Loreto Secondary School | 13th Feb 2026

Equestrian

Well done to all our equestrian riders who competed in force over the weekend. A fantastic haul of rosettes returned to Loreto, with placings and wins across both individual and team competitions. Our novice teams finished first and fifth, while our open team secured an excellent third place in their respective classes. Special congratulations to Aoife and Mary Kate on winning their individual classes. Well done to everyone involved.

Mock Exams

Congratulations to our 3rd and 6th year students on successfully completing their mock exams. Your hard work, dedication and perseverance has hopefully paid off. Take the mid-term break to reflect on your efforts and celebrate your achievements.

Student of the Month

Congratulations to Molly Howlin and Philippa Howitt in 3rd Year who won December and January’s Student of the Month recognition.

Second year Student of the Month for December was Tania Barron, pictured here with her class teacher Mr. Goff and year head Ms. Browne and second year Student of the Month for January was Leah Corcoran, pictured here with her class teacher Mr. Doyle and year head Ms. Browne.

1st Year Student of the month

Eva Doyle and Aisling Roche

Diverse Voices

An important job of the Inclusion Committee is to give everyone a voice. Sometimes we might unintentionally overlook the voices of those from a minority group and miss a valuable chance to learn more about our wonderfully diverse school community. In this regular feature, we hope to share interesting stories of students from diverse backgrounds.

As we prepare for Multicultural Week on the 2nd of March, we hear this week from TY student, Rhianna Ruo Yu Sun who will represent China.

Name: Rhianna Ruo Yu Sun

Age: 16

Year: 4.4

Country of birth: Shanghai City, China

Parents Country of Birth: China

Tell us about your homeplace:

I lived in Shanghai until I was 14 years old. It’s really big and very different from Wexford. School starts at 7.20am and finishes at 4pm for primary school and finishes at 5.30pm for middle school. When you turn 15 or 16 you start to attend high school and that school day is very long, starting at around 7am and finishing at 10pm. Subjects covered would be Mandarin Chinese, Maths and English. These are the core subjects. Then there are optional subjects like here- Chemistry, Physics, Science, History, Geography etc.

I found Middle School to be very stressful as there are important exams at the end of your time there which determine whether you can go to high school. If you don’t get high enough points, you will not be accepted into high school and the number of points you get determines which high school you attend.

Students are very competitive so outside of school hours, many would attend extra classes in order to get these high points. I still found the time to do dance every week, however. I studied ballroom and Latin dancing and competed in over 20 competitions in Shanghai. I have 22 medals across different categories in these competitions.

There are many shopping malls in Shanghai and they are all enormous, much bigger than Dundrum, to cater for the population of the city, which is around 24 million. I would go to the malls at the weekend to shop and eat with my family and friends. The food court would have chains from all over the world. My favourite was the Mexican food and of course traditional Chinese food. I like to go to an Italian restaurant here in Wexford. While the food has more sauce and oil than traditional Chinese food, I still enjoy it.

There was a big ice-skating rink in the mall beside my apartment. My friend ice skated as her hobby and my other friend enjoyed volleyball and played with the local team. There isn’t too much time for hobbies though as we are so busy with studies.

My favourite memory:

I enjoyed the co-educational environment of middle school. We didn’t go on any school trips outside of the city, maybe a few within the city, but I miss the fun I had with my friends. I really enjoyed all the gaming activities in my local mall. I would spend hours there playing games with my friends.

My dad is still working as a surgeon in Shanghai and I miss him, but he is coming to Ireland next week to celebrate Chinese New Year. This year is the Year of the Horse. There are 12 different animal years. I was born in the Year of the Ox. They are in a specific order and every 12 years the cycle starts again. For Chinese people, New Year is the biggest celebration in the calendar. My family has dumplings to celebrate. We put a red sign on the door which represents our wishes for the new year and we put up many other red decorations all around our home. The celebrations start on New Year’s Day and go on for 15 days afterwards, but people usually go back to work after day seven.

My experience of Multicultural Week:

I like to take part in Multicultural Week because it is an opportunity to show people about China. Sometimes there might be incorrect information about China online or in the news. This wrong information could cause people to create a negative impression of China, but my experience of my home country was really positive. One piece of misinformation is to do with food. I have seen articles saying we eat cats and dogs. This is definitely not true. I have cats and dogs at home, and I would never consider eating them! I don’t know where this idea came from.

90% of the population of China are Han Chinese, which is the largest ethnic group in the world. Our main diet is similar to a European diet- beef, chicken, lamb. The other 10% are made of different nationalities. In ancient China theses nationalities were not considered Chinese but are in modern times. Many years ago, the King at the time united the different nationalities as one Chinese people. This 10% might have different diets to the 90%, but I have never seen anyone in Shanghai eat cats or dogs. It is definitely considered unacceptable as it is here.

What is China bringing to Multicultural Week this year:

This year I am delighted to be representing China with Elise. I will bring in traditional food and snacks for my stand. There is a popular food on TikTok called Tanghulu that I will have. It involves small berries covered in sugar. I will have traditional paints and the currency Yuan for people to see, as well as lots of information about China. I’m not taking part in the Fashion Show as traditional Chinese clothes are very heavy, but I look forward to seeing everyone else!

Our next meeting for Multicultural Week is Wednesday 11^th February at 3.10pm in St. Kevin’s. New members are always welcome. If you would like to feature in ‘Diverse Voices’ or if you would like to represent your culture during Multicultural Week, please contact michellejordan@loretowexford.com

Transition Year Enterprise

Well done to our Transition Year enterprise students who completed their interviews at the County Council offices yesterday

Kate Bracken, Reagen Cloake, Pola Pelczynska, Lauren Finn, Tori Berry, Maya Reville, Alison Wiggins, Laura Monaghan and Lily Walsh were excellent ambassadors for our school.

Want to Try Cricket?

There’s a free cricket event exclusively for girls aged 12–15 — a great opportunity to learn new skills, make friends, and have fun!

Venue: Wexford CBS

Date: Sunday, March 8th

Time: 1:30pm – 4:00pm

For more information or to register, please contact 087 6535985.

Come along and give cricket a go!

Cricket Leinster will be visiting our school on Thursday, 5th March as part of our Multicultural Week celebrations, giving students a wonderful opportunity to experience and learn more about the sport as we celebrate the diverse cultures within our school community.

German Exchange

We received a wonderful welcome at St. Ursula’s last week as part of our German exchange. There is a long-standing tradition between our schools, and it always feels like coming back to friends.

We had a great day out in Freiburg were we explored the markets, spent time in the Cathedral, hiked up to the Schlossberg viewing point, and enjoyed some traditional Wurst.

We had a great day out in Triberg, visiting a very traditional town in the Schwarzwald and enjoying its classic charm and atmosphere. Finally our students had great fun bouldering in Villingen.