History
The tradition of teaching at Newpark can be traced back more than a century. Avoca School came into existence in 1891, in a small terraced house at Avoca Place in Blackrock. Three years later in 1894 Kingstown School was founded on York Road. They were both privately owned schools, providing a unique form of education for children from the ages of four to eighteen, and were imbued with the personalities of the founding figures:
- The Devlins, father and son, at Kingstown
- The McDonagh family (A.J. founded the school, his sons were the cornerstone of the school's great hockey tradition; his daughter, Ida, taught French until the early 1960s)
- The Parkers, Cyril and Cerise, who pioneered so much in Irish education (the use of IQ tests, sex education, musical appreciation, the formation of one of the country's first Parent-Teacher Associations)
- John Draper, Michael Classon and John Harris (subsequently headmaster of Wesley College), who brought the two schools together in 1968 and managed the transition from private secondary to state comprehensive school, Newpark, which opened its doors in September 1972
Read more about this topic: Newpark Comprehensive School
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