Gaisce Awards

Are you 15 or older? Did you know that you can sign up for one of Irelands most prestigious awards?

Gaisce, The President’s Award is open to anybody aged over 15, it has been run in the school for a number of years and currently over 50 pupils are taking part. We just had 2 students receive their bronze awards. Congratulations Emma Roche and Niamh Fitzgerald.  Two 6th years are completing their Gold award, come on Brendan Dowling and Ciaran Wyse, nearly there! These two boys will be presented with their awards by President Micheal D Higgins. If you are interested in signing up come see Ms Bagnall or Ms Mc Loughlin for further Information or look up http://www.gaisce.org

Open Night

October 23rd saw huge numbers of prospective students tour the school during Open night. The school was thronged and there were displays, dancing and edible delights as all departments and subjects were showcased to perfection.

Exam Success

Congratulations to all Leaving Cert and Junior Cert 2014 students who completed their examinations in June. We wish all past students every success as they embark on the next phase of their careers. Congratulations to Ciaran Power who won the JP McManus scholarship and Ailbhe Garry winner of a Maynooth University award based on their excellent Leaving Certificate results. 

Computer Science Education Week   Dec. 8th-14th, 2014

The Hour of Code is coming!

Have you an idea for an app and you’re not sure how to develop it?  Well, you can start by learning how to code during the Computer Science Education Week which runs from Dec 8th- 14th.  During this week events promoting coding in programming languages like Scratch, Html and others will be hosted by the ICT Department in Scoil Mhuire.  The school has signed up to take part in the internationally organised Hour of Code. This involves students, and teachers, volunteering to do an hour of basic coding with the guidance of an online tutor. Even our Taoiseach Enda Kenny has completed it! So listen out for the announcements and join the other 48,361,038 people worldwide who have done an Hour of Code.

Science Week

A group of second year students travelled to DIT in Nov as part of Science Week to attend talks on music and science and learned about topics from magnetism to electrons.

World Gold Medal for Natasha

Huge congratulations to Natasha Logan, Transition Year, whose Boxing career goes from strength to strength. Natasha recently won a World Champion Gold medal, at the Queen's Cup in Stralsund, Germany. Natasha was also awarded Best Junior Boxer in recognition of her skills and power in the ring at the 14-nation tournament. She has an amazing five National titles and three National Cadet titles since the age of 11 and remains unbeaten for the last five years in Ireland.

5th Year Christmas Fundraiser

The 5th Year fundraising group have been busy organising activities for their chosen charity ‘Friends of St. Lukes’ – a cancer care charity. Events underway include a bake sale, Christmas Jumper day, the annual Teacher-/Student football match, Celebrity Meet and Greet and the Make a Difference concert. Please give generously.

School Bank

Excitement was high as ‘The Gooch’, Colm Cooper, AIB Youth Officer, officially opened our school bank ‘Point Bank’ on Nov 18th. Open each Thursday in LR2, all students are welcome to join and open an account. Bank members on hand to assist are: Megan Farrell, Manager, Eoghan Gallagher, Deputy Manager and Chris Martin, Harry James, Mayowa Akinolu and Colm Keating.

Social Nights

First year students are well settled into secondary school life now. Thank you to the prefects and mentors who have helped them to ease into second level and who organised two very successful social evenings with a quiz, disco, table tennis and x-box games to entertain.

Choir

Members of the school choir are busy preparing for some Christmas performances in The Nursing Home, at the Christmas Market and in Super Value.

Shoebox Appeal

The members of the Student Council have collected and sent off 79 shoeboxes filled with items for children in Congo in time for Christmas. Thank you to everyone who kindly filled a box. 

Transition Year

T.Y. students have been very busy this term with visits to Carlingford Adventure Centre, The Riverbank Theatre, Glendalough on retreat, the Ploughing Championships and the Road Safety workshop. They have also experienced both drumming, dance, sexual health and poetry workshops, taken part in the KARE and Riding for the Disabled and Wheelchair Basketball programmes, showcased their mini company products, opened the school bank, auditioned for the play and have the yearbook underway. Some students are already on their fourth work experience placement and others look forward to welcoming some German students later in the year.

Fundraising Walk October

Our annual Fancy Dress Walk once again took place on Friday 24th October, the weather was kind to us and an enjoyable day was had by all. The creative talents of both students and teachers were exhibited to a very high standard, with many innovative creations and new dimensions to some of the traditional Halloween characters. We would like to extend our gratitude to all the parents and the community for supporting this vital fund raiser for our school. All the funds generated are employed to supplement the transport costs of the numerous outings from our school. A special word of thanks must go to the students for their hard work in securing sponsorship. The largest amount raised by an individual student was €140 (Rebecca Devine) and the best tutor group was Ms. McGee’s in First Year. Robert Flynn 6th Year was the proud winner of a tablet in a raffle for those students that raised a large sum of money. Well done to all !

Themed Weeks

So far this year we have had a number of very successful themed weeks to highlight different issues including Study Week, Mental Health Week and Multi-Cultural Week. Anti Bullying week is coming up.

