A feature on the website of design company Red Dog gives a good account, complete with photographs, of the process of creating our lovely new prospectus. Many of the photographs in the brochure have since been used on this site.

The prospectus is only available in paper form (a conscious decision) and can be order by prospective parents from Mrs Amanda Morris, Admissions Officer, by filling in the request form at the bottom of this page.

In the words of Red Dog, “With the help of photographer Finn Richards (art directed by us) we spent time on campus capturing daily student life at St. Columba’s. This resulted in a rich bank of photography encompassing all aspects of the school – from the creativity in the art centre, to the contemporary science block and traditional dining hall.

This bank of photography was then used in a distinctive brochure featuring a green cover – alluding to St. Columba’s colours – with the school crest appearing in a matt silver foil. We created two photographic dust jackets with timelines, printed on a contrasting gloss paper, to wrap around the cover.

The interior includes inserts featuring endorsements from alumni – testimony of the unique educational opportunity offered to students at St. Columba’s College.”

The superb College Library opened on two sides of the Warden’s Garden in 1994, as a result of the Development Appeal in 1993 for the College’s 150th anniversary. Now we are approaching our 175th (in 2018), and the Library continues to be central (literally) to the life of the school. Designed by Old Columban John Somerville-Large, its design has held up superbly, and it still looks as good as new.

Our new full-time professional Librarian, Ms Kent-Sutton, has been busy since she arrived early this year, and indeed over the summer.

Two fine developments as we start the academic year have taken place. The room through the back of the Junior Reading Room, traditionally called ‘The Submarine’, has been completed cleared of piles of old books and detritus, and is now ready for use as a seminar and meeting room (it will also hold the archives, which will be held in special new shelving).

Secondly, the catalogue and borrowing system has moved online to ‘Oliver’, a vital development which allows the Library to reach out beyond the confines of its walls. Pupils and staff can access this here and via the internal Firefly Learning system. It also enables staff to direct pupils to books and other resources in a much more sophisticated and wide-ranging way. Furthermore, all will now have access to the e-book service ‘Leabharlann’.

As we head into that 175th anniversary, the Library is in good shape.

[originally posted on SCC English]

The College will again be a venue for the great national event that is Culture Night, which this year is on Friday 22nd September. Last year over 80 visitors came to the College for a talk on its history and an architectural tour of the highlights of the campus, and this year the format will be the same. Visitors are welcome to come from 6.30pm (there will be pupil guides at the entrance), gathering by 7pm in the Chapel. Then the Sub-Warden, Julian Girdham, will give a short talk and lead the tour, which of course includes the Chapel itself, Chapel Square and the Big Schoolroom, the central gardens, the Science Block (recently refurbished) and the 18th century main Hollypark House.

See the College’s entry on the Culture Night website here and check out the Dublin brochure here.

No booking is required for our event.

There are two summer reading lists just out which visitors to the site may be interested in –

The Librarian, Ms Kent-Sutton, has compiled a list for pupils which can be downloaded here, or read online here.

The English Department is back with another parents’ reading suggestions list here (26 books over 6 pages), or if that isn’t enough there’s an extended version with all past issues here.  And again both are online as flippable Issuu versions here.

The evening of Sunday 28th May saw the annual Voices of Poetry magic in the Big Schoolroom. Expertly marshalled by Mr Swift, a mixture of pupils and staff read out short poems in English and many other languages.

Primary pupil Carl Krenski kicked off with a Robert Service poem, and, from the other end of the school Senior Prefect Blanaid Sheeran gave us ‘The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently‘ by the fine American Poet Thomas Lux.

The first Nigerian language, Urhobo, was represented by a poem read by Ella Ejase-Tobrise, and the second, Yoruba, by Seyilogo Braithwaite. Mimi Garcia (Catalan) and Casper von der Schuelenburg (Spanish) followed, and this foreign language section was completed by Elena Sirazetdinova reading her own poem in Russia with compelling intensity.

The winner of the Junior Poetry Prize, Tania Stokes, read this poem, ‘Resonance’, for which she was awarded the prize.

Kim Voggel (German), Aleksandra Murphy (Polish),  Lucas Cho (Korean), Vietnamese (William Zitzmann) and Irish (Katherine Kelly, with Megan Bulbulia providing the English translation) were next up.

Three long-term teachers, who are shortly retiring, gave their poetic ‘valetes’ – Dr Garry Bannister, Mrs Frances Heffernan and Mr Fraser Morris. There was a mixture of the light-hearted, the deeply personal and the grippingly emotional in the five poems they recited.

French (Nyla Jamison), Yoruba again (Harry Oke-Osanyintolu) and Latin (Julius Reblin with some Horace, and JiWoo Park with the translation) completed the foreign language poems, before the Warden gave a memorable rendition of Hilaire Belloc’s ‘Matilda’, which he knew off by heart.

Finally, another Primary pupil brought us full-circle, with Nikolai Foster reading Yeats’s beautiful ‘Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven‘, an appropriately magical end to the evening.

[first posted on SCC English]

We are holding our regular summer term Open Evening on Thursday 18th May, from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, and all are welcome: places may be booked by contacting the Admissions Officer, Amanda Morris via the contact form or by emailing admissions@stcolumbas.ie.

Visitors are welcome at the Main House from 6.30pm. At 7pm there will be a short presentation by staff on the school, followed by 30-minute tours conducted by Junior pupils.