St. Joseph's College is a boys'

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located in

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 14,086 at the 2011 censu ...

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It lies within the Western

Education Authority The Education Authority () is a non-departmental body sponsored by the Department of Education in Northern Ireland. It was established under the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 (c. 12) which was passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly. The ...

area. The college is a member of the Fermanagh Learning Community with links to the South West College, Enniskillen.

History

The college opened in 1960 and was originally under the care of the Presentation Brothers. Bryan Gallagher was principal of St. Joseph's from 1984 until his retirement in 1996. He then became a successful author and popular radio guest on

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

's ''

Home Truths ''Home Truths'' is a weekly BBC Radio 4 programme which began on 11 April 1998 and was usually hosted by the DJ John Peel until his death in October 2004. In the Saturday 910am slot, it gradually became one of Radio 4's most successful program ...

'', a contributor to RTE’s ''Sunday Miscellany'', and a presenter for

Radio Ulster BBC Radio Ulster is a Northern Irish national radio station owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland, a division of the BBC. It was established on New Year's Day 1975, replacing what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4. According to RAJAR, t ...

’s ''Thought for the Day''. In 2015, Helena Palmer was appointed the school's first female principal.

Location and Facilities

It is located on a nine acre site at Drumclay, Enniskillen. The school building includes specialist classrooms for science, art and design, computers, home economics and music.

Admissions

The college recruits students from the parishes of Enniskillen, Botha, Pobal, and Cleenish. Approximately 10% of students are from non-English speaking families including families from Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Latvia and Syria.

Academics

Students have the opportunity of studying a broad range of subjects and to enter for GCSE, A-Level and BTech examinations. A total of 96% of the students who entered the GCSE exams were awarded five or more A*-C grades. In the same year, 63.6% of the students who entered the A-Level exams were awarded three or more A*-C grades. A 2011 ETI (Education and Training Inspectorate) inspection found that the quality of education provided at St. Joseph's was "very good".

Sporting activities

Students can participate in a range of sporting activities including

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

, soccer, athletics and badminton.

Community activities

Students from the college have been involved in supporting a variety of local charitable organisations. These include Enniskillen Food Bank, Action Mental Health: New Horizons, and Pieta House.

Notable former pupils

* Adrian Dunbar - actor * Declan O'Dare - architect * Jamie Ray
footballer

References

External links

St. Joseph's College website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Joseph's College, Enniskillen Secondary schools in County Fermanagh Education in Enniskillen 1970 establishments in Northern Ireland Educational institutions established in 1970 Catholic secondary schools in Northern Ireland