In pictures: First female students are welcomed to Midleton CBS

Midleton CBS Primary School recently welcomed its inaugural intake of junior infants and female students, kicking off the academic year with a special event.

Hitherto a seniors-only boys school, it has welcomed a class of 20 junior infants, six of whom were girls.

This intake marked the first time that the school welcomed children in their junior cycle of primary education, as well as the first time that girls were admitted since its establishment in 1867.

Speaking to The Echo, school principal, Niamh O’Leary said the decision came as “Midleton is ever-expanding, and there has been a lot of new developments in the area”.

“We were looking and listening to the needs of the community, and also to our current parent-body, and it made sense for us to start welcoming both girls and junior infants,” said Ms O’Leary.

“Given the changes in society and how children grow up together now, I suppose for a lot of parents, the preferred educational setting would be co-ed. Children are mostly all together now in play school, they’re used to that educational environment, so we’re just responding to those changes.

“We wanted to strike a nice balance between creating excitement for this milestone while also being respectful of the few little ones who might have been nervous on their first day,” she added.

“Their teacher had nice little welcome packs for them, they started at a later time as well to give them a calm welcome to the classroom, and while it’s a big step for the children, it’s also a big step for the parents, so we had little packs for mom and dad too.

“We also designed beautiful little t-shirts for the junior infants. On the front of the shirts we have ‘our little history makers’ and the school crest with our two school therapy dogs, and on the back we have ‘little legends’.

“We also had balloons around the place to mark the way for them and just to capitalise on this exciting first step for us all.”

Ms O’Leary said the school is now welcoming applications for the 2027/2028 academic year, with queries also welcomed about enrolling girls in older class groups.

“We are taking expressions of interest for next year, and we already have a 50/50 split,” said Ms O’Leary.

“We are open to speaking to everyone if they want to contact the school at any point.

“We are also welcoming applications across the whole school for girls.

“We have had some inquiries and we can see people watching this space, but we expect that the biggest influx will start at the bottom and work its way up over time.”