| AM Glynn former student of the year being presented by Dr Garrett Fitzgerald with the Denis Phelan Scholarship for results in Biotechnology in N.U.I. in Galway |
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Articles about news items available here Photo album |
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| Weds 11th March 2004 | Weds 12th Feb 2004 |
| Wed 3rd December 2003 | Wed 19th Nov 2003 |
| Wed 17th December 2003 | Wed 21st January 2004 |
| AM Glynn former student of the year being presented by Dr Garrett Fitzgerald with the Denis Phelan Scholarship for results in Biotechnology in N.U.I. in Galway |
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Weds March 25th 2004
| VISIT FROM NORTHERN IRELAND SCHOOLS | SENIOR SOCCER MATCH | SCHOOL COUNCIL |
| MOCK EXAMS AND ORALS | THE LIMESTONE PROJECT | PHOTOS FROM LIMESTONE PROJECT |
VISIT FROM NORTHERN IRELAND SCHOOLS
On Monday and Tuesday of last week we had a visit from students from Kesh and Dromore our twin schools in Northern Ireland. After their arrival and a welcome from the Principal we had some games to get to know our visitors. We had lunch in the IT Canteen and then it was off to Bundoran to the Adventure Centre. We played games like the "Hula Hoop Circle", "Snatch the Runner" and "Danger Bridge". Then we played "Night time" in which we were blindfolded and had to walk through an obstacle course. This was meant to build trust and friendship between our groups. After tea we went bowling for an hour and then we took part in a treasure hunt. Our Northern friends stayed in Bundoran for the night but we had to come back home.
Tuesday morning was taken up with presenting our Civic-link projects and
attending workshops. Nigel, from Co-operation Ireland, guided us through the
different aspects of our work. Our class presentation was done by Kyle Doyle who
did and excellent job in this. Following lunch we went to town to do some
shopping with our friends from Northern Ireland. We had a most enjoyable time
and made friends across the border that we will never forget.
TOP
Our newly laid out football pitch was officially opened last week when we had a friendly senior soccer game with the Grammar School Team. It was a closely contested game with very strong defence from both sides. Our back line particularly Gary Harte, Keith Coleman and Sean Mulligan put up a stout defence and no goal was conceded by either side up to half-time. We were holding the line very well and it looked as if the game would end scoreless. About five minutes from the end the Grammar School striker managed to elude our defence and headed the ball into the net. It looked like curtains for our boys at that stage. However, they mounted a concerted attack on the Grammar goal and their defence gave away a penalty. Darren Cronin confidently slotted the ball in the back of the net. And that’s how the game ended 1 – 1 draw. It was a most enjoyable and sporting encounter and we thank the Grammar School team and also our Coach Mr Wynne who arranged the game. We are now looking forward to a game with their U – 14 team.
Student power is the in thing these times, and if it is channelled in the
right direction it can only be good. When students are given responsibility they
make a very positive contribution to society. Our recently elected School
Council is full of positive ideas and willing to implement them. They are
attending a special training day on Friday next when all aspects of their work
will be discussed. The following students have been elected to the School
Council – Brendan Glynn, Conor McGowan, Stephen Kelly, Gillian Goodwin, Raymond
Colburn, Sinead McLoughlin, Rean McMorrow, David Sheridan, Ahren Branley, Lee
Cullen, Ruairi Clancy, Kyle Gethins and Liam Ritchie. All their plans may not be
put in to place this year but they will be ready to go come next September. We
wish them well.
TOP
Mock exams are in full swing at the moment. Leaving Cert and Junior Cert
classes are getting in some good practice at exam techniques before the real
test comes up in June. We grouse about them but the teachers keep telling us
that the more practice we get the better we’ll do. There’s always room for
improvement but the one good thing is that the ‘mocks’ are always marked harder
than the real exams. I hope that’s true. The orals we are doing in Irish and
French this week and next are part of the real thing and with 25% of the marks
going for them we are using every opportunity we can to get in practising the
Gaeilge and the French. The Junior Cert classes don’t have orals but they have
two days of practical tests in Home Economics before Easter. We wish them all
the best of luck.
TOP
This is a project under the direction of the Model:Niland Gallery and its Education Officer Marie Louise Blayney. It involves studying limestone landscapes in Ireland and Newfoundland. For our first field trip our Science teacher Mrs Collery took us to Ballyconnell. We were guided around the limestone shoreline by Dr Don Cotton from Sligo IT and resident artist Jessica Reid, and shown how to identify and examine fossils in the rocks. When studying rocks we are dealing with millions of years going back to the formation of the earth. It takes a while to get our minds around the time-span involved and the more we think about it the more mysterious the world becomes.
Next year we hope to go on a trip to the Burren in Co Clare to study the most
unusual limestone landscape in the world. We are looking forward to this
already. We also hope to get in contact with a school in Newfoundland who are
also doing a similar project. We enjoyed this field-trip very much and thank Mrs
Collery for bringing us.
TOP
| PLC Work Experience | Play on Addiction | Big win for IT in Sigerson |
| Talk on Drink and Alcoholism. | Visit from Northern School |
PLC students are inspired and motivated as they have just completed 3 weeks work experience. The students from Applied Social Studies, Business Studies, Furniture Design, Interior Design and Programming and Information Technology have obtained vast skills from their work experience. This programme enables students to make educated choices about their careers and future studies.
A big thank you is owed to all the employers in Sligo and elsewhere for ensuring that students obtained a range of valuable skills in their relevant areas. The employers ranged from the Health Board, a range of local businesses and offices, Crèche facilities, Wood turners and joiners to mention a few. This opportunity facilitated the students and the college and we greatly appreciate it.
Orla found the work interesting and helped her to know that this is the area of work she wants to follow. Naomi found it to be challenging and has made her more determined to complete the course and pursue a career in this area.
Now however the students have to reapply themselves diligently to an increasing workload as the end of the year approaches. For many students this is made easier by the renewed enthusiasm due to a very successful work experience.
On Wednesday last Sonas Theatre Company came to our school to present a play called “EFFECTS”. It was a play about the many faces of addiction. We all think of addiction as something connected with drugs or alcohol, but, as the play showed, it can be much wider. The three main characters in the play are addicts – one addicted to drugs, another to gambling and a third to the Internet. Each character recalls how the problem first began and with the aid of flashbacks takes us through the events and situations that led them into the world of addiction. None of the three set out to become an addict but problems at home with parents or in school with classmates or teachers, or in the office with business etc forced them into addiction. At first it seemed to be an escape but soon became an imprisonment. It ended in tragedy for Jodie, the drug addict, who died after a bad fix. Stephen, the gambling addict, was on the verge of loosing his wife, family and home. But Sonya, the Internet addict was bravely trying to cope with her addiction.
After the play Sgt Con Lee, the Garda Drugs Officer discussed the issues raised with us. Even though we were 1st and 2nd years, many of us were able to recognise and identify with the problems. We hope that seeing the play will help us recognise situations that could lead to addiction and make us responsible enough to avoid them. We thank the Sonas Drama Group for their work and also Mrs Tuohy for encouraging us to go to the play.
We congratulate the Gaelic Team in the Sligo IT for their brilliant win in the Sigerson Cup last weekend. This is their second win in three years and really puts in the IT on the GAA map. We are pleased that our PE teacher, Denis Johnson, was the coach and he certainly did a wonderful job in getting the team in top shape for the occasion. Their manager, Michael Breslin, is also a good friend of our school and he deserves our congratulations as well. We are honoured to be able to provide facilities on our school pitch to the Sigerson panel for some light training and tactics. Our other connection with the winning team that is worth mentioning is that a rising star on our U-16 panel. Darren Melly, is a cousin of IT and St Mary’s star Johnny Davey. Comhghairdeaches leis an bhfoireann iontach on IT aris.
On Friday last, Ray O’Connor from PTAA, came to the school to talk to us about the effects of drink on young people. One of the biggest problems in Ireland today is an overindulgence on alcohol. It is the most widely used drug among people of all ages. The speaker urged us not to start drinking until we were 18 years of age. We all know that this is the legal age but we also know that there are many of us drinking before that age. We hear teachers talking about young students coming into school with hangovers but I haven’t heard this complaint about our school. The big complaint young people have is that there is nowhere else to go if we want to socialise. A lot of cafes and coffee shops close up at six in the evening. We can’t gather in takeaways or we’ll be asked to move on and gathering at street corners invites trouble and fights. The problem with Ireland is the pub culture is so strong that it would be very hard for any alternative entertainment to compete. We hope some other attraction can be found.
The 2A class and their
CSPE teachers, Ms Heaphy, are busy putting the finishing touches to arrangements
for the visit of our two twinned schools from Kesh and Dromore. We had a most
enjoyable and educational trip to their schools last term and we will try our
best to do the same for them. The 15th and 16th March are
the two days chosen for the visit and an interesting programme of group work,
joint projects, receptions and leisure activities is being put together. Our
thanks to Ms Heaphy who is putting so much work into the arrangements. She will
have well earned her trip to Rhode Island at Easter to meet the teacher and
pupils from our corresponding school in the US. There are a few of us in 2A who
wouldn’t mind going with her!! I think there is also another teacher who
wouldn’t mind going if there was any spare ticket. There will be a lot more to
report after the visits!
TOP
| School Quiz | New Soccer Goalposts | Love in the Air |
| New School Prospectus | School Newsletter | The Play’s the Thing |
Benwiskin is an adventure centre located in
Ballintrillick, North Sligo. It is one of the most scenic areas of the county
and is unknown to many people. Two of us, Siobhan and Sinead, were lucky to be
selected to spend a weekend there recently. We attended a course on leadership
skills run by the Youth Sport West. The two youth workers, Shane and Maura, who
ran the course were excellent. We learned about the importance of communication
skills, on how essential it is to listen to others and respect their point of
view. We also studied leadership and organisational techniques and hope to use
these skills in our school later. It wasn’t all serious stuff like that. We
met a lot of new friends, talked and listened to C.D.’s and went to Bundoran for
pizzas in the evening. Rain on Saturday presented us from enjoying the delights
of Gleniff Horseshoe as we drove around. Some of the notices we saw weren’t
very inviting to visitors especially around the “Bull” McSharry’s farm. We
definitely didn’t go for any treck on Benwiskin Mountain. It was a great
weekend and we thank our Teacher, Ms. Foody, for selecting us to go.
TOP
Brand new galvanised
goal posts have been installed in our football – pitch. For this we have to
thank Brooks Hanley who sponsored them for us. We greatly appreciate their
support in supplying the posts. We also acknowledge the assistant we got from
Pat Devaney, grounds man at the IT, and especially the organisational skills of
our caretaker Joe who arranged it all. We know he gives out to us sometimes but
he is always trying to help us. Mr. Wynne who takes charge of the teams will
expect a big improvement in performance when we next take to the field. There
are two matches to play yet in the North Connacht league against Manorhamilton
and Strokestown and we will be proud to welcome those teams to our newly laid
out pitch. Thanks again to all.
TOP
With the on come of St. Valentine’s Day there is a noticeable restlessness among us students, especially girls of a certain age. It was added to this year when Ms. Foody invited us to compose a love poem for the occasion. Many students were inflicted with a sudden rush of blood to the head and a quickening of the heartbeat as they tried to put their feelings into words.
Wordsworth defined
poetry as “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” but there was nothing
spontaneous about the efforts of some students. We didn’t hear of any teachers
getting carried away by the occasion but we are keeping a close watch on
developments. As the poems of all shapes and sizes pour in Ms Foody hasn’t an
easy job on hands to pick a winner. She is obviously an expert in this area and
I have no doubt that the inspiring words she received will have W.B. Yeats
turning in his grave.
TOP
Ms. Frazer has been
putting her I.T. skills to good use recently in compiling a brand new college
prospectus. With enrolment night coming up after the mid-term break we need an
up-to-date prospectus to distribute among sixth classes in primary schools. It
is just off the printing press and is full of all the information any parent
needs about the school. It has plenty of colour and photos as well and gives a
very useful picture of life and times in Ballinode College. We hope it
presents a positive picture of our school and helps with our enrolment which
takes places on Thursday 4th March at 7.00 p.m.
TOP
Thanks to resource
teacher, Ms. Heaphy, for her on-going work in producing a school newsletter each
term with her students. A mixture of news, stories, crosswords, word searches
and good laughs makes it a worthwhile read. We hope students take it home so
that their parents can read it as well.
