CONVENT boarding schools in Wales are struggling to survive in the face of declining vocations among teaching orders and serious obstacles presented by the Children's Act.
One Ursuline Convent School, St David's in Brecon, is to close this summer, and another, St Clare's in Porthcawl, is to close its boarding section over the next two years.
But convent day schools in the country are firmly defying the trend, according to staff and sisters. Sr Mary Angela, Provincial of the Rosminian Sisters of Providence who run the Our Lady's School in Cardiff, says that the 240-pupil
school. which opened in the 1870s„ is "flourishing".
Sr Mary Angela, who was headteacher at Our Lady's for six years, said that there was still "wide interest from across the valleys" for the type of independent convent education that Our Lady's offers. The loss of St David's and changes at St Clare's leave just one all-girls boarding convent school in Wales St Brigid's, Denbigh, in Clwyd.
OA picture caption of teacher St Imelda with her class at Our Lady's Convent School (pg 8, Catholic Herald, 5 Feb) incorrectly stated that the Cardiff school was closing. We apologise for any misunderstanding.