St. John The Baptist’s College continues to work in partnership with St. Mary’s Youth Club to provide a range of opportunities and programmes for our young people. The programmes provide an alternative approach to learning for pupils and focus on teamwork skills, resilience, sport, health education, communication skills and building effective relationships. We strongly believe that this informal approach to education complements and supports pupil’s engagement in their formal school education. In many cases this work has helped provide pupils with accreditation through either COPE, Gaisce or the Youth Achievement Awards.

One further additional benefit for pupils we have found is that by engaging with our staff, many pupils then choose to access provision in St. Mary’s during the evening time. This allows pupils to become further involved in our youth work programme which promotes their personal and social development and provides a safe, structured environment for them to meet and socialise. Some examples of projects we facilitate include those that focus upon Health Education, Citizenship, Sport, Community Relations, Volunteering, Outdoor Education and Social Inclusion. Not only do St. Mary’s provide further opportunities for young people to learn and benefit from but this approach also has the effect of providing an additional support mechanism for those young people most in need.