St Cecilia's College awarded global 'Diversity and Inclusion' accolade

Derry’s own St Cecilia’s College has become the first school in the world to receive a prestigious ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ accolade.

After much hard work by the whole school community, the Bligh’s Lane school was awarded the ISO 30415 standard for Human Resource Management: Diversity and  Inclusion.

This success built on St Cecilia’s previous notable achievements, including UK Secondary School of the Year 2021.

Speaking to Derry Now, a clearly delighted Juliette Barber, senior teacher, said every child in St Cecilia’s was celebrated with “genuine and shared enthusiasm". 

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'Every girl has a talent we want to nurture' - Mary Jo O'Carolan

“One look at our social media platforms and you will see a lot of happy, smiling faces celebrating success daily,” said Ms Barbour, “from pupil of the month, high GCSE achievement, sporting celebrations, ‘Mini Monets’ and instrumentalists.

“What you don’t see on social media is the dedication to improvement that happens in the background, a continuous improvement approach, which has culminated in St Cecilia’s being the first school and the third organisation in the world to achieve the ISO standard for Human Resource Management: Diversity & Inclusion.”

Ms Barber said ISO 30415 encompassed everyone involved with St Cecilia’s.

She added: “The private sector would probably be more familiar with the award, however, in terms of being an inclusive school, it was important to us that we knew St Cecilia’s was meeting the standards we were setting for ourselves.

“For St Cecilia’s College, inclusivity means everything from pupil intake to the employment of staff, staff development, working with the community, and working with our partner organisations, right down to being aware of our conscious and unconscious bias in how we deal with everybody with whom we come into contact.

“It has always been an important part of the school that everybody is dealt with as an individual, so we were absolutely thrilled to receive the award.”

St Cecilia’s College has many partner organisations, including Foyle Learning Community, Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum, St Mary’s Youth Club and Old Library Trust. 

Ms Barber said: “We would also have very good relationships with all of the primary schools in the community.”
St Cecilia’s Principal, Ms Mary-Jo O’Carolan, who came into post in September 2022, said she was in the process of visiting all of the primary schools.”

She said: “As a new principal, I feel it is important I develop those relationships. Especially after covid, it is great to be meeting people face-to-face and making connections.

“Getting the ISO 30415 award was quite an extensive exercise. It involves a set of standards which an organisation has to meet. You have to prove you have met those standards . Part of that process involves assessors coming in and conducting interviews. 

“At St Cecilia’s they interviewed lots of different members of staff, at different stages in their careers; some of the community partners, including the North West Migrants Forum, and other organisations who we have tapped into. The process took a full year. 

“My own interview centred on how I fitted in and how I was made to feel welcome. There were also interviews with groups of pupils, parents, community groups, teachers, teaching assistants, caretaking staff, and office staff, everybody, all levels. The questions were extremely wide ranging,” said Ms O’Carolan.

Ms Barber explained St Cecilia’s said the school pushed itself to obtain the Diversity and Inclusion standard “to ensure we were being as fully inclusive as we could be”.

She said: “It reaffirms how well we deal with everybody. When you know in your heart you are good at that and somebody then rubber stamps it the way IOS has, it is brilliant for the staff and the work they put in.

“We always knew we had been good with pupils, so to know we are being fully inclusive with our staff and our school community as well is really something.”

Ms O’Carolan said much of the credit for St Cecilia’s Diversity and Inclusion award must go to her predecessor, Ms Martine Mulhern. 

“Ms Mulhern was outstanding. She pushed and delivered this during her time in the school. I was here for the interview stage but really I cannot take all of the credit.

“What I would feel having joined the school, and I say this all the time is that its ethos is second to none. It is outstanding. It is palpable. You can feel it when you come in. I am not talking about anywhere I worked before. 

“St Cecilia’s has a caring environment. You come into work and it is a very pleasant, happy place to work. I recently asked the First Years what they liked most about the school and they said. ‘‘Everybody’s very nice. The teachers are very nice, very kind’.

“Isn’t that lovely that that is the best thing they can say about us because if our students are not happy and content, they are never going to achieve. If they know we care for them and we love them and we have that environment, that is very important.

“We were delighted to get the Diversity and  Inclusion award. It  reaffirms all we are about as a school community and everybody that we work with. We want to be open and receptive and for everybody to feel they can come to the door and use our facilities.”