5th Year Play – Happy Birthday Dear Alice

Directed by Mr. Dermody and Mr. Breslin, rehearsals are underway for the 5th yr play, Bernard Farrell’s ‘Happy Birthday Dear Alice’ which will be staged in March. After rigorous auditions the final cast includes  Harry Quinn, Betty Gunson, Beibhinn Cogan, Michael Freaney,  Karl Lynham and Nicole Martin Wishing every success to all for the production..

Musical 2015 -  Auditions

Auditions for the 1st and 2nd Year Musical will take place in the coming weeks. A cast of approx.. 30 students will be required for the musical which will be staged around Easter. Everyone is welcome to audition. Remember if on stage is not for you, there are many backstage roles too.

Visit by Minister O Sullivan

Scoil Mhuire’s Adult Education department celebrated the success of its students at a graduation ceremony in The Westgrove Hotel in Clane on Tuesday 18th November. A total of 306 Adult Learners graduated in the 2013/14 academic year in courses affiliated to ITEC, FETAC, and Maynooth University. In our current Autumn term, there are 388 learners studying courses certified by these awarding bodies. Special guest on the evening was the Minister for Education, Jan O’Sullivan. After a tour of Scoil Mhuire and viewing many of the night classes in progress, Ms. O’ Sullivan joined graduates and their families in the Westgrove Hotel to celebrate their success.

Irish Department Events

Honours Irish students travelled recently to the Axis Theatre, Ballymun to see a Fibin production of An Triail which forms part of their coursework.

6th yr students were entertained in school at an enjoyable and interactive workshop with a humorous take on the Sraith pictuir component of the Irish oral by Highrock productions.

Skating Trip

After school on Dec 11th over 100 5th yr students are off to Dundrum ice-skating for their Christmas outing. Hope everyone has fun

Lunchtime Entertainment

Entertainment is being provided at lunchtimes for students including chess and draughts, board games, computer games and the Library is also open each lunch-time. (If any student has board games at home that are not being used, we would welcome them for the games room.)

‘Toe Tapping Thursday’ also continues at lunchtime where our talented students perform music, song and dance in the assembly.

Sixth Year Careers

In recent months students have had the opportunity to attend talks by Maynooth University, D.I.T., D.C.U.,Trinity College, U.C.D., University of Limerick, NUI Galway, I.T. Carlow, Dublin Business School  and Dunboyne College as well as attend the Higher Options Careers Fair in Dublin so should be well informed for making future choices. The CAO is now open for application. Please ensure you apply online before Christmas. UCAS applications are nearing completion and PLC applications are opening now also. 

SPORTS

Cross Country

Keelin White, Roisin Maguire and Aideen McGinn were among those who added to their medal tallies in Cross Country running in Carlow recently.

Senior Football

The senior and u/16 football teams have been training together as a panel since August. Their year began with a three day training camp before school was back.  They have worked very hard for the past few months, between morning strength and conditioning sessions, pitch sessions and challenge matches.  They hope to see the fruits of that hard work within the next few years, if not this year.

The seniors played in the south Leinster A league in preparation for their championship after Christmas. They secured a good win against Good Counsel, a draw against St Peters Wexford and lost out to reigning Leinster champions Colaiste Eoin. This secured them a semi-final spot which was a bonus match.

They met Athy in the semi-final and lost out by four points with the match being level after 55 minutes. Overall, the league was great championship preparation and will put the lads in a good position to tackle the championship after Christmas. Ethan o Donohue was chosen as the team captain with Cormac Browne the vice-captain.

The U16s play in South Leinster with a very tough championship format which is being reviewed in the coming months. Because of the structure losing one match can cost you dear and this is what happened to the lads against Knockbeg. They were cruising 45 minutes gone, being 6 points up. Hitting the crossbar three times in a period of five minutes left them open to Knockbeg. This is what happened. Knockbeg got the stranglehold of the ball around the middle and beat the lads by 5 in the end.  Patricians await in a must win match. The odds are against this team but no doubt they will rise to the challenge. Brian MacLoughlin is the captain with Brian Giffney as vice-captain.

Training

First and Second year Badminton training is after school Mondays

First year girls Basketball training is Tuesday after school

First year boys Basketball training is Tuesdays at lunchtime.

Girls U14 GAA training is Thursdays after school

Girls U14/15 Soccer training is Wednesday at 4pm.

Horse riding

The equestrian team have been preparing for competition after Christmas.

Scoil Mhuire Golfers

The school golfers have progressed well in both the Irish Schools Senior Championship and the Leinster Inter Schools League Match Play.

They won their Irish Schools Senior Championship match against Donabate C.C. (3/2) at Westmanstown G.C. and will now be playing St. Andrew’s College, Blackrock at Castlewarden G.C. on Friday 12th December in the Leinster semi-final.

The league stage of the Leinster Inter Schools League Match Play has just been completed and we topped our group. We now face Colaiste Mhuire, Mullingar in the matchplay stage and this will have to be played before 23rd January 2015.

Senior golfer’s panel: Aaron Bagnall, Owen O’Loughlin, Brian McLoughlin, Stephen Herring, Stephen Duffy and Ruadhán Glover.