School Initiatives

Schools of Sanctuary

A School of Sanctuary is a school that is committed to creating a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment that benefits everybody, especially families seeking sanctuary. Marino College is at the final stages of our journey to becoming an accredited School of Sanctuary.

Celebration of Culture  

We are lucky to have students from thirty-six different countries at Marino College. InMay 2022 we had our very first school Celebration of World Culture.  

We danced to music, tasted delicious food, and saw beautiful scenery from regions including the Balkan and Baltic countries, Asia, Africa, and Europe. We learned how to say hello in languages such as Romanian, Filipino, Yoruba, Lithuanian, Mongolian and Polish.

Green Schools Committee

It was set up last year and we have been working to reduce litter and waste in the school. They have done this through recycling competitions, composting trials, working with the TYs and student council and yourselves to reduce the single use plastics. The TYs have worked with people in the local community, an organisation called Localise to get the reusable plastic bottles for students.

We hope to apply for our first green flag this week. Most of our members are in first year and there are several staff involved.

LGBTQ+ Quality Mark 

Marino College was a pilot school for the Safe and Supportive Schools programme. Offered by BelongTo, this was a programme which aimed to make schools safe, supportive, representative and inclusive of LGBTQ+ identities and experiences through areas like curriculum, environment, policy, and training. We were delighted to become the first Safe and Supportive School in Ireland in 2022.

The programme has since rebranded as the LGBTQ+ quality Mark school, of which we are still accredited. This means that our school is a safe and welcoming place for the LGBTQ+ members of our community. We are committed to supporting our LGBTQ+ young people and ensuring that they feel represented and respected in their schooling. All of our staff have been trained in areas around LGBTQ+ issues, recognising and dealing with hate speech and bullying. We take part in stand up awareness week every year, we have lots of displays informative posters about different sexualities/gender identities. Ultimately, we aim to educate our young people about the diversities that exist in our society & how to explore and discuss these topics respectfully.