Scottish Catholic Observer

Sr Pauline Burling, Mother General of the school’s founding order, was joined by Br Andrew Brookes and Headteacher Elizabeth Hunter, and school pupils and staff as Fr Tom Shields celebrated an anniversary Mass in the nearby St Fillan’s Church on February 14.

Bishop Stephen Robson of Dunkeld blessed a plaque to mark the anniversary, and he paid tribute to the long line of teachers who had served at the school and to the families who had sacrificed so much for their children’s future.

“Today you are the living continuity of all those boys and girls who have been a part of this community over all those years,” the bishop told pupils at the school.

Mrs Hunter thanked the generations of staff, families and parishioners who have played a vital role in St Dominic’s history.

“They have left us such a rich legacy and we look forward with hope for the future,” she said. “Our journey began 125 years ago when the first parents entrusted their children’s education to the Dominican nuns who had travelled to Crieff to establish a convent and school.

“Everyone is equally respected and unconditionally loved in a community which wants to reach out to all, especially the poor and the marginalised, and those in greatest need.”

Br Andrew recalled the school’s early days when it was founded by Mary Helen Elwes—later Mother Mary Ignatius—a local who joined the Dominican convent in Stone, Staffordshire, in 1870.

In 1919 the school came under the Perthshire Education Authority, and later, Perth and Kinross, lifting a financial burden from the parish. The generosity of the parish and the families nevertheless continues to the present day.

Chairman of the Parent Council Harry Schnitker, presented a new 125th Anniversary Trophy to the school, and said the school has a ‘strong tradition of support from the local community, and particularly the parish of St Fillan’s.’

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— Pic: Andrew Mitchell

—This story ran in full in the February 26 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.