St. Joseph’s National School was built in April 1953. It is built of locally manufactured bricks. It replaced an old school building situated in the centre of the town .This old school was built in 1899 and celebrated its centenary in 1999. It is now known as the Matt Talbot Parochial Centre and is used by the community.

On the 25th of June 1984 the new extension to St Joseph’s School was officially opened by Mr. Tom Fitzpatrick Ceann Comhairle. The school was blessed by Dr. Michael Smith , Bishop of Meath.

Since the foundation of the School in 1899 education in Kingscourt school was divided between St. Joseph’s Boys’ N. S. and St. Joseph’s Girls’ N.S.- two separate schools with their own principal and staff working side by side in the same building. On the 1st September 2003 the two schools amalgamated. This marked a historic occasion in the history of primary education in Kingscourt. St. Joseph’s Boys’ and St. Joseph’s Girls’ combined their talents and experience and formed our amalgamated school, now renamed as St. Joseph’s National School. Our amalgamation has been a wonderful success for our pupils, parents, teachers and management.

Our school population has increased over the last ten years and a new three classroom extension, library and store was built in 2012. The extension was blessed by Bishop Michael Smith, our school patron on the 9th November 2012.

Cairde opened its first class in September 2014. The official opening of the ASD unit was in October 2018 with three brand new classrooms and kitchen, a multi-sensory room and four learning support rooms. This was officially opened and blessed by Bishop Deenihin. 

In 2023 we celebrated 70 years of our school with a Community gathering. Past principals were invited and children made projects on the History of the school. 

Also in 2023 our school underwent refurbishment with the Pathfinder programme. With great grit and determination we managed to get back to school while work was ongoing. The results have provided us with a warm and cosy school.