Sixth Year

The opportunity for our students to thrive academically; to enhance leadership skills; develop resilience and to take responsibility for themselves and others. 

We provide numerous opportunities for our students to achieve a feeling of pride in their endeavours and to celebrate the successes of the whole school; creating a strong sense of community.

We cherish the responsibility we are given to educate students at a crucial time in their young lives. We try to ensure that the students’ sense of self-esteem, self-reliance, confidence and academic prowess is enhanced and challenged. We offer a curriculum that incorporates academic, cultural, artistic and athletic aspects of education. Our learning experience leaves students with ingrained confidence, ability to succeed and, most of all, happy memories!

The Sixth Year experience at Rathdown is inspirational. We offer an exciting and stimulating all-round education, placing equal value on both academic and non-academic successes.  Everybody is valued and treated as an individual and students are encouraged to develop, or indeed discover, their talents and interests, by taking on personal challenges. 

We prepare our students for the future; encouraging them to be open-minded, have an intellectual curiosity and to be balanced, knowledgeable and principled thinkers who will confidently go on to contribute positively to society in all they do.  Individual support for students is a very strong feature of our Sixth Year: our pastoral care, academic standards and extra-curricular programmes constitute a unique learning environment and all staff are deeply committed to helping the students, fully recognising our responsibility to help them excel in all they do. 

Virtually all our Sixth Year students go on to university, some choosing highly academic routes such as Oxbridge, some choosing more vocational courses, particularly in the disciplines of Art and Music and some choose to continue their studies abroad.  Whatever their choices, we aim to ensure that our students leave Rathdown as happy, motivated and considerate young people: empowered to be the best they can be, secure in the knowledge that they are capable of succeeding in whatever they choose.  They leave prepared to embrace the challenges that lay ahead. 

In Sixth Year at Rathdown School, students are offered:

• Regular mentor meetings with their dedicated Year Head
• Smaller classes
• Supportive environment
• Extra-curricular activities programme
• Excellent teaching standards 
• Structured working/study environment
• Regular assessments
• Our Career Guidance Counsellor frequently meets with the students to help gauge their various career aspirations