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Students celebrate Slovakian Roma culture.

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We Recently celebrated International Day on the 13th of May 2026.

Incredibly we now have 29 different nationalities in our school and they consist of so many dynamic and wonderful students.

It is an opportunity for them to display their countries flags, food music and for our Irish students too to celebrate our music language and culture.

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We were excited to have our second Summer school at St Nathy's in June 2025. This time with new teachers and students from QFI.

We hope this collaboration will continue for 2026, with some of our students now doing the EMPOWER PhotoVoice Program with QFI over the next few weekends.

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Celebrating our various Cultures, Languages and Traditions including our own here in County Roscommon.

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Show Racism the Red Card 2025 - Educational Video

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Uploaded by Immigrant Council on 2025-01-31.

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Another Year to show how our school community is one of inclusion and equality and to show how we Show Racism the Red Card.

Students and staff alike wore red in solidarity with Anti Racism day.

We are proud of our diverse school and everyone of our staff and students.

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Schools Of Sanctuary Donation. 4th of December 2024.

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Mr Jim Callery with Schools of Sanctuary coordinator Sive O' Connor and Ms Martina Peyton teacher, with Samira, Anzal and Aya. 

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Mr Jim Callery with Schools of Sanctuary coordinator Sive O' Connor and Ms Martina Peyton teacher, with Samira, Anzal and Aya. 

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Representing Schools of Sanctuary at Strokestown house. 

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Representing Schools of Sanctuary at Strokestown house. 

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Immigration, Emigration and migration have always been themes close to us as Irish people. We know what it is too well to have to leave the country we love to create a better future.

One man Jim Callery on opening the famine museum in Strokestown wanted us and future generations to remember this as we now in turn welcome people from overseas to our shores.

On Wednesday December 4th we were invited to attend an award ceremony where Jim through his philanthropy donated to four different charities supporting Irelands homeless, supporting Irelands diaspora abroad and supporting immigrants from abroad here.

One of those charities was Sanctuary Schools Ireland.

St Nathy's being the first champion school in the West attended with Ms Peyton and three leaving cert students from Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria.

The money will be used to spread the Sanctuary schools message of integration inclusion and welcome into more Irish schools.

Education being key to understanding not only our own past but also our future Ireland.

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Roscommon man raises €165,000 for charity with 165km walk on 90th birthday

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A Roscommon man who celebrated his 90th birthday by walking 165km walk along the National Famine Way has raised an incredible €165,000 for charity.

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Students and staff from Sancta Maria with the Sanctuary schools monitoring team. 

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Students and staff from Sancta Maria with the Sanctuary schools monitoring team. 

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Sancta Maria Monitoring day. 18th of November 2024.

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Sancta Maria Louisburgh monitoring day! 

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Sancta Maria Louisburgh monitoring day! 

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As we in were the first Sanctuary school in the West, we were asked to form part of the monitoring team that visited Sancta Maria and decide on their Sanctuary award.

It was great to meet Dr Moran their principal and their staff and students and to be part of their international day.

Sancta Maria have subsequently become the first champion school of Sanctuary in Mayo and will now join us on our journey of spreading the message of Sanctuary and integration for all students no matter their background colour or religion.

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Hundreds of Irish school students and their teachers were treated to a unique and very special webinar entitled ‘Sanctuary Ambassadors; the Inside Story’ on Tuesday 8th October. With a chance to hear the moving and inspiring experiences of six very special Sanctuary Ambassadors, Schools of Sanctuary had an opportunity to find out much more about their countries, as well as the amazing ways they are now using their skills in Ireland.

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Sanctuary Ambassadors Webinar: The Inside Story – Schools of Sanctuary

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Take a look at a Video which explains what our Summer programme, was all about. With thanks to QFI and the BBC.

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Take a look at a Video which explains what our Summer programme, was all about. With thanks to QFI and the BBC.

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LEARNS Programme 2024: St. Nathy's College

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In collaboration with the centre of Global change and the Salam project, we were given an opportunity to host our first Summer school for some of our EAL students, financed by the the QFI (Qatar Foundation international)

With Rasha Elomeri and Sawsan Haffar both Arabic educators and our own Ms Stephanie Hannelly, students were given an opportunity to avail of two weeks English and Arabic tuition during early June.

The school proved to be a great success and we hope to do something similiar again next year.

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We are now involved in research, in collaboration with the university of Indiana and Maynooth university, to share ideas and gain knowledge from International Teachers of Displaced learners around the globe. 

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We are now involved in research, in collaboration with the university of Indiana and Maynooth university, to share ideas and gain knowledge from International Teachers of Displaced learners around the globe. 

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Arabic Example of one of our Summer exams. 

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Arabic Example of one of our Summer exams. 

