St Mary's N.S.
St Mary’s N.S., in Limerick, is a DCU Changemaker School since 2024. Located in the heart of medieval quarter in Limerick city. The school offers an array of exciting initiatives to embed the four pillars of empathy, creativity, leadership, and teamwork. Check out their website here.
Creativity
The school runs Creative Art Therapies a collective term used for the art therapy, dance movement therapy, drama therapy and music therapy offered in the school as well as Sing Out with Strings (SOWS). SOWS is a groundbreaking initiative in conjunction with the Irish Chamber Orchestra that offers the children the chance to learn music with qualified musicians. Inspired by El Sistema, the Venezuelan model of music education, SOW provides the children with free singing, songwriting, violin, viola, cello and double bass tuition, harnessing the power of music to develop children’s key skills, including concentration, co-ordination, listening and teamwork. There are also several “Meet the Musicians” workshops throughout the year where children meet musicians from various different genres.
Empathy/ Leadership
As well as running the Roots of Empathy programme in the school, St. Mary’s N.S. also runs the HAPPEE Project. The Health Alliances for Practice-based Professional Education and Engagement or HAPPEE is a University of Limerick (UL) community partnership delivering in-school interventions in physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. The programme is delivered by students of UL on 8–10-week supervised placements.
“The HAPPEE project has the ability to create a multi-disciplinary approach that will benefit all the children in the school. This transformative project will help increase educational outcomes and attainment."
“We have huge needs within the school and wide range of complex needs as well. The HAPPEE project allows us to address those needs at a very early stage to provide early intervention and the major benefit of the programme is that it is taken out of that clinical setting and put into the community setting. We find that that there is huge proportion of children that attend and engage very well in the community setting and that is shown throughout the HAPPEE project as well,”
Eoghan O’Byrne, Principal
The school has recently employed a Family Support Worker to enhance the opportunities of parents and community partners. The aim of the role is to enhance further employment and education opportunities for our parents and families. Statistically, the school is based in one of the most disadvantaged areas in the country. Their aim is to support the whole community around social injustices and to advocate on their behalf. They offer a wraparound model that not only supports our children, but the wider community in which we are embedded. They offer creative art therapies, equine programmes, and a wide variety of other programmes that are aimed at equipping their children to better deal with their emotions and thus become positive influences and contributors to their community.
St Mary’s NS is a proud member of the Oscailt network in conjunction with Mary Immaculate College. The scheme, which was led by the DES, provided funding to enable twenty-two DEIS primary and four post primary schools in Limerick City to share their facilities with the wider community outside of school hours, including evenings, weekends, and holiday periods. It also provided funding to enable these schools to provide additional after -school programmes and activities for children and adults in their local communities. The school are also proud holders of the Active Flag, Amber Flag (for Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing) and Green Schools Flag.
SFI/STEM
St Mary’s N.S. has received the highest STEM award in the country (SFI Platinum Award). The school applied for the SFI Platinum Award and was successful in the following domains:
- Science
- Technology
- Engineering
- Maths
- STEM resources
St Mary’s N.S. in Limerick is a proud DCU Changemaker School and always open for research and opportunities.