PPU President, Dan Ferrari, recently launched an appeal to encourage past pupils to update their PPU subscriptions and/or make donations to help with the on going development of the school. The hard work put in by all the staff and others involved with the school in recent years has paid off and big improvements in pupil numbers and students going on to third level. The Irish Times put matters succinctly in 2020 as follows –
“The school which has shown the most dramatic improvement in the rate of progression (to third level) over a six year period is Christian Brothers Westland Row, Dublin 2. In 2014 two of its 12 students who sat the Leaving Certificate progressed while in 2020, 15 (71%) of its 21 students who sat the Leaving Cert accepted a third level place. This turnaround has much to do with the excellent leadership of Principal, Kate Byrne and Deputy Principal, Eddie Kelly (who retires this year after serving 41 years in the school)”
The PPU has supported the school in many ways, including financially, over a number of years and in 2020 we launched a scheme of bursaries totalling E2,000 annually to support students to meet some of the expenses in starting their third level education. Kacper Jaroszynski was the first recipient and the following video shows how important our help was to him.
Kacper graduated from the ROW in 2020 and is now in Third Level.
The challenge now is to continue and expand our support (we hope to give even more bursaries in the coming years) but we cannot do this from dwindling resources. We rely entirely on the generosity of past pupils and we need to expand the number of past pupils who pay their annual subs. This is only E25 payable by Standing Order. The President’s recent email enclosed a downloadable Standing Order but if you did not get that you can contact Dan by text or phone call to 087 6238136. Donations, of any amount, will also be welcome of course. Thanks and good luck.
