Our Patrons
Ramsgrange Community School is under the co-patronage of the Le Chéile Schools Trust and the Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board.
The Le Chéile Schools Trust now comprises the schools of fifteen religious congregations. The aim of the Trust is to carry on the legal, financial and inspirational role of trusteeship that has, up to now, been done by individual congregations. It carries out the legal and inspirational role of trusteeship . This is a significant development in Irish education as the Catholic Church and the individual religious congregations renew and reformulate their commitment to Irish education.
The main object of Le Chéile is the development of a vision of Catholic education and overseeing its implementation in the Schools, encouraging preservation of key aspects of the evangelical heritage of their founding Congregation and to facilitate the opening of new schools if and where the need arises and resources permit.
In the case of non-denominational schools, the aim is to promote the integration of human and spiritual values that permit Catholic values to develop.The Congregations are currently responsible for 53 voluntary secondary schools and are trustees in 8 Community Schools.
In September 2009 the Trust Office was established in St Mary’s Donnybrook with three officers.To find out more about the Trust Office, the Congregations and their Schools, click on the links provided.
To find out more about the vision of the Le Chéile Schools Trust and why it was established watch a video by clicking on this link.
Ramsgrange Community School is part of the Sisters of Saint Louis branch of schools under the Le Cheile Schools Trust.
The History of the Sisters of St. Louis
The Institute of St. Louis owes its origin to three people, two priests and a laywoman: Joseph Louis Colmar (1760-1818), Marie Madeleine Louise Humann (1766-1836) and Louis Marie Eugene Bautain (1796-1867). They were all French and lived through one of the most troubled periods in French history. Louis Colmar and Louis Humann experienced the turmoil of the Revolution; Louis Bautain – the Founder of the Institute – was born during the Revolution and grew up in the trouble years that followed.
All three had one shared ideal: to bring back the society of their time to the truths and practice of the Christian faith. Even before the Revolution the faith of many French men and women had been undermined by influential writers and philosophers; they therefore saw the need for a solid Christian formation in tune with the spirit of their times and they devoted their lives and talents to restoring the Church. During the difficult years of the Revolution Louis Colmar and Louise Humann worked in Strasbourg, and later in Mainz in Germany when Louis Colmar was bishop (1802-1818). Louis Bautain in his turn took up the work consecrating his life to Christ and the Church as “an instrument and herald of the truth among people.” (Chrétienne de Nos Jours, Vol 2, p. 384).
Louis Bautain had met Louise Humann after her return to Strasbourg in 1819. A young professor of philosophy, he had been searching for the truth and under her guidance had returned to the Church. Such was the influence of his teaching that a group of his students gathered around him. This group formed themselves into a spiritual family looking to Louise Humann as their spiritual mother. For a number of years she was their spiritual directress, forming them in the Christian life and mission as Louis Colmar had formed her, and later on encouraging them in their vocations to the priesthood.
During this time (Spring 1841) they were joined by Clemence Baronne de Vaux, a society lady who at the age of 29 had experienced a call to conversion and ever since then had dedicated herself to living a more serious Christian life, to working for the poor, helping prisoners and seeking justice for those who had no one to help them. It was this woman whom Louis Bautain chose as first Superior of the Dames de Saint-Louis when in 1842 he established the double Institute of Saint Louis in Juilly.
The new Institute had grown out of the spiritual family of Strasbourg; the Constitutions drawn up for it reflected this heritage and centred around the phrase ‘”Sint Unum – May they be one” taken from Our Lord’s prayer at the Last Supper (John 17:22). Louis Colmar had chosen this phrase as his watchword. It was central to the Pact he made with Louis Humann in 1797 and has remained central to each successive re-writing of the Constitutions of the Institute. “Sint Unum” profoundly influenced Louis Bautain’s vision of a world made one in truth and it was the expression of his hopes for what the new Institute would be and do.
“All that I might recommend to you dear brothers,” (Louis Bautain wrote to the Fathers of St Louis in Rome in October 1844), “can be reduced to a single injunction and that is … Sint Unum … (it) should be the thought of all our thoughts, the will of all our wills, the soul of all our actions.”
The double Institute of St Louis received provisional approval from Rome in July 1844, but by 1850 the Fathers had formally disbanded and only the Sisters remained. Numbers increased and within a few years the community included Sisters from Ireland. New works were developed and new houses opened and in 1859 the first Irish foundation was made: in Monaghan in the Diocese of Clogher. The leader chosen for this foundation was Sister Genevieve Beale, an English convert from Quakerism. The foundation took root but two years later (1861) was obliged to cut its formal links with Juilly because the Bishop of Clogher did not wish Monaghan to be governed from France. Consequently, the Irish and French branches of the society became separate institutes and developed separately, though for many years their rules remained almost identical.
Both Institutes prospered: the Irish Institute with Monaghan as its Motherhouse spread over many parts of Ireland and later into England (1912) and after World War II into West Africa and the United States – Ghana 1947, Nigeria 1948, California 1949 and in 1977 this latter Region made a foundation in Brazil. Juilly made many foundations, mainly in the diocese of Meaux and in the Paris area; in 1903 the first Belgian foundation was made and in the 1930’s a few small houses were opened in the south of France. But by the end of the 1939-45 war, the decline in numbers had become serious and in 1950 the French Institute asked for amalgamation which was granted by Rome in December 1952.
The amalgamation gave the French branch of the St Louis family the hopes of a future. To the Irish branch it gave greater access to its rich French heritage to that together they might continue the work of their spiritual ancestors and of Louis Bautain, their founder.
Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board (WWETB) is the statutory regional education and training authority for counties Waterford and Wexford.
WWETB is the managing authority and patron of 14 multi-denominational and co-educational schools with 6,000 students including 12 post-primary schools, 1 community national school and 1 post leaving cert college. WWETB is joint patron of the 3 community schools in the two counties.
WWETB has responsibility for Further Education and Training (FET) across Waterford and Wexford, which encompasses full-time and part-time courses for 20,000 adult learners on an annual basis. We manage the local state provision of apprenticeships and provide a multiplicity of courses for early school leavers and adults whether they are progressing to higher education, gaining skills for work, up-skilling in their careers, accessing adult literacy including English language tuition.
Other major programmes include Music Generation which provides music performance education for thousands of young people, Youthwork projects, an Outdoor Education and Training Centre, and we play a lead local role in supporting Ukrainians in education, among many others.
The vision of WWETB is “to lead learning through the delivery of high quality, inclusive, responsive, innovative education and training services in our community.”
Our vision is being implemented through the Strategic Goals, Priorities and Actions contained within the WWETB Strategy Statement 2023-2027 which has been recently approved by the Board of WWETB and will be formally launched in September.
We have a presence in every town and most communities across both counties. We engage with statutory bodies, business groups, community groups and voluntary agencies to ensure we can provide the most relevant education and training opportunities required by our community.
Please take the time to browse through this website and/or our associated social media options to avail of the various information and ‘links’ that will quickly give you useful information on schools, courses and options. You can also contact us though our Contact Us page or by phoning our Waterford and Wexford Administration Offices, details contained within the website.
Kevin Lewis Chief Executive
