40 years of study at Boundstone

BOUNDSTONE Community College is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month.

Forty years ago on October 18, 1963, explorer Sir John Hunt officially opened the school at its current site in Upper Boundstone Lane, Sompting, by unveiling a plaque which is still on the wall in the north foyer of the building.

Sir John led the first successful expedition on Everest in 1953 and was a nationally known figure. He then joined other guests in the main hall for a short service and prayers led by the Archdeacon of Chichester before all the VIPS went to the dining room for a special lunch.

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A total of 624 pupils occupied the building and four years later it become a comprehensive school serving Lancing and Sompting.

Now some of the original pupils who moved up to Boundstone that autumn from the previous site of Lancing Secondary in Irene Avenue have their own children at the school.

On the day they moved, a delivery of chairs had not arrived and they had to bring their own chairs with them.

Boundstone sixth form head Mike Chandler said: "They still remember filing through the streets each carrying their own chair to the new school.

"A generation of pupils who should forever be known as the original chair carriers."

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