The Board of Management is responsible for ensuring that the school adheres to, and implements the Holy Child philosophy of education. The Board is accountable to the Holy Child Trust. Each Board member serves for a term of three years.
Holy Child School Killiney Board of Management
The Board of Management members are:
Ms. Ann Cuffe Fitzgerald (Chair)
Ann Cuffe Fitzgerald is a past pupil as were her four daughters and three of her sisters. She is an architect in private practice and holds a master's degree in conservation. She is a past vice president of the RIAI, member of climate change committee ICOMOS Ireland, active in the SVP locally with a focus on education, former Chair of The Children's House Montessori Primary in Kilmacud founded in 1952. Honoured to be Chair of Holy Child Killiney, my core belief for the school is to assist each person in the school community to achieve their full potential in the steps of Cornelia Connelly while listening to the spirit of the age.
Ms. Aideen Rice (Trustee Nominee)
Aideen attended Holy Child Killiney from 1965 to 1971 and her daughter, Morwenna Rice attended from 1991 - 2000. After school she did an arts degree in UCD. As a Games Captain at the HCK it was inevitable that she would become very involved in sport, as a player, coach and administrator, hockey first but later cricket. For many years she was involved with youth cricket in Leinster and in 2018/19 was President of Cricket Ireland, the first woman to hold the post which was a great honour. She also tutors sports leaders in the child protection Safeguarding courses for Sport Ireland. And this all stemmed from her love of sport at the Holy Child and an inspirational P.E. teacher, Helen Buckley.
Mr. John Power (Trustee Nominee)
Successful senior executive with more than 30 years experience in financial services.
Proven leadership in business strategy/planning, organisation start-ups, new product development and customer quality metrics. Strong understanding of a number of general management disciplines including strategic decisions, Finance & Treasury, Compliance and Risk Management, Human Resources, Information Technology, Marketing, Corporate Finance & Due Diligence
A previous Non- Executive Director of the 3rd largest quoted financial institution in Poland and previous Chairman of their Audit & Risk Committee with responsibility for management oversight of Internal Audit, Corporate Governance, Compliance & Risk Management: Santander Bank Poland, member of Bank Santander Group;
Past Chairman of the 3rd largest Asset Management business in Poland: Santander Asset Management Poland, member of Bank Santander Group
Current Chairman of TrueLayer Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of TrueLayer Group, a company that enables companies to capitalise on new Open Banking initiatives and the leading provider of APIs that power a new era of financial innovation.
Previous Owner of the Master Franchise for Roche-Bobois in Ireland, world leader in the creation and distribution of exclusive furniture operating from Dublin but covering the Island of Ireland. Sold to Roche Bobois Group in 2019.
Previous Chairman/CEO of Touchtech Payments Ltd, a Fintech company that specializes in strong customer authentication for online transactions. Sold to Stripe in 2019.
Past Member of the Governing Authority of Dublin City University.
Mr. Liam McCaul (Trustee Nominee)
Liam and his family have had a long association with Holy Child School. His three daughters and his sister are past pupils of HCK. He is a Chartered Accountant (Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland – CAI), an affiliate member of the Chartered Institute if Internal Auditors (CIIA) and a graduate of University College Dublin (B Comm, UCD).
Liam is an experienced executive, board member and business leader with over 35 years international and cross border experience across multiple sectors and countries. He has recently retired from EY Ireland where he held leadership roles including Managing Partner of the Consulting Practice, and he was a member of the EY Ireland Board for 12 years. As a consulting partner Liam has had a successful track record of working with and providing value to senior executives, boards and organisations on matters related to strategy, finance, compliance, risk management and governance. He continues to provide consultancy services to EY and other organisations through his company LF McCaul & Associates.
Ms. Caroline Martin (Parent Nominee)
Caroline has one daughter in HCK. Caroline has worked as a leader in the area of education and training for over 25 years. Prior to establishing her own private practice and consultancy business, she was the Chief Psychologist for the CDETB for 16 years. While there she led a team of psychologists and supported their work in over 40 education centres. Prior to her return from the US, she led a team of educators within the public school system in Massachusetts, working with children and young people with additional learning needs.
Caroline is dedicated to the area of whole school well-being and has a track record of leading in the field of educator care and development. She is currently completing her Doctorate on Collective School Efficacy which is consistently been proven to be the leading influencer of student achievement. Within the CDETB she was responsible for the establishment of 11 professional learning networks supporting 150 educators. With evidence of the impact of One Good Adult in the lives of young people in Ireland Caroline consistently points out the importance of support for educators. She advocates for an integration of policies and practices that are supportive of whole school wellbeing. She has been recognised for her contributions to psychology in education, trauma and critical incident response and after-care.
Recently she has worked with the staff of the Oireachtas, Google Ireland, Arthritis Ireland, Le Chéile Schools, ERST, ETBs nationally, was the lead author of a wellbeing book for employees and has a weekly column with the Irish Examiner. She continues to lecture on the PGDip for Guidance Counsellors in Maynooth University and the DEd. Psychology in UCD.
Mr. Stephen McKernan (Parent Nominee)
Stephen has two daughters in HCK. He would bring an education based skillset to the Board in support of its mission, having been a primary school principal for over eighteen years in Northern Ireland, England and now in Castle Park School. He holds both a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership and a Professional Qualification in Headship. He was a UK schools inspector for eight years and previously the National Chair of the (Independent Schools Association) Inspections Committee in the UK. He is passionate about supporting school development and improvement. He knows the challenges schools face and the support teachers and principals require at this time, and he says he would be privileged to give his personal/free time in support of the tremendous work of HCK and at the same time learn from this wonderful school.
Ms. Ciara Flannery (Teacher Nominee)
Ciara Flannery has worked in Holy Child Killiney for seven years and during that time she has held a number of different roles within the school, including librarian, EAL teacher, English teacher and most recently, special education needs coordinator. She is also a member of the leadership team (Assistant Principal II) with responsibility for School Self Evaluation. This involves overseeing the school improvement targets to enhance the learning experiences and learning outcomes in HCK.
Her background is in the arts and humanities with a BA in English and History (NUIG). She also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (NUIG) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Special Education Needs (NUIM). Ciara has completed a master's degree in Library and Information Studies (UCD) and worked for a time in the National Library of Ireland on the 1916 Digital Collections project.
She is currently in the final year of a master's degree in Psychology. She is hoping to write her thesis on the relationship between academic performance anxiety and school refusal.
Mr. Richard Duffy (Teacher Nominee)
Richard Duffy has worked in Holy Child Killiney for seven years as a teacher of Economics, Business Studies and Mathematics. He has also been the Acting Head of Mathematics.
His background is in arts, humanities and finance with a BA in Economics and History, an MSc. Financial Economics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (all from University College Cork). He also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Mathematics from the University of Limerick.