Villiers Secondary School
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| Villiers Secondary School Scoil Villiers |
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| Motto | Fidei Coticula Crux Latin for 'The cross is the touchstone of faith' |
| Established | 1821 |
| Location | North Circular Road, Limerick, Republic of Ireland |
| Students | 508 |
| Headmaster | Mr Thomas Hardy |
| Staff | 34 full time, 14 part time |
| Homepage | http://www.villiers-school.com |
Villiers Secondary School is a co-educational, fee paying, boarding and day secondary school, located on the North Circular Road, Limerick, Ireland. It is Limerick city's only fee paying secondary school.
Founded under the will of Mrs. Hannah Villiers in 1821, Villiers has a Protestant ethos and is managed jointly by the headmaster and a board of governors. It is situated on upper-middle class North Circular Road less than one mile from Limerick city centre.
Boarders number about a third of the students with the rest living locally. The student body is multi-denominational and diverse including students from Spain, Mexico, South Africa, Germany and Russia.
The school has modern classrooms, a new gymnasium (2001) and hockey pitch (2002), a large IT suite and several science laboratories. Plans for a new science building are well advanced. All students sit the Irish Junior and Leaving certificates, with the vast majority progresssing onto third level education.
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[edit] Extracurricular Activities
Villiers fields junior and senior teams in both hockey and rugby (boys only) in their respective Munster leagues and cups.
Several other sports are played, including football, basketball, athletics, table tennis, tennis, swimming and martial arts.
Music and debating are also encouraged and one of the school highlights every year is a large musical run by the transition year students.
[edit] Recent Controversy
A board of management decision to allow Hutchison 3G to build a 3G telecommunications mast on school property was met with condemnation by many school staff, parents and neighbours. Limerick City Council turned down the planning application.1
Two Spanish pupils were recently withdrawn from the school by their father after they refused to cut their dreadlocks, which were deemed to be in breach of the school dress code. 2(requires registration)
Two Catholic students were refused travel to and from school as the minibus on which they had traveled for numerous years, as the management claimed protestant children had priority. 3
[edit] Distinguished Past Pupils
- Vere Wynne-Jones (broadcaster)
- Jan O'Sullivan (politician)
- Max Dennison (special-effects artist)
- Donald Clarke (film critic and feature writer with The Irish Times)
- Dan Ketchum (Olympic swimmer)
