Principal’s Welcome/Fáilte ón bPríomhoide

Welcome to St. Louis High School. St. Louis High School is nestled in the heart of Rathmines. Our campus is tucked away on Charleville Road. Our school has stood on this site since 1913 when the St. Louis Sisters established a secondary school for girls. Since then, St. Louis High School has been providing an education to the community that promotes academic excellence, fosters a spirit of curiosity and a love of learning, and ensures equality of educational opportunity to all its members.

Drawing on the legacy of our founding sisters, and supported by The Le Chéile Schools’ Trust, we pride ourselves in providing an education that is holistic, inclusive and in tune with the diverse needs of our students.

Our Junior Cycle, Transition Year, and Senior Cycle Programmes are led by an experienced, skilled, and dedicated teaching and AEN team, who are committed to excellence in teaching and learning. This is evidenced in the high academic standards consistently attained by our students in the state examinations. Regular reporting, careful monitoring, and a merits system are all part of the culture that encourages our students to strive to achieve their personal best.

Our holistic education encourages students to participate in a wide variety of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. The emphasis which the St. Louis Sisters placed on Music, Drama, the Arts, Debating and Sport continue in our school today. We offer students the chance to participate in a wide range of lunchtime clubs and after-school activities. We have an active Literacy Team who have developed a wide range of resources to support students in class, online, and at lunch time in an informal club. Our school debating team, basketball, football, and rugby teams have achieved success at regional and national level. Our students have also enjoyed success in national competitions, such as the Young Scientist, Poetry Aloud, The Maths Olympiad, The All-Ireland Linguistics’ Olympiad and Junk Kouture.

As we confront the emerging challenges of the 21st century, we encourage all members of our school community to participate in initiatives that promote care for our environment and sustainable living. We have constructed a geodome, where students grow a variety of produce, helping them to develop an understanding of food sustainability, to cultivate horticultural skills, and to protect biodiversity. Last year our school was awarded a Green School’s Flag for Global Citizenship Energy and won a WorldWise Global Schools Passport for excellence in global citizenship education.

At St. Louis High School student wellbeing underpins all our policies, procedures and activities. We have a very strong pastoral care system in place with dedicated year heads, class teachers, guidance counsellors, SNAs and a care team overseeing supports for students. We are part of the DCU FUSE anti-bullying and online safety programme, and we are trained in the new DES Bí Cineálta anti-bullying procedures. We complement our policies with restorative practice to cultivate a culture of kindness in our school community.

St. Louis High School has an active Student Representative Council (SRC) elected democratically by the student body. The SRC mentor students, organise a variety of events and activities, and meet with a designated liaison teacher on a weekly basis, all of which ensures students’ voices are heard and students are party to the decision-making process that forms our policies and procedures. We also work closely with parents to support students. We communicate on a daily basis with parents via our school app and use this platform to ensure our parents are kept up to date with school news. We are fortunate to have an energetic, engaged and active Parents’ Council who work with us to promote student wellbeing, to fundraise, and to support our educational endeavours. Our Wellbeing programme, along with dedicated weeks we run such as Sláinte and Cairdeas (anti-bullying), Arts Festival, Maths, Science, Stand-up, Seachtain na Gaeilge and Súil Eile Weeks all contribute to enriching our students’ educational experience.
St. Louis High School is a vibrant and dynamic learning community where creativity is nurtured, diversity and inclusivity are embraced, active citizenship is encouraged, and students are empowered to realise their potential.

As the newly appointed principal to St. Louis High School, I take inspiration from our founding Sisters, our outgoing principal, Clíona Mc Donough, our Deputy Principal, Sinéad Thornton, and from the dedicated team of teachers I have the privilege of working with. I hope to continue to build a school where students can flourish, and where all aspects of their education are nurtured.

If you would like to find out more about our school, please come along to our school open day on October 2nd.

We look forward to welcoming you St. Louis High School.

Louise Stenson
Principal