Dog-friendly campus notices on the walls and a bright, airy cafe for staff and students, with posters for the film-makers’ club, the art club, the craft club, the book club and the Christian Union, are some of the first signs of inclusivity at Villiers School on North Circular Road in Limerick city.
We are here to meet teachers, boarding-house and catering staff, and students at what is Ireland’s only boarding school to offer the Leaving Certificate and the International Baccalaureate (IB) to senior-cycle day and boarder students.
Introduced into the school in 2017, the IB is a two-year diploma programme in which students take six subjects chosen from arts, humanities and sciences. They also have to write a 4,000-word essay, engage in a module on the theory of knowledge and partake in sporting, creative and voluntary activities. Currently, there are 24 students enrolled in the programme across fifth and sixth years at Villiers.
“When attending Model United Nations conferences [a simulation of the UN in which students role-play national delegates debating global issues] in Europe, the teachers met students attending IB schools and felt it sat well with our ethos,” says Jill Storey, principal of Villiers School.
Renowned for fostering independent learning and critical thinking, the IB is considered to be one of the best academic preparations in the world for third-level education. “There are 10 attributes that an IB student should have – to be knowledgeable, caring, open-minded, reflective, balanced and principled, and to be a risk-taker, an enquirer, a communicator and a thinker,” says Shane Hanna, who leads the IB diploma programme at Villiers School.
“Most of our IB students are thinking of studying in universities outside of Ireland,” adds Storey. Irish students taking the IB also study Leaving Certificate Irish to keep open the option to attend universities within Ireland that require the subject for admission.
With more than 60 nationalities represented in the student body – both among day students and boarders – the international dimension of Villiers extends well beyond the IB programme. Of the 165 boarders from the 550 students, about two-thirds are from Ireland, with the rest from throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and the Cayman Islands. Staff members also come from a range of countries including Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Poland, Spain and South Africa.
Historically, the school has had a strong international dimension, reflecting its location near the international free trade zone set up next to Shannon Airport in the 1960s.
Susan Peña, head of admissions and communications, says that since the school became an IB school, it has attracted more families from overseas, as well as Irish and international families relocating to Ireland from places such as South Africa.
“We could fill transition year with Spanish students based on the number of enquiries we get. But we make sure we have a mix of languages and backgrounds among the boarders,” says Peña. The school recruits students through educational agents in Europe, Asia, the United States, Latin America and Mexico. Students with families in Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tanzania also attend.
Boarding school fees for 2027/2028 range from €12,750 for five-day boarding to €22,000 for seven-day boarding for the Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate Programme. The IB diploma programme costs €17,800 for five-day boarders and €27,200 for seven-day boarders. About one fifth of boarders avail of grants for their fees.
Boarding Schools
This is part of a series by Sylvia Thompson on boarding schools in Ireland – life inside the schools for students and teachers, pros and cons, the costs involved, and the freedoms and limitations. And why parents would choose to send their children to a boarding school in 21st century Ireland.
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Although the school is open to students of all religions and none, there is an underlying Christian ethos, with the Dean of St Mary’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Limerick and representatives from the Methodist and Presbyterian churches on the board of governors.
Villiers School was founded in 1821 followed a bequest from Hannah Villiers to provide accommodation for widows and their children as well as education for the children from the aforementioned religious denominations.
The school doesn’t have a chaplain, but Emily Sexton-Consadine, religious education teacher, is the spiritual and religious adviser who leads whole school assemblies. “I also greet students and staff as they arrive in school to set the tone for a happy place and I am around during break and lunch times. It’s about creating empathy, compassion, respect and openness for those who do have faith and for those who don’t,” says Sexton-Consadine.
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Diversity and inclusion seems to be a core part of the school ethos with an LGBTQIA+ alliance, a People of Colour alliance and non-competitive extracurricular running and tennis clubs held in a parallel to competitive sports such as rugby, hockey and basketball. “We want to make sure that all students regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation feel they have a voice and a safe place in this school,” says Storey.
Mindfulness meditation, yoga, kindness workshops and Feel Good Fridays (an open-mic student-led music event at lunchtimes on the last Friday of each month) run throughout the academic year. There is also a club for students with additional educational needs, which offers them a space to talk about their concerns. Students for whom English is not their native languages have access to extra English classes.
Janet Woods, academic coordinator, brings her labradoodle, Alfie, to class with her every day. “He relaxes students. When they come into my office for an academic meetings, they talk more when he’s there. Any boarders who have left dogs at home particularly love him,” she says.
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The school campus is compact, with new buildings and extensions supplementing Tivoli House, where the school moved from Henry Street in Limerick in the 1950s, and the adjacent Derravoher House and gardens, which was bought by the school in 2012.
Picnic tables are scattered around what would have been the gardens of these once stylish 19th century family homes on the edge of Limerick city. And the basement in Tivoli House has a games room with darts and table football, brightly coloured couches and beanbags and a kitchen for use by sixth-year boarders at the weekends.
Separate dormitories for boys and girls with bedrooms accommodating four to eight students per room are in Derravoher House and Tivoli House. House parents also stay in on-site accommodation. The principal, Jill Storey, her three children and two dogs (a pug and a whippet – both of whom are regularly walked by boarders) live in Tivoli House.
There are plants in the corridors and the art work on the walls is done by the students themselves. “Students say that the dorms feel like home,” says Vivienne Long, head of boarding.
Quotes from boarders at Villiers School
Amy Clarke, first-year boarder from Co Tipperary: “I share a room with five people. It’s nice. It’s like having a sleepover every night. I also like having a time schedule for my day.”
Phoebe Hodgins, fifth year from Co Tipperary: “It’s calm and relaxing and people can choose to do what interests them. There is a lot of balance and structure, which gives me great routine. I like that there are always people around.”
Evan Mooney, sixth year from Co Tipperary: “I’m the youngest of three so my brother and sister came to school here too. It was a massive change to come from a small rural primary school to a school in the city with 550 students, but I think living with other people in school will make going to university easier.”
Kyle Sabeta, third year from Co Kildare, originally from Zimbabwe: “I was a bit rebellious when I came first as I didn’t care about anything, but I changed quite quickly. The school has helped me take care of my belongings and help other people. My favourite extracurricular activities are rugby and hockey.”
Sunny Chang, sixth year from Taiwan: “I came here in second year and stayed with a host family. I joined the boarders in fifth year and I prefer it to being in a host family because I have other students who listen to me. Studying in Taiwan is very pressurised and I’m not very studious so it’s easier to study here.”
Jenna Kasten, sixth year from Frankfurt: “I came here in fifth year because my brother came here and liked it. He was with a host family but I was afraid of getting a bad host family. Some students don’t like the rules of boarding schools but I think that while it is strict, the staff also trust us. As a sixth year, we can sign out for 90 minutes every day and for four-and-a-half hours on Saturdays and every second Sunday. The disadvantage is that so few students do the IB but we boarders mix with the other students.”
Diego Redondo, sixth year from Madrid: “I’ve always wanted to study the IB. My older brother studied it in the US and my parents gave me that option but it was too far away. My cousins came here and recommended the school. I went to Clongowes Wood College as a boarder in first year to learn English. It was very focused on study and sport. It’s more relaxed here. You make good friends as a seven-day boarder but you don’t get to disconnect from school. Overall, it’s a great opportunity to improve my English. I’d like to study a degree through English when I go back to Spain.”