THE two remaining sisters at Notre Dame Primary School are leaving the island – but the school will continue their order’s 130 years of work. Sister Marie-Paul Villeneuve and Sister Edna de Grace, both 73, were given a fond farewell yesterday with a thanksgiving mass at the church for the work of the sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary order.

This was followed by a vin d’honneur at the school.

Nuns from the order set up the school in 1874 as part of their mission to bring education to poor people in small communities. At its peak, the school had 19 nuns.

‘We are ageing and there is no one here to take our place. I think our mission is over,’ said Sister Marie-Paul, who spent 32 years in Guernsey – the longest she has lived in one place.

She arrived at the school as a teacher in 1972, becoming head in 1977. She retired in 1995 and looked after the late Pere Lecluze until he retired in 2002.

Sister Marie-Paul said that she would never forget the island or the people she met.

‘I have too many happy memories to enumerate them. I always enjoyed working with children and also the friendliness of Guernsey people and their support, including the priest, the education authority and the parents.

‘I’m going richer than I was.’

She will spend a few months in France before moving to her homeland of Canada. She is confident that the school is in the good hands of the hard-working staff who are there now.

Sister Edna arrived at Notre Dame in 1995 after working in St Malo and teaching in Canada, where Sister Marie-Paul also taught.

She managed the convent and will be returning to St Malo today before going back to Canada, where she was born.

‘I loved being here and I will miss the people and the atmosphere,’ she said.

Both sisters, who became nuns in their teens, thanked everyone for their kindness and prayed that more women would join the 250-strong order around the world.

Four nuns from the order’s mother house in St Malo were here to support the sisters and thank them, islanders and the parish on its behalf.

‘We are sad but happy because our mission here is going on,’ said Sister Helene Grude.

The nuns provided the £2,000 necessary to build the Burnt Lane building in 1902.

The parish bought the convent this year for £1.3m., so that there is now enough land for the school, which is split on two sites and has 222 pupils between four- and 11-years-old, to come together.

‘By allowing us to buy the site, they have secured the future of the school,’ said head teacher Peter McGovern, who took over from Sister Marie Paul in 1995.

He said that it was very sad to see the sisters go.

‘We really try hard to sustain the atmosphere they established and the Catholic ethos of looking out for each other and looking after the children,’ he said.