Fantastic opportunities & experiences at St Ciaran’s

Yesterday was to be the night that St Ciaran’s College, Ballygawley cast open its doors and welcomed local primary school pupils and their parents inside to enjoy the Principal’s welcome, and an escorted tour around its many wonderful departments and super facilities, as part of our traditional Open Night.

But alas, like many of our plans over the last many months, the current situation has meant that our Open Night must go online only. So, this year, we warmly invite all prospective pupils and their families to follow us online and see what fantastic opportunities and experiences we have to offer.

We have a wonderful promotional video posted on our school Facebook page giving a little taster of St Ciaran’s, and we encourage everyone to peruse our School Prospectus 2021, which will also be posted on our website today.

St Ciaran’s has a long-standing history in the local community as being a school with family at its very core. The St Ciaran’s Community is a strong and secure one; many staff are past pupils, students are at school with their siblings and other family members, and many of their parents are past pupils.

However, even for students who do not have family links to the school, they very quickly become sewn into the fabric of school life due to the very personal approach we take with our student body. Each St Ciaran’s student is included, valued and inspired to give their best, regardless of academic ability, and that is something that we pride ourselves on.

The close relationship our staff have with our students has never been more needed and important than during this pandemic crisis, and we have ensured to meet the emotional as well as academic needs of our young people in this most challenging of times, through our superb pastoral care.

We are also delighted to offer our students a wide and varied range of subjects. At GCSE level alone, we offer 27 subjects, and at Post-16, we offer 14 AS/A2 subjects, as well as GCE Applied courses and seven BTEC National Award courses, ensuring we are catering for a broad range of interests and abilities, once again reflecting our all-inclusive ethos.

We are always so proud to hear of the many wonderful achievements of our alumni, and where their university choices and career paths have led them. Past pupil Paul O’- Donnell’s inspiring profile is just one of the many to be found on our social media pages in the last week. Students are also offered an extensive choice of extracurricular activities to allow for an all-rounded educational and social experience at school.

These include our famed sports teams; Language Club; Drama Club; Choir; Instrumentalists group; Coding Club; Student Council; Public Speaking teams; Film Club; and many, many more.

As our Year Eight student, Cathal McKenna succinctly puts it, “If you come to St Ciaran’s, you will be in very capable hands. All your teachers wish is for you to do well, and as our Year Head, Miss McKenna says, ‘We are all one big family here’.”

As we unfortunately cannot meet face-to-face on the night, we are available to answer any enquiries through our email info@stciarans.ballygawley.ni.sch.uk and via phone on 02885568640. Online information is also available.