{"id":276967,"date":"2026-01-10T02:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T02:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/276967\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T02:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T02:30:08","slug":"secondary-school-in-waterford-opens-beauty-salon-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/276967\/","title":{"rendered":"Secondary school in Waterford opens beauty salon – News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0 new beauty salon facility has opened in Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School, giving Leaving Cert Applied students the opportunity to experience what it’s like working in a hairdresser’s or beauty salon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mary Meade, Principal of the Mercy Secondary School, says the module \u201cgives students the opportunity to see what it might be like in the workplace\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maria Foley, co-ordinator of the module, told the Waterford News & Star: \u201cA lot of teenagers might think that there\u2019s not much learning in the hair and beauty side of things, but when they study this module, they get to see the detail that you need to go into.”<\/p>\n

\"StudentsStudents working at reception in the beauty salon.<\/p>\n

Ms Foley explained that while some students may struggle with academics, they might be \u201chighly creative and amazing at doing nails\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Foley said the staff have been \u201creally supportive\u201d and \u201camazed\u201d at the hard work done by the students.<\/p>\n

Indeed, during my time at the salon, multiple teachers popped in the door to offer words of encouragement to the students.<\/p>\n

Two students attending the module are Ava Brown and Chanelle Flynn Power.<\/p>\n

Chanel said, \u201cI think it’s really great because it gives girls the opportunity to experience what it’s like in the hairdressing world, other schools don\u2019t really do stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ava said, \u201cIt can help people decide what they want to do after school rather than be limited to jobs to do with Maths and English and stuff like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chanelle wants to go into the beauty industry when she leaves school but Ava knows from her mother working in the industry \u201chow hard it is\u201d. She reckons she \u201cdoesn\u2019t have the patience\u201d for the type of work required.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing each other\u2019s hair brings everyone together,\u201d Chanelle said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI hate doing the theory, though,\u201d\u00a0 Ava added.<\/p>\n

In December, the students opened their salon to the teachers for the day as part of their sixth year task. Some students worked on reception, booking appointments, others styled and washed hair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the students enjoyed doing their teachers’ hair, \u201cit was a lot of pressure\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe salon study in Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School.<\/p>\n

LCA coordinator Alison Walsh got a \u201clovely wash, head massage and blow dry\u201d at the salon.<\/p>\n

She told the Waterford News & Star that the module is beneficial because, \u201cThey learn practical skills that they could use in any job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The students are \u201cgreat\u201d according to Ms Walsh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they get into something, they\u2019re so enthusiastic.”<\/p>\n

Rebecca Kelly, who runs her own salon, Lux Beauty, on Keane\u2019s Road, has been mentoring the students each week.<\/p>\n

She said working with the students has been \u201cfantastic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Kelly is a Mercy alumna, and she said, \u201cThere was nothing like this when I was here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the day I visited, it was Julia Matuszewska\u2019s 18th birthday. She kindly offered to showcase all she had learned as part of the module and \u2018did\u2019 my eyelashes for me. What that entailed, I had no idea, but I was delighted with the results. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00a0 new beauty salon facility has opened in Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School, giving Leaving Cert Applied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[18,19,17,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-276967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115868455598835226","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}