RATHGAR Junior School kicked off a year of centenary celebrations recently.
Nine pupils walked through the doors of No 62 Grosvenor Road on September 9, 1919 and, over the course of the following 12 months, the number of pupils on the register climbed to 52.
The school continued to grow rapidly under the headship of Miss Isabel Douglas, a Quaker who had trained in Froebel education and had a somewhat visionary and “modern” approach to education. By 1930, 97 names appeared in the roll book.
Miss Douglas was an enthusiastic advocate for the teaching of Irish, poetry, art, handwork and nature studies. The Quaker ethos meant that corporal punishment never featured in the school and parents travelled from as far away as Bray to bring their children to a school where they knew their offspring would never be beaten.
Rathgar Junior School (RJS) now has a total of 170 pupils. The school is run by Principal Brigid Rose Kalisa and by four directors and a committee made up of members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and parents. The school welcomes children from all faiths and backgrounds and emphasises individual attention.