‘We don’t want our pupils to be cocooned away in a bubble’
A NEW poster hanging in Christian Brothers College Monkstown hints at there being a few wordsmiths or future Scrabble champions in the school ranks.
It was designed as an A-to -Z list of the values students see in each other. They navigated the choppy waters of letters Q, X, and Z with ease, principal Gerry Duffy explains.
Their youthful energy was captured in Z with ‘zestful’, and their curiosity in Q for ‘questioning’.
“They all come from different backgrounds and different home situations so we have to try to corral them together, look after their individual needs but shape them in such a way they get a good view of the world and deal with challenges that come their way,” Mr Duffy says.
So what of the challenges posed by filling in the letter X on the new poster representing the 500 boys at the school?
“CBC boys have the X-factor,” Duffy interjects enthusiastically. And sure enough it’s emblazoned across the poster.
“What is that X-factor? It is someone who is kind, tolerant and patient. They walk under that poster every day. They see it, read it from A to Z and it is full of the positive values they all have.
“We try to make them confident young men who are happy growing up in their own skin and always with a sense of humility, to know their parents have made sacrifices for them to attend a fee-paying school.
“There is a big sense of charity here and outreach. By the time they get to third year they will have experienced this, have a sense of others and walked in the shoes of other people.
“We don’t want them cocooned away in a bubble. They know they could end up in influential positions to help others someday and it is important to instil that at an early age.”
To help develop this sense of humility the boys and teachers are fully involved in the local community and regularly work with nearby charities.
“We also help out a number of sister schools and a primary school in the inner city. The boys help with reading and other tasks there. They have worked with the Fr Peter McVerry Trust, St Vincent de Paul and other local charities too,” Mr Duffy says.
“There is a project for boys to go to Zambia every two years and that is over-subscribed. They help out in schools, clinics and orphanages for two-and-a-half weeks. There is about a year of preparation work that the boys are fully involved in and parents are always supportive of everything we try to do. That is crucial.”
Mr Duffy, who is now into his second year as principal at the school, says the teachers and staff play a huge role in developing students, not just academically, but into well-rounded young people.
“We have a great crew of very dedicated teachers. They have a strong sense of personal identity that infuses their work. The boys here develop great bonds with those teachers early on and have confidence in them. That helps the boys settle.
“It is great to see them leave as young adults ready to make informed decisions.
“You have watched them grow, been with them through their trials and tribulations, peaks and troughs, and seen their characters develop.”
‘We try to make them confident young men who are happy in their own skin’