As was traditional, a girls boarding school was established at the Convent. This school relocated after World War 2 and it is now Sacred Heart Woldingham. Elm Grove was destroyed by bombing in WW2.

Janet Erskin Stuart came to Roehampton in 1882 as a novice and right from her first days, she was seen by Mother Digby as a special pupil. Janet Stuart became Mabel Digby's secretary and threw herslf into teaching. Mother Stuart was above all else an educator. Once she had made her profession in 1889, she was immediately name sub-mistress of novices herself and in 1892 she took over from Reverend Mother Digby as Mistress of Novices. In August 1894, Janet Stuart became Reverend Mother of Roehampton when Mable Digby became Assistant Superior and then Superior General a year later. Janet Stuart took over the stewardship of the Order in England and Ireland. She remained close to Mother Digby and even accompanied her on her tour of the Americas in 1898.

Despite her senior role in the Society and the travels that would take her away regularly from Roehampton, Mother Stuart continued to take a keen interest in the life of the elementary school and she was Chair of Managers until 1911, when she succeeded Mother Digby as the Order's Superior General.

The years around the turn of the 20th Century were very important for British education because in 1902 there was a key piece of Government legislation, the Balfour Education Act, which set the pattern of elementary education in England and Wales until after the Second World War. It did away with elected school boards and introduced Local Education Authorities. It standardised and upgraded the educational systems of England and Wales and led to a rapid growth of secondary schools. Church schools like Sacred Heart began to receive local authority funding and, hand in hand, had to meet uniform government standards. This would mean changes for the elementary school and these are reflected in the pages of the Managers Log Book and the School Diary.

Local Authority funding was dependent on regular inspections and standards being met. By the time of the L.C.C. inspection of 1910 it was obvious to all concerned that the school had outgrown its existing facilities on the Convent site and that a new school was needed. Janet Stuart commissioned a new school to be built on ground across Roehampton Lane. Despite a slight delay the school opened in 1912. That same year, Janet Stuart took over as Superior General of the Order, following Mother Mabel Digby's death.

The new school is what we now call the old building. If you look carefully at the original plans you can see there were originally five classrooms around the central hall with rooms for a caretaker and the teachers (Staff room). The Sisters had their own entrance!

Mother Stuart would spend the last two years of her life visiting most of the Society's Convents around the world, returning to Roehampton just after the outbreak of the Great War. She died in October 1914 and is buried in the Sacred Heart chapel close to Mabel Digby.

Whilst the school continued run throughout the war, big changes were starting to take place in the local area. A number of the large houses in Roehampton were taken over for military purposes and one in particular, Roehampton House, was never to be the same again. The house was taken over in 1915 as a special hospital. It became Queen Mary's hospital for limbless servicemen, fitting thousands of prosthetic limbs for soldiers who had lost arms and legs in the dreadful fighting of the First World War. The whole house and surrounding parkland were turned over to the new work. Dover House and Ashburton House were also used as recovery centers for injured soldiers.

The pages from the managers book for this period make fascinating reading with references to fuel shortages, air raid precautions and concerts for disabled servicemen! At the end of the war there is reference to the Peace Celebrations and the Spanish influenza epidemic that killed so many. Teachers and pupils appeared to get ill from the flu and the school had to close for a period, but no one seems to have died.

A final note from the Manager's Log of 1919 is the fact that there was a motor traffic accident on Roehampton Lane (probably the first) and it involved a child from the school being killed!

The head teacher of the school from 1904 to 1947 was Jeannie Croucher and for many years her sister, Eleanor, was the deputy (Eleanor was also head for two years after her sister retired). Other names that feature throughout these years are Miss Filmer, Miss Nugent, Miss Pleschette and Mr Griffin, the school caretaker. Miss Edith Nugent - experienced teacher when she joins in 1919.

Miss Pleschette actually came as a pupil to the school just before the 1st World War and then went on to become a teacher and then deputy head at Sacred Heart. She was on the staff from 1928 until July 1967 - 39 years!

The school continued to grow throughout the inter-war years and there were many governor discussions about classroom space, access from the new estate, the Catholic make-up of the school and the planned changes to secondary education.

In September 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, 78 children were evacuated to Reading under the care of four teachers - the Misses Croucher, Miss Pletschette and Miss Nugent.

On 26th September 1940, the Convent was burnt out after it was hit by an incendiary bomb. It was hit again a couple of nights later.

A suprisingly large number of bombs fell on Roehampton during WW2 - 54 bombs fell on the area in one night alone in September 1940! The main cause of this aerial bombardment was possibly the presence of the KLG spark plug factory! In the autumn of 1940 there seems to have been a deliberate policy of attacking the factory.

Our school needed to expand and the Society offered land to the LCC . At the same time there is talk of enlarging Huntingfield Road school. There was a big need for school places and although the Governors wanted Sacred Heart like to be solely for local Catholics the Diocese pushed for the inclusion of children from Barnes (with Barnes parish contributing to the costs). This all coincided with the move to Voluntary Aided status which came in April 1951. By this time, space was running out and the Seniors were in an overflow class in the Hall (that's the Hall in the Old Building!).

Miss Frances Hardy joined the school as headteacher in April 1983 and she was to be in post until April 2008. During her 25 years she lead the school through many changes in education, initiated many new developments, saw many changes in Roehampton and brought Sacred Heart into the 21st Century! The school was expanded to offer a nursery; the hall re-developed and doubled in size; a new, modern classroom finally replaced the old Nissan Hut; new office accommodation was built; and a multi-purpose sports pitch (The Cage) was installed. Much needed transformations to accommodate an ever increasing pupil roll. By the time Miss Hardy retired we were a 1.5 form entry school and bursting at the seams.