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The parish church was built 5 years before the opening of the school. The construction was finished in 1909.
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Sacred Heart opened its doors in 1914, five years after the parish church was built. In those days it consisted simply of the the central section of the modern day junior block - the three pitched roofs. This provided accomadation for three classrooms, a school hall running the length of the building and a head teacher's office. Small cloakrooms were located either end of the building, but the toilets were in a separate building at the back of the small playground.
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Miss Campbell was the first head teacher of Sacred Heart and at the time the youngest Headteacher in the country.
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Education of course was very different back then and pupils stayed at Sacred Heart for the complete duration of their education unless they sat and passed a scolarship. Consequently with such a large range of ages and few classrooms pupils were not split into year groups. Rather they were loosely divided into younger juniors (taught by Miss Condon) who used the current head teacher's office, seniors (Miss Byrne) in today's entrance hall, and others (Miss Kehoe) in the modern Sunshine room.
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The ground floor extensions at either end of the junior block were added between 1925 - 1935 and swallowed up the old cloakrooms.
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Miss O'Brien became the second Headteacher from 1925 to 1935.
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Between 1925 and 1935 the parish priest (Fr Whitfield) purchased the allotments, which is now the infant playground, and turned them into tennis courts for the use of the parish.
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Mr Waskett became the 3rd Headteacher from 1935 to 1953.
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The tennis courts were disturbed (as was the priest's garden) for the construction of an air raid shelter at the beginning of the war - senior children used the tennis courts shelter and the others used the one in the priests garden.
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On the 2nd June 1940 the school was evacuated to Mansfield for fear of invasion rather than because of the bombing. On a blazing hot day after a 7:00am Mass the teachers and pupils set off with very little luggage (that was due to be sent 2 weeks later) not knowing their final destination. At 11:00am they were still at Southend Central station and at 4:00pm were still travelling on the train - all without refreshments. They weren't finally billeted until 10:00pm that night!
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In 1941 Miss Pilbeam and Miss Nickels were sent back to Sacred Heart School to re-open the school to anyone who turned up (regardless of religion or whether they were previously on the school roll).
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Mr Cunningham became the 4th Headteacher from 1953 to 1970.
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In the late 1950's/early 1960's the top floors of the end blocks were built. The original plan had been for two storeys along the whole building, but the construction would have proven too complicated and costly.
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The Dining Hall and the large playground were built on the tennis courts in the early to mid-1960s.
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In 1970 the infants were finally able to leave the church hall with the construction of the three-room infant block and staffroom. Infants had used the church hall in a number of teaching formats over the years, with the last being two classes separated by a sliding partition. There was even a time when Mrs Gallagher, Miss Pilbeam and Miss Nickels all taught a class each in the hall at the same time without any partitioning!
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Mr Haigh became the 5th Headteacher from 1970 to 1992, currently the longest running headteacher of Sacred Heart school.
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1/1/1978 - 31/12/2003
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During the 1980's the central classroom in the junior block (which had served as a library for some time) was converted into an entrance hall with the addition of a small porch. The current secretary's office was also built at the same time and the old Headteacher's office extended. Prior to this the secretaries had occupied the old staffroom next to the Headteacher's office and, before that, the stock room at the top of the stairs of the western-most end block.
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1/9/1991 - 31/8/2002
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Mrs Cook became the 6th Headteacher from 1992 to 1997.
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1/1/1995 - 31/08/2010
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1/9/1996 - 31/8/2002
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Mrs Framtpon became the 7th Headteacher from 1998 to 2010.
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1/9/1998 - 31/08/2005
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1/1/1999 - 31/8/2005
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1/1/2000 - 31/8/00
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1/6/2000 - 31/2/2003
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26/6/2001 - 31/8/2005
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1/9/2001 - 31/8/2002
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1/9/2001 - 31/8/2002
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3/2/2002 - 11/04/2003
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17/6/2002 - 31/8/2005
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1/9/2002 - 31/12/2002
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1/9/2002 - 31/8/2004
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1/9/2003 - 31/8/2007
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13/10/2003 - 15/3/2004
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1/1/2004 - 31/8/2004
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4/4/2004 - 31/8/2007
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19/4/2004 - 31/12/2007
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1/9/2004 - 28/2/2005
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1/9/2005 - 31/8/2007
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1/9/2005 - 31/8/2008
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1/8/2006 - 31/8/2007
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1/9/2006 - 31/08/2007
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1/9/2006 - 31/8/2007
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1/9/2006 - 31/08/2009
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1/9/2007 - 31/8/2009
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1/9/2007 - 31/8/2008
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1/9/2007 - 31/12/2010
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20/4/2009 - 1/4/10
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1/9/2009 - 31/8/2010
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Mrs Nutman became the 8th Headteacher in May 2010.
