Salesian Secondary College, formerly Copsewood College, is a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located outside the village of

Pallaskenry Pallaskenry () is a village in County Limerick, Ireland. The village is located about west of Limerick city, close to the River Shannon estuary. The town is reached by travelling about five kilometres (~3 miles) north off the N69 National ...

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

, Ireland. The school campus is owned by the

Salesians The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...

and shared with

Pallaskenry Agricultural College Pallaskenry Agricultural College, officially the Salesian Agricultural College, is a private college which provides training for farmers, mechanics and salespeople for the agricultural and farm machinery industries. It is located in Pallaskenry, ...

. As of 2024, there were over 700 students enrolled in the school's co-educational program. The school's webpage describes its mission as providing an education based on Catholic values while incorporating the characteristics of Salesian Education. The basis of that pedagogy is the

Salesian Preventive System The Salesian Preventive System is the educational method of the Salesians, built upon the pedagogical experience of Saint John Bosco with poor children in 19th-century Turin. It is based on three pillars namely—reason, religion, and lovingkindne ...

, which is based on the experience of the 19th-century Saint

John Bosco John Melchior Bosco, Salesians of Don Bosco, SDB (; ; 16 August 181531 January 1888), popularly known as Don Bosco or Dom Bosco (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ), was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer. While working in Tu ...

Curriculum

Salesian Secondary College's curriculum comprises six-year post-primary education, with a three-year junior cycle to the

Junior Certificate The Junior Cycle () is the first stage of the education programme for post-primary education within the Republic of Ireland. It is overseen by the Department of Education (Ireland), Department of Education and the National Council for Curriculu ...

and a three-year senior cycle to the

Leaving Certificate A secondary school leaving qualification is a document signifying that the holder has fulfilled any secondary education requirements of their locality, often including the passage of a final qualification examination. For each leaving certificate ...

History and facilities

According to local tradition, Copsewood was named in the 19th century for Fr. Michael Copps, who lived in the house. The Salesians first took possession of Copsewood House in 1919. The boys-only missionary school opened in 1920 with 100 students, 80 of them boarders. The Agricultural School opened the same year. In 1948, the missionary school was recognised by the Department of Education as a secondary school and began to receive government funding for teacher salaries. The school opened to day-pupils. By 1957, missionary students had been phased out. The diocese permitted the school to become a secondary school, without missionary programs, to serve as a feeder school for the Agricultural College. The school offered subjects such as technical drawing, woodwork, metalwork, physics, chemistry, botany, and economics which were not then common in many schools at that time and were seen as an important grounding for agricultural students. From this came the development of the school's well-equipped science labs in the 1950s and 1960s. Boarding was phased out and ended in 1995, with the dormitory space converted into classrooms. The secondary school is now recognized as a regional leader in information technology. In 1972 the school hired its first female teacher and accepted its first female students. The school facilities include three science labs, a computer lab, a woodwork room, a home economics room, a canteen, a sports hall, a swimming pool and a number of other sporting facilities, including pitches and handball alleys.

Fingerprinting

In 2009 the school introduced an electronic fingerprinting system to assist with daily attendance and monitor absenteeism. This action gained national attention and the government's Data Protection Commission launched an investigation.

Notable alumni

Darren Shan Darren O'Shaughnessy (; born 2 July 1972) is an Irish writer and novelist. He is best known for his young adult fiction series '' The Saga of Darren Shan'', '' The Demonata'', and '' Zom-B'', published under the pseudonym Darren Shan. The forme ...

(b. 1972) - writer and novelist *

Philip Lynch Philip Lynch (born 1946) is an Irish businessman who was chief executive at two public limited companies and multiple senior directorships, including chairman of the board at the Irish postal service, An Post. In October 2010, he was forced by ...

(b. 1946) - businessman

References

{{Reflist

External links

School website

Salesian Agricultural College
Secondary schools in County Limerick