Laurel Hill Coláiste
Laurel Hill Coláiste FCJ (Irish: Coláiste Cnoc na Labhras), formerly known as Laurel Hill Convent, is an Irish Roman Catholic secondary school for girls, situated on the South Circular Road, Limerick, Ireland. It is a relatively small school, with a student population of approximately 400. It is renowned for its academic prowess, featuring highly in the national league tables of Leaving Certificate results and third level entry, coming top out of all the non-fee-paying schools in the 2005 table.
Like all other Irish secondary schools, the three core subjects are maths, English and Irish. French is compulsory in this school, ; other subjects include History, Geography, Art, Music, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Economics, Business Studies, Home Economics, Physical Education, Civics, RE (religious education), German, Spanish, Music and Computers.
Music is a huge part of the school - the choir, which comprises over 150 pupils, has won numerous awards at various choral festivals. Hockey plays a major role, with a number of students on the Munster and national panels. The school also has a competitive bridge team coached by Jill Ashworth, who compete in the all Ireland bridge tournament in Galway every year. It recently came seventh in the overall Irish national school league table, published in the Irish edition of The Sunday Times (5 November 2006), highlighting the high percentage of pupils who go on to university level.
Laurel Hill Coláiste is currently ranked as Ireland's top school by the 'Sunday Times Guide to Ireland’s 400 best schools for the second consecutive year[1] The school overtook another Limerick second level educational college at Glenstal Abbey which is currently second.
The schools uniform consists of a white shirt wine jumper and socks green and wine tie and a full length wine skirt.
Alumnae
- Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, contemporary Irish poet
- Detta O'Cathain, Baroness O'Cathain, Irish-born British life peer
- Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer of The Cranberries, an Irish band