Welcome to St Mary’s Secondary School Edenderry
St Mary’s Secondary School is a large co-educational, voluntary secondary school serving the communities in and around Edenderry. We have over 780 students following the Junior Cert, Transition Year, Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Applied courses. In St Mary’s we seek to pursue excellence in everything we do. We encourage all of our students to set high expectations and to bring a positive approach to their learning.
St Mary's is implementing change and improvements all of the time. Our school has advanced in numerous ways in recent years. We hope that our website can keep up with all of the changes on the ground. You are welcome to explore our site.
Rob Halford
Principal
All Ireland champions 2016
St. Mary's
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St. Mary's On Twitter @SMESecondary |
Latest News articles and Galleries
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1st year van gogh project
lca hike in glendalough
st mary's students attend irish rugby training
The Irish Senior Rugby Squad recently trained at The Johnstown House Hotel & Spa in preparation for their Summer Tour to South Africa in June. Two students from each year in our school got the opportunity to attend the closed training session thanks to our teacher Mr. Reehill.
There was a squad of 45 players and the coaching team including Joe Schmidt and new defense coach Andy Farrell, who was working with the team for the first time. We met players from each province such as Jamie Heaslip, CJ Stander, Sean O’Brien, Devin Toner, Rory Best and Johnny Sexton to name but a few. It was a brilliant experience and we all really enjoyed it. Laura Cole TY Photo exhibition Launch
On Wednesday May 11th at 7pm in Edenderry County Library, the photography exhibition St Mary’s Through the Lens was officially launched. The two part exhibition, showing the work of 40 Transition year students in photography, was jointly opened by Sean Wynne, former chairman of Portlaoise Camera Club, and Mr Halford, Principal. Ms Galisson, the photography teacher, extended her thanks to her Club, the Library, the Art Council, her colleagues Fiona Farrell and Liam Mc Grath as well as the Management and Staff of St Mary’s who took part in the project for their support. The exhibition remains opened until the end of the month.
Music From Our 1916 COMMEMORATION1916 sculpture
Proclamation day
March 15th was a very special day for staff and students in St. Mary's when the whole school celebrated Proclamation Day. Proceedings began in the school assembly area when representatives from each class attended a special ceremony to mark the day. The ceremony began with Mrs.O'Kelly welcoming everyone present, including Fr. McEvoy, the Parents Association and two special guests from the Armed Forces - Sergeant Paddy Clarke and Sergeant Brian Ankers.
Mr. Nally read out a piece about the Irish Tri-colour, Mary O'Connor read the Irish Proclamation in Irish followed by the English version read by Cathal Ryan, Katie Gallagher read out her own Proclamation reflecting the hopes and wishes of today's young people and finally the school choir sang Amhran na bhFiann. Sergeants Clarke and Ankers were then invited to bring the National Flag outside where the whole school was waiting in a Guard of Honour, and raise the flag. They were lead outside by a lone drummer, Arman Duzel, and after the raising of the flag, Cathal Ryan read the Irish Proclamation for all students. Proceedings came to an end with a beautiful rendition of The Foggy Dew by Laura Cole and Shane Hurst. 5th years attend hamlet
5th Year English students along with their teachers Ms. Malone, Ms. McNamee and Ms. Lawton attended a production of Shakepeare's Hamlet in the Helix theatre in DCU. Click on the link below to read Eanna Lowry's report.
gaeltacht scholarships
Congratulations to Aoife Jenkins, Conor Gallagher, Avril Donegan, Ciara Farrell, Megan Rainey and Lee Pearson who have been awarded scholarships to attend Colaiste na bhFiann Gaeltacht this summer.
anti-bullying workshop
ANTI-BULLYING WORKSHOP IN SME
First years students in St. Mary’s Secondary School attended an anti-bullying workshop facilitated by Jolante Burke from Trinity College Dublin, last 1st of February. This workshop was organised by the anti-bullying team in the school as part of the promotion of positive mental health in St. Mary’s. Ms Burke delivered a very engaging workshop explaining what constitutes bullying and the types of bullying (repeated physical, verbal aggression, repeated isolation, repeated extortion and cyber-bullying). Students were able to see the dangers of cyber-bullying, since any other type of bullying requires the action to be repeated, whereas cyber-bullying does not necessarily have to be repeated, as technology allows for the incident of bullying to be shared and, through this, the list of potential perpetrators grows in geometrical progression. Our students, during an evaluation session, highlighted the importance of standing your ground, talking to someone and reporting any incidents of bullying in order to ensure that our school continues to be a bully-free school. They also mentioned the work that was done in relation to bullying during primary school. They felt the workshop benefitted them in terms of being more aware of what bullying is, of how the perpetrator is often the person who has the issue and the scars (both physical and psychological) it can cause to a victim of bullying and their self-esteem. 
Certificate Success
Congratulations to Leanne Cusack, Conor Daly and Dylan McGrath who recently received certificates from the Dublin Examining Board for completing modules in Microsoft Word and Excel. Leanne and Conor are pictured above with their teacher Ms. Malone.
Outstanding Leaving Cert results by St. Mary's students.
St. Mary's would like to congratulate all our Leaving Cert students on their success in the Leaving Cert. A very high number achieved an A grade in honours English, with 92% of the students who took the Higher paper obtaining a grade C or higher and 92% of the students who took the Ordinary level obtaining a grade C or higher. 100% of students who took Irish at higher level received an honours grade - compared to the national average of 88%. 85% of students who took Maths at higher level received an honours grade compared to the national average of 71%. 90% of students who took Ordinary level received a C grade or higher - compared to 74% nationally. 15% of students taking Higher level Maths received an A grade - 4% higher than the national averages. The school is delighted that so many of our students got the required points to pursue their preferred university course. As a result 85% of our students will be attending 3rd level colleges and universities in the Autumn. As well as these magnificent results, the school was delighted to learn that it has jumped 20 places in the recent Sunday Times Top Schools in Ireland Survey. St. Mary's maintains its position as the top feeder school to 3rd level in North Offaly.
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New 1st Years
