The religious Congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame was founded in the mid-nineteenth century in Bavaria in response to an urgent need for educating particularly girls. The new religious order addressed the needs and expectations of society by founding schools offering different courses and grades and boarding houses. The first institutions were established in the German-speaking world. In 1857, a school and a boarding house were founded in Gorizia. With the help of Jakob Missia, Bishop of Ljubljana, the sisters expanded their activities to Šmihel near Novo Mesto (1886) and Trnovo near Ilirska Bistrica (1888). They were also the first to provide education of deaf youth. The paper presents the beginning of the school and boarding house in Trnovo.