History
The 1878 Government had set up a Board of Intermediate Education to re-organise and co-ordinate Secondary Education in Ireland. The Board drew up syllabi covering a fairly wide range of subjects, and divided into three courses: Junior, Middle and Senior Grades. Examinations were set at the end of each year and a generous scheme of rewards was provided, with Exhibitions, Medals and Prizes to be won by outstanding candidates in each Grade. For some time the Catholic schools held aloof from this scheme, being suspicious of the aims and objects of the alien Government. In January 1880, however, Cardinal McCabe, Archbishop of Dublin, visited Mother Xaveria, and urged her to introduce the new system into the Loreto schools. Mother Xaveria complied with his wishes, and at once directed the Loreto schools to enter for the Intermediate Examinations to be held the following July. This was no easy task, for the schools already in the system had been preparing for the examination since the previous September and it meant changing programmes and time tables and buying new text books. The challenge was accepted, however, and all the Loreto schools, including the Green, began preparing for the July examinations. The children duly sat for the examinations and, when the results were published, they surpassed all the expectations. The Loreto pupils carried off a number of Exhibitions, Medals and Prizes. Unfortunately, there is no record of the performances of the Green on that occasion.
Not until 1895 have we any records of the achievements of the Green in Intermediate Education. In that year Mother Michael Corcoran, then Mother General, began to publish the “Loreto Magazine”, which came out twice yearly up to 1902, when it ceased publication. All Loreto examination results were published in this magazine. During these years, the Green record is a glittering one indeed, with the pupils winning many Exhibitions, Medals and Prizes. In 1897, Green pupils won five Exhibitions and First Places in Classics, in Greek and in Latin, as well as a Prize for English Composition. In addition to the Intermediate Examinations, the girls sat for examinations of the Department of Science and Art, South Kensington, London, in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Magnetism and Electricity, Sound, Light and Heat, and in Geometry. They also sat for examinations in those branches of Art then in vogue: Freehand Drawing, Model Drawing, Drawing from Cast, and Geometrical Drawing. In addition, many of the girls learned the Piano, the Violin and the Harp, and did the examinations of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, London, the Royal College and Academy of Music, London and the Local Centre examinations. They were certainly well-occupied.