TOP
With the words of
Hamlet ringing in our ears we are hard at work practising for our production of
the play “No Comet Seen” by Sligo Playwright John Kavanagh. Under the direction
of Ms. Ryan, who is a leading figure in the Sligo drama scene, we are being put
through our paces so that we will be able to face the footlights in the
Factory after Easter. The play has already been staged at the Hawks Well with
much acclaim. It is about the Connacht Rangers and their involvement in the
Indian Muting. All the main roles are taken by students from Leaving Cert 1
class – Aaron Dolan, Sean Mulligan, Lee Cullen, Adrian O’Neill, John Morrison,
Shane Wimsey, Liam Ritchie and Craig Cullen. For most of us it will be our
first time on stage and we are feeling a bit of stage fright already. More news
later.
TOP
Our general knowledge
has been put to the test over the last week in the school quiz contest run by
Ms. Tuohy. This was a table quiz and as we put our teams together there was a
rush to get into the teams with brainy and knowledgeable students. As each day
went by and promising teams were beaten the tension was building up. The last
round was the most hotly contested and took place on Thursday last. In the end
the following teams came out on top. First prize went to Second Year team of
Michael Chrystal, Deborah O’Gorman and Stephen Kelly who obviously have more
knowledge in their heads than anybody else. Second was another second year team
with Kyle Doyle, Gilliam Goodwin, James Gethins and Janice Brady. A first year
team made it into third place – Grace Connell, Danny Connell and Conor McGowan.
All winners were presented with vouchers for the cinema. Our thanks to Ms.
Tuohy for all the work she put into organising the event.
TOP
| Christmas Plays | Soccer Championship |
| Co-operation Ireland Exchange | Swimming for First Years |
| Dublin on Ice |
The practice of classes putting on plays before Christmas holidays goes back to primary school days. Last year it was started in our school and was continued at Christmas 2003. As agreed our school was open on the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas, what better way to encourage pupils to stay in school than put on Christmas plays.
This year there were two excellent shows – A Nativity Play produced by Mrs Reynolds and Ms Carr and a very clever composition produced by Mrs Foody and Ms Heaphy called "Fangs a Lot". All credit is due to those teachers who spent many hours of their free time preparing and rehearing with the classes. An excellent attendance of parents thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were delighted to see their darlings on stage.
Refreshments were served after the show, all prepared by the Home Economics Teacher and students. The Minister need have no fears about these teachers reaching their productivity targets.
The concert was videoed on the state of the art video/dvd
camera recently acquired by the Principal. In fact many students were enjoying
seeing themselves on video next morning when the Department Inspector called
there was full attendance.
TOP
Our school played two more games in the North Connacht Soccer
competition last week. Our U-18 and U-14 teams were in action against teams from
Strokestown Community School. Both games were played in Roscommon and the
venture did not prove lucky for our squad. They were caught off guard on the day
and went down in both games. There are still remaining games to be played
against Manorhamilton Community School and Foxford Secondary School. We may not
come away with any trophies this year but we certainly won’t be short of match
practice, which should prove good for next year.
TOP
2A class are gearing themselves up for a visit from our partner schools in Northern Ireland soon. This will be the return visit. Ms Heaphy and Mrs Foody are travelling to Belfast next week to get an up-date on the visit. When it comes to preparation for this exchange Co-operation Ireland leave nothing to chance, they plan everything in detail. Our thanks to Ms Heaphy and Mrs Foody for showing such interest in this activity. Mr Mullen says he will if there is prospect of any free lunch or trip (especially to the U.S.) coming up!!
Due to finance provided by the School Completion Programme we are able to take First Years for swimming lessons to the pool at Yeats Country Leisure Centre at Rosses Point. This is not a facility that many of our students would be familiar with so that in itself was a treat. We began lessons on Tuesday 13th January and had a very enthusiastic response from the first years present. There was also a swimming coach provided who will instruct new comers in the basics of swimming. We thank P.E. teacher Mr Johnson who provided the transportation for us.
We would also like to congratulate Mr Johnson who, as coach
to the IT Gaelic team led them to a convincing victory over Roscommon in the FBD
League. We wish them well in the next match against Mayo.
