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Prospectus 2024028 7128 1800oce@stceciliascollegestceciliascollegederry@StCeciliasDerryBligh’s Lane,Derry,Northern Ireland,BT48 9PJwww.stceciliascollege.com
Grace McGowanJunior Head GirlDarragh McClearySenior Head Girl Dear prospective pupilWe are so excited that you are considering St. Cecilia’s College as your next school. We remember how stressful this decision can feel and we wanted to see if we could help to reassure you.There is a school in our city that is right for every child but here is why we think that our school, St. Cecilia’s College, might just be the right school for you!• Everyone is so friendly and helpful. As a new Year 8 the whole school will look after you and make you feel at home. Our teachers are lovely and our pupils all remember what being new is like and will do their best to help you to settle in!• Our ethos is about being kind, we are only as happy as the people around us. The kinder we are to each other the happier we all get!• Pupils are really listened to in our school. When our student council kept asking for school trousers to be introduced the school listened. We worked with our teachers to get a uniform we can all be proud to wear and comfortable in. • You will be encouraged to be the very best you can be. We have all been able to try out new things and have experiences that have allowed us to gure out where our talents lie. The really special part is that every talent is valued in our school because every pupil is valued as an individual.We really hope you decide to choose St. Cecilia’s College; it was denitely the best decision we ever made!ResultsOur pupils achieve great results. Every. Single. Year. In fact, the GCSE results our pupils achieve are consistently above the NI average with pupils attaining “very highly at GCSE or equivalent at grades A* - C including English and Mathematics” - ETI ExperiencesEvery opportunity we give our pupils is designed at developing them either socially, intellectually, emotionally or spiritually. This holistic approach to education means that St. Cecilia’s pupils are known to be kind, community-minded and highly employable young people. Pastoral CareYou don’t have to take our word for it that your daughter will be well looked after in St. Cecilia’s. The quality of provision for care and support in our school has been rated “highly eective” by the Education Training Inspectorate who commented that “there is evidence of a genuine rapport between the pupils, teachers and peers which fosters a positive climate for learning.”House SystemOur House System provides our pupils with a home within school. Their House family includes pupils from Year 8 to 14 as well as both teaching and non-teaching sta. This means that our pupils build strong relationships and have an all-important sense of belonging from their very rst day.We don’t think you will nd another school like St. Cecilia’s College and here is why... A School with a Dierence
achieving ‘UK Secondary School of the Year, 2020’ a UK BSI award for ‘Trust’ in 2021 and in 2022 an ISO standard for ‘Inclusion and Diversity.’ I hope you nd our prospectus, video and website helpful as you consider your options. Should you wish to avail of any further advice or guidance, please feel free to contact me or to visit our website. Yours sincerelyMJ O’Carolan (Mrs)PrincipalDear Parent/CarerIn our Prospectus we give you a avour of our school community, which we hope you nd interesting and informative, as you decide your child’s post-primary school. St Cecilia’s is a joyful, caring school, in which children ourish and achieve highly, both inside and outside of the classroom. As a result, we endeavour to prepare them for their future choices in further and higher education or in the workplace. For myself, as Principal, it is a privilege to serve the pupils, sta and community, based on the values of Aspire, Endeavour, Achieve. As a Catholic school, our core principle is to develop within each of our pupils the values of faith, understanding, self-belief, resilience and success. We nurture relationships, which are based on respect and positivity, to ensure our pupils use their gifts and talents to achieve their best. Our Pastoral Care permeates all aspects of school life and contributes to the creation of a supportive atmosphere in the school for both teachers and pupils. At St Cecilia’s we have high expectations of all of our pupils. Year in, year out, our outstanding results reect these expectations of our pupils and we are delighted to perform consistently well above the Northern Ireland average for similar schools. Our teachers are highly qualied, enthusiastic and dedicated, with a love of their subject that inspires the pupils in their care. Our outstanding success has been recognised nationally, with St Cecilia’s Welcome
Delivering high quality teaching and learning is at the forefront of everything we do as a school community. Approaches to assessment are consistent across the school with pupils’ progress rigorously monitored and reported on at four key points in the school year. Pupils have access to academic and vocational pathways that are tailored to suit their individual abilities and interests.St. Cecilia’s College is at the forefront of curriculum development, working with business, industry and Celebrating Successother educational establishments to ensure we provide quality courses that meet the needs of a modern, progressive society. Girls aspire to careers, professions and occupations that are the result of quality provision and experiences. St. Cecilia’s pupils are inspired to see endless possibilities for self-development, and they are always encouraged to be the very best that they can be. St. Cecilia’s College continues to inspire, through our ethos, the highest possible achievements for all our pupils.
Outstanding Success in Examinations Our most recent examination season saw 96.5% of our year 12 students achieving 5 or more A* - C grades in their GCSEs.What is most pleasing is the very high percentage of students across the board in every subject and at every level who surpassed their personal target grades.St Cecilia’s College5 or more GCSEs at A*-C96.5%Examination Headlines
St. Cecilia’s College is a dynamic and vibrant learning community. Our Catholic ethos permeates all aspects of school life; making St. Cecilia’s a focused, caring, and happy community in which all of our girls can ourish. We value every member of our community, recognising the dignity and unique nature of each individual. In this way the presence of Christ is celebrated.St Cecilia’s is also a kind and caring environment for young people. Respect for others underpins all our dealings with one another. Our aim is to create an environment where everyone aspires to achieve. Our pupils get opportunities to stretch and challenge themselves in a safe, stimulating way. We understand that this looks and feels dierent for every child and that’s why our child centred, inclusive approach is so successful.A Child Centred schoolAt St. Cecilia’s we believe that every pupil should have the best possible learning opportunities and we therefore promote inclusive practice. We recognise that all of our pupils are dierent and have individual needs. We take strategic action to support and encourage our pupils within a nurturing environment.
Our Learning Support Coordinator and his team work closely with sta, pupils and parents to provide extra support where it is needed. We enable all pupils to participate fully in a varied curriculum which responds to a wide range of individual talents. We work closely with parents and other agencies to monitor pupil progress carefully. We provide eective additional support to meet our pupils’ needs: • All of our pupils are screened for dyslexia in Year 8. • Pupils identied with dyslexic tendencies are oered bespoke one-to-one support with one of our qualied Dyslexic Tutors. • Our homework club operates four afternoons per week. The homework club aords pupils the opportunity to complete homework, access school resources, attempt assignments and revise for exams.“Every child is unique so is the way we work”
We pride ourselves on being a caring school. St. Cecilia’s is a happy place, where respect for others underpins all our dealings with one another. Our aim is to create an environment where every child feels safe and where everyone can succeed. The welfare of our students is our highest priority.Form TeacherYou and your daughter will develop close links with her Form Teacher. You can rely on the dedicated and caring support of your daughter’s Form Teacher to comfort, challenge and motivate her through her life at St. Cecilia’s.The Head of YearThe Head of Year’s principal role is to ensure the welfare of the children within their year group. They will guide the academic, social and emotional progress of all the students in their care.Designated TeachersEvery pupil’s safety is paramount at St. Cecilia’s. You and your daughter will be made aware of the role of the Child Protection Ocer, her deputies and how they can be contacted for support.CounsellorWe have a professional counselling service available one day a week for pupils in need of extra support. Pupils can refer themselves or be referred by a parent or member of sta. We benet from having a full time, fully qualied, CBT practitioner on our sta. CommunityOne of the most important relationships the school has is with parents and carers. A parent’s aspirations for their child will have a signicant impact on their success. This means encouraging full attendance, communicating with the school, and working with us to ensure the best outcomes possible.We best educate our young people as a community and we value the strong partnerships we have with our families and local organisations.A Child Centred schoolGuardian AngelOur ‘Guardian Angel’ team play their part in ensuring a smooth transition from primary to secondary school for our Year 8 pupils. Each Year 8 pupil has her own Guardian Angel. This is a 6th Year pupil committed to helping her ‘little St. Cecilia’s sister’ settle in and nd her feet in her new school.Addressing Bullying Type Behaviours in SchoolAt St. Cecilia’s we have a comprehensive policy for dealing with bullying type behaviours. This has been recently updated after consultation with pupils, parents, sta, and the Education Authority. Reports of bullying type behaviour are dealt with quickly, sensitively and in a professional and caring way.
One of the most important relationships the school has is with parents and carers.
A school of faithA Catholic School
St. Cecilia’s College is a caring, inclusive school rooted in local parish communities. We are committed to the development of the whole person and believe personal relationships help establish an aspiring community of girls with condence which stems from self-belief, a Catholic conviction and personal success. Our College cares for young people in a way that encourages them to develop to their full potential within a supportive Christian community. We seek to prepare our students to play an active and responsible role in society, and to use their talents for the service of others.Our faith and worship are an essential part of daily life within the college. Our day begins with morning prayer at assembly. Signicant events are marked with communal prayer and events such as our annual Carol Service, which is enjoyed by our whole community. We celebrate the start of our academic year with a mass attended by the whole school.As in all Catholic schools, the intention of the College is to build on the faith already laid down in the home. The Religious Education Department of St. Cecilia’s College has as its primary objective the development of the student’s spirituality in order to equip our girls for the rigours and the full enjoyment of life. It approaches this task in a holistic way in an attempt to enrich all the dimensions of the student’s school life.The primary aims of St. Cecilia’s College are:• to develop the whole person as a follower of Christ.• to exist as an extension of the Catholic Home.• to create a believing community committed to the Christian Way of Life. • to promote justice in all areas of College Life.• to prepare the individual to live in a changing social, political, cultural and technological environment.
At St. Cecilia’s College we are continually striving to improve all aspects of provision for our pupils.Our Learning and Teaching team regularly review our curricular provision to ensure maximum opportunities for success.Gifted and talented pupils are stretched in school and provided other opportunities for challenge. This year we launched our Brilliant Club which saw junior school pupils working on projects with Phd students from Queen’s University Belfast. The programme culminated in a graduation ceremony.We place great importance on Target Setting, allowing pupils to track their progress, set personal goals and take responsibility for their learning pathways. All pupils record and monitor their assessment achievements, creating a culture of aspiration throughout the school. This helps pupils make the important connection between hard work and success!Continuous ImprovementAspire+Endeavour=Achieve
It is not only our pupils that are encouraged to develop and improve. Our sta are highly qualied, experienced, and dynamic. To keep apace of developments in education recent whole sta training has included:Continuous ImprovementTRAUMA INFORMED PRACTICEDYSLEXIA AWARENESSDIFFERENTIATION AND RAISINGSTANDARDS FOR ALLADDRESSING BULLYING TYPEBEHAVIOUR IN SCHOOLS
OUR HOUSE SYSTEMtogether we make a difference
The aim of the House System is to further build on the eective relationships across the school and to have each pupil be part of a ‘House Family’.Creating CommunityEvery pupil is placed with their Form Teacher in one of ve Houses; Courage, Faith, Grace, Hope and Peace. Houses are identiable by their ties, and each house competes each term to collect the most house points to win a treat for the entire house. Treats could include a house breakfast or a movie afternoon. Points are awarded for kindness, good deeds, manners, participation in after school activities and for representing the school.Y o u did not pick the names of local townlands or of colours. Instead you picked Faith, Courage, Peace, Grace and Hope. at speaks of the values and ideals that the school wants to hand on to its young people. In a world of very agile heroes, you inite them to dream of doing beautiful things with their lives and you oer them the ocabulary which will support them in that.Bishop Donal McKeown
