Welcome to St. Mary's Secondary School, BALLINA.

The school with a warm welcome, a caring heart and a guarantee of excellence.     

Still basking in the successes of another amazingly successful year of endeavour and achievement at St. Mary’s Secondary School Ballina and with our Leaving Certificate students safely embarked on the next stage of their academic journey- results received, CAO Points counted and celebrations continuing – our thoughts now turn to the new group of students who will grace the hallowed halls of this great institution for the first time next week, and to those students returning to continue the journey already begun.

While we joyfully anticipate the year ahead we are also conscious that we must continually strive for excellence if we are to maintain the very high standards achieved in this academic year –a year that saw the school capture the prestigious Taoiseach’s Seán Lemass Award for excellence in Enterprise -the first time such an award crossed the Shannon- and for Social Enterprise the school capturing the All Ireland Apprentice Challenge Award, winning the hearts and minds of the national judges but more especially the fulsome praise of that greatest critic of all of Transition Year Bill Cullen and his partner Jackie Lavin who said  “it was the best school he ever visited”.

But of course it is in the area of academic excellence that every school is challenged to achieve and again for St Mary’s this great year has just been book-ended by one of the best performances ever by our Leaving Certificate students, with the whole school community celebrating everything from Eimear Flanagan’s 7A1s, the 16 % who scored over 500 CAO points , the 50% who scored in excess of 400 points , the number of Distinctions in LCA and most importantly the number of girls who, in passing their Leaving Certificate achieved their absolute potential and left with a smile on their faces as broad as Killala Bay! The school salutes each and every one of our wonderful girls and thanks them for not only bringing joy and celebration to their parents and families but also for all the joy and celebration they have brought to St Mary’s these past 6 years !

That we have been so successful in pursuing and reaching all those ideals is by now well documented and we hope that these achievements will long continue to be a source of joy and inspiration to all those young ladies who we welcome on a new journey next week !

Patsy Sweeney

(Principal)

Leaving Certificate Student Eimear Flanagan is congratulated by School Principal Patsy Sweeney on her amazing achievement of scoring 7A1s in LC 2012.

Leaving Certificate Students Kellie Gallagher and Sarah Clarke celebrate their  high fives –both achieved in the high 500s!!

Congratulations to Sinéad Moran, Inara Zaurers, Eimear Flanagan, Chloe Walsh and Elaine Igoe.

Examination Countdown Clock