St. Andrew's College (Ireland)

Saint Andrew's College
Coláiste Naomh Aindriú

Motto Ardens Sed Virens
Latin for 'Burning Yet
Flourishing'
Established 1894
Location Booterstown, County Dublin,
Republic of Ireland
Students 1200 [1]
Principal Arthur Godsil
Staff 100+
Homepage http://www.sac.ie/

St. Andrew's College (Irish: Coláiste Naomh Aindriú) - is a co-educational inter-denominational, international day school, founded in 1894 by members of the Presbyterian community, and now located in Booterstown, Dublin, Ireland.

St. Andrew's offers a very wide range of academic subjects, as well as sports, cultural and other extracurricular activities, and organises major student events such as the annual Arts Festival, the Model European Parliament and the Model United Nations (SAIMUN) all of which attract participants from Ireland and abroad.

The school colours are blue and white.

Contents

History

Foundation

Originally founded as a boys' secondary school at the end of the nineteenth century by members of the Presbyterian community, St. Andrew's College celebrated its centenary in 1994. It was on 8 January 1894 that the College opened its doors at 21 St. Stephen's Green in the centre of Victorian Dublin. This was to be the first of its three locations.

Under its young and energetic headmaster, W W Haslett, an Ulsterman, it grew rapidly from its original intake of 64 students. By the end of 1894 there were 203 boys in the school.

St. Andrew's college was originally a Presbyterian school, and then changed to a multi-denominational school.

Wellington Place

However, at the beginning of 1937 a move to new premises in Wellington Place, Clyde Road, along with a determined effort by past pupils and parents to stave off closure or amalgamation saw a revival in the fortunes of the College.

Structure

Evolution

Over the years the College has evolved in many ways, and is now an active international, interdenominational, co-educational school of approximately 1,200 pupils and just over 100 teachers. It offers a very wide range of academic subjects, sports, cultural and other extracurricular activities, organizes major student events such as the annual Arts Festival, the Model European Parliament and the Model United Nations (SAIMUN) all of which attract participants from Ireland and abroad.

Accreditations

Since 1984 St. Andrew's has been fully accredited by the European Council of International Schools and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the only school in Ireland to hold this distinction.

Internationale Baccalaureate

St. Andrew's is the only school in Ireland to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme. Only a small number (usually around 70 students) of the school's students are in the IB programme.

Activities

Aid work

The school has an extensive programme to help those less well off. Each year a group of transition year students raise money for Uganda and then visit the country. The money raised goes to help schools and children in the area. The majority of funds go to Kisiizi. In the summer of 2006 fifth year students visited Zambia to build a house for a homeless family. Every Christmas, each class makes a hamper which is then donated to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, who in turn distribute to the needy in time for Christmas. The school's philanthropic nature has been praised by many, including Mary Hanafin .

Model United Nations

Model United Nations (MUN) is a very popular after school activity for students in the senior school. Each year, groups of students are chosen to form delegations which meet three times per week outside of school hours to practice debating resolutions. These students then travel to two international conferences: the Royal Russell School MUN in Croydon, UK, and The Hague International MUN in The Hague, Netherlands.

St. Andrew's has a particular legacy, being regarded as one of the best, if not the best, MUN school in the UK and Ireland, at all of the conferences they attend, where they generally win the highest awards and have recently had more resolutions passed than any other school. St. Andrew's also hosts its own conference, the St. Andrew's International Model United Nations (SAIMUN). The conference is one of the school's most high-profile annual events, and is one of the largest of its kind in the UK and Ireland, with Royal Russell School and Haileybury and Imperial Service College both hosting large MUN conferences as well.

It reached a high point in 2002 when John Hume, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, made an address to the assembly. The conference was hosted in Jury's Hotel in Ballsbridge, where a large number of the school's students participate along with students from other schools from around the world. The 2007 conference was the last to be held at the Jury's Hotel in Ballsbridge due to the hotel being sold. The 2008 and 2009 conferences was held in the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire. The 2010 conference will also be held in the Royal Marine Hotel.

External links

Notes

  1. ^ [1] Business Post Article on fee paying schools of Ireland