Early next month the Bourne Academy will be launching the Bourne Academy Alumni Association for former students and staff of the school.

Over a century ago the first purpose-built school in East Howe opened in Kinson Road, Bournemouth. The East Howe Elementary was a mixed school catering for 129 pupils between the ages of five to fourteen under the headmastership of William Henry Thomas.

Two years earlier Dorset Education Committee seeing a need for a school in East Howe acquired land in Kinson Road and applied for planning permission to build a new school. But as the population was growing rapidly a temporary school had to be set up in a disused Congregational Chapel in East Howe Lane.

By 1937 a new school had been set up along Kinson Road. Pupils from the age of 11 were taught at the two single sex schools, East Howe Girls and East Howe Boys Secondary Schools. The roadway leading to the new school was later named Hadow Road after Sir William Hadow who produced the Hadow Report on Education, recommending the introduction of secondary schools and raising the school leaving age to 15.

A former pupil at East Howe School during the Second World War, Ray Cozins, who father, George, was one of the first pupils at the school in 1912, attended school mornings only as evacuees went in the afternoon. When the air raid siren sounded everyone dived into the fields or into the reinforced toilet block which acted as shelters.

Thirty-three former pupils of East Howe Boys School died in the war. Their names are on a memorial plaque unveiled at the school in 1952 by a former headmaster Cllr Herbert Gladdis, who lost his son, pilot officer John Gladdis of the 224 Squadron, Royal Air Force, in 1940.

Also named are William Willis and Norman Cherry who served with the Royal Navy and died after their ships were torpedoed by the Germans, plus Leslie Batchelor who was killed along with 13 of his workmates when the Branksome Gas Works was bombed in 1941.

Ray's sons Gary and Paul, and his four grandchildren were pupils at the school when it became Kingsleigh.

In 1967 the two single sex schools merged to form Kingsleigh Secondary School under headmaster Mr L.E. Hayter. His wife Mary Hayter was one time head girl and is a cousin of Ray Cozins.

The international star Cliff Richard joined the school's morning assembly in 1971. The religious service was arranged by Rev Alan Fisher, minister of Moordown Baptist Church, who was a friend of the star.

In 1976 after girls in some schools failed to get permission to wear trousers in school under the Sex Discrimination Act, Kevin Roberts and Gary Albiston wore skirts into Kingsleigh School for April Fool's Day.

Kingsleigh School has won various awards for sport and the school band over the years. Former pupil Steven Mead, a Young Musician of the Year finalist, arranged an exchange visit with the band and his De Ferres High School Brass Band in the Midlands in 1986. Kingsleigh School Band won Boosey and Hawkes Southern Region Concert Band in Chichester in 1989 and won another national contest in 1993.

Kingsleigh has also been involved in the BBC's Domesday Project in the 1980s and received an arts education award from Sainsbury's after creating an eight-foot stained glass dome in 1995.

In the early 1980s Kingsleigh was threatened with closure with reorganisation of secondary schools in Bournemouth. The Education Committee wanted to merge Oakmead Girls and Boys Schools, joined by Kingsleigh School to form a1,000 plus school at West Howe. They marched through Kinson and went to County Hall in Dorchester to protest. In the end it was decided to keep the schools as they were.

After major refurbishment in 2000 the school was re-named Kings High School. Poor examination results and falling numbers, then saw Canford School become sponsors of the school.Ten years later the newly named Bourne Academy had a new principal and a distinctive black, white and pink uniform. A £10 million investment included major building and refurbishment and the opening of a new 6th form block.

On the 50th anniversary of East Howe School in 1988 Ray set up the East Howe/ Kingsleigh Association to enable former pupils and staff to get together for reunions. He has now handed over his archives to Bourne Academy to continue the history of the school.

Anyone interested in the Alumni launch on May 6 should contact della.dawson@thebourneacademy.com or write to Mrs Dee Dawson at Bourne Academy, Hadow Road, Bournemouth BH10 5HS with a brief outline how and when you were connected to the school. Special guests at the event include former pupils Ray Cozins, barrister David Bennett and Channel Four's Four Rooms expert Celia Sawyer.