HISTORY

Early Days - Stair na Scoile

The school first opened it's doors in September 1967, in two pre-fabricated buildings near the current teachers' car park.

Mrs. Nell Wallace was the first principal of the school and she also taught a class at this time.
By 1968 three classrooms were in use and a fourth quickly followed. The provision of a four-acre site and the construction costs at this time were in the order of £19,800.00, £5000.00 of which was recoverable by grants.
Plans were also drawn up at this stage for sixteen classrooms, eight for girls and eight for boys. As this was such a huge cost, plans to build a church in Johnstown were put on hold for a few years.

There were thirty-five pupils in the first class in the girls’ school and it was some six years later that Mrs. Wallace became a walking Principal. In the early years, a fire destroyed some of the classrooms in the girls’ school and the girls and boys shared classrooms for a while the yard was shared between boys and girls as it still is.

Games like hopscotch, rounders, skipping and “elastics” were favourite games in the yard. We have revived these games with our present pupils.