Newpark Comprehensive School

Newpark Comprehensive School is a Protestant, non-fee paying, co-educational comprehensive secondary school under Church of Ireland management, situated on Newtown Park Avenue in Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland.Newpark was established in 1972 primarily to provide free post-primary, co-education for the Church of Ireland community of South County Dublin and North Wicklow. The school recognises its Protestant background and ethos, and acknowledges the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin as its Patron. However, as a co-educational comprehensive school, Newpark welcomes girls and boys of all religious, social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The school describes itself as celebrating the diversity in academic, creative and practical intelligence in its students.HistoryNewpark had a Christian tradition, reflecting its origins within the Protestant tradition, and is under the patronage of the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. The school was established in 1972, when the Department of Education purchased Avoca & Kingsstown School, an amalgamation of two small private schools. Avoca School in Blackrock was founded in 1892 by A.A. MacDonagh M.A. (1869-1934) who served for a long time as its headmaster, and Kingstown Grammar School in 1894 by the Rev. Matthew Edward Devlin (whose sone John Edward Devlin also served as Kingstons headmaster). The two founding schools catered primarily for Protestant children in the Blackrock/Dún Laoghaire area, but the schools also welcomed pupils from other religious faiths and from none. In 1968 the original schools amalgamated as Avoca & Kingstown School at Newtownpark Avenue. Four years later it became Newpark, one of the four Comprehensive Schools established by the Government to: