A message from the Principal


I am delighted to welcome you to St. Raphael’s College website. I hope that it will give you a flavour of what our school is like. We are very proud of our school, our traditions, our ethos and in particular, we are very proud of our pupils.

In St. Raphael’s, we attempt to provide the broadest possible education, in line with our mission statement as a Catholic school. Our objective is to help our students to achieve their full potential in every area of school life. We have a long and proud tradition of academic excellence with our state exam results being among the best and most consistent in the entire country. The majority of our pupils progress to third level, where they continue to develop as individuals. We are very proud of all our students, many of whom excel in many different areas such as sport, music, debating, acting, quizzes and much more besides.

As part of the legacy of the Mercy Sisters, we strongly encourage our students to give something back to society and in this regard, St. Raphael’s contributes in a very significant way to many charity and community initiatives.

St. Raphael’s College is a Catholic school which bases its values on the teachings of the Gospel. Everything we do in the school stems from this and permeates all aspects of school life. Our priority, therefore, is the care and welfare of our students.

Le gach dea-ghui

Paul Cafferky

Principal

Our Philosophy

St. Raphael’s College is a Catholic, co-educational school which aims to provide a Christian education designed to help each pupil achieve his/her potential. Administrators and teachers see themselves as supporting the parents who are the primary educators of their children.

The broad education offered strives toward not only academic achievements but the complete development of each pupil.

Our History

St. Raphael’s College was founded by the Clonfert Mercy Sisters in 1917. Up to 1974, the school provided secondary education for day girls and boarders from the local area and many different parts of the country.

In 1974 St. Raphael’s amalgamated with St. Brendan’s De la Salle boys school. Since 1974 St. Raphael’s has provided Catholic secondary education to boys and girls from the Loughrea area.