History of the schools: St Joseph’s
St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School started life in St Clement’s Street and under a different name.
St Ignatius’s School opened in 1869 as a small school for girls and infants in the Roman Catholic Chapel in St Clement’s (situated next door to the Port Mahon pub, set well back from the road). In 1909 a new school designed to house 200 girls and infants was built in front of the old chapel, which continued to be used as a schoolroom.
In 1932 St Ignatius’s School was renamed St Joseph’s Roman Catholic School, but remained in St Clement’s. It became a junior mixed and infant school (admitting boys over the age of seven for the first time) and from that date until St Edmund Campion School opened in 1958, it also had a senior department (which also took the seniors from St Aloysius’ School).
By the 1960s, St Joseph’s School became rather dilapidated: there were only outside toilets, the playground was so small than the 260 children had to take turns to play, and the traffic in St Clement’s was a problem.
In September 1968 St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School (which then cost £85,000) opened in the present buildings in Headley Way, Headington, with seven classrooms, a swimming pool, and a hall/gymnasium.
In 1975, when Oxford adopted a three-tier system of education, it became St Joseph’s Roman Catholic First School for children aged 5 to 9.
When Oxford reverted to a two-tier system of education in September 2003, it once again became St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School.
St Ignatius’s School
The former Roman Catholic chapel that housed the original St Ignatius’s School (below) still exists. Built in the late eighteenth century, it is a Grade II listed building (1485/491). It is currently occupied by Fast Track 100.
Below: The 1909 St Ignatius’s (later St Joseph’s) School in front of the old chapel
Henry Taunt’s pictures (1906) from English Heritage:
