The Parents’ Association (PA) aims to identify and represent the interests of all parents and assist the Warden and members of the College to help enhance the College experience for pupils. The PA organises formal and informal social events for parents through the year, helps to facilitate communication between parents and the College and contributes to improvement of facilities and programmes for our pupils. All parents and legal guardians of pupils attending St. Columba’s College are automatically enrolled as members of the PA and are encouraged to get actively involved in the College community. The PA is run by a volunteer committee made up of parents from across all year groups and is mainly funded by families’ annual PA subscriptions (the PA Levy) and earnings from the second-hand uniform shop. The PA can also be a very useful method of collectively engaging the College on issues parents deem important. Recent examples include College support to Leaving Certificate exams held during Easter holidays; catering standards; phone and electric device policy. In such instances the PA adds weight and support as the collective entity expressing parental interest, whilst working in a collegiate manner to remedy concerns.

Aims and Objectives

• To support the advancement of the education and welfare of the pupils, in accordance with the Statues of the College.
• To provide opportunities for discussion, information and consultation about matters of common and /or topical interest to parents, teachers and pupils of the school. The school shall have regard to any input or advice provided from the parent body via the PA.
• To assist the school in recruiting volunteers to help with programs as requested by the Warden.
• To facilitate effective communication between parents and other stakeholders in the school community to foster co-operation and social interaction.
• The promotion of social and educational activities and any other activities that may help the College and the Pupils.
• The promotion of social and educational activities and any other activities that may help the College and the Pupils.
• To support the ethos and Values of the school.
• To give due respect to the individual pupils, parents and staff in pursuit of its objectives.
• To endeavour to spend the monies received from family annual subscriptions.
• Engaging and working on issues important to parents.

The PA constitution is available here on this webpage.

Contributions are:

• Organising social events for parents including the annual get-together and coffee mornings.
• Providing funds to school initiatives to enhance pupils’ college experience.
• Helping out College events for pupils such as Careers evening.
• Coordinating College Community Fundraising events with the Columba’s College Foundation.
• Running the second-hand uniform shop.

More information on recent past contributions and how we support the College community are updated in the PA newsletter, available here.

The PA is committed to making every effort in contributing all we can to help the college and the pupils. Additionally, the PA works to ensure that all parents feel welcomed and part of the College community.

Annual PA Subscription

The annual PA subscription per family will be determined at the PA AGM each year, in consultation with the College Board of Management, and this will be included annually in the College fee account. The PA levy funds (and earnings from the second-hand uniform shop) are redistributed back to the College community.

You can find information on The Annual PA Subscription here.

Parents Association Committee

Parents’ Association Committee Members are elected for a three-year term, commencing at the AGM which is held in October. Ordinary meetings of the PA committee are held monthly online during the academic year. If you’d like to know more about the PA, please contact directly via our dedicated email address: pa@stcolumbas.ie

We also welcome suggestions.

The current committee members 

Chair – Richard Morphew

Honorary Secretary – Ally Bunbury

Honorary Treasurer – Jenny Quinn

Overseas Parents Liaison Représentative – Astrid Taupin Cazenave

Communications Officer – Ikumi Ryan

Other members (in alphabetical order) – Niamh Breatnach, Coibhe Butler, Alex Dobbs, Gordon Larke, Dylan Latimer, Orla McKeon, Hazel O’Dwyer, Christopher Ovenden, and Louise van den Bergh.

Second-Hand Uniform Shop

All used, outgrown uniforms and sports kits are collected, cleaned and sorted by PA volunteers. Collection bins will be placed in all boarding houses before the summer holiday for pupils to donate their used uniforms and sports kits. The funds from the sale of uniforms go towards to the College and the Pupils.

The shop opens during August and the dates and hours will be notified to parents prior to the shop opening.

If you need second-hand uniform, please get in touch with Niamh Breatnach on +353 87 163 2926 or Alex Dobbs on +353 85 739 9603 via WhatsApp. Stock is limited, especially outside the operating month but they will be happy to help you as much as they can.