St Joachim's 130th Anniversary

On Sunday 10th May we celebrated at the 9am Mass St Joachim's School 130th anniversary since it was founded in 1896. It was a wonderful celebratory Mass, with over 50 current pupils attending and many former pupils present, including some wearing old St Joachim's jumpers and hoodies. In addition to the pupils, we were blessed with the attendance of a former headteacher of St Joachim's (1980-2000) Mr Pat Mahoney. Fr Dan had clearly carried out some research about St Joachim's history, which he shared with the congregation. St Joachim's origins actually started some 9 years earlier in 1887 as a Sunday school that met up in a barbers shop. The original school building was replaced in 1968 and since then various extensions have been added. At one time in and around 1930's, according to logbooks, over 540 pupils attended our school. St Joachim's was created to provide Catholic education for the children of the workers who built the docks and Blackwall tunnel. This mission continues today, and we are blessed to have a school that's purpose is to educate the 'whole child', academically, morally and spiritually. We should never take for granted our Catholic school nature. It took many years campaigning in the Victorian era to be allowed Catholic schools and it continues to be something we have to fight for, as there are many who would like to see the abolition of faith schools. We pray that St Joachim's will continue to provide Catholic education for another 130 years.

St Anne's Church around 1970's