Saint Patrick Academy is education fully alive: Excellence in the pursuit of faith, academics, leadership, and virtue.
Mission Statement: Saint Patrick Academy is education fully alive: Excellence in pursuit of faith, academics, leadership, and virtue.
Saint Patrick Academy offers a dynamic, enriching educational experience that prepares students to live as virtuous leaders of integrity and humility.
Our private school bears a tagline: Education Fully Alive. This tagline summarizes our approach to education. The phrase comes from a quote by St. Irenaeus: “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.”
To be fully alive means to have the ability to fully comprehend. It means to be alert to the true significance and meaning of things. It means to understand the profound significance and dignity of each person and to see the whole beyond the sum of its parts.
When we say that we provide an education that is fully alive, we mean that our approach emphasizes the holistic development of students, and that we support students’ spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social, and physical well-being.
At our independent, Catholic school, education fully alive looks like fostering a love of God and a love of learning. It looks like personalized learning with an emphasis on creativity and innovation. It looks like an explicit teaching of the virtues with Jesus as our role model. It looks like experiential learning that fosters critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Aristote said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” Saint Patrick Academy exists to inspire, to draw out, and to enkindle in the hearts of children a love for God and for the pursuit of wisdom. In the words of St. Paul, we aim to equip students with “the power to fully comprehend and to know the love of Christ.” This mission sets our private PreK through 8th grade school apart.
Our exceptional faculty come from a variety of backgrounds with a united mission to love and care for the students of Saint Patrick Academy. Each faculty and staff member holds students to high expectations so that they can grow into the best version of themselves.
Saint Patrick Academy is a school of hope, joy, excellence, and beauty where education is fully alive.
In 2016, the Hope for Tomorrow Foundation and Saint Patrick Academy were founded in response to the impending closure of St. Patrick School. The City of Portsmouth had provided notice that the Austin Street building required significant repairs and renovations, and funding from the Parish or Diocese was highly uncertain. If we wanted the school to survive, we needed to create a new non-profit to revitalize the school as an independent Catholic school. Thus, Saint Patrick Academy was born.
Several major objectives, outlined below, had to be achieved in approximately one year. We are pleased and grateful to report that through prayer, hard work, generosity, and God’s grace, we were successful in meeting our objectives.
The previous St. Patrick School Board was purely “advisory,” meaning the Board members could provide thoughts or suggestions but had no real authority or control. The Hope for Tomorrow Foundation Board is a true “fiduciary” board that has authority, control, and is accountable for making decisions for the school and its future. The Board’s core responsibilities are to hire, advise, and review the Head of School, approve the annual budget, and establish a longer-term strategic plan. The Board is not involved with the day-to-day operations of Saint Patrick Academy; rather, the Head of School is responsible for the school’s daily operations.
Finding suitable property in Portsmouth was challenging. Through the grace of God and tremendous effort, the Hope for Tomorrow Foundation purchased the current campus property in December of 2016. This purchase came about after zoning reviews deemed several earlier parcels inadequate.
Our groundbreaking event occurred on May 13th, 2017, which fell on the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima. On July 1st, 2017, Hope for Tomorrow took responsibility for the school while it was still located on Austin Street. On May 13th, 2018, we had our Grand Opening – shortly after a furious spring break dedicated to moving everything from the Austin Street building to the new campus!
The new school building is a state-of-the-art facility, providing students with an optimal learning environment due to physical benefits including ample natural lighting, radiant heated floors, classroom design, acoustics, and top of the line classroom furniture. The heart of the School is the Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Chapel, which was built in memory of C. Edward Broom (July 6th, 1928 – October 1st, 2016.)
As an independent Catholic school, we do not receive any Diocesan or parish funds and therefore must generate all funds necessary for operations through tuition, fundraising, or charitable gifts. Consistent with our Catholic mission, we seek to make Saint Patrick Academy accessible to anyone wanting to provide their child with a Saint Pat’s education, regardless of financial means. Accordingly, financial aid to support those who would not otherwise be able to attend Saint Patrick Academy is an important part of our annual budget.
St. Patrick School was losing between $120,000 to $200,000 per year when Hope for Tomorrow took responsibility for it.
Saint Patrick Academy’s major fundraisers are the Gala, the Shamrock Shuffle, and Shamrock Scramble, and the Annual Fund. There is no family fundraising commitment. We aim to provide an excellent educational experience on a tight budget.
In September of 2017, there were 97 students enrolled at St. Patrick School. In September of 2019, Saint Patrick Academy had an enrollment of 190 students. Our enrollment has continued to grow since then to approximately 250 students.
We target approximately 20 students per classroom. It is important to note that due to our selective admissions process, our class sizes do not correlate to class sizes at other schools. The quality of our student body and faculty create an optimal learning environment.
Hear from current and former members of the Saint Patrick Academy community about what makes our school special.
Saint Patrick Academy
315 Banfield Road
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Saint Patrick Academy is an independent, Catholic school in the New Hampshire seacoast serving students from PreK through 8th grade.
Saint Patrick Academy is committed to equal opportunity and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, or gender in its educational programs and activities. Employees and students of any race, color, national origin, or gender are entitled to all rights, privileges, programs, activities, and services generally made available in the programs and activities. It does not discriminate in its educational policies, admission policies, athletics or other school-administered programs.
