LORETO SECONDARY School Wexford will celebrate a significant birthday this month and for the first time, will do so without a Loreto Sister on its staff.
The Loreto order has educated young women in Wexford and, in doing so, has greatly contributed to and influenced life in the town, for the past 150 years.
At the end of the last school year, however, an era came to an end when Sr. Carmel Swords retired from her post as Deputy Principal.
First established in a premises on George’s Street in Wexford town in 1866, Loreto Wexford had an enrolment of some 103 students by the following June.
Frances Teresa Ball had founded the Loreto Sisters in Ireland some 45 years previous, in 1821.
Fast forward to 2016 and a 720-strong student body attend school at Loreto Wexford’s iconic Spawell Road buildings.
According to an annual ‘Schools Guide’ recently published in national media, the school is now the eigth best girls’ school in the country when fee-paying schools are taken out of the equation.
Once work is completed on the new Loreto Wexford premises in Clonard in 2017, Principal Billy O’Shea looks forward to welcoming a whopping 900 students through its doors.
Loreto Wexford has always exuded a holistic approach to education, valuing and nurturing the diverse talents and capabilities of young women in pursuits from music to maths, hockey to debating and much more besides.
A plethora of talented teachers have educated and inspired at the school over the past 150 years and as Ireland has moved through changing times, the school has held firm to the values and passion expressed by Mary Ward when she founded the Loreto Order back in 1609.
As the school celebrates its 150th birthday, Principal Billy O’Shea is confident that Loreto values will remain at the core of its work with young women well into the future.
A book charting Loreto Wexford’s first 100 years was compiled for the school’s centenary and current teacher Linda Jordan has brought the Loreto story right up to the present date in the form of a carefully-crafted book packed with photographs, articles and more.
Sure to be treasured by many, it will be launched at the Talbot Hotel on Wednesday next, September 14th, by Labour Party Leader Brendan Howlin.
The launch will be the focal point of a fortnight’s celebrations at the school, bookending Loreto Wexford’s hugely successful period of history spent on Spawell Road.
See more in the Wexford Echo.