SPC - Jaffna Twins with CBC - Monkstown

St.Patrick’s College Jaffna has twinned with Christian Brothers College of Monkstown Park, Dublin. This was largely due to the effort of Dr. Mary Kokulan Toomey who is resident in Dublin.

Initially this will bring about the following benefits.

1) Correspondence between students.

2) Student Exchange Programme

3) Financial assistance

Twinning is an innovative educational concept, which widens the scope of educational opportunity and access to various programmes for students of both colleges. School twinning brings the world into your class room - it's a brilliant way to enhance the curriculum and development in both schools. It offers many benefits. Whether it's professional development for staff or opportunities for school improvement, the international link enhances the curriculum across the board.

About Christian Brothers College

On January 1st. 1857, the Christian Brothers opened a school at Eblana Avenue in Dun Laoghaire. This was just ten years after the Great Famine and emigration was rife. The school at Eblana prospered to a extent that it became impossible to accomodate both primary and secondary departments in the 19th. Century buildings. Accordingly, in 1949 the Brothers purchased the nearby estate of Monkstown Park, which had been most recently occupied by a Protestant school. The secondary department, which the exception of the commercial stream, moved to the house at Monkstown in 1950, and extended the neo-classical house built by Charles Haliday in 1843. In 1987 the school was further extended to include new offices, cafeteria, staff room and technology department. Our latest addition is the Edmund Rice Oratory, opened in 1994.

This was the origin of CBC Monkstown. The school motto is "Certa Bonum Certamen (CBC) or "fight the good fight;" and the school colours are red, black and yellow. From the first the boys played Rugby as the main competitive team sport of the school and for a small school have achieved relatively great success, winning the Leinster Senior Cup in 1976 and reaching the finals in 1984 and wining the League Cup at Junior Level in 1998.

Famous past pupils include John O'Shea, well known in Ireland for the charity which he founded (GOAL),the playwright, Bernard Farrell and Frank Mc Cabe; managing director of Intel in Ireland.

CBC Today

CBC Monkstown today is a fee-paying secondary school with about 500 pupils. Boys study for both the Junior Certificate after the first 3 years, and the Leaving Certificate after 5 or 6 years. The fourth year is called Transition Year and here the boys study not only the core academic subjects, but such optional subjects and activities as: Japanese, Computer studies,Social work, Tourism, First Aid, Classical Studies, Development Education and Soccer, to name a few. Subjects offered to Certificate students at both levels include: Latin, Technical Drawing , Art, Computers, French and German, Sciences, Maths, Applied Maths, Economics, Geography, History, Irish Language, and English.

Facilities include: playing fields, theatre/gymnasium, Science labs, library and computer room.

Extra-curricular activities are very important. Each year the school produces a musical in association with a nearby girl's school which is extremely successful. Rugby is ever popular, with Athletics taking over in the summer. Other sports taken include: Golf, Swimming, Tennis, Orienteering and Badminton.

Christian Brothers College
Monkstown Park
Dunlaoghaire
County Dublin
Ireland

Telephone : +353 1 280 5854
Fax           : +353 1 280 5907