School History

1952 St. Kilian’s Deutsche Schule began as a Sunday school, offering German classes to children who came to Ireland as part of the programme run by the “Save the German Children Society”.

1954 The school was named St. Kilian’s and three years later relocated to a site on the Stillorgan Road in Dublin, which could also accommodate a Kindergarten.

1959-1964 The school expanded and grew to incorporate the beginnings of a new secondary school. The German Government formalised its support with the allocation of a delegated teacher. By now the school had 6 classes and 60 pupils.

1961-2011 The school had a delegated Headmaster from Germany and a Deputy Principal supported by the Department of Education in Ireland.

1974 Move to the current campus in Clonskeagh and the beginning of the secondary school as we now know it.

1976 The school was recognised by the Irish Department of Education and given a roll number. Two years later the first group of St. Kilian’s students sat the Leaving Certificate.

1986 Introduction of the Transition Year programme

1989 Introduction of the Sprachdiplom Exams, a significant step in establishing the higher pedagogical benchmark for the teaching and learning of German in the school.

1992 St. Kilian’s celebrated its 40th anniversary.

1994 An extension with four new classrooms was completed.

2001 The Lyceé Francais d’Irlande (LFI) relocated to temporary buildings on the campus. This was the first step towards official cooperation between the two schools.

2002 A further extension of nine extra classrooms was completed and was officially opened by the then President Mary McAleese on the occasion of the school’s 50th anniversary.

2005 St. Kilian’s entered into an agreement with the LFI to amalgamate the Junior Cycle classes and create the Eurocampus.

2006 Mary Hanafin, then Minister for Education, signed off on the new Bilingual Leaving Certificate course combining German Language, Literature and European History.

2009 A new building to house the LFI and Eurocampus classes was officially opened.

2012 The first non-German Principal, Alice Lynch, was appointed. The German Government continues to support four seconded teachers, and through the network for German schools abroad it continues to fund the teaching and learning of German in the Secondary and Primary Schools.

2015 A Gymnasialer Bildungsgang (German curricular stream) is introduced at St. Kilian’s; eligible students will be able to sit Sek1 exams in 10th class from the school year 2018/19.

2016 Our new multi-purpose hall, “Lynn Hall”, is completed. It was named after Dr. Kathleen Lynn who played a significant role in the Easter Rising as Chief Medical Officer and was Vice-President of the Save the German Children organisation after World War II.

2017 A new logo is introduced at St. Kilian’s.

2019 First group of St. Kilian’s students achieve the German Mittlerer Bildungsabschluss. This school year also marks the beginning of a global pandemic Covid 19, which led to interruptive teaching and school attendance on a global scale and resulted in the shift to online schooling. In person gatherings and social events were not allowed or only restricted for a period over 2 years.

2020 Physical Education was introduced as a Leaving Certificate subject following a survey of pupils on the expansion of the Leaving Certificate curriculum in September. The survey was conducted by the Student Council.

2022 A formal Sek I- graduation ceremony takes places in May. 9 students from 2021 and 17 students from 2022 programme were awarded their Sek 1-certificates. Mr Nigel Macmillan (Principal Secondary School) and Herr Thorsten Henke (Acting Principal) are appointed principals after the retirement of Ms Alice Lynch. St. Kilian’s celebrates its 70th Anniversary and the multi-purpose hall Lynn Hall gets renamed in Shamrock Hall.

2023 Mrs Anja Meier (as of 1st of August 2023) is appointed principal of the whole school from Germany, with Mr Nigel Macmillan being the Secondary School Principal at her side. St. Kilian’s Deutsche Schule Dublin receives the quality seal ‘Excellent German School Abroad’ after successfully completing the Bund-Länder-Inspektion 3.0. conducted by the German government.

2024 St. Kilian’s German School Dublin celebrates the awarding of the Quality Seal ‘Excellent German School abroad’, handed over by the German Ambassador H.E. Cord Meier-Klodt during an official reception on February 1st, 2024.