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The student will respond in English but at least they will fully understand the questions asked. We do this for students until their CALP is at a more confident level.

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A School of Sanctuary is a school that is committed to creating a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment that benefits everybody, including anyone in its community who is seeking sanctuary.
By pledging to become a School of Sanctuary, our school St Nathy's will be part of a grassroots network and growing movement across Ireland and the UK. The Schools of Sanctuary programme is a collaboration between University of Galway Access Centre, the Places of Sanctuary Ireland and University of Galway Access linked schools.

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RTE Report on Technology in Our Classrooms.

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RTE Report on Technology in Our Classrooms.

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Here we looked at the various technologies we use in our classrooms, in order to make the curriculum accessible for our EAL students.

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Technology helps transform lessons for refugee children

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As refugee families continue to arrive in Ireland their children can face significant challenges adapting to the education curriculum and learning to speak English. But technology has transformed the way lessons are taught with phones actively encouraged in the classroom. More than 700 students attend St Nathy's College in Ballaghaderreen in Roscommon.

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Continuous interaction takes place between St Nathy’s College and the EROC Centre. The Home School Liaison Officer and both of the college’s EAL teachers regularly engage with the Educational Officer and parents/guardians from the local centre.

Twice a year, a presentation is given to parents/guardians containing information about the school. This information includes school rules, school policies and school events. They are also given information and important knowledge regarding the school education system, both in St Nathy’s College and in Ireland itself. PowerPoint Live presentations are used to translate the information into the various languages, verbally as well as written.

Support is also provided on an individual basis through meetings. This provides teachers with an opportunity to meet the Education Officer and parents/guardians if needed.

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Here is a short podcast introducing some of the students in our school discussing how they are getting on since they have come to Ireland.

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Here is a short podcast introducing some of the students in our school discussing how they are getting on since they have come to Ireland.

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A big thank you to the students from St Nathy's who participated in the Podcast and Mr Brady to interviewed the students and produced the Podcast

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Clauses 1 and 2 from Student Council Constitution fosters inclusion and diversity in St Nathy's College

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Clauses 1 and 2 from Student Council Constitution fosters inclusion and diversity in St Nathy's College

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The Constitution sets out the process of setting up the council, its remit,  governance and modus operandi.

1. Expand the Council in the following way:  Each tutor class has two ‘volunteer’ representatives, one male, one female, to ensure gender balance.  If the tutor class is less than 21 students, then only one rep, if under 6 students, no class rep as that small class will be represented by a year rep selected by the president, subsequently.

Class elections for class reps may not be necessary unless more than two  are nominated and seconded. The spirit of volunteerism and hard work as opposed to popularity is what is preferred by the executive. (The executive is the main decision making body of the Council).   This would result in a broader more representative council of approx. 50 members.

2. An EAL group can count as a tutor class if this is necessary to ensure representation from a growing non-national body of students, i.e  if not represented through the standard tutor class process.

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Cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) is the term used to describe the formal language used in academia. In other words, the language necessary to understand and discuss content in the classroom. Academic language is often complex and decontextualized, which means language that is removed from the here-and-now. This language usually involves uncommon words. A challenging part about CALP is that it is considered "context reduced," meaning fewer non-verbal cues for understanding the learning, and the language is more abstract. Lessons that are written in the academic language call for the learner to have an understanding of the language. A student who is not a native English speaker may lack the understanding of the language during their first few years of language acquisition; therefore, these lessons will be more difficult for them. Examples of abstract language are metaphors and similes, and colloquial expressions. Examples of academic language are scientific terminology and words that would not otherwise be used in conversation outside the classroom. Research has shown that ESL (English as a Second Language) learners can take up to seven years to be fluent in academic language.

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Cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) is the term used to describe the formal language used in academia. In other words, the language necessary to understand and discuss content in the classroom. Academic language is often complex and decontextualized, which means language that is removed from the here-and-now. This language usually involves uncommon words. A challenging part about CALP is that it is considered "context reduced," meaning fewer non-verbal cues for understanding the learning, and the language is more abstract. Lessons that are written in the academic language call for the learner to have an understanding of the language. A student who is not a native English speaker may lack the understanding of the language during their first few years of language acquisition; therefore, these lessons will be more difficult for them. Examples of abstract language are metaphors and similes, and colloquial expressions. Examples of academic language are scientific terminology and words that would not otherwise be used in conversation outside the classroom. Research has shown that ESL (English as a Second Language) learners can take up to seven years to be fluent in academic language.

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Here we will be talking with our students about their experiences since moving to Ireland, our staff and some of our indigenous students.

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Here we will be talking with our students about their experiences since moving to Ireland, our staff and some of our indigenous students.