TOP
Just before Christmas about 49 students had a very enjoyable trip to Dublin to try their skills on the new ice-rink in Smithfield. Everyone found it enjoyable even those who failed to stay on their feet very long!! Even the teachers had a go and word is that Mrs Foody proved to be the most agile of them and didn’t fall once. But then she has youth on her side. After our adventure on the ice we were fully refreshed for an afternoon shopping, many Christmas presents were bought. We thank Mr Wynne who arranged the trip and also Mr Fahy, Mrs Foody and Ms Heaphy who accompanied us.
| Students Object to Clarion Road |
Geography Field Trip |
Public Speaking Project | U-18 Soccer Blitz |
| Christmas Trip to Dublin | Christmas Tests in Full Swing | PLC Visit to Sligo Institute of Technology | |
The proposal to change the name of the road outside our school to Clarion Road gave rise to some discussion in our classes. We have no objection to getting rid of “Mental Hospital Road” but find it hard to relate to the name Clarion Road. It has a foreign ring about it and has no historic connection with the Irish landscape and environment from which place names usually develop.
Why should a hotel want to impose its name on a public roadway? Abbott is Sligo’s biggest employer and they didn’t ask that Ballytivnan Road be changed to Abbott Road. We are students in Ballinode College and we use the road every day. There are also hundreds of students in the Institute of Technology who constantly use that roadway and whose grounds border the road also. We propose a road like Bothar an Colaiste or College Avenue instead of the name mentioned at the Corporation meeting. We are planning a campaign to collect signatures for the name change. This would surely be a good civic act and a constructive way to show our concern. We hope the voices of young people will be listened to by our city fathers.
On Tuesday last, we the first year class, saw for ourselves the treatment processes Sligo’s water supply undergoes from its source in Lough Gill to the kitchen tap. This was courtesy of Mr Paul Cunningham who took us on a conducted tour of the water treatment plant at Foxes Den. We saw the raw water from the lake, eighty metres away, arriving via a 500mm pipe to the balancing tank. This water is then piped into the contact tank so called because chemicals make contact with the dirt particles in the water. Next the water makes its way to the DAF tank where further cleaning takes place. A paddle type mixer removes the dirt (sludge). The water is allowed to settle before being passed through rapid gravity filters, when the ph is corrected, fluorine and chlorine added, the water ends up I the reservoir for distribution to most of Sligo town. The sludge is thickened; some is made into fertiliser and the remainder goes to landfill sites.
We would like to thank the staff at the plant for facilitating our visit especially Nola who provided the refreshments
This annual event organised by the Mental Health Association, took place last week. Our school has been involved in this event since its inception in 1982 and has succeeded in making it to the finals more than once. This year our team was John Morrison, Siobhan Cummins and Kyle Gettins and all performed well. Special thanks is due to Kyle who stepped in at the last moment when another member cried off. For this round there is a large list of topics to choose from and we choose the following three- “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to reflect it”, “Education makes us free”, and “Those who are lonely build walls instead of bridges”.
To perform with confidence in public needs a lot of practice and coaching and for this we thank our teacher Mr Mullen. We were us against two very able teams from St Attracta’s , Tubbercurry and Colaiste Mhuire, Ballymote. The girls from St Attracta’s proved the most eloquent and we wish them well in the next round.
A very exciting and hard fought soccer blitz took place in the astra turf at the Sports Complex last week. Our team was missing a few regulars but nevertheless put up a good show. We had matches against Coola. Ballymote, Grange, Easkey and Gurteen. We brought off convincing wins against Ballymote and Easkey but failed in the other matches. Or best players on the day were Seamie O’Boyle, Seamus Devaney, Darren Cronin, Ruairi Clancy and Rian McMorrow.
The tournament was won in the end by Grange and we congratulate them on their victory. Thanks to our trainer Mr Wynne and the organiser of the tournament, P.E. teacher, Mr Johnston.
The U-16 soccer match arranged with Manorhamilton Community School had to be postponed this week due to pitch problems. It may not now take place until after Christmas. We are also due to play Strokestown Vocational School in the New Year. Lets hope the snow stays away.
As we write this we are getting ready for a trip to Dublin on December 15th . We hope to take part in the “Dublin on Ice Experience” in Smithfield and no doubt so some shopping. When this trip was first announced it proved very popular and places were grabbed up on the first day. I think the teachers were as keen to go as us – it might have something to do with the number of shopping days left until Christmas but we also expect them to take to the ice-rink when we’ll see who really is the “youngest and fittest”. We will be giving a full report on this later.
