Colaiste Eamann Ris
St Patrick's Rd, Turners Cross, Cork, T12 XT96, Ireland
http://www.cercork.ie

Coláiste Éamann Rís is the oldest school in Cork City. Founded in 1828, it was an all boys school until September 2019, when the school welcomed its first female students having been granted co-educational status by the Department of Education and Science. Over the past four years the school has experienced a significant increase in student numbers. In 2016 the student population was 200 students, in 2019/2020 the student population is 330, with prospected enrolment for 2020/2021 at 380; in this way the school is one of Cork City’s fastest growing schools.Coláiste Éamann Rís has a long history of promoting inclusion. The school was founded by Blessed Edmud Rice in 1828, with the express intention of working with, and helping, the most vulnerable children in Irish society. In modern Ireland, some of those most vulnerable children are those that live as refugees, asylum seekers or those that live in direct provision. Our school is dedicated to spreading awareness around the plight of young people living as refugees; we wish to move towards a model of education and society that is fully inclusive. A key aspect of this will be to educate students on the plight of refugees. It is our belief that the student population has a huge role in helping refugees become part of our society – to achieve this, social barriers and certain stigmas must be tackled. Moreover the School has been actively involved with promoting the rights of refugees – most recently the school has made national news in leading a successful campaign to stop the deportation from Ireland of three of its students and a past pupil who had graduated from our school with a university scholarship. Additionally the school lead a strong media campaign, appearing on national TV and radio, promoting the plight of refugee students.Indeed the school has acted as a flagship for other schools, in leading the way to establish truly inclusive education. Our school also won the ‘show racism the red card’ national competition in 2017. Here, our school again showed its dedication to promoting inclusion and highlighting the difficulties faced by non-nationals in Irish society.In March 2020 a staff member will also attend a convention on refugees in Geneva.