St. Kilian's German School keeps a high academic profile. While it offers the full range of academic subjects in the Secondary school, with humanities, language, science and business subjects, its main focus is certainly on language, and on productive knowledge of the different system of thinking that accompanies the acquisition of a second language.
St. Kilian's students learn to use a second language right from the start. German is not only the language of a school subject, but also the language of instruction in subjects like Art and Music (Primary) and International History (Secondary). St. Kilian's students learn to communicate through German - besides, of course, English, Irish and French. German is also spoken in the Kindergarten. (For an overview: German in St. Kilian's)
However, a St. Kilian's education is not one-sided. High academic standards are also the hallmark of our humanities, science and business syllabi. In all these subjects St. Kilian's students do remarkably well in the Irish Leaving Certificate, in fact they achieve 40 points more than the average Irish Secondary student applying for a university place, and 10 points more than the average private school student. Compared with the average co-educational school, St. Kilian's students achieve about 60 points more.
All this is the result not only of excellence in teaching and outstanding facilities, but also of a pedagogical concept that combines pastoral care, familiarity and challenge, support, encouragement and assessment. It opens children’s eyes to different ways of seeing the world, and gives them an outstanding level of skills for Third Level education. St. Kilian's students gain the self-confidence they need in order to master life after school.
Mission
Statement for St Kilian’s
There are three aspects to the mission St. Kilian’s has towards its pupils:
Cultural foundation
In order to judge the present and look at the future, we have to start from the
richness of experience that was there before us. If our cultural tradition is
critically owned by the pupils, the pupils can develop in a creative way their
own personality. It is only through the accompaniment of teachers who are
attentive and passionate, that this will happen.
Study as a discovery
Our task is to educate pupils to use reason adequately, provoking them to ask
themselves the reason of everything, the why of everything. Reality in fact
(whether it’s a poem, a theorem, a chemical or physical phenomenon, a musical
piece, a picture) has a meaning which is worth discovering. This is the
hypothesis from which we start. For this, we desire to educate our pupils
towards an attitude of openness, a willingness and attention towards everything
we encounter, starting from the lesson. For this, we introduce the children to
the fascinating adventure of knowledge, not only offering them instruments to
interpret the different mediums of expression (e.g. literature, music, art) but
guiding them since their first years to a capacity of personal judgement.
European openness
The new generations are more and more likely to move within an international and
especially European context. Attendance of pupils of German and Irish background
and many other European countries will enable the pupils encounter and become
familiar at an early age with other European peoples. St. Kilian’s gives much
importance to the exposure and education of the pupil to the vast riches of
European culture and history of which he/she is a part. In this regard the
school, by tradition and by mandate, gives particular focus to the German
language and culture as well as the language and culture of Ireland.
Complete version of the School's Ethos and Mission Statement