St Cecilia’s celebrate award

The staff and pupils of St Cecilia’s found out they had won the Pearson National Teaching Gold Award during an episode of The One Show last month.

The school was selected from thousands of nominations as one of the most inspirational schools in the UK.

The Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Colr. Brian Tierney, presented the school with the award last week.

Principal Martine Mulhern said the award was a ‘tremendous accolade for the school at amy time, but particularly in these times of Covid. It represents all of the quality provision of education that we have in our city, from the nursery schools right through to the North West Regional College. We are incredibly lucky to have the calibre of schools that we have.

“I feel really proud that we were able to represent that and I think that everybody owns a bit of this award to be honest.”

Mrs Mulhern said that the ethos of St Cecilia’s has been nurtured over the last sixty years and all past principals and staff have played their part in that.

“We truly believe if you create an environment where children feel safe, loved and listened to, then everything else just clicks into place. Those are the ingredients for children to really and truly reach their potential.”

Mrs Mulhern has said it has been ‘really difficult’ being unable to celebrate the awards as an entire school community with an assembly, but said it has ‘been so beautiful the way this city has rejoiced in our success’.

“2020 has been a really difficult year, It has been the toughest year of my career and the best year of my career. The loyalty of our staff, the pupils and the entire school community has shone through, they have just been incredible and this award allows us to end the year on a real high.”