Coláiste Chill Mhantáin
MATHS WEEK 2019.
Congratulations to our winners of the First year Maths Quiz Final: First Prize – Alex Dunne, Raphael Balisi, Nathan Reynolds and Luke Dunne, second prize – Aaron Brogan, Chloe Quinn, Jamie Larkin and Peter Quinn and third prize – Lee Brown, Liam Dunne, Lorcan Byrne and Darragh Lacey. Well done, everyone. Thank you to the Maths Dept for organising both an exciting and challenging week for both students and teachers alike.
LITERACY WEEK 2019
Well done to all the first years and mentors who dressed up for Dress Up and Read on Wednesday. There was some fantastic costumes and the quiz was enjoyed by all. The winning mentors for best costumes were Seán Brady and Charlie Cruise. The First year runners-up were Chloe Quinn and John Crowley. The overall First year winner was Jason Doyle one Slaney. Well done to all of the Definition of the day winners: Keaveney Doyle, one Foyle; Ollie Kennedy, one Foyle; Kacper Lepek, two Erne; Theo Pennell, one Liffey and Cara McCormick, one Liffey.
SPELLING BEE
As part of our Literacy Week, a Spelling Bee competition was organised in the library on Tuesday, October 22, for First year students. In a compelling contest, forty-three students were whittled down to 12 which, in turn, was reduced to just three students. In a well-contested final which featured two tiebreaks, Fabien Szymanski of one Slaney was the winner. The two runners-up were Ciaran Matthews of one Liffey and Colum McKenna of one Foyle. Well done to each of the three finalists received a book voucher.
OISIN MCGANN VISIT
As part of the school’s Literacy Week, we were delighted to welcome well-known children’s author, Oisin McGann, to the library. For his visit, Oisin gave a number of readings from his latest book to all first years. He also discussed writing as a career in general and told the students how he became a writer. A well known illustrator as well as novelist, Oisin also brought along his easel and demonstrated his drawing skills with a number of sketches of some of his well-known characters which he donated to the library.
HOME ECONOMICS/LITERACY
As part of literacy week here in CCM, our cake decorators took on the challenge of designing cakes to represent their favourite books and stories. It was lovely to hear the students discussing their favourite childhood books, as well as those they are currently reading, while they worked.
AU REVOIR MAGALI
Following her two-week visit to the school, our visitor from a school in Cayenne in French Guyana, Magali Kervennic, expressed her gratitude for the hospitality and generosity shown to her during her stay in Wicklow. She is especially grateful to those who permitted her to visit their classes and inducted her into some of the activities in the school. She is very impressed with many aspects of our work in CCM but she highlighted, in particular, the efforts put into preparing for class and the positive relationships between teachers and students. She is taking back lots of ideas for projects and activities as well as apps for her colleagues. Merci beaucoup pour tout.
MAKE WICKLOW GREAT AGAIN
On Friday, October 18, Emma Carter, Alison O’Shea, Steven Kenny (fifth year mentors) and Joana Kuzio (sixth year perfect) attended a meeting in the De La Salle Pastoral Centre. The meeting was about what would make Wicklow great again. During groupwork, the students spoke about different ideas they would like to see in our town, about the town’s needs, the positives and negatives of the town and how they can improve those negative aspects of our town. The students thoroughly enjoyed themselves and came up with amazing ideas. They look forward to the next meeting in a few weeks time and, hopefully, putting some of their ideas and solutions into place to help make our town great again.
CONCERN DEBATING
Last, Tuesday, October 22, our Concern debating team had their second debate of the league against Presentation College Bray. Our team, made up of captain Michael Wright, Rebecca Parke, Emma Carter, Jessica Finnigan and Mark Melia, were opposing the motion ‘Nuclear power is essential for a clean energy future’. It was a closely fought battle but, after some time deliberating, the adjudicators returned and announced the motion had been carried and so Presentation College Bray were victorious. Our campaign isn’t over though and we have two more debates left. Next, we are against St Gerard’s Bray and we are proposing the motion ‘The EU needs an army’.
GR8 2 B YNG WALK
As part of the local Gr8 2 b yng initiative, Transition Years from CCM and all schools in the town, took part in a 5km walk along the Murrough. The students were addressed before the start of the walk by members of the committee and by Charlie Burke from Wicklow Mental Health. The warm up was given by Garda Niall Kennedy. The weather held out and everyone enjoyed a very welcoming breakfast roll when they completed the walk.
GREEN SCHOOLS
Well done to Leigh Rasmussen, three Liffey, who has been accepted onto the Green Schools’ Water Ambassador Programme. There were a huge number of applications throughout Ireland and Leigh’s very convincing application has secured him a place on the programme. Leigh and the other successful candidates will attend a one-day training event in November in Dublin, a beach/river/canal clean-up in January/February and a support session in March. Leigh will get the opportunity to collaborate with other students sharing ideas and developing skills to organise school events about water.
SUSTAINABLE FASHION
On Friday, October 18, the second year Home Economics classes had a very insightful guest speaker in to discuss the impact that the fashion industry has on the environment. A textile and fashion designer visited the school to show the students her products made with sustainable materials like wool and scrap fabric that she had collected. Sustainable fashion and development is a big aspect of the new Junior Cycle and as part of their CBA students must design and create their own product made from materials collected at home. The students of second year are currently in the process of creating their sustainable pieces and are really enjoying the process. They thoroughly enjoyed the guest speaker and gained some new ideas for their projects.
GIRLS’ FUTSAL
The Girls’ Futsal Soccer team had their first tournament on Wednesday, October 23, in the Woodlands Academy. CCM had four games against Loreto Bray and East Glendalough. We lost out narrowly in three games, but luck was on our side by winning our last game against East Glendalough 2-1.Well done to all involved and to our goal scorers on the day, Samara Dempsey with three goals and Laura Fitzgerald with one goal.
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
The under-16 and under-19 girls’ CCM basketball teams had another match on Tuesday, October 22, against St Mary’s Arklow. The under-19s were up first and played their best game so far this year. They defended well and kept the score close till the final quarter when St Mary’s pulled away to win the match. The under-16s game was close throughout with a draw at the end of the first quarter and third quarter. The girls played as a team and worked really well together. CCM pulled away in the final quarter to win the match 22-16.
U16 FOOTBALL BLITZ
The Junior Boys GAA football team took part in Group 1b of the Wicklow Schools championship on Thursday, October 17. CCM boys played three games and went through to the A championship as group winners. CCM beat Temple Carrig, Greystones, CCA Kilcoole and St David’s, Greystones very convincingly in each game. This allowed all players to receive a lot of playing time on the day and all players performed really well. We will have tougher games now that we are through to the A championship.
JUNIOR GIRLS’ GAA
CCM Junior Girls had a very comprehensive win in their fixture against St David’s of Greystones. The girls now progress to the semi-final stages of the Junior B competition after mid-term. Great performances all round on the day and, in particular, from Cara Doyle and Ailbhe Kelly upfront, Jade O’Brien and Brooke Griffin in centre field and Holly O’Connor in defence.
SENIOR GOLF SUCCESS
Well done to the CCM golf team that had a comprehensive win in the Leinster Schools’ Senior Match Play competition over Woodbrook College in Wicklow GC on Wednesday, October 23. In windy conditions, both CCM pairings won comfortably. Well played to Seán Coffey (7) and Keith Carthy (9) and to Stephen Kenny (10) and Steven Gormley (8). We now look forward to playing East Glendalough to see who qualifies from the group.