St. Pius X High School (Magherafelt)

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St. Pius X College (St Pius The tenth College) is a Catholic Maintained Secondary school for boys and girls from age 11 to 18. It is located in Magherafelt, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

St Pius X High opened in September 1964 with an enrolment of 340 pupils. The enrolment now is 970. This increase reflects the popularity and success of the school as well as the induction the Sixth Form within the College. Applications for places are oversubscribed each year for the past fifteen years. Pupils, most of whom travel by bus, come from counties Londonderry, Tyrone and Antrim.

[edit] The school name

About this time 150 years ago, a young Italian boy was changing from his local primary school to the secondary school of his choice. His name was Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto. He was called Bepi for short. He was a village boy, born in June 1835, the son of a local postman.

Bepi Sarto studied to become a priest. Later he became a Cardinal, and in August 1903, when Pope Leo XIII died Bepi was chosen as the new Pope. He took the name Pius X.