Ashton Comp in Cork

mini1972

Does anyone have anything to say about this school/

Anyone here attend or have children that are going there now?

Would love some opinions please.

curly from cork

What would you like to know ? All my family went there.

blindsider

I didn't go there myself, but I understand that it has a good rep. I do know that the Principal has retired - they were advertising for a new Principal on the paper quite recently.

curly from cork

Yes. He will be gone in August.He was a great principal very popular.Ashton is a well balanced school. Plenty of activities, sports , good facilities and a lovely teaching staff. They are all very committed to the kids. The new school buliding project is due to go ahead very shortly.It can be quite difficult to get into the school as the 1 st preference is given to children who are church of Ireland.

mini1972

Hi

Thanks for all that!

Thinking about sending our children there.Had heard mixed reviews about it so glad to hear all good here!

curly from cork

No prob , PM me if you need anymore specifics. good luck.

Sonics2k

Good ol' Bertie Smith is retiring?

He was still the Vice-Principal when I was there.

About the school.
Well it wasn't the worst, had an interesting mix of students, which could often lead to some hassle and fights, but I heard Bertie had cleared it up quite a bit in recent years.

curly from cork

No experience of fights thankfully !!! Bertie transformed the place, yes hes going , will be gone in Aug. Retiring aged 60 . Dr Delaney retiring too..
New principal is from the current staff. Adrian Landen.

ClareML

Apparently it's also known as Hashton. I guess the pupils must be more "progressive" in some respects than elsewhere.

How in your face is the CofI ethos?

FierceMild

Completed my LC at Ashton in 2010 after spending 6 years there.

It's an all right school and has managed to lose the 'Hashton' tag in the past couple of years due to the elimination of a rather lax attitude to out-of-class discipline (such as smoking, uniform, 6th years skipping school etc.).

It has an interesting mix of students mainly split between Protestants (which can be an interesting bunch including baptists and born-again etc.) from all around the city and local children from mainly Blackrock, Ballinlough and Douglas areas. It also tends to have a slightly higher percentage of foreign students, even those from Catholic countries.

In regards to the CoI ethos, it's not rammed down your throat. In fact, after going to a Catholic and Protestant primary school, I'd say that Ashton was probably the least domineering in terms of religion. Of course, it still has an in-house reverend but they tend to be wonderfully wishy-washy about the whole religion thing in general.

Apart from that it has good sports facilities (despite a lack of any GAA team; BLASPHEMY ) and a (mostly) competent teaching staff as well as decent range of extra-curricular activities.

ClareML

Thanks FierceMild. That’s really helpful. We’re looking for a school for our son. We think mixed is the way to go and we’re not religious, so Ashton comes close. “Wishy-washy” is perfect in that respect. They are quite militant at the CofI primary school near us – they feel threatened, I suppose.

What’s Ashton’s track record like for science and maths? I know it usually depends on the teachers who are there at the time. When I was at school, the guys who wrote the maths books were teaching at Pres!

If you have any other information about secondary schools in Cork, I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks again.

FierceMild

You'd be asking the wrong person in terms of science and maths, being a staunch defeatist when faced with them in examinations. The best I can say is that all the science teachers are competent individuals doing the best with the course. In terms of maths, you're correct in saying that it depends on the teachers, and Ashton has had a massive turnover in Maths teachers in the past few years so I'll I can say is that my Maths teacher was very able but it's all in the luck of the draw.

On the whole Ashton has a very good teaching staff but I have known students to leave because at the start of the senior cycle they recieved the worst draw of teachers, and knowing them personally I wouldn't blame them for their choice.
However, from talking to my friends who go to Colaiste Chriost Ri, Douglas Community School etc. this is not an unusual occurence.

The people who write and correct the examinations still, for the large part, are found in the private or grind schools such as Pres, Christians, Bruce College and Hewitt. I suppose you get what you pay for.

If the main criteria for your school is that it has the least religious influence (something that I'd be hoping for any future children I have), I would say that any of the Community Schools (Douglas, Carragaline, Rochestown) has about the same religious influence as Ashton.

I'm sorry I can't give you any more information but when you have only gone to one secondary school it's hard to judge the worth of both itself and others but if you want any more specific information feel free to PM me.