ColáisteChill Mhantáin
JCSPCHRISTMASCELEBRATIONS
Storyteller, Niall de Burca, was the special guest at the JCSP Christmas celebrations which took place on Monday, December 9, in the library. Niall, a regular visitor to the school, is one of Ireland’s best storytellers and, once again, he didn’t disappoint as he kept his audience entertained with his strange and funny stories. This event was organised to reward all the JCSP students for the work that they have done since the beginning of the school term. A number of the students were also given prizes after being nominated by their teachers for the excellent work that they did this year.
CONCERN DEBATING
On Tuesday night, December 10, our Concern debating team had their final debate of the league against Educate Together Wicklow. We were opposing the motion ‘Volunteering abroad does more harm than good’. Team captain, Michael Wright, and his teammates Emma Carter, Rebecca Parke and Mark Melia did us proud on the night and the adjudicators were left with no option but to allow the motion to be defeated. We have had three wins and one loss in this league so we have a long wait till February when the final league table results are published and we will see if we have a place in the next stage of the competition. Fingers crossed and at least the team can take a well deserved break now.
MATHEMATICS OLYMPIAD
Congratulations to the fifth and sixth year students, Jack Higgins Eve Rafter, Ciaran Cussen, Aiden Hennessy, Robert St John, Frantiska Bendova, Mark Britchfield, Jet Best, Karl Wallace and David O’Connor, who have qualified for Round two of the Maths Olympiad. Students completed R ound one during maths class in which they had 30 minutes to solve a range of maths problems. Those successful have now been invited to take part in Enrichment classes in UCD in preparation for Round two. Well done to all and we wish them well in Round two. Thanks to the maths department for supporting this initiative.
FIRST YEAR CHRISTMAS TRIP
Well done to the Senior Mentor team who arranged a most enjoyable day for their First years’ Christmas trip. Jump.
Zone proved most enjoyable with its many challenges followed by a relaxing afternoon in IMC Dún Laoghaire to see Frozen two.
HOSPICE FUNDRAISER
On December 10, all TY students gathered to meet Sinéad Tarmey, who is helping set up the new hospice in Magheramore. She spoke about the importance of hospices for people with life ending illnesses. She expressed her gratitude for the funds the TYs managed to raise. Two students, Corey Breen and Aoife Roche, presented Sinéad with a cheque for €461 raised from the TY beach clean and the table quiz organised in the school for first and second year students. One of the minicompany groups this year made calendars and gave a generous portion of their profits to the Wicklow Hospice. We look forward to working with Sinéad and Wicklow Hospice again in the new year and are delighted to hear Wicklow Hospice is due to open in January 2020.
TY TRIFACTOR PRESENTATION
Many thanks to Tommy and Graham From Trifactor Fitness, who presented an inspirational talk to all TY students on Tuesday, December 10. Using their background in personal training, they spoke about sport, nutrition, goal setting and having a positive attitude. In addition, Tommy and Graham used their personal experiences of failure in life to show students the importance of learning from their mistakes and how such lessons can make us better able to cope. TY students were left with the strong message that ‘In our failures, we learn our best lessons’.
CARLOWIT ENTRANCE AWARD
Well done to Robert Moffitt, who has received an entrance scholarship in IT Carlow.
LEINSTER CUP RUGBY
We would like to acknowledge the achievement of our students, Laura Newsome, Ciara Brennan, Sarah Carroll, Siobhán Gorman and Toni Quinn (under-18s) and Mia Cowdrey (under-16) who competed in the Leinster Cup under-16 and under-18 Rugby Finals in Energia Park in Donnybrook on Sunday, December 15, for Wicklow Rugby Club. This is a fantastic achievement for the girls and their club.
U-16 BASKETBALL FINAL
CCM played Tallaght Community School in the Oblate Hall in the Cup Final. Tallaght started at a frantic pace scoring three baskets to lead 6-0. Peter Dunne then replied with a basket on the counter to make the score 6-2. Tallaght added another basket to leave the score 8-2 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Tallaght’s best player used all of his 6ft 5’ height and put on a show with a slam dunk on the counter along with another three baskets. This left the score 15-3 at half time In the third quarter, Ethan Power stepped out to man mark the Tallaght post player. As the quarter went on, CCM added a few scores with Ethan Power and Peter Dunne on the score sheet to close the gap to 25-10 going into the last quarter. In the final quarter CCM gave it everything but it proved too little too late for them as Tallaght saw out the game 33-15. Hard luck to all.
SENIOR GIRLS’ GAA
The CCM Senior Girls GAA team played in the league semi-final last against Woodbrook on Monday, December 9. The girls took the lead from the start with two goals from Claire Sammon and Eabha Mooney. Woodbrook then came back into the game but the CCM girls managed to defend well and were still on top by half time by four points. Sophie Porter, Sarah Haughton, Helena Pestrajova and Sarah Carroll all worked well together in the backs. The CCM girls pushed on in the second half with Grace Cleary, Laura Murphy and Orla Kenny all scoring several points each.
Captain, Shelley Carr Culbert, did well to keep the team focused right till the last minute. Other notable performances came from Amy O’Doherty, Patricia Keady, Siobhán Gorman and Katie Marah in goals. CCM won well in the end with the final score 8-17 to 4-10 and are looking forward to the final after Christmas.
BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
CCM organised and hosted an under-16 basketball tournament for schools in Wicklow town on Wednesday, December 11. CCM had two teams in the competition, a third year team and a TY team. EGS and DCW had one team each.
The teams played three matches each. CCM did very well with the third years getting to the semi-final against DCW Angelica Geoghegan, Zoe Geoghegan and Mia Cowdrey worked really well together on this team and scored some great baskets. Amie Quinn, Cara Doyle, Chantelle O’Sullivan and Adrainna Majchrzak Katelyn kelly, Naoise Kelly all had notable performances also.
The CCM TY team played very well in the final but lost to EGS There were great scores from Orla Kenny, Shauna Kelly, Eabha Mooney, Malwina Wesolowska and Caolfhionn Ni Dhubhslaine. Other very notable performances came from Claire Sammon, Austeja Gruselionyte, Geneiveve Codd White, Emma Merrigan and Hannah Colaluca. The girls did very well this semester and it was a great achievement to be final runners-up in the tournament.
UNDER 17 SOCCER
The CCM under-17 soccer team faced Arklow CBS in the Wicklow/ Wexford League on Monday, December 9, in Lamberton. The first 20 minutes were a close affair but a long ball over the Arklow backline caused all sorts of trouble and the on rushing Ross Quinn stole the ball from the keeper to slot home. A few minutes later Ross Quinn went on a solo run to strike from 10 yards. Halftime came a little too soon for CCM as they were dominating in every position, hitting the upright from Ben Free and Toby Lee Curran’s blaster off the crossbar.
Arklow CBS came out a totally different team after the break and brought the scoreline to 2-2 with 10 minutes remaining. An unfortunate mix up in the CCM backline allowed Arklow CBS to come out on top by a score-line of 3-2. All five CCM substitutes came on in a very close and sporting affair.