplands from Monmouthshire to the vacated Sandecotes buildings. The School continued as a girls boarding and day school, but in 1973 the old buildings were proving too costly and the School faced closure until Edith Cooper Dean very kindly stepped in to support it. The top site was sold off and new school buildings were built. The School became co-educational and also started a junior School, laying the foundation for joining UCST and merging with Wentworth College in 2009.