Rockbrook Park School is a fee-paying,

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

for boys, located on Edmondstown Road,

Rathfarnham Rathfarnham () is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council a ...

Dublin 16 Dublin postal districts have been used by Ireland's postal service, known as '' An Post'', to sort mail in Dublin. The system is similar to that used in cities in Europe and North America until they adopted national postal code systems in the 1 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It was established by a group of parents, partly inspired by the work of the founder of

Opus Dei Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei ( la, Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work an ...

History

The school was founded in 1971, first as a "pre-university centre" at 144-116

St Stephen's Green St Stephen's Green () is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by L ...

, offering repeat Leaving Cert classes for students. In 1972, classes were expanded. Later, in 1975, the school moved to Rockbrook House and surrounding forty acres buying them from John Brown, who was retiring as Chief Brewer with Guinness and moving back to England. The price paid was £75,000

Irish pounds The pound (Irish: ) was the currency of the Republic of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the symbol was £ (or IR£ for distinction). The Irish pound was replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999. Euro currency did not begin cir ...

. In the summer of 1980, five classrooms and a number of small mentoring rooms were added at a cost of £44,000

. In 2006-2008, Rockbrook took on the biggest step in its history, building a brand new school building, car park, sports pavilion, and two new soccer pitches costing €5 million.

School ethos

The school was founded by a group of parents who wanted to combine academic excellence, personal attention to each student and sound moral development, along with a close working relationship between teachers and parents. Rockbrook's education is grounded on a Christian understanding of the world and of the human person. Drawing on Catholic educational principles and social teaching the school emphasises the importance of character development to its students. The school welcomes and respects students of other beliefs and accommodates these insofar as is practical; attendance at religious education classes is optional for non-Catholics. The school fosters a respect for others, regardless of talents, race, colour, creed or social standing. People are to be valued as persons, for who they are, not for what they are. Within the school this respect is fostered in an atmosphere of trust, openness and sincerity, and these qualities should characterise all aspects of school life and interactions between pupils, parents, teachers and management. Students in particular are encouraged to value their freedom and to use it well, taking responsibility for their own actions. The founding parents, notably Lord Kane, were inspired by St.

Josemaría Escrivá Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás (9 January 1902 – 26 June 1975) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. He founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness ...

, the founder of

, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church. St Josemaria’s teaching about the value of one’s ordinary work as a stepping stone to God impacts on the school’s approach to encouraging hard work, excellence and a spirit of service within the school community. At the schools request the Prelature of Opus Dei make a priest of the Prelature available for the sacramental and pastoral needs of the school community. He has no role in the management of the school.

Sports

Rockbrook' first sports are soccer and orienteering, and it has many championship successes in both sports in recent years. It hosts Ireland's first ''padel tennis'' court.

References

External links

Rockbrook Park School websiteRockbrook's Past Pupils Union
{{Private schools in the Republic of Ireland Boys' schools in the Republic of Ireland Secondary schools in County Dublin Rathfarnham Educational institutions established in 1971 1971 establishments in Ireland Private schools in the Republic of Ireland Roman Catholic schools in the Republic of Ireland