University & College Admission Teams

Information for University and College Admissions Teams

 

St Cecilia’s College is located in Derry city in the North West of Northern Ireland, which has a population of 105,000. St Cecilia’s College is a non-selective all-girls comprehensive 11 to 18 school. Current enrolment at Cecilia’s College is 855, including 180 pupils who study full-time in our sixth form. Our school has a wide catchment area with pupils travelling from urban and rural areas

 

We have a proud tradition of providing a social, emotional, spiritual and academic education to the young people of Derry for 56 years.Many of our pupils come from areas of the city which are classified as some of the most disadvantaged areas (top 5%) in the United Kingdom. Approximately 65% of our pupils receive FSM, 70% of our pupils receive a post-16 Educational Maintenance Allowance, and over 75% of our pupils are from widening participation backgrounds.

 

Historically over 60% of our pupil’s progress to higher education. Pupils in sixth form study three subjects at AS-level and A2-level. Our curriculum is broad and balanced, where pupils have access to general qualifications (from examinations boards including CCEA, AQA and Edexcel) and vocational qualifications (from examination boards OCR and Pearson Edexcel).

 

All pupils take part in an enrichment programme where they volunteer through the Pope John Paul II Award and support our younger pupils through our Guardian Angel programme. Currently there is a particular emphasis on mental health and well-being, and resilience within our enrichment programme. Our pupils have highlighted these challenges as a result of the Covid pandemic. The Covid pandemic has impacted our sixth form pupils’ learning and assessments. Pupils experienced a national lockdown in March 2020 and again in January 2021. St Cecilia’s College adopted an online learning approach, but a considerable barrier to learning was the lack of suitable digital technology for some of our pupils to engage in online learning. Blended learning was adopted throughout the 2020/21 academic year to mitigate, where possible, the impact of Covid related absences.

 

Pupils have not been able to visit university open days, but our pupils have accessed relevant virtual open days, virtual taster events and widening access university programmes to help them prepare for their UCAS application.