Despite the Dublin trip there is no let up in the Christmas tests this week. The teachers are really piling them on and expect us all to shine. Thankfully the reports won’t be going home until after Christmas so they won’t interfere with our festive celebrations. One teacher told us that he would spend some time on Christmas Day correcting tests. Any teacher who does that should be seriously thinking of retiring! We heard in the Budget that the Minister said that they don’t have to retire at 65 any more. It must be a soft job!
The Programming
and Information Technology PLC investigated links with the Information Systems
Department in Sligo IT . They were taken on a tour to inform them about three
new courses in Computing being proposed for September ’04. These courses allow
students to progress in three years to ordinary level degrees in Software
Development, Database Administration and Network Systems. They incorporate
industry level qualifications and are a natural progression for students
studying our PLC course. All the students were very impressed and would like to
thank the lecturers Michael Barrett, Paul Flynn and Padraig Harte for showing
them around all the computer laboratories. Stephen was impressed with all the
jumbled coloured wires in the network lab – which reminded him of ……..
TOP
Class Visits Northern Colleagues
On 24th and 25th November our class (2A) paid a visit to our twin schools in Northern Ireland. We left Ballinode at 8.30 on Monday morning and arrived at the Duke of Westminster School in Kesh at 10.00 am. The students were there, waiting for us as were students from St John's High School, Dromore. At first we were inclined to huddle together in groups, but when Ann Marie took over she changed all this. She had lots of games and exercises that helped us to get to know each other. Then each school presented a profile of its class and presented common problems that we would discuss later. Kyle Doyle was our spokesman and talking was no problem to him. By lunchtime we were on first name terms with most of the Northern pupils.
After lunch it was on to the Share Centre in Lissnaskea where we had two hours of activities. Rock-climbing proved the most popular and challenging and most of us had a go at it. Aaron and Rosie were the most skilful and made it up the cliff face in record time. Our teachers, Ms Foody and Ms Heaphy, also took a hand at rock-climbing and the youngest and fittest of the two made it to the top. Mr Mullen pleaded "a bad hip" and confined himself to the archery which involved keeping his two feet firmly on the ground. After an excellent evening meal we had more games followed by a brilliant table quiz. The team with Stephen and Deborah were winners and the team with Alan and Chris were runners-up. They all got CD vouchers, which they used on Tuesday to buy their favourite CDs. We had about two hours to go shopping on Tuesday afternoon and spend all our sterling.
Monday night was the best part of the trip and we talked and laughed and played tricks on each other late into the night. We'll say no more about that - just to thank the Teachers for their patience. They were young once too.
We spent Tuesday morning in St John's School, Dromore where the workshops were conducted by Nigel from Co-operation Ireland. We were focusing on areas of conflict in the schools and in our communities. Such areas of contention as drug-dealing, under-age drinking, conflict with the police and disagreement between teacher and pupils were discussed. Eventually we settled on a problem common to all communities and that was vandalism. We will now examine the problem - its causes, effects and hopefully come up with some solutions before we meet again. This time we will meet in our own school and are looking forward to meeting again the friends we made up North.
Civic-Link International Partnership Programme is linked with
Dr. Earl F.
Calcutt Middle School, Rhode Island, USA
TOP
This is an initiative under the School Retention Programme. The idea of getting a ‘full Irish breakfast’ before you start school in the morning is certainly an attraction. Those of us who are in school by 8.30 can avail of juicy and delicious rashers and sausages in the school canteen. It’s certainly a good reason for coming to school early. We can thank particularly, Mary McHugh who is in charge of the Completion Project for this special attraction. We can’t expect it every day but I know when the word is out many students will make their way with quickened step to the canteen. A big change for the reluctant schoolboy "creeping unwillingly to school". They say that armies march on their bellies – and so do we students.
Many of our 4th and 5th years visited the It Sligo for
its open day last week. This great facility is right on our door-step and many
of us are used to passing through it on a short cut into town. This time it was
different. We were brought on guided tours of all the facilities and given talks
on the various courses on offer. The facilities there are excellent in all its
departments, science, engineering, social studies, art, sport etc. The awards
the student gain are of the highest order and the vast majority of graduates get
jobs immediately after qualifying. The visit provided us with an incentive to
get our heads down and do well in our Leaving Cert next June. Who knows, maybe
some of us will be coming out with valuable diplomas and degrees in a few years
time.
