St Pat’s to welcome girls for first time in 190 years

For the first time in its 190-year history, St Patrick’s School in the heart of Galway City will be enrolling girls for the coming academic year.

Founded by the Patrician Brothers in 1827, St Pat’s moved to its current building on Lombard Street in 1954 where it accepted boys from second class on and was a feeder school to St Joseph’s Patrician College, the all-boys’ secondary school known as ‘the Bish’.

From this September, boys and girls will be invited to enroll for junior and senior infants, first and second classes. It follows a move last year by the newly-appointed principal Marian Barrett – the first female head in its history – to set up a breakfast club, preschool and afterschool to facilitate working parents.

The change to a co-educational facility will help secure the future of the school which has experienced a continual drop in enrolments. From a high of 1,000 students in 1959, last year saw 212 pupils on site, down from 232 in 2016 and 250 in 2015.

The decision to accept girls – as well as junior boys – means that the school will no longer to be dependent on other feeder schools for its five-year cycle. Sisters and brothers will be schooled together for the full eight-year primary school curriculum. By 2022 the school will be fully co-ed.

“It was very much parent-led. Parents wanted their sons and daughters to be educated together rather than having to do two or three drop-offs every day. We will now be a one-stop shop for pupils, from 8am to 6pm,” said Ms Barrett.

“We are in a 21-classroom school, which means we can take 500 or 600 children here no problem – it’s quite a deceptive site. We don’t need any money from the department, we’re ready to go and have a good complement of staff here too.”

The average size of classes is between 16 and 24. The decision to open up enrolments was announced late in the school cycle as the board of management were awaiting a green light from the department.

“We’re a bit concerned not a lot of parents know this is happening, which is why we had an open evening for all past pupils yesterday so they can see all the amazing changes in the school,” she explained.

“Please God this will secure our future for another few hundred years.”

As for the reaction of the current male pupil population, the principal admits that some were less than impressed with the arrival of the female species.

“Most of them are very excited at having younger brothers and sisters in the same school. They’ll be able to talk about their sports day, share what happened and parents will not have to be doing loads of drops and pick-ups.

“It’s the way it should be to be honest.”