Saint Vincent de Paul Primary School is located in Northern Ireland. The school was established in the 1850s and has since expanded. Originally, the school had one large room and housed teachers. In the early 1900s, children as young as 12 worked long hours in mills, sometimes without shoes. Over time, laws changed to protect children and reduce working hours. Today, the school has 260 students and a nursery. It aims to teach children about their rights. The school plans to move to a new building in 2019 with more classrooms, technology, and outdoor space.

1. Saint Vincent de Paul Primary
School
Our School Now and
Then

2. Our School

3. Our School is in NorthernIreland

5. Looking Down To Ligonieland Across
Belfast

6. Life in Ligoniel
• Most of the economic life of Ligoniel was centred on the employment provided by the
mills.
• Working life began early in respect to age and hour of the day.
• Children started work at the age of 12 (some of whom had no shoes and had to walk to
work in their bare feet) and were expected to be in the mill for 6.30am.
• They worked for a 12 hour day and had very few holidays.
• These workers were paid the equivalent of 22 and a half pence per week.
• Muchhas changed in Ligoniel these days; the mills are no longer major employers of
labour, working hours are greatly reduced and there are no longer bare-footed children
roaming the streets.

7. Welcome To Our Parish
To raisethe£370that was needed to open the school, FrLoy and JimmyCavanaghstarted Bingo in
Ligoniel.
As another venture,the collecting committee organised a dance to which came a Fr Lynch,who
instantly shut it down and demanded that “dancing was immoral” and would not beallowed inhis
hall.

8. WhatWas Life Like In School
• StVincent’sschool wasestablishedduring theearly 1850s.
• It wasbuilt ofstone,hada slatedroof and hadwooden floors.
• The school had one large room,62 feetby 19 feetand14 feet
high.
• The school includeda threeroom residencefor teachers.
• By the 1890s the school was considered toosmallandin bad
repair so a replacementschoolwas opened in 1901.

9. Thesechildrencame to our school
between 1910 and 1912

10. Miss Door and Her Class
1927

11. Our Parish
• Here isour parishin the 1900s.

12. Our SchoolNow 2017

13. Hello From Ligoniel

14. It Has Changed So Much!
OurClassrooms OurAssembly

15. Our Children

16. Facts and Figures
• This new school openedin 1970.
• Therearecurrently 260 boys and girls enrolled in the school with an additional
26 children enrolled in ourfull time Nursery Unit.
• There is also a PreSchool Playgroup on site with children enrolled.
• Saint Vincent de Paul PS is currently staffed by a principal, 9 classroom teachers,
a full time SENCOand a teacherin chargeof the Nursery unit. In addition there
are 7classroom assistants and a nursery assistant.
• Thecaretaker, secretary, cleaning, dining and supervisory assistants complete the
complement of staff.

17. Nursery Unit
• Miss Dillon is theTeacher in the Nursery Unit.

18. We Are Inclusive
• Our Primary school, Nursery School and Pre-School
Playgroup welcome children from all over theworld!

19. Our School Is Still Changing
• We were involved with a project called
“Belfast Healthy Cities”
• This project helped us to look at what we
wanted to change about our school.

20. We Wanted To ChangeOur
Playground

21. We Planned Our Playground
• We allworked hard to find an idea thatwe liked
• We designed whatour play ground should look likein groups
and took a vote for thewinningdesign!
• Here it is….

22. Our Playground Plan

23. We have lots of space…
We want to make the most of it!

24. We Made A Change

25. We Love Our School

26. We Are A RightsRespecting School
• In October 2016, our school was awarded Level 1 Rights Respecting
Schools Award.
• This means that our school works hard to ensure children know about
their 54 rights and that they do not discriminate against or diminish the
rights of others.

27. EcoSchools
We have achieved:
Bronze andSilver Eco School Award
-Bronze andSilver Sustrans School MarkScheme Award
-Translink Travel Challenge Winners

28. The Future
• In 2019, wewillbe gettinga brand newschool building.
• We hope thatfromthis,our children willhave much better
equipmentto helpthemlearn.
• Some new computersandiPads.
• More classroomsandmore space.
• Lotsmore outdoor space tohelp us stay fitandhealthy.
• A new hallfor indoor athletics.

29. Thank you for listening.
Saint Vincent de Paul Primary
School