Secondary school hosting closing cermonies to mark the end of an era

THREE Ballyfermot schools are hosting closing ceremonies this week to mark the end of an era.

Caritas College, St Dominic’s College and St John’s College, are amalgamating into the new St Seton’s Secondary School in September.

St Seton’s was due to open in September 2022, but it was postponed for 12 months due to “lack of progress” with the building programme on site.

The new secondary school will be required to accommodate up to 800 pupils.

On Wednesday, St John’s College held a closing ceremony, inviting the community, staff and parents, past and present for a celebration.

This was followed on Thursday by Caritas College, who are hosting a ceremony and final farewell at 5pm.

Caritas first opened it’s doors to young girls in Ballyfermot back in 1967.

Finally, on Friday, St Dominic’s will host a commemoration Mass to mark the closure of a school that was open for 67 years of Dominican education in Ballyfermot.

Dominic’s mass will take place at the Church of the Assumption at 11.30am, and afterwards there will be light refreshments and a walk down memory lane at the school.

The delay in opening the new school led to significant opposition in the community by a group of parents, residents, representatives and educators, who say St Seton’s is “not the vision of a state of the art centre of excellence that was sold to us back in 2019”.

Le Chéile and CEIST, the trustees of the three schools and Sarah Green, St Seton’s Principal, reached an agreement with the Dept Education to extend the timeline for opening the new school which will allow for “greater planning”.

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