Oaklands Roman Catholic Comprehensive School and Sixth Form College is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form college with academy status located in Waterlooville, Hampshire. It opened in 1966, although its history can be traced back to 1902. Around 1400 students attend the main school with over 150 in the sixth form college. It has been a Specialist Humanities College since 2005. The school had a "Good" Ofsted report in 2017 and were accredited with "many outstanding features".

History

Oaklands was established in Southsea as a convent school for girls (The Convent of The Cross) in 1902 by the third Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth William Timothy Cotter with a group of Sisters of the Cross and Passion from Boscombe, Bournemouth. The school moved into the Oaklands estate in 1947. It had previously belonged to General Sir Charles James Napier and consisted of the land around the White House up to Purbrook Way in addition to several servant houses along Stakes Hill Road. In 1959, the younger students moved into their own school which later became known as St Peter’s Catholic Primary School. The Convent of The Cross and St Teresa’s Portsmouth Catholic Grammar merged into Oaklands Convent School in 1966. In 1971, due to an urgent need for Catholic school places for both boys and girls, it became a voluntary-aided co-educational comprehensive school.

Buildings

The school is made up of eight houses and consists of seven different blocks, separated into different subject groups. Three new blocks were developed (Music, Humanities, sixth form) during an extensive site improvement programme; each of these were built incorporating a Christian cross in different coloured bricks. In 2012, a major refurbishment of the Maths/Science blocks was also undertaken.

Uniform

The school uniform was redesigned for the September 2009 academic year; the expense of the uniform caused criticism. A press release was issued claiming that many of the facts published by newspaper articles were incorrect, and that due to the controversy, the school would start a cheaper uniform shop.

Alumni