The Luso – British College of Elvas – Portugal, has existed in this city since 1924, more specifically since the 17th of October of the same year.

Before, there was already a Teaching Cooperative managed by a board of English and Portuguese, wealthy people and with agricultural estates in the area, who sought a good education for their children, both at a religious and intellectual level.

It was at the time, Archbishop of the Diocese of Évora, D. Manuel Mendes da Conceição Santos, who had been our student at the Colégio de Torres Novas and who, at the request of the direction of that Teaching Cooperative, interceded with the Companhia de Santa Teresa de Jesus to send Teresian sisters to Elvas to take care of the cooperative and found a College there according to the spirituality and educational value of the Company’s schools.

From Barcelona, ​​from the “Casa Madre” of the Company, Portuguese sisters were sent who, due to the expulsion of religious orders, had gone to Brazil. Later, other Spanish sisters joined them.

Due to the political circumstances of the time, schools could not have religious names and the school then took the name Luso-Britânico and the sisters also did not use religious habit.

The College functioned in an old building in the so-called Zona dos Terceiros de Elvas until 1964.

It started by having around 150 students, of which 30 were from primary school and the others from other levels of education taught at the time. Education was paid but, from the beginning, the school had social concerns and wanted to integrate children and young people with low economic resources as well.

Thus, in addition to paid education, there were two more teaching projects at the college:

The “Escola de Santa Teresinha” for the primary education of 30 underprivileged children and the “Nossa Senhora da Conceição” workhouse for religious training, cutting, sewing and embroidering for young people who, after primary school, were unable to continue their education. studies.

The number of students started to grow and so did the demands of education. The school building began to not offer conditions for good education, with a lack of spaces for playgrounds, gymnasiums, laboratories, and other conditions required by the country and the Ministry of Education.

Due to the lack of conditions, the sisters even thought of leaving the College and leaving Elvas, but the population and the social entities of the time did not allow it. , outside the city walls, and with donations from some wealthy families in Elvas and other support from the Company, the first stone of the current building was laid in October 1963 and also in October 1964 the College was inaugurated in the building, where it exists today, with permit nº 196 and it was gathering good pedagogical conditions that allowed that, after some time, it was granted Pedagogical Parallelism without being necessary, from here on, students had to be examined in public schools.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation also offered economic support for the construction of a gymnasium, provided that we have, for some time, a number of free students.