History of St. Thomas’ S.N.S.

 

St. Thomas’ Senior School came into existence in 1982 when St. Thomas’ school was divided into two schools – the junior school and senior school.

Before that, there was no school in Jobstown until 1980 when Mr. Seamas Massey was appointed principal of St. Thomas’ school. The school started with nineteen pupils. Mr. Michael Murphy was appointed Vice Principal. By Sept. 1980 there were 8 teachers and 268 pupils. There was no school building.

While waiting for a school to be built, the Jobstown children and their teachers used rooms in schools in the Junior School in Killinarden and Junior School in Knockmore from May 1980 until June 1981. Pupils had to walk to school, a distance of approximately one mile every day.

While the pupil population of both Killinarden and Jobstown increased, this arrangement had to be reviewed and in Sept. 1981 the 521 pupils and seventeen teachers of Jobstown were on the move once more, this time to two different schools in Aylesbury and Castleview. The pupils were bussed to school, the buses being paid for by the Dept. of Education and supervised by a rota of parent volunteers.

On 13^th April 1982 St. Thomas school opened its doors to the pupils of Jobstown. The 523 pupils and seventeen teachers were glad to have their own school at last. Such was the growth and development of the area that the need for another sixteen teacher school was soon obvious.

A second school was built.  The original school  became St. Thomas’ Junior School while the second school became St. Thomas’ Senior School catering for children from third to sixth class. Mr. Michael Murphy was appointed Principal and Mr. Eamon Fennelly was appointed as Vice Principal of the Senior School.

On 13^th Dec. 1982  total of 303 pupils and nine teachers moved over across the yard from St. Thomas’ primary school to the senior school. Since those early days, the senior school has grown from a nine to a thirty seven teacher school. It was originally built as a sixteen teacher school. After a while extra space was needed for growing numbers of pupils. By June 1992, there were 658 pupils in the school. At one stage, because of a shortage of space, the hall was divided and used by two teachers and their classes. The church was also used as a classroom. Extra prefabs were built in the 1990s and in 2004.