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The Caribbean/Jamaica/St. Catherine High School/
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St. Catherine High School
- Address: 35 St. John's Road, Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica P.O.
- Phone:
- 1-876-981-8004
- 1-876-981-8009 (fax)
- Website: [1]
- Overview
The idea of establishing a Catholic High School in Spanish Town originated with the Reverend Father Matthew Ashe S.J., and Sister Mary Mercedes Doorley R.S.M., who saw the need to establish a school for children in St Catherine who were unable to gain places in the traditional grammar schools in Spanish Town and Kingston. [1]
The school was originally intended to be a co-educational Catholic High School and it was firmly established on the Catholic vision of the total development of the student with the focus being primarily upon student centered learning. The road to accomplishing this was not easy but through the toil and foresight of many, the school came into being. [1]
Father Matthew Ashe S.J. arrived in Jamaica on August 27, 1945, with no inkling that he would be later involved in starting a high school in Spanish Town. His first assignment was with the St. Anne’s Church located on Percy Street in Kingston. In September of 1947, he was later transferred to St Josephs Church in Spanish Town to replace Father Gildy S.J.”. [1]
Upon his arrival to his new post in Spanish Town, Father Ashe recalled in his autobiography that Father Gildy gave him a letter encouraging him to do “something for the Spanish Town Mission”.(Fr. Ashe at 17.) There was a big reception held for him at St Catherine Primary. No sooner after Father Ashe arrived in Spanish Town plans were afoot in starting a Catholic High school. [1]
As fate would have it, around the same time, Sister Mary Mercedes, R.S.M., a Jamaican who was running the St Anthony’s Secondary School in Port Antonio was forced to close the school due to financial difficulties. She left the parish of Portland along with her two assistants—Mrs. Erma Blackman (nee Campbell) and Mrs. Cynthia Jacobs (nee Hedman) determined to open a new secondary school in Spanish Town. [1]
Sister Mercedes approached Father Ashe about collaborating to form a school and he immediately agreed with her to do so. Although Father Ashe thought that, the odds were great that such a school would get off the ground he also stated that: one had to look at the immediate future…metropolitan Spanish Town with so many townships and hamlets clustered about it far and wide possessed a great potential for a secondary school in addition to the Anglican St. Jago’s High already well established.( Fr. Ashe at 27) [1]
They sought Bishop Thomas Emmet’s S.J. approval to start the new school and although he was initially reluctant, he subsequently approved the plan for a second high school in Spanish Town. [1]
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