Crescent College

October 29, 2014 in Education
Address

Dooradoyle Road
Limerick

Contact

Telephone: 061 229 655
Fax: 061 229 013
E-Mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.crescentsj.com

Map

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About

Crescent College Comprehensive in Dooradoyle, Limerick incorporates the characteristics of Jesuit Education. It seeks to develop fully each students’ religious, moral, social, intellectual, physical and cultural sensibilities.

As an important means of doing this the school strives to create a strong sense of community between parents, students and teachers.

The history of the school begins in 1859, when Jesuits agreed to manage a school on behalf of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick. This school was initially a Diocescan College and operated from premises in Hartstone St. Later it moved to Crescent House and was renamed Sacred Heart College in 1873. Popularly, however, it was known as Crescent College. The modern school crest reads “Crescentes in Illo Per Omina”. Literally this means ‘growing in Him through all things’, and is based on St Paul’s Letter to the Colossians 1:10.

Sacred Heart College ceased to be a fee paying school in 1971 and became a Comprehensive school. It now operates under the trusteeship of the Society of Jesus and the Minister for Education. The name Sacred Heart College is now defunct. Instead its official name is Crescent College Comprehensive SJ. In 1973 Crescent House had outgrown demand, and the Comprehensive moved to a modern greenfield site at Dooradoyle. Later it became a co-educational school, with a ratio of 3 boys to 1 girl. The Crescent Preparatory School was closed in 1976.

The ethos of Crescent College is Jesuit and Catholic. Most of the current teaching staff are lay-persons, though there are five Jesuit priests currently on the staff. In 2001 the first lay headmaster was appointed.

Crescent College excels in the fields of drama, debating, music and sport which are important dimensions of any Jesuit School. It offers a six-year curriculum, and classes are divided into five lines, each named after a Jesuit patron. Demand for places is still very high, and available places are oversubscribed each year.