Waterpark College

Waterpark College
Location
Waterford Ireland
Information
Type	Mixed Secondary
Motto	Virtus Sola Nobilitat 'Virtue Alone Enobles'
Established	1892
Founder	Congregation of Christian Brothers
Headmaster	Mr Thomas A. Beecher
Chaplain	Fr. Paul Murphy
Campus	Urban
Colour(s)	Red, Black and Purple
Affiliations	Roman Catholic Congregation of Christian Brothers
Vice-Principal	Mr. Joe Hagan
Main Sports	Rugby. Soccer. Athletics. Basketball. Gaelic Football. Hurling. Badminton. Tennis
Website	Waterpark College

Waterpark College is a secondary school in the city of Waterford, Ireland. The school was established in 1892 on the banks of the River Suir as Waterford's first Classical school, and still provides a secondary education to boys from Waterford City, County and the surrounding area. Its principal, Thomas A. Beecher, has held his position since 1990.

Waterpark College was founded in 1892 by the Christian Brothers as a Christian Brothers College akin to CBC and PBC in Cork and as Waterford's first Classical school. In 1986 Waterpark College received its first lay principal, Maurice O'Connor. This was the first time that an Irish Christian Brothers school had a lay principal. Dr. O'Connor introduced a co-educational sixth year to Waterpark where girls could join the college to repeat Leaving Cert year. The co-educational sixth year was later discontinued due to policy changes. Principal O'Connor also introduced a Transition Year programme to the college which continues to operate. He also established a Transition Year exchange with various schools in Spain which continued to operate until 2007. In 2008 the exchange was replaced with an annual Transition Year trip to Madrid. in 1990 Dr. O'Connor resigned his post as principal in order to work in the oil industry in Saudi Arabia for a period. He later returned to the college to resume his teaching duties as head of sciences until he officially retired in 2008. The current principal Thomas A. Beecher assumed his position in 1990 upon the departure of Dr. O'Connor after having taught Geography and History in Waterpark College. In February 1999 the Foundation stone of the schools extension was laid by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Mr Ahern also officially opened the modern extension in 2002. The extension includes nine classrooms, a double length lecture hall, two science labs, a science tutorial room (known as "the demo-room"), a library and a dedicated technology room. The work also involved the housing of a computer room and a language lab in the old building while the classrooms on the ground floor of the old building were converted into a G.P. room. A modern gym was also built at the south end of the rugby pitch. The original school and the new extension are connected by a glass link corridor.

Each year is divided into two classes, L and R. The classes are called so as traditionally first year classes were based in the classrooms to the left (L) and the right (R) of the main entrance of the old building. The boys are assigned to their class based on the results of an entrance exam held in the year prior to the boys admittance. The boys remain in their stream from first year until the classes are split up for Transition Year or 5th Year. Traditionally L are the top stream of pupils made up of those with the highest results from the entrance exams. All years except T.Y. are streamed as T.Y. is a limited program (limited to 24 pupils) where numbers don't allow for more than one class. A class is referred to by a number, representing the year the boy is in and a letter, representing their stream. e.g. third year, top stream is written as 3L. In the academic year 2006/2007 the classes were renamed where R became A while L become AL (for alpha). In recent years, classes are no longer streamed coming in, but they A and AL designations were kept. Since the year 2012 when the school became co-educational, the class designations changed to .1, .2, and .3 (for example there is three first year classes 1.1, 1.2, 1.3).

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