ENNIS Community College and Gaelcolaiste An Chlair are welcoming prospective students and their families to visit their state-of-the-art facility next week.
Gaelcolaiste An Chlair will host an open evening on Tuesday, October 24 and Ennis Community College open night is on Wednesday, October 25.
Last summer, an extensive €12.5m extension transformed Ennis Community College and Gaelcholáiste an Chláir. The open nights will provide an opportunity for students and parents to meet with staff and students, and tour the modern facility upgrades as they decide their first choice second level education.
Among the additions to the new facility include a full-size sports hall and changing rooms, a fitness suite, a new library, a number of additional classrooms including a new science lab, home economics room, art room, computer room along with new office spaces and a large assembly area.
Brian O’Donoghue, principal of Ennis Community College and Gaelcolaiste An Chlair, told The Clare Echo that an additional €5.5m investment was made as part of the energy retrofit programme over the summer, which saw upgrades including roof and wall insulation, new windows and doors, a new heat-exchange system and gas boilers, solar panels and a 17,000 litre tank for grey water usage which “greatly reduces the amount of carbon the school uses”.
“The upgrades have transformed the entire place,” notes Mr O’Donoghue. “The environment is huge, and you notice it, you get a pep in your step. Students are now benefitting from quality classrooms. We always had fabulous teachers and we still do, we had fabulous SNAs and we still do and they’re a wonderful staff and our students are absolutely fantastic but they’re now learning in state-of-the-art facilities, and they have proper equipment.”
Situated in Ennis since 1938, Ennis Community College is an ETB school while the Gaelcholáiste an Chláir was added in 1993. There is a teaching staff of 55 in addition to nine SNAs and a number of admin and support staff.
Outlining the unique dynamic within the school, Mr O’Donoghue explains, “The Ennis Community College is an English medium school, and Gaelcholáiste An Chláir is a unit within ECC where we do all our subjects through Irish and where students, either before school or during small break or lunch, use the Irish language to converse and they focus on Irish culture. That works really, really well. They’ve got designated classrooms that they use so they’re speaking and using Irish as much as they possibly can. There are about 130 students in Gaelcholáiste An Chláir CAC at the moment and we’d love to see that grow. Overall there’s about 570 students across the school, all well-resourced and we have relatively small student class numbers compared maybe to other schools.”
He adds, “We’ve got a very diverse student population which is very reflective of Ennis and is reflective of the wider population which I think all schools should be. Within that diversity, we have a Gaelcholáiste focused on Irish culture and Irish language. That’s absolutely unique. We’re the Clare providers of Irish medium education.”
Ennis Community College is the only secondary school in Clare offering engineering up to Leaving Certificate, with 15 subjects in total to choose from in the Leaving Cert cycle in addition to the mandatory subjects of English, Irish and Maths; while there are up to seven junior cycle option subjects to select from.
Mr O’Donoghue, who previously served as Deputy Principal at St Munchin’s College in Limerick, says that since his time in charge in 2017 there has been an increase in student numbers of 35-40 per cent, “That’s a credit to Limerick and Clare ETB and the staff of the school.”
He is encouraging all prospective students and their families to visit the open days. The Gaelcholaiste An Chlair open night is on Tuesday, October 24 and Ennis Community College Open Night is on Wednesday October 25. All are welcome to arrive from 7pm.