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At the start of this academic year. We felt that it would be beneficial aswell, as necessary to have students from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds join our student council. We have a student council, made up of forty students with two coming from each class group.
We were delighted to welcome one of our Bulgarian, Sierra Leone and Ukrainian students from first, third and fifth year onto our 2022/2023 Student Council.
This has encouraged more students to put their names forward for the next academic year and also to consider mentoring our first year students.
We have a constitution that the students sign and vote on every three years.

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St. Nathy's College is one of the largest secondary schools in the West of Ireland.

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Incorporating EAL support, into our mainstream classes. CALP. Cognitive, Academic, Language Proficiency.

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Incorporating EAL support, into our mainstream classes. CALP. Cognitive, Academic, Language Proficiency.

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We have divided our EAL students into two cohort groups.
1st, 4th and 5th taken care of by Ms Brunker.
2nd, 3rd and 6th, taken care of by Ms Peyton. All of our EAL students are tested on their level of English and then supported accordingly, within specific EAL classes and within their mainstream subject classes.
We do this for all our students, but where there is greater need we offer as much support as possible.
Our focus is on CALP, where we realise, students may be confident using BICS, but academic language development can take longer.

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Our Signed Pledge and dedicated Sanctuary Wall❤️

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Our Signed Pledge and dedicated Sanctuary Wall❤️

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Our Sanctuary Wall in progress. Designed by some of our EAL students with an incredible gift for ART!
Here they will depict their journey, their story, with messages of hope and love in all our 27 languages.
This wall will also display our Pledge, signed by our staff and Board of Management as our commitment to being a school of Sanctuary.

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Here the Irish Times documented the journey of the Nasiri family, as they fled Kabul due to death threats from the Taliban.

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Some of our students already faced hazardous journeys before arriving here in Ireland. Our National newspaper has already documented some of these, extraordinary stories of resilience, struggle and brutality they faced before they arrived here in St Nathy's

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St Nathy's College had a successful Open Day for incoming first year and new students. During the evening, tours were provided for the parent and incoming students in many languages.   These tours were guided by students from the school and some of the languages included were Urdu, Ukrainian, Persian and Arabic. These tours in various languages will continue for St Nathy's Open Day into the future.

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A selection of the room signs located around the school that the TY's created for EAL students. 

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A selection of the room signs located around the school that the TY's created for EAL students. 

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Some examples of flags our students created from their home countries which are located around the school

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Some examples of flags our students created from their home countries which are located around the school

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A selection of foreign language books so students have an opportunity to read in their native languages.

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A selection of foreign language books so students have an opportunity to read in their native languages.

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Our Proud History, Mission statement and Motto. 'Robur Nathaei' The Strength of Nathy.

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Our Proud History, Mission statement and Motto. 'Robur Nathaei' The Strength of Nathy.

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History Mission Statement and Motto of St. Nathy's College

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On Friday the 31st of March, We celebrated Give Racism the Red card day. We asked students and staff to wear red as a sign of solidarity against racism not only within our school community but in society as a whole. As part of this we were included in a live webinar, which hosted various speakers who shared their own immigration stories and experiences. It was a successful and enjoyable to mark the end of our spring term.

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On Friday the 31st of March, We celebrated Give Racism the Red card day. We asked students and staff to wear red as a sign of solidarity against racism not only within our school community but in society as a whole. As part of this we were included in a live webinar, which hosted various speakers who shared their own immigration stories and experiences. It was a successful and enjoyable to mark the end of our spring term.

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TAKE positive action to embed concepts of welcome, safety and inclusion.

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TAKE positive action to embed concepts of welcome, safety and inclusion.

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TAKE positive action to embed concepts of welcome, safety and inclusion.

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LEARN about what it means to be seeking sanctuary

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LEARN about what it means to be seeking sanctuary

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LEARN about what it means to be seeking sanctuary

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Here, we created and shared with our colleagues a Powerpoint, showing them how they could translate for their EAL students, in their classrooms.

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Here, we created and shared with our colleagues a Powerpoint, showing them how they could translate for their EAL students, in their classrooms.

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A Summary of what we have implemented so far on our Journey.

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A Summary of what we have implemented so far on our Journey.

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A Message from Our Catering Manager. Mr Liam Grimes. 

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A Message from Our Catering Manager. Mr Liam Grimes. 

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Here, I took a moment to speak with our catering manager, Liam, who spoke with me about our school menu and how our diverse school population and dietary requirements are catered for.
Our menu options change every day and all our chicken and red meat products, excluding pork which is not consumed by the Muslim community, are sourced Halal, meaning they are suitable for our Islamic students. Halal, in Arabic means permissible. It is food that adheres to Islamic Law as is laid  out in the Koran. Our cooking oil is also diverse to accommodate this.
We also have gluten free options and a vegetarian selection.