Former pupils going back to school

4:09am Wednesday 7th May 2008

Comments (3)   Have your say »

Hundreds of former pupils of St Joseph's Catholic College are taking a journey into the past to celebrate the Bradford school's centenary this weekend.

Actress and TV presenter Kathryn Apanowicz, the long-term partner of the late Richard Whiteley, is one of the school's old girls' expected at Saturday's open day.

Other former pupils attending will include 99-year-old Ellen Hanlon, who went to St Joseph's in the 1920s, and composer Elizabeth Stratford, who has written a piece of music which she will conduct at a special mass.

Students have designed a centenary badge and produced a series of DVDs looking at the Manningham school's history and centenary celebrations.

The art department has made 100 paper doves, each commemorating someone connected with the school, and members of the school council will be at the open day selling centenary memorabilia, including the DVDs, in support of a £43,000 school chapel appeal.

There will also be a centenary dinner at the Ramada Jarvis hotel in Bingley on Friday Centenary committee chairman Joanna Jackson, a former deputy headteacher of the school and current lay chaplain, said:. "There will be hundreds of photographs on display and areas of the school will be divided into particular decades so past pupils can reminisce about the years they were here. There will also be a dance performance, sporting activities and refreshments."

Miss Jackson said St Joseph's had made a significant contribution to Bradford life over the past century.

She said: "We are proud to have specialist status in science, particularly because we're a girls' school. We are pleased to be a single sex school producing young women of the future. We have maintained the original ethos set in place by the Sisters of the Cross and Passion, who founded this school."

St Joseph's opened in 1908 with 80 pupils. The first headteacher was Mother Gonzaga and her successor, Mother Sister Mary Immaculate, was headteacher for more than 40 years.

The St Joseph's College open day is on Saturday from 12 noon until 5pm. Anyone wishing to attend is asked to ring (01274) 401500.