History of the School
1861-1952
The original Woodland National School was built at the crossroads of the town-land of Woodland and served a very much rural community. It remained a 1 teacher school from 1861 until 1928 when the first assistant teacher was appointed.
A new 2 teacher Woodland School was opened in 1952 and the school, which was built on the present site, retained the name Woodland School even though it had moved to the town-land of Rough Park, approximately a mile distant.
The most notable feature of this period was the longevity of the Principal, Ms. Molly Callaghan who served from 1917 – 1964.
Woodland NS 1861-1952
1979
The school remained a 2 teacher school until January 1979 when the first of many pre-fabs was erected (under the Principalship of Ms. Bridie Timoney). As numbers began to grow another one soon followed. With the appointment of Mr. Joe McNulty in 1984 the school began to experience more rapid growth and by 1993, had grown to a 10 teacher school with a “walking” Principal.
Woodland NS 1952 -1994
1994 – 2002
1994 saw the opening of the first stage of the present school development, 7 classrooms with toilets, general purpose room, staff room, kitchen and Principal’s Office. Unfortunately, the planning authorities hadn’t envisaged the growth in numbers and a pre-fab was still on site and the old school was still in operation.
1994 also saw the introduction of the Speech and Language class with a Speech Therapist from the Health Board on site. This has since developed into a Junior and Senior Class retaining the support of a Speech Therapist.
The school continued to experience rapid growth, annual appointments of extra teachers and the erection of pre-fabs. The Department of Education approved a major extension as a result of this growth consisting of 9 Classrooms, a P.E. Hall, Library, Principal’s Office, Secretary’s Office, Staff Room and play areas.
Woodland NS 1994 - 2002
Since the opening of the extension, there has been a huge increase in the provision of services for children with special needs. This has resulted in numerous appointments of SNAs and further appointments of resource teachers. Every nook and cranny in the school had been used to accommodate resource teachers – converting a P.E. store, kitchen and boiler house.
2002 – 2017
Early in 2007, the school was approached by the NCSE regarding the possible establishment of a 3 classroom unit for children with ASDs. The Board of Management responded positively and the project began with the erection of a pre-fab as a temporary ASD unit and the appointment of a teacher. With a budget of €1 million, the construction of a permanent ASD Unit began at Halloween 2008 and was in operation in September 2009. Major improvements were made to the school grounds at this time.
As the demand for places in the ASD Unit grew, the Department of Education sanctioned an extension and a 4th Class was added. This opened in September 2011 with improved facilities for the Junior Speech & Language and Resource teaching. In early 2012, Woodland N.S. was selected as one of the schools where temporary accommodation (pre-fabs) would be replaced by permanent classrooms. Hence one prefab was removed and one classroom was built in its place. This has been in operation since February 2013.
Woodland NS 2002 - 2017
2017 – present
Due to the ongoing growth and development of the school, an additional classroom and resource room were built in 2017/2018. Construction commenced in September 2017 and these classrooms were opened in April 2018.
These were then followed by the construction of our Sensory Playground in 2020. This is easily accessible from our Autism Suite and is a wonderful addition for all the pupils in our school.
