Rathdown School

Rathdown School was founded in 1973 from an amalgamation of three schools: Park House School, The Hall School and Hillcourt School, with Glengara Park School merging in 1987. The school was originally spread across three sites, in Monkstown, Glenageary and Morehampton Road in Dublin 4. In September 1974 the school consolidated at Hillcourt's site in Glenageary (although an additional branch of the Junior School continued to operate in the Morehampton Road buildings until 1978).[1]

Park House School

The Park House School crest, PHS, traced from an old blazer pocket.

Park House School was founded in Morehampton Road, Dublin 4, in 1932 by Froebel-trained Lilian Mary Rouviere Fayle. She was the daughter of Methodist leader WK Fayle, who had a hardware shop in Birr, County Offaly, and the niece of the suffragist, novelist, and playwright Susanne Rouviere Day.[2] She was educated at Mount Mellick Quaker School and Polam Hall School in Durham.

Park House (named for nearby Herbert Park) was a mixed school, originally set up as a preparatory school for Sandford Park, and its ethos mirrored the very progressive approach of its founder. The school pioneered judo and fencing for girls, and encouraged parents to be involved with the school and with their children's education. Jennifer Johnston was an early pupil, and her performance in the 1936 Christmas play (when she was six) was reported by the Irish Times.[3] Mary Fayle encouraged June Fryer, later June Kuhn, to study modern dance. She introduced June as a student to Erina Brady, German-born pioneer of modern dance. When June Kuhn died in 2011, the Irish Times described her as Ireland's first modern dance performer.[4]

After Miss Fayle's death in 1946 the school was taken over by Esther and Beryl Kennedy, and on their retirement the school was bought by a group of parents of existing pupils.[5] They appointed Mrs Cecile Catt, who had taught in the school for 12 years, as headmistress, and she remained in that role for ten years. Then, in 1973, Park House merged with The Hall School and Hillcourt to form Rathdown School.[6] For several years Rathdown maintained a branch of its junior school in Park House's Morehampton Road buildings, but in 1978 this branch was closed, leaving the whole operation at the Glenageary site.

Rathdown has pupils from pre-school age (3 years) to Leaving Certificate level (up to around 18 years) and offers a broad range of academic subjects in small class groups. Rathdown provides seven-day boarding for pupils aged 10 – 18 years old and allows the boarders the option of returning home at weekends or remaining at the school to avail of the weekend activities. The school also runs a dedicated international programme for overseas students and short-term boarding options for day pupils. Rathdown is the only school in Ireland that uses a methodology called Mind Lab to develop thinking abilities and life skills through strategy games.[7] Rathdown was the first school in Ireland where pupils used iPads in class.[8]

In 2022 the school announced that it would be becoming co-educational, and would accept boys into the junior school from September 2022, and into the senior school from September 2023,[9] and these changes proceeded on schedule, with around one third of first years in 2023 being boys.[10]

The school is owned by a charitable trust, Rathdown School Trust, which is led by a board of governors (who are also the charity's trustees). Its operations are overseen by a board of management, composed of four governors, two parents and two teachers, with the school head attending. Both boards delegate day-to-day leadership to the head of school.[11][12]

Rathdown students participate in An Gaisce, the National Challenge Award from the President of Ireland to young people. Annually, Rathdown sends a team of students and staff to Romania, to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity Ireland to help build houses for local families.[13]

Students Unite for Children’s Health (SUCH) was created by Rathdown pupils to raise funds for charities.[14]

• Anne Yeats (Hillcourt), painter, costume and designer, daughter of William Butler Yeats and Georgie Hyde-Lees. Later taught at The Hall School.
• Megan Taylor (The Hall), figure skater and youngest Winter Olympics competitor, representing GB at the age of 11 (1932).
• Jennifer Johnston (Park House), novelist.
• Camille Souter RHA (Glengara Park), artist.
• Noelle Middleton (Hillcourt), actress.
• Annette Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven (The Hall), medieval historian and one of the earliest female academics appointed at Trinity College Dublin.
• Baroness Hanham (nee Joan Brownlow Spark) (Hillcourt), CBE, Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea.
• Vivienne McKechnie (The Hall), poet.
• Ruth Frances Long, (Glengara Park and Rathdown) fantasy and romance novelist.
• Rosanna Davison, (Rathdown) Miss World 2003 & daughter of Chris de Burgh.
• Virginia McGrath (nee Conolly-Carew) (Rathdown) equestrian Olympian, competed in the Three-Day Event in Atlanta in 1996, and in Sydney in 2000.
• Tamsen McGarry, (Rathdown) Alpine skier and first woman to represent Ireland at the Winter Olympics (2002).
• Kirsty McGarry (Rathdown) Alpine skier and first woman to represent Ireland at successive Winter Olympics (2006 and 2010).
• Saskia Tidey, (Rathdown) sailor and Olympian (2016).

• Official website

53.276458°N 6.12982578°W / 53.276458; -6.12982578