Overview of the History of Corduff National School, Lusk.
Corduff National School, Lusk, Co Dublin, is a co-educational primary school, funded by the Department of Education and Science and operated under the Patronage of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. It currently has four mainstream teachers, 0.8 of a Learning Support teaching post, a Shared Resource Teacher post and a part-time Secretary. The Principal is a teaching principal. The school is situated along the busy R132 road, formerly the N1 road to Belfast. The school has traditionally served a rural catchment area in Lusk parish and it now also caters for children from the adjacent urban area.
The classes are arranged into four multi-grade groups and classrooms, as follows:
- Junior Infants / Senior Infants
- 1st Class / 2nd Class
- 3rd / 4th Class
- 5th / 6th Class
The original school was built in 1844. The old school was on the lane which is still called Schoolhouse Lane, situated about 100 metres south of the present school. It was built on his own property by William Hanna, Corduff House. The building itself was a one room single-storey structure. By 1851, there were 38 males and 76 females on the rolls.
In 1900, the Parish Priest of Lusk, Fr Heffernan, became the Manager and he set about planning for a new school in the area. In 1906, the pupils in Corduff moved from the old school in Corduff to their brand new building on the current site. The school was ready for use in 1906 and the teacher’s residence at the rear of the school was ready in 1908.
Corduff NS has played an important role in local and national history. Thomas Ashe, the patriot and 1916 leader, was Principal from 1908 to 1916.
Corduff National School has gone through a series of expansions and developments over the last 100 years.
- The original 1906 school consisted of 1 large classroom with an entrance hall to the side. It was a 2 teacher school with both teachers working in the same room. Later, a partition was erected in the centre to create two rooms.
- In the 1950’s, the entrance hall and cloakrooms were added.
- In the 1960’s, the boys’ toilets, girls’ toilets and teachers’ toilets were added. (Until then, the toilets were at the end of the yard. There were separate yards for the boys and the girls).
- In 1985 a prefab was erected in the yard to provide accommodation for a 3rd teacher.
- In 1991, a new yard area was developed following the purchase of some ground to provide extra playing space.
- In 1998, work was completed on a modernisation scheme. Our school got 2 new classrooms, a staff room, an office and storage space.
- In September 2005, a full-time Learning Support/Resource Teacher was appointed.
- In September 2006, a fourth classroom teacher was appointed.
- Following the purchase of a neighbouring cottage and land, a new extension was completed in 2009 and provided a permanent classroom to replace the prefab, a Learning Support room, a multi-purpose room, a kitchenette and additional storage.
- In 2015, “The Discovery Room” was opened in the renovated cottage. This is a learning and innovation centre for our pupils to explore and innovate, especially in the areas of maths and the Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE) subjects but also in the more artistic spheres.