A big day for Wilson's as founder's dream is ‘almost completed'

The completion of the latest element of the now-extensive campus that forms Wilson’s Hospital School in Multyfarnham represented an important day for the school, warden Adrian Oughton disclosed at the official opening on Friday August 30.

“We have almost completed the work that Andrew Wilson started so many years ago,” he told the crowd comprising the entire student body and around 400 invited guests, who were present to see the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Ruairí Quinn formally declare the extension ready for business.

More significantly, in constructing the Preston Building extension, the school had not had to seek the support of any bank, Mr Oughton continued, going on to thank government and all other bodies that had contributed to the cost.

School bursar Liam Coyle outlined to the gathering the additional facilities the Preston Extension means to the school – eight general classrooms to be used for maths, business, religious education, history, geography, languages, resource and guidance, as well as eight specialist rooms, for technical graphics, science, computers, music and drama, general purpose (The Banagher Room), a library, project storage, and a staff room.

The list didn’t stop there however: the new building also contains three pupil locker rooms, caretaker and housekeeping rooms with toilet and ancillary services for students and staff.

“The building extension is 1,584 square metres in area, which effectively doubles the size of the previous Preston classrooms,” said Mr Coyle, adding that the €1.5m investment means the Preston Complex can now accommodate 450 students, and that the provision of the extra space will enable the school to dedicate the 1761 boarding school building to accommodate up to 300 boy and girl boarders.

“Design features include the building having a reduced front elevation to prevent it dominating the overall campus, particularly the grandeur of the 1761 building,” he said, going on to explain that the building incorporates significant energy saving features.

On behalf of the school, Mr Coyle thanked all the contractors who worked on the project, before going on to thank the minister and all his officials, especially Martin Hanevy, assistant secretary at the Department of Education and Skills; the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests for the Banagher Funding (Wilson’s is the successor school to Banagher); Graham Richards who assisted in acquiring this funding, and the late Canon Arthur Crawford who sourced the documentation Banagher.

He also thanked Barry Kehoe, Westmeath county manager; and heritage officer Bernadette Solon, and Bank of Ireland, Mullingar, for its support down the years.

Ken Davis, chairman of the Wilson’s board of directors, said that day was “the proudest” of his life, and of all the directors.

“There have been other occasions over the years celebrating the advancement of the school but this, today, has to be our finest hour,” he said, describing the extension as “the jewel in the crown” of the various advancements that have taken place, mainly over the past twenty years.

Mr Davis went on to state that he believed that the decision of Wilson’s to become a non-fee school was the right one, and that there had been no change to the school’s governance or ethos since then.

Most Rev Richard Clarke, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, and chairman of the trustees and guardians of Wilson’s Hospital, said there is a sense that Wilson’s is a school that is “utterly faithful to what it had been founded for”, and that it had continued its ethos of providing education, and affording dignity and respect to all its pupils, “and trying to do it in a particularly Church of Ireland way, without proselytising or indoctrination”, but by trying to live out the Christian message.

Borrowing from Albert Camus, he said that the school was a place that gave people “the space to be what they were meant to be”.

Most Rev Dr Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Glendalough, Primate of Ireland, also a trustee of Wilson’s, said he had always been impressed by the sense of order and organisation in the school, which in no way stifled the creativity of the pupils or staff.

He told pupils they were “part of the stream of history”, before going on to request a moment’s silence, “to remember everything that has gone into today, and everything that will carry forward; the hard work, strong negotiations, generosity”.

Archbishop Jackson then offered a blessing, in which he expressed thanks for the pupils, parents, members of staff, all who offer governance, and prayed “that all work that is done [here] and friendships formed would carry everyone forward into the future with a sense of gratitude and thanksgiving”.

Education and Skills minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, observed that there were “two parts” to the celebration, the first being the long journey of construction of the school of the Reformed faith in the area, resulting in the current modern co-ed school, and the second being the journey navigated that enabled the school to find a way of becoming a non-fee school, and the completion of the extension of the Preston building marked completion of the journey.

Minister Quinn went on to describe education in this country as being a “public-private partnership”, in which the state provides the teachers’ salaries, and the students’ capitation grants, and the private sector organised the management of the schools, appointment of teachers, and the transfer of traditions from one generation to another.

“It’s a partnership that works, and one of the reasons why it has become the envy of our neighbouring education systems both in America and across the water is that in this country, and in our constitution, the constitution recognises the primary educator as being the family, and that is why we want to create a parents’ charter,” he said, adding that the aim was to make the role of parents even stronger in the education of their children.