New model school planned for Dublin

Around 20 first-year students at a Dublin school will sit, not one, but two sets of State exams in June 2008, under an innovative…

Around 20 first-year students at a Dublin school will sit, not one, but two sets of State exams in June 2008, under an innovative agreement signed in the presence of the French and German ambassadors to Ireland yesterday.

Under the plan, St Killian's German school has agreed to lease land to the French school, Lycée Français d'Irlande, to allow it to erect a school building there.This will lead to the creation of a campus, to be known as Eurocampus Dublin, which will allow both schools to integrate their operations.

The building, which will include nine classrooms, will cost around €2.7 million, and is being part-financed by the French government. School authorities aim to have the school built in time for the 2006-07 academic year.

When the work is completed, the 120 students at the school, which is now operating in temporary accommodation, will sit both the Junior Cert and the French equivalent, the Brevet des Colleges.

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First-year students entering the school next September will be the first to be prepared for both exams, in June 2008.They will also share about half of their classes with students at St Killian's.The shared classes, in subjects such as English, maths, history and geography, will be taught through English, with the remainder taught through either French or German.

The aim is eventually to increase student numbers at the Lycée Français d'Irlande to around 170 - and possibly to extend the agreement to cover the Leaving Cert and its French and German equivalents.

At the signing of yesterday's agreement, the French ambassador to Ireland, Mr Frederic Grasset, said Eurocampus Dublin represented a "new model" of schooling.

"The time has come to enlarge the scope of the opportunities for students," he said.

Dr Gottfried Haas, Germany's ambassador to Ireland, said the aim was to create a "trilateral school in the European spirit".

"It means we will have children of three different cultures educated in one classroom, and by that process becoming Europeans," he said.