# Oaklands Catholic School

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

* Baroness Louise Casey, Crossbench peer and former British government official, attended Oaklands between 1976 and 1983. In 2024, Casey was touted by Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer for a ministerial role in a future government.
* Jonathan Cruddas, elected in 2010 as the Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham, having been elected in 2001 for the preceding Dagenham constituency. In 2022, Cruddas announced his intention to retire from Parliament at the 2024 general election.
* Baroness Caroline Dinenage, daughter of television presenter Fred Dinenage, elected in 2010 as the Conservative MP for Gosport. Dinenage was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 Political Honours.
* Penny Mordaunt, elected in 2010 as the Conservative MP for Portsmouth North. Served as Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons from 2022 until 2024. Also ran twice for the Conservative party leadership in July–September and October 2022. Formerly Secretary of State for Defence, the first woman to hold the post.
* James Ward-Prowse, central midfielder for Premier League club Nottingham Forest, England national football team player, former West Ham player and Southampton team captain.
* Rosie and Nicola Dempsey, British comedy act Flo & Joan. In 2018, they were featured in a Nationwide building society television advert. They released an Amazon Prime Video special, Alive on Stage, based on their Edinburgh Fringe show in 2019.
* Martin Montague, an entrepreneur who created the ClearWaste app to address fly-tipping; users can report rubbish to their local council.