Mr. C. Hughes, Principal.

A Message from our Principal - Mr. Cyril Hughes

Welcome to Knockbeg College. Our website pages will give you some information about the College and, we hope, a flavour of what life here is like. 

I am now in my 5th year as Principal and in that time I have overseen a lot of infrastructural change in the college in order to improve the environment in which staff and students work. The physical environment has been completely refurbished and I have been moving ahead apace with the installation and provision of I.T. equipment to further enhance the quality of our teaching and learning. Added to this, the staff has undertaken several days training in different active learning methodologies such as Assessment for Learning and Co-operative Learning, which now form an integral part of our teaching and learning strategies. 

In relation to both of the above developments, all classrooms are now equipped with data projectors and all subject teachers have been provided with a laptop or have access to a subject department laptop. Similarly over the last two years, twenty classrooms have been refurbished and refurnished. The cessation of boarding has enabled the creation of new classrooms, notably a new Art Room and a new Senior Business and Economics Room. There are two computer rooms one of which was equipped with 29 new computers this Summer while the other is now equipped with 30 reconditioned computers. In addition 6 computers are available in the Library to enable students to research topics or homework during the lunchbreaks.

Other work has been carried out on a new boiler, the complete rewiring of the St.Joseph's building, the provision of fibre optic cable for the second computer room, the extension of the carpark, new goalposts on all 4 pitches and the painting of the entire building. Overall in excess of €400,000 has been spent in the last four years in order to enhance the physical environment in which your sons work and play.All this has had to be done while waiting for the D.E.S. to move a little faster on the new buildings which have been sanctioned to go to architectural planning and design since November 2006.   

For Pupils & Parents

It is essential that while in school each pupil conducts himself in a manner that allows him to best fulfill his potential, that he respects the needs and concerns of other pupils, and that he co-operates with the staff. The grounding for good education is in the home - it is the focused and motivated student who tends to benefit most from school - and in this respect we would ask parents to work with their sons and the staff in ensuring that homework is done, that an evening or weekend study schedule is put in place, and that a positive attitude to school and study is nurtured. Ensuring on a daily or weekly basis that homework and study is being attended to, that the uniform is in order, that there is punctuality of, and regularity in, attendance will help the focus towards learning and complement the work of the staff.

This is a relatively small school, and we feel that the spirit of co-operation that exists here between staff, pupils and parents and that is integral to pupils’ personal and academic development has always been a hallmark of Knockbeg. Inevitably, while the onus will always be on encouragement and the instilling of self-confidence and a sense of self-discipline in pupils as we work with them to the best of our ability, situations will occur in a school whereby disciplinary measures need to be taken, parents need to be contacted or parents need to contact us, and there is a Pastoral Care/Discipline system in the school to facilitate this. All of the staff work in the area of Pastoral Care, trying to ensure that the personal as well as the academic needs of the pupils are attended to. We stress that at the core of all interactions in the school should be Respect for one another and our expectations to that effect, as staff and students, have been written down and are displayed throughout the school.