We don’t just educate our pupils in the classroom. Extracurricular activities are a vital aspect of the St. Cecilia’s experience! We have a range of lunchtime and after school clubs to try, your new talent is waiting to be discovered!All pupils also receive their own Target Setting book to allow them to record and track their assessment achievements. We encourage pupils to take responsibility for their own learning pathways and improvement. By doing so they begin to make the all important connections between hard work and success!At St. Cecilia’s College, we provide a wide range of activities and services during and beyond the school day to help meet the needs of our pupils, their families and the wider community. Free transport home is provided for pupils who attend after school programmes.St. Cecilia’s pupils learn and achieve so much outside the classroom. They learn to compete, win well, accept defeat, follow rules, treat others fairly and respect decisions made by ocials. All pupils in St. Cecilia’s have the opportunity to improve their level of tness and skill in a range of activities including Netball, Cross Country, Athletics, Swimming, Aquathon, Soccer and Cheerleading. Pupils develop resilience through sport. • Art• Athletics• Camogie• Cheer Club• Choir• Coding Club• Creative Writing• Crochet Club• Cross Country• Dance Club• Drama• Drumming• Enterprise Club• Environmental Club• Football• Gaelic Football• Guitar• Lego Club• Maths• Netball• Orchestra• Peer Mentoring• Piano• Public Speaking• Reading Club• School Magazine• School of Rock• Science• Singing lessons• Student Council• Sewing Club• Street Dance• Study Centre• Technology• Textiles• Traditional Irish Music• Triathlon• Ukelele• Young EnterpriseHere are some of the opportunities normally available at St. Cecilia’s College:Condence outside the Classroom
All of our teachers love to be creative, with their subject or in how they get you to learn! We know that happy pupils are more likely to work hard and succeed. Creative SchoolSt. Cecilia’s was named after the patron saint of music and creativity is in our blood!
We work hard to support every pupil on their way to success and we know that is a dierent journey for each child.We hold ourselves to very high standards and have many of the top awards and titles to prove it.Celebrating Success
During the admissions procedure when applying the criteria, punctual applications will be considered before late applications are considered. The application procedure opens on 30 January 2024 at 12 noon (GMT) and an application submitted by the closing date of 22 February 2024 at 12 noon (GMT) will be treated as a punctual application. An application received after 12 noon (GMT) on 22 February 2024 and up to 4pm on 4 March 2024 will be treated as a late application. As currently required by the law, priority will be given to pupils normally resident in Northern Ireland, before children who normally reside elsewhere. In the event of over-subscription, the following criteria, which was drawn up by the Board of Governors of St Cecilia’s College, will be applied in the order set down, to select pupils for Year 8 entry in 2024/25.1 Pupils whose sister(s), half-sister(s), step sister(s) or foster sister(s) are presently or were formerly enrolled at the school and who have chosen St Cecilia’s College as their rst preference school. Please note that for criterion 1 you are required to provide in the Admissions Criteria Notes section of your online / written application the full name and date of birth of the sister(s) or equivalent (as dened above) whether referring to a present or past pupil(s). If the sister(s) or equivalent is currently at St Cecilia’s College, you are asked to indicate “yes” at the “Sister at School” option. 2 Pupils who presently reside in the following parishes (in no particular order) who have chosen St Cecilia’s College as their rst preference school. • Ardmore• Claudy• Culmore• Faughanvale and Lower Cumber• Glendermott/Waterside: (St. Columb’s-Chapel Road, Immaculate Conception-Trench Road, St Mary’s- Newbuildings)• Holy Family (Ballymagroarty)• Our Lady of Lourdes (Steelstown)• St Mary’s (Creggan)• Strathfoyle: StrathFoyle/Enagh Lough Templemore (St Eugene’s, St Columba’s, Long Tower)• Three Patrons (St Patrick’s- Pennyburn, St Brigid’s - Carnhill, St Joseph’s -Galliagh) Please note that for criterion 2 you are required to provide in Admissions Criteria Notes Section of your online application the name of the parish that the applicant resides in from the list provided above. 3 Pupils presently resident in the above named parishes (in no particular order) who have chosen St Cecilia’s College as their rst preference non-selective school.Please note that for criterion 3 you are required to provide in the Admissions Criteria Notes section of your online / written application the name(s) of the selective / grammar school(s) chosen ahead of St Cecilia’s College to validate your eligibility for this criterion. Please also provide the name of the parish the applicant resides in. Criteria for admissions 2024/25
