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When the Beech Hill Nursing Home was advertised for sale in September 1972
County Monaghan VEC identified the site as an ideal location for a second level school.
The Vocational School located on a four acre site in the Glen Road did not have sufficient
room for the increasing enrolment numbers of the time. The seventeen acre site at Beech Hill
was purchased for £50,000 in October 1972 and the transfer from the Glen Road to Beech Hill
College was completed in September 1979.
Since its inception, the College has provided a very comprehensive education for thousands
of students from the catchment area and beyond. Past pupils are esteemed members of all
the professions. They have contributed greatly to the economic revival of our country
either in a professional capacity or as entrepreneurs who generate employment and thus create
wealth.
During that time our country has come through a period of great change. Immigration has
replaced emigration. There are now no barriers to educational advancement. Opportunities
abound for those students with ambition. Beech Hill College has responded to those challenges.
In 1979 the College offered the Intermediate Certificate, Leaving Certificate and Secretarial
Courses. Today the courses on offer include the Junior Certificate, Junior Certificate School
Programme, Transition Year Programme, Leaving Certificate, Leaving Certificate Applied Programme,
Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme, School Completion Programme and programmes for students
with special educational needs.
At school today, students speak many different languages and come from countries in an ever-expanding
European Union. Beech Hill College has very close links with Evangelisches Gymnasium, Werther, a second
level school in Germany and through the Comenius School project our teachers and students meet with
and share ideas with teachers and students from other European countries.
The College is also involved in other projects such as LET (Learning and Educating Together),
KEY (Knowledge through Education for Youth), CaSe (Citizenship and Science Exchange),
Education for Reconciliation Project and the Peace II Seafood Education Project.
Students participate in games and athletics, poetry and short story writing, quizzes,
public speaking and debating as well as art competitions. The fact that Beech Hill College
students regularly feature as award winners ranks not only as an expression of their own abilities
but it is also is a tribute to those teachers who provide the encouragement and stimulation needed
to identify that innate talent.
“We don’t remember days we remember moments.” (Cesare Pavese)
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