Newtown School, Waterford

Newtown School is a day and boarding secondary school in Waterford, Ireland. It is a voluntary secondary school, run by a Board of Management, but owned by the Religious Society of Friends.

History
Newtown School was founded in 1798 by the Sir Thomas Wyse. Its original purpose was the education of Quakers in the south of Ireland, and until 1858 no non-Quakers were admitted.

At its setup both boys and girls entered Newtown, though they did not participate in the same classes and activities. From the 1850s up to the late 1890s it became a boys only school. At this time Mountmellick became an all-girls school, so all boys from Mountmellick moved to Newtown. Eventually in the late 1890s girls were gradually let back into Newtown as day students, until female boarding was eventually reintroduced in 1907.

In 1924 Newtown adopted a fully coeducational policy which it has maintained to the present day.

In the 1980s a fire broke out in the boys dormitories, and after the Arnold Marsh dormitories (also known as Yardblock) were built, the remains of the old dormitories were made into a common room for the pupils, commonly known as 'Legoland' due to the lego brick style interior dividers. Since this time it has also reconstructed its swimming pool, and added a further extension to the Arnold Marsh dormitories.

Junior cycle
For the Junior Cycle, Newtown follows the curriculum for the Art, Craft & Design, which is offered only at Ordinary level.

Newtown has a large number of compulsory subjects for the Junior Certificate. Students must study English, Irish, French or German. Newtown also, unusually, includes Art, Craft & Design as a mandatory subject.

In addition to the compulsory subjects Newtown also offers Business Studies, Home Economics, Materials Technology Wood, Technical Graphics.

Though there is a broad curriculum, students may not take any of following subject combinations: French and Technical Graphics; Materials Technology Wood and Home Economics; German and Business Studies; German; Business Studies.

Transition year
Newtown operates a compulsory Transition Year program (also known as 'TY'), which is operated by Andrew Cox, Karen Keogh and Hugh Dobbs. In recent years students have participated taken part in kayaking, Young Social Innovators, surfing, lifesaving courses, tourism awareness courses, along with other courses that vary from year to year.

There are typically a number of trips by pupils including trips to an adventure centre and the Gaeltacht parts of Ireland.

Senior cycle
The senior cycle begins at the end of transition year when students are asked to choose their possible subjects in order of preference.

Sports
Newtown has a rich sporting culture. The biggest sports are rugby and hockey but tennis,basketball are all played as well. Athletics takes on a big role during the summer terms.

Schools