TOP
Many of the PLC students in the Social Studies class were unaware of the existence of a Resource House in Cranmore before we were given a talk on this project by Resource worker Paula Gorman. Paula, who is the sister of the well-known RTE Reporter Tommie Gorman, was the ideal person to fill us in on this excellent project. The Resource House itself is located at Racecourse View, formally Bank's Drive, Cranmore and was established as a community resource in 1996. Help is given to families when they encounter problems with accessing social welfare help, unemployment, children missing school, Health-Board services and many other day-to-day problems that families meet with. Paula is deeply committed to helping all these families and works tirelessly to provide a service for them. She recently completed a degree in Social Work herself and now has all the theory as well as the practical experience. A few days later the class was taken on a tour of the Resource House and shown around by Paula herself. Who better to do it. We thank Paula for all her help.
Gaelic Blitz Healthy School Scheme
Talk on Nursing School Retention Programme
Last year our school set up a link with two schools in Northern Ireland – the Duke of Westminster in Kesh and St John’s High School, Dromore. This was organised by Co-operation Ireland and proved a huge success. We are continuing this link but now Co-operation Ireland has extended the link to bring in schools in the U.S. All schools are based in the state of Rhode Island and our twin school is Calcutt Middle School in Central Falls. It is a school catering for students in 11 – 14 age group. There is a big ethnic mix in the school ranging from children of immigrants from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Columbia, China as well as local Rhode Islanders. Most of our classes were given a detailed account of this school when one of their teachers, Gerry Lapierre, spent a day with us last week. He is in charge of the link class in his school and brought us greetings in folders and on video from his students. He answered all sorts of questions about his school and also about himself in the sessions he spent with us. He even told us his age! Good job it wasn’t a lady teacher. It became clear that he loved his job as a teacher and got on well with his students. He had great praise for the students he met in our school and was delighted with the reception we gave him. Miss Heaphy and Mr Mullen were looking after him and took him on a sightseeing tour of Sligo area. The only problem was the weather but he said it rains in Rhode Island too. We heard that after his trip around he was taken to sample the delight of Irish pubs in Sligo and took a fancy to our special brew – Guinness. The students were left out of that part of the activities of course. I hope some of us will get a trip to the U.S. later, but I doubt it.
Just before the mid-term break we had an U-18 Gaelic football team taking part in a blitz held in Ballymote. I’m afraid we came away empty handed and managed to win only one medal in the tournament. When it comes to a showdown we’re no match for strong-holds of Gaelic like Coola or Easkey. In the end the winners of the blitz turned out to be the Coola team who edged passed Easkey in the final. We thank Mr. Wynne who trains us and helps us in every way he can. We’ll do better next time.
We had a recruiting team in school last week to give a talk on nursing as a career to some Leaving Cert and Social Studies students. All the various options were dealt with – General nursing, psychiatric nursing and children’s nursing. They gave a very impressive presentation on all these areas. We are fortunate in Sligo that we live so near a nursing school, which is situated at Saint Angela’s College. Part of the nursing studies is also pursued in the Institute of Technology, which is on our doorstep. We realise that a science subject for Leaving Cert is essential to enter the nursing field and we were glad to hear that those of us who study Agricultural Science are eligible. I hope that there are a few Florence Nightingales amongst us.
A healthy school committee has been set up in our school. It’s aim is to identify areas in which the school can be improved and to develop an action plan to carry out improvements. The Committee, representing Board of Management, Parents Committee, Teachers and students, consists of the following – Cllr Séamus Dolan, Phyllis O’Connor, Teresa Sweeney, Helen Barr, Justin McCarthy, Aaron Branley, Lee Cullen, Aine O’Connor and Stephen Kelly. At their first meeting last week they were given talks by facilitators from the Health Board, Anne Marie Callery and Billy White. We never had such a broadly based and democratic group in the school before and we look forward to their work for the good of the school.
A new programme was introduced this term to help make school more attractive to reluctant students and encourage them to stay in school longer. The ultimate aim of the programme is to get the percentage of students taking Leaving Cert up from 82% to 90%. We hope this can be achieved. Ms Heather Foster, a Development Officer with the programme, has been appointed to the scheme and is presently working two days per week with us. We welcome her to our school and hope we can give her every help in work. We also welcome a new resource teacher, Katie McAllister to our school and hope she has a pleasant time here.