Relevant Background Information – St Andrew’s College 

St Andrew's College is an independent, interdenominational, coeducational preparatory and secondary school, founded in 1894, which offers an educational programme from Preparatory 1 P1 through to Irish Leaving Certificate or International Baccalaureate exam at age 17 or 18 for students of all nationalities. It is situated in Dublin.  

Accreditation 

Since 1983 the School has been fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the Council of International Schools and the International Baccalaureate. 

Composition 

The student body is culturally diverse made up of students from 46 countries.  There are approximately 1,250 students and approximately 150 teachers.    In St Andrew’s over 95% of Leaving Certificate and nearly all of IB students continue on to further education.  

Curriculum 

The curriculum is designed to provide a liberal, balanced and comprehensive education. A programme comprising over 30 academic subjects and a wide variety of sports and recreational activities is offered. The majority of students take courses leading to the Irish Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations, while others follow the International Baccalaureate Diploma programme.  

Curriculum breakdown: Secondary School  

 Years 1 – 3   

Age 12 to 15 approximately.   

Students follow a three-year programme designed by the Irish Department of Education. At the end of Year 3 students take the nationally accredited Junior Certificate Examination in approximately 10 subjects.  

Year 4    

Transition Year (grades not included as non- academic year). 

Transition Year offers pupils a broad educational experience with a view to the attainment of increased maturity, before proceeding to further study. Students will study some core subjects as well as other modules including work experience.  

Year 5 and 6 Leaving Certificate / International Baccalaureate  

Students can opt to follow either the Irish Leaving Certificate Programme (LC) or the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB). Students also applying to college in Ireland are encouraged to take the Leaving Certificate as Irish universities prefer this examination system. 

Leaving Certificate students usually take six or seven subjects each for a two-year period. Exceptionally a student may take eight.  

Covid-19 Information and its impact on the school:

St Andrew’s College closed on 12 March 2020 as per the Irish government directive that all schools were to shut due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The school remained closed until 28 August 2020.  

Remote learning was in place for all students and internal assessments were carried out online. Online classes were conducted through Microsoft teams. Work was set by teachers remotely and students carried out independent study and submitted work to deadlines, while staff upskilled in delivering digital learning.  In some cases, there was a time delay while students obtained devices in order to work online.  The school allowed students to borrow school devices to facilitate learning.  

In the academic year 2020-2021, Christmas holidays were extended by three days until 11 January 2021, followed by a return to remote learning until March 15th.  The 2021-2022 academic year commenced on campus on August 30th with all students on site. 

Unfortunately, in both 2020 and 2021 both the Junior Certificate and the Leaving Certificate state examinations were cancelled.  No accredited grades were awarded to Junior Certificate students.  In June 2022, the Junior Certificate examinations resumed.