Willow Park School

What Willow Park School does

Willow Park School (legal name: Willow Park Senior School) is a Catholic, Spiritan-run day and boarding secondary school located on a 65-acre parkland campus at Rock Road, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1935 by the Spiritan Fathers and registered as an Irish charity (CHY 3688, RCN: 20144968), the school occupies a structurally unique niche in the Irish education market: it serves exclusively first-year male students (boys aged 12-13) for a single year before they transition to Blackrock College for the remainder of their secondary education. The school operates under a Board of Management with Spiritan Trustee Nominees, Parent Nominees, and Teaching Staff Nominees, and its ethos is grounded in the Spiritan Guide to Education with the motto "Cor Unum et Anima Una" (One Heart, One Mind). Its core offering is a 16-subject academic curriculum covering Art, Business Studies, Classical Studies, CSPE, English, French, Gaeilge, Geography, History, Maths, Physical Education, Religion, Science, SPHE, Music, and Wellbeing, taught by specialist first-year teachers in small classes of approximately 13 students. The academic programme is supported by an extracurricular slate (Art Club, Basketball, Choir, CoderDojo, Cycling, Willow Wheelers) and a Wellbeing programme featuring meditation and drama.

The school is technically and operationally low-tech by modern standards. The technology stack is limited to commodity educational tools: Moodle LMS (hosted at moodle.willowparkschool.ie), Smartboard interactive displays, Geogebra mathematics software, Google Analytics for website performance monitoring, and the Easy Payments Plus third-party platform for parent fee payments. No proprietary platform or technology assets are disclosed. The school has approximately 48 employees and does not publicly disclose revenue, tuition fees, or enrollment numbers. The GTM motion is purely local: admissions occur through a single annual application window (approximately October) processed by the Registrar's Office, with no marketing beyond the school's website and direct parent engagement via the Willow Park Parents' Association (WPA). The primary growth constraint is structural: the school is capped at a single first-year cohort per year by design, with all students expected to progress to Blackrock College. There is no indication of M&A, external investment, geographic expansion, or digital platform ambitions; the school is a steady-state, mission-driven educational institution rather than a growth-stage business.

Name

Willow Park School

Legal name

Willow Park Senior School

Website

https://willowparkschool.ie

Company type

Private

Founded year

1935

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Willow Park School is a Catholic Spiritan-run first-year secondary school for boys in Blackrock, Dublin, founded 1935, serving ~48 staff on a 65-acre campus. It delivers a 16-subject curriculum plus extracurriculars, feeding 100% of graduates to Blackrock College.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Blackrock

HQ country

Ireland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Others

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Willow Park Senior School is a Catholic Spiritan first-year secondary day and boarding school for boys located on a 65-acre campus in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. The school delivers a single-year curriculum of 16 academic subjects preparing students for the Junior Certificate, alongside an extensive extracurricular programme (sport, arts, music, coding). Students complete the first year at Willow Park before continuing education at feeder school Blackrock College.

Product overview

Willow Park Senior School is a first-year secondary school for boys offering a comprehensive educational programme set on 65 acres of parkland. The school provides a single unified educational offering combining 16 academic subjects (Art, Business Studies, Classical Studies, CSPE, English, French, Gaeilge, Geography, History, Maths, Physical Education, Religion, Science, SPHE, Music, and Wellbeing) with an extensive sports and activities programme including Basketball, Art Club, Choir, CoderDojo, and Cycling. The academic curriculum prepares students for Junior Certificate examinations while extracurricular activities foster spiritual, academic, cultural, social, and physical development. The school operates as a Catholic Spiritan institution founded in 1935.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• First-Year Secondary Education Programme
• CoderDojo Programming Club

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Blackrock CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBlackrock College is the feeder school for Willow Park First Year. Students complete first year at Willow Park before continuing their education at Blackrock College. The boarding school facilities are shared with Blackrock College, located on the same campus.
• Willow Junior SchoolcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWillow Junior School is the primary school feeder to Willow Park Senior School, part of the same educational community.
• Spiritan EducationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWillow Park is a Catholic Spiritan school founded in 1935 by the Spiritan Fathers. The school operates under the Spiritan Guide to Education and adheres to Spiritan Core Values and Characteristic Spirit.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• The King's Hospital School: The King's Hospital is a Church of Ireland co-educational boarding and day school in Dublin with a long heritage and similar premium positioning. It competes for Dublin fee-paying families and offers comparable curriculum breadth and extracurricular programmes.
• St Andrew's College: St Andrew's College is a major co-educational fee-paying secondary school in Dublin offering Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate programmes. It competes directly with Willow Park for fee-paying Dublin families seeking premium secondary education.
• Castleknock College: Castleknock College is a Catholic fee-paying boys' secondary school in Dublin operated by the Holy Ghost Fathers (Spiritan). Its shared religious order, single-sex format, and Dublin location make it a directly comparable peer.
• Blackrock College: Blackrock College is the direct feeder school for Willow Park's graduates and shares the same campus and boarding facilities in Dublin. Operated by the same Spiritan order, it is the natural continuation of a Willow Park education and the most directly comparable Catholic boys' secondary school in Ireland.
• Wesley College: Wesley College is a Methodist co-educational fee-paying secondary school in Dublin, competing with Willow Park for premium Dublin families and offering a comparable breadth of academic and extracurricular programmes.
• Gonzaga College: Gonzaga College is a Jesuit fee-paying secondary school for boys in Dublin, with comparable ethos-driven branding, similar curriculum breadth, and a shared competitive set within Dublin's private Catholic boys' school market.
• Clongowes Wood College: Clongowes Wood College is a prominent Jesuit fee-paying boarding school in County Kildare. It competes with Willow Park for boarding families and shares a faith-based, ethos-driven premium positioning in the Irish private school market.
• St Gerard's School: St Gerard's School is a Catholic co-educational fee-paying school near Dublin (Bray) offering second-level education with a strong ethos-driven brand. It competes with Willow Park for fee-paying families in the greater Dublin area.
• Willow Park Junior School: Willow Junior School is the primary school feeder to Willow Park Senior School, part of the same educational community. While a primary school, it provides the natural upstream pipeline and is the most direct comparable institution within the Willow Park ecosystem.
• St Michael's College: St Michael's College is a Catholic fee-paying boys' secondary school in Dublin, operated by the Holy Ghost Fathers (Spiritan order). The shared Spiritan heritage and overlapping mission make it a very close direct peer to Willow Park.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/willow-park-school

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Willow Park School