Villiers Secondary School

Infobox Irish school
name = Villiers Secondary School
irish_name = Scoil Villiers



motto = "Fidei Coticula Crux"
Latin for 'The cross is the
touchstone of faith'
established = 1821
location = North Circular Road, Limerick,
Republic of Ireland
students = 508
keyprole = Headmaster
keypname = Mr Thomas Hardy
free_label = Staff
free = 34 full time, 14 part time
homepage = http://www.villiers-school.com

Villiers Secondary School is a co-educational, fee paying, boarding and day secondary school, located on the North Circular Road, Limerick, Ireland. It is Limerick city's only fee paying secondary school.

Founded under the will of Mrs. Hannah Villiers in 1821, Villiers has a Protestant ethos and is managed jointly by the headmaster and a board of governors. It is situated on North Circular Road less than one mile from Limerick city centre.

Boarders number about a third of the students with the rest living locally. The student body is multi-denominational and diverse including students from Spain, Mexico, South Africa, Germany and Russia.

The school has modern classrooms, a new gymnasium (2001) and hockey pitch (2002), a large IT suite and several science laboratories. Plans for a new science building are well advanced. All students sit the Irish Junior and Leaving certificates, with the vast majority progressing onto third level education.

Extracurricular Activities

Villiers fields junior and senior teams in both hockey and rugby (boys only) in their respective Munster leagues and cups.

Several other sports are played, including football, basketball, athletics, table tennis, tennis, swimming and martial arts.

Music and debating are also encouraged and a large musical acted by transition year students is an annual event.

Distinguished Past Pupils

* Vere Wynne-Jones (broadcaster)
* Jan O'Sullivan (politician)
* Max Dennison (special-effects artist)
* Donald Clarke (film critic and feature writer with "The Irish Times")
* Dan Ketchum (Olympic swimmer)
* Roger Mitchell (Film editor)
* Caroline Mitchell (Knitwear designer))

External links

* http://www.villiers-school.com
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Limerick&ll=52.661694,-8.656277&spn=0.001516,0.005364&t=k&om=1 Satellite photo]