4 Pupils presently resident in the above named parishes (in no particular order) and who have placed at least one non-selective school ahead of St Cecilia’s College. Please note that for criterion 4 you are required to provide in the Admissions Criteria Notes section of your online / written application the name(s) of the non-selective school(s) chosen ahead of St Cecilia’s College to validate your eligibility for this criterion. Please also provide the name of the parish the applicant resides in. 5 Pupils who are presently resident in other parishes in Northern Ireland. Please note that for criterion 5 you are required to provide in the Admissions Criteria Notes section of your online / written application the name of the parish the applicant resides in.The permitted admission number for Year 8 as determined by the Department of Education for the academic year 2024/25 is 129.In the event that the school would exceed its permitted admission number by accepting all applicants qualifying for selection using the nal criterion so required, then selection for all places remaining in this category will be on the basis of initial letter of the surname (as appears on the birth certicate), in the order set out below:L E Q D N U Y R C M Mc H Ní W Mac F O’ K T S B V Z I O X G P J AThe order was determined by a random selection of letters, witnessed by the Board of Governors. In the event of surnames beginning with the same initial letter, the subsequent letters of the surnames will be used in alphabetical order. In the event of 2 identical surnames, the alphabetical order of the initials of the forenames will be used.
A School For You!
Grace McGowanJunior Head GirlDarragh McClearySenior Head Girl Dear prospective pupilWe are so excited that you are considering St. Cecilia’s College as your next school. We remember how stressful this decision can feel and we wanted to see if we could help to reassure you.There is a school in our city that is right for every child but here is why we think that our school, St. Cecilia’s College, might just be the right school for you!• Everyone is so friendly and helpful. As a new Year 8 the whole school will look after you and make you feel at home. Our teachers are lovely and our pupils all remember what being new is like and will do their best to help you to settle in!• Our ethos is about being kind, we are only as happy as the people around us. The kinder we are to each other the happier we all get!• Pupils are really listened to in our school. When our student council kept asking for school trousers to be introduced the school listened. We worked with our teachers to get a uniform we can all be proud to wear and comfortable in. • You will be encouraged to be the very best you can be. We have all been able to try out new things and have experiences that have allowed us to gure out where our talents lie. The really special part is that every talent is valued in our school because every pupil is valued as an individual.We really hope you decide to choose St. Cecilia’s College; it was denitely the best decision we ever made!ResultsOur pupils achieve great results. Every. Single. Year. In fact, the GCSE results our pupils achieve are consistently above the NI average with pupils attaining “very highly at GCSE or equivalent at grades A* - C including English and Mathematics” - ETI ExperiencesEvery opportunity we give our pupils is designed at developing them either socially, intellectually, emotionally or spiritually. This holistic approach to education means that St. Cecilia’s pupils are known to be kind, community-minded and highly employable young people. Pastoral CareYou don’t have to take our word for it that your daughter will be well looked after in St. Cecilia’s. The quality of provision for care and support in our school has been rated “highly eective” by the Education Training Inspectorate who commented that “there is evidence of a genuine rapport between the pupils, teachers and peers which fosters a positive climate for learning.”House SystemOur House System provides our pupils with a home within school. Their House family includes pupils from Year 8 to 14 as well as both teaching and non-teaching sta. This means that our pupils build strong relationships and have an all-important sense of belonging from their very rst day.We don’t think you will nd another school like St. Cecilia’s College and here is why... A School with a Dierence
Prospectus 2024028 7128 1800oce@stceciliascollegestceciliascollegederry@StCeciliasDerryBligh’s Lane,Derry,Northern Ireland,BT48 9PJwww.stceciliascollege.com