Abbey Community College (Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

: Colaiste na Mainistreach) is an educational institution in Boyle

Boyle, County Roscommon

Boyle is a town in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located at the foot of the Curlew Mountains near Lough Key in the north of the county. Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery, the Drumanone Dolmen and the popular fishing lakes of Lough Arrow and Lough Gara are also close by...

, County Roscommon

County Roscommon

County Roscommon is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the town of Roscommon. Roscommon County Council is the local authority for the county...

, Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. The college is co-educational, and operates under the authority of County Roscommon Vocational Education Committee

Vocational Education Committee

A Vocational Education Committee is a statutory local education body in the Republic of Ireland that administers some secondary education, most adult education and a very small amount of primary education in the state...

.

History

Abbey Community College was formed in September 2002 , following the joining of Scoil Chriost an Ri, St Mary’s College and Boyle Vocational School.

Qualifications

Abbey Community College offers a wide range of school educational qualifications, including Leaving Certificate

Leaving Certificate

The Leaving Certificate Examinations , commonly referred to as the Leaving Cert is the final examination in the Irish secondary school system. It takes a minimum of two years preparation, but an optional Transition Year means that for those students it takes place three years after the Junior...

, Junior Certificate

Junior Certificate

The Junior Certificate is an educational qualification awarded in Ireland by the Department of Education to students who have successfully completed the junior cycle of secondary education, and achieved a minimum standard in their Junior Cert. examinations...

, a Transition Year Programme

Transition Year

Transition Year is an optional one-year school programme that can be taken in the year after the Junior Certificate in Ireland and is intended to make the senior cycle a three year programme encompassing both Transition Year and Leaving Certificate...

, and Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme

Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme

The Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme is a two-year Education Programme of the Irish Department of Education and Science. It was introduced in 1989. According to the Department, the programme is designed to give a strong vocational dimension to the Leaving Certificate...

.
The college also runs two further education

Further education

Further education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...

 courses. These are FETAC level 5 Post Leaving Certificate

Post Leaving Certificate

A Post Leaving Certificate is an informal term covering a large range of courses and qualifications run in Ireland for students who have finished their secondary education. The majority of students who enrol on a PLC course are under 23, however mature students are welcome...

 courses, and are taught from a separate campus.

Facilities

Abbey Community College contains newly built facilities, including a lecture/demonstration room, a computerised language laboratory, an Information Technology

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 department, a library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

, and specialist rooms for other subjects, including art, engineering, and music.
Sports facilities include basketball and tennis courts, and a football pitch.

External links

• Abbey Community College Official Website
• Roscommon VEC Profile on Abbey Community College
• Profile on QualifaX, Ireland’s National Learners’ Database.

See also

• Education in Ireland
  Education in the Republic of Ireland
  The levels of education in Ireland are primary, secondary and higher education. In recent years further education has grown immensely. Growth in the economy since the 1960s has driven much of the change in the education system. Education in Ireland is free at all levels, including college , but...
  
  
• List of further education colleges in Ireland