One hundred per cent positive response for RTE Belvedere programme

The piece below appears on the current news on the website of the Irish Jesuits. And a great website it is too. What a pleasure it is to read 'normal stuff', a community of men doing worthwhile work.

Getting into Belvedere Many readers of IJN will have seen the two television programmes, screened by RTE at 9.35 p.m. on successive Mondays, about Belvedere’s Social Diversity Programme. Every year through this programme Belvedere offers almost 10% of its places to boys whose families, due to financial and social barriers, could never otherwise afford to attend the school. Applicants for the school's Social Diversity Programme (SDP) are selected purely on the basis of economic and educational disadvantage and not for their academic, sporting or musical abilities. The school sees its commitment to the bursaries as a living embodiment of the school's Jesuit ethos and the importance it places on social justice. Director Kim Bartley was granted access to the inner workings of Belvedere College SJ and to the lives and homes of five families who hoped to gain one of the coveted bursaries. The cameras followed all their journeys as they made the transition from primary to secondary school. The personal stories of The Scholarship, captured on screen over two years, give an insight into how one school endeavours to make a difference. It was easy to identify with the boys who had set their hopes on Belvedere, and were coping with problems stemming from being poor, immigrant, with crippled parents, or absent fathers. You held your breath as Stephen, son of parents in the travelling community, decided towards the end of his first year in school to “come out” to his classmates with the story of his background, of which he was proud – and his relief at the supportive response of his school friends. The teachers we saw were cheerful and good listeners, the boys uninhibited and trusting. You felt Belvedere would be a good place in which to learn. P.S. RTE reported a rare phenomenon after the first programme: the viewers' response to it was 100% favourable.