Cork's St Francis College gets green light for new school building

With its 150th anniversary on the horizon, staff at St Francis College in Rochestown are celebrating an announcement by government that their new school building will shortly be progressing to construction.

In Cork, 12 schools will progress to tender and/or construction for new school buildings or extensions this year and next year under new plans announced by government last month, including St Francis College.

The school is one of two in Cork approved for a large scale project, which will allow them to offer new subjects and take more students.

The development has been warmly welcomed by the staff, pupils, and the wider community.

Principal Marie Ring told The Echo that these plans have been in discussion for “a long time”, since the early 2000s.

“Funding was granted in May 2019, we went through the tender process and a design team was in place by October 2019. We moved through the early stages very quickly, then we were on Phase 2B for a while, but we are just thrilled that we can progress these plans now.”

The project will see a new three-storey building constructed behind their existing three-storey building.

“Our school is unique in that it’s on quite a hill, so there’s an awful lot of levels”, said Ms Ring, adding that the building itself dates back to 1884.

“We celebrated 140 years two years ago.”

Brother Phil Baxter, chair of the school’s board of trustees, said: “The Capuchins came to this site in 1871, it took them until 1884 to get the building built.”

Initially the school started in Kilkenny, with the novitiate (facility where monks trained to join the brothers) in Rochestown.

As the school grew, they decided to swap purposes.

No expected completion date is available yet, but the school are hoping that their younger cohort of current students will get to spend time in the new building.

Ms Ring said: “It’s a major project which will take a number of years to be built, we just hope it will start in the very near future.”

The announcement that their school was included in Cork schools approved to go to the next stage of their project came a fortnight ago, with Ms Ring saying they had been “hoping and praying” for this outcome.

Ms Ring said she was at a conference in Tullamore when the news broke, and she rang the two deputy principals, David Donovan and Patrick Croke, as well as Br Baxter and the provincial minister of the Capuchins to share the news as fast as she could.

Mr Donovan said: “It’s since been a week of celebrations, everybody has been in contact, and there’s such a buzz around the school.”

Br Baxter said: “There was huge excitement, and the relics of the excitement are still around,” pointing to a helium balloon in the corner of the room.

He said community is one of the Capuchin core values; a point expanded on by Mr Donovan.

“There’s a strong sense of community in the school, and the wider community are so thrilled for us. It means the same amount to them as it does to us, it’s been great to see the community get in touch with congratulations.”

While St Francis College currently accommodates 730 pupils, the new building will allow them to increase this to 900.

Mr Croke said that the proposed plans include 19 classrooms, four science labs, two multimedia rooms, an engineering room, two technical graphic DCG rooms, a construction studies room, home economics room, a special class hub, a sports hall with a fully equipped gym, playing courts and astroturf, and large general purpose and dining areas.

Ms Ring said: “We need all of those things, which is why we’re so excited. It’s just going to open up opportunities for our students that they don’t currently have.

“It’s a major capital investment, and it’s a significant that the project will be devolved to the board of management, it won’t be in a bundle with other schools, our school will be able to manage the project’s delivery.”

She thanked the department of education, saying: “We are truly grateful for what is being provided to our school community, and we look forward to continuing to work with them into the future to see the project to fruition.”

Ms Ring also thanked the school’s joint managerial body, their trustees, and their design team, KOBW Architects, Varming Consulting Engineers, O’Connor Sutton Cronin Engineers, Tom McNamara and Partners, and Occupli.

Reflecting on the progression for the school, local TD and minister of state Jerry Buttimer said: “I’m very glad to see that the new build for St Francis College is progressing.

“The students, parents, staff, and board of management have been so strong in advocating for the investment. As a Cork minister, I am delighted to see so many good school build projects progressing with this news.”