Vocational Education has been provided in Wicklow for one hundred years and the Abbey Community College is presently celebrating this long tradition, last year the college celebrated the opening of the then Wicklow Technical School in its present location fifty years ago. Over the century both the community and the form education provided has seen many changes, the school had 128 students when it opened its doors in 1954 and today caters for almost 450 pupils. Originally the school was intended to educate young people in subjects such as woodwork, cookery, art and business, today the Abbey Community College offers the largest range of subjects and programmes in Wicklow Town ranging from Junior Certificate to Adult and Continuing Education. As well as the variety of subjects on offer, the school is delighted and proud that it includes among its students, young people from Italy, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands and new entries to the European Union such as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland.
Ten new countries became members of the European Union on May 1st this year and we held a celebration in the school to mark this event and the anniversary of the schools foundation. Students prepared projects informing themselves of the new countries joining the EU as well as gathering history on the school over the last fifty years. The school is participating in the European Spring Day imitative sponsored by the European Union, in this programme, students across Europe came together to learn about each others cultures, traditions and hopes for the futures. The Abbey Community College is partnered with schools in Ziar Nad Honom in the Slovak Republic and Zywiec in Poland, our students are still involved in joint projects such as e-mailing and presentations on each others local environment.
On Friday, April 30th 2004, there was an informal reception in the gym in the Abbey Community College. Students projects were on display and we used this opportunity to officially launch the colleges website.
Abbey Community College Homepage
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