Ethos and History

Every member of the College is part of the Blanchelande family. We believe in treating every pupil as an individual, building their confidence and developing their strengths. Every individual is unique and valued, and we aim to provide a secure and supportive environment in which all our students can flourish.

Pastoral care is very important to us and all staff invest a great deal of time and effort in creating a school in which every pupil is recongnised as special. One third of our students are from Catholic familes but many other families choose Blanchelande because of it's Christian ethos.

History

The College is an independent Catholic school, set up under a charitable trust and reconised by the Diocese of Portsmouth. It opened in September 1992, even though its roots go back more that a century.

Blanchelande College was first established in 1902. The college was supervised by the Sisters of Mercy from 1956. After a further 50 years as a successful independent Catholic girls' school, the Sisters of Mercy left the island to concentrate the Order's  scarce resources elsewhere.

Established in 1992 at Rosaire Avenue in St. Peter Port, the new College continued the traditions and success' of it's predecessor quickly growing from strength to strength.

However, having grown from only 40 pupils to over 200 in just five years the College sought larger premises and in April 1999 moved to a beautiful rural site in Les Vauxbelets thanks to the generosity of Brother Christiantian and Les Freres Ecoles Chretiennes.

The brothers have a long and illustrious history at Les Vauxbelets where they first ran a school for boys and then a language school for over 90 years. During this time the very beautiful Little Chapel was built. The last few brothers were planning to return to France and Brother Christiantian remembered Blanchelande's hunt for a new home. The brothers granted Blanchelande a perpetual lease to ensure these historic Guernsey buildings remain in Catholic education for generations to come.

Major alterations were started in summer 1998 and, with the generous support of friends and parents, were completed in time to move in Easter 1999. The generosity of the Brothers has been commemorated in the dedication of the Prayer Room in their name.

Blanchelande Infants was opened in September 2003 following the conversion of Victor House into new Infant and Pre-School classrooms.