St Joseph's College,Summerhill

School History

1965 : Scoil Pheadair, Ath Luain, an all girls Boarding School moved out to Summerhill because of accommodation difficulties. Summerhill had been an Industrial School until 1957 when an all girls Secondary Top was developed and prospered here until 1965 when the new school, St. Joseph's College began under Sr. Loreto Curran. The school became well known particularly for piloting the new Science and Music Leaving Cert Courses and for being the location for Science Teacher Courses.
1970: Sr. Mercy Watson became Principal.
1971: Sr. Stephanie Breslin became Principal.
1973: Sr. Patricius Quine became Principal.
1984 -1986 : VPTP1 class for 2 years , not very satisfactory.
1986: Boarding School closed.
1985/6/7/8/9 : School Exchanges with a school in Vienna
1988: 1st Lay Principal - Mrs. Olive Dwyer
1988: 1st Board of Management
1989: Renovation of old Boarding School completed - new classrooms developed
1989: 1st Transition Year Programme
1993/4: Planning begins with Mercy West Initiative - Mission Statement etc.
1993/4: Renovation of Gym and Reroofing Project begins
1994/5: A Religious Principal again - Sr. Patsy Duffy
1995/6/7: School Exchange with a French school
1995/6: 2 PLCs began
1996/7: LCVP began
1996/7: £ 30,000 investment in Computers
1997/8: Formal School Planning begins
1998/9: 2 new temporary classrooms
1999: LCA began
1999/00: £500,000 Science Block Project and Renovation for Canteen/Central Area is at Stage 2.2 new temporary classrooms have been granted for September
2002 Deputy Principal Mary Fahy
New offices for DP and Youth Counsellor.
Second Computer room established
2002/03 School Planning reactivated
Library and Childcare rooms exchanged
2003/04 BTEI Scheme Childcare Level 2.
HSCL office and Chaplains office

2004/2005 New Principal: Mrs. Mary Fahy
New Deputy Principal: Mr. Liam Nally.

2005/2006 New Science Block (4 new rooms - demo lab & 3 prep rooms),
New Canteen.
New Multi Media Lab for French and German.
2007-2008 New Board of Management elected, Canon Liam Devine, Chairperson.
New Parents' Association elected.
Home Economics K2 closed for Health & Safety reasons.
New Library with multimedia
Computer room 1 updated and new computers installed.
Installation of Lab and software for Technical Graphics

2009 New Home Economics Kitchen completed.
New Principal: Mr. Liam Nally
Deputy Principal: Mrs Anne Duggan