St Peter's Catholic School, Bournemouth

St Peter's was opened as a boys' boarding school on 29 September 1936 with 34 boys. Father Bellanti was the first headmaster and the school was run by Jesuit priests. The bedrooms were later removed, and the swimming pool was demolished due to building problems, now serving as the school's Sixth Form Centre after a refurbishment.

In the summer of 1947, the school was handed over to the De La Salle brothers. The last Jesuit community consisted of nine fathers and two brothers. One of the Jesuit priests who was a housemaster at St Peter's was Father Gerard Hughes S.J., the author of God of Surprise in which he observed St Peter's boys were "affable and undemanding". At the time of transition there were 145 boys in the school.

From the time of the first De La Salle headmaster, Brother Bernard Brady in 1947, until 1980, under Brother Bernard Hayward, St. Peters was a fee-paying independent grammar school that, together with Boscombe Convent School, served the Bournemouth area, particularly the Catholic community. During this time, the De La Salle brothers improved, enlarged and ran the school; thirty years later numbers had increased to nearly 800 pupils across the school from 8–18 years of age. In 1973 it sent nearly 14% of its graduating Sixth Form students to Oxford and Cambridge. Under the headmastership of Brother Alan Maurice, the school became a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) association of public schools. Boaters were allowed to be worn by Sixth Form students, and boarders wore grey suits instead of the normal weekday blue on Sundays when going to Mass and Benediction.

From 1970 girls wishing to follow a mainly science-based course of study were admitted to A Level, beginning the trend towards co-educational teaching in the school.

After the reorganisation of local education and the changes made by the Labour government in 1974, the St Peter's, St Thomas More and Boscombe Convent schools were combined and integrated, with a notice of intent published on 13 October 1978, followed in 1980 by the merging of Boscombe Convent and St Thomas More, and all schools combined in one site with the name of St Peter's by 1986.

In 1992, the Brothers withdrew from the day-to-day running of the school, though remaining trustees, and the first headmaster who was not a member of a religious order, Anthony McCaffrey, was appointed. He retired at the end of the 2011 academic year after 19 years of leadership of St Peter's.

St. Peter's School gained Arts College status in September 2000, and in September 2004 gained dual specialist status in Arts and Sport.

As an Arts College St Peter's was shortlisted, but not selected, for the 2008 Sky1 TV programme Hairspray: The School Musical, with students being interviewed and auditioned.

The school was granted Academy status at the beginning of September 2011. Martyn Egan led the school throughout its first year as an academy. David Todd became headteacher in September 2012 and resigned in August 2019, replaced in an acting capacity by Ben Doyle

From 1 September 2014 St Peter's became an "all-through" school, with the establishment of two Reception classes at the Iford site. In September 2016, Years 7 and 8 joined the main site at Southbourne, leaving the Iford site for the sole use of the primary school.