Grays Convent High School is a girls' Roman Catholic secondary school

Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 in Grays

Grays

Grays is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex and one of the Thurrock's traditional parishes...

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

It is a voluntary-aided school which has been awarded Beacon school

Beacon School

Beacon School was a government designation awarded to outstanding primary and secondary schools in England and Wales from 1998 to August 2005. The Beacon Schools programme identified schools that were examples of good practice and funded those schools to enable them to build partnerships with each...

 status and is officially a specialist Language College

Specialist school

The specialist schools programme was a UK government initiative which encouraged secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum to boost achievement. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust was responsible for the delivery of the programme...

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Founded by sisters of La Sainte Union des Sacrés-Coeurs over a century ago, the school remains closely linked with the Convent

Convent

A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

 sited next to it. Parts of the school building itself were used as living quarters for several sisters until 1999.

The school building was damaged by a bomb blast during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, but was repaired soon after.