SCHOOLS ROUND-UP

part! Ní neart go cur le chéile.

Ray Langan of ‘Rayse The Game’ held a workshop at the start of the year with 5th years focusing on motivational study skills.

It was a hugely active and engaging session for our students with lots of actions and strategies they can use to make positive choices, achieve their best and develop a winning mindset.

Congratulations to our 5th year Gaisce Bronze Award recipients James Casserly, Ronan Keane, Conor Nicolson, Shane McLoughlin, Tom Murphy,

Darwin Thomas, Dara O’Flaherty, Dominic French and Sean McCabe. The students got involved in their community, with physical recreation, a personal skill and an adventure journey. Well done gents!

Students celebrated the end of the first term with a Halloween themed non uniform day. Plenty of scary and unique costumes were to be seen on the day ranging from The Joker, Chucky and Frankenstein to workmen, scuba divers and hotdogs. There was also a mummy making competition in the TY EPAS class while Spiderman was seen scaling walls and somersaulting down the corridor. Thanks to all of our school community for getting involved.

On September 24, Summerhill hosted an international Conference for Autistic Young People and their Families, titled ‘’What Next?’’ Pathways into Further Studies and Employment. It attracted many high profile international, national and local keynote speakers such as Jim Hogan, Padraig O’Hara, Yasmeen Multani and Adam Harris. The conference was run with the idea of raising awareness for the difficulty neurodivergent people may face in transitioning from school to the real world, as well as inspiring families of young people with autism. This is the beginning of what we hope will be an opportunity to create structures that support student placements while at post primary and encourage employers to engage with the many service providers who can mentor and support further education and/or employment.

The students from our Bishop Jones Learning Centre opened the conference with a memorising drum display, spoke on stage, assisted with the running of the event and were central to many of the workshops that took place.

The conference was attended by hundreds of people who got the opportunity to take part in over 20 different workshops on the day.

The two 6th Year LCVP classes recently had the pleasure of visiting the Glasshouse Hotel as part of their course. They were given a tour of the hotel, learned about the ownership structure, the various departments in the hotel, the staffing structure as well as hearing about the need for seasonal workers as they’ve just had their busiest season ever. Thanks to everybody in the

Glasshouse for a great morning.

Summerhill was well represented at the recent Garda Youth Liaison Awards. Congratulations to 5th year student Lewis Carr who won a Sligo/Leitrim Garda Division Youth Award 2022. Lewis won an individual award for making a positive contribution to his community and now goes forward to compete at the National Youth Awards. Congratulations is also in order for 3rd year students Richard Mahon and Odhran Wallace who won an award for their work on the Pizza Project.

It has been a very busy first term in the Learning Centre. Mr.Convey brought the students to the Ploughing Championships where they met many well known faces including Ray Darcy, Neven Maguire, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Marty Morrisey and even Dustin the Turkey!

We hosted our first Autism Conference in the school in September and the students provided a fantastic opening of Samba drumming led by Peter Crann and helped out throughout the day.

There has been plenty of exercise and training this term with St.Kenneths going for weekly swim lessons in the Sligo Park Hotel. St.Karls and St.Keenans took part in tennis coaching in Sligo Tennis Club provided by

Sligo Sports Partnership for four weeks and St.Kenneths and St.Killians will be taking part after the mid-term break.

Our students have been getting involved in all aspects of school life including Student Council, Green Schools, Senior Prefect Programme and Choir.

Buddy Club with the TY’s kicked off this week with the students all getting to know each other and we are finishing off the term with our annual Halloween Party.

HURLING: Our hurling teams have been busy this term with some of the 1st/2nd year junior hurlers enjoying a day out at the Centre of Excellence in Ballyhaunis. A blitz was held between junior schools from Galway,Mayo and Sligo.

The Summerhill students were fantastic representatives for the school.

The surf club has been running since mid September and as always, attracts a wide range of students from across the school. The Conditions have been fun and the enjoyment levels high! We are so lucky to have an amazing coastline on our doorsteps and appreciate the expertise of Strandhill Surf School who deliver a fantastic programme to our students.

Our Junior Gaelic team has had two games since the beginning of the year. They had their first trip down to Longford to play against Mel’s. It was a close game to the end, but the win was clinched by Mel’s in the closing stages. Soon after they took a trip down to Castlebar in McHale Park, which was once again lost by a narrow margin. The school also participated in the 1st year blitz held out in Scarden with over 125 players taking to the pitch, while the juvenile team played in the 7

Sligo Grammar School students who took part in the “Funky Shoes and Shocks Day” fundraiser. a side blitz beating St.Attractas in ice cream truck. The First years and a lot of laughs at the top. the final 3-4 to 2-4. were reassured by their cara, Some students even brought a SOCCER: The U15 soccer team who answered all their queries, stone with them from the bottom have won two, played two so far from lockers to ledgers! They of the mountain to add to Queen this season. In the opening game also encouraged the 1st years Maeve’s cairn. With weak knees last week, Summerhill played to participate in the many clubs and smiley faces, the girls made the Ballyhaunis Community School at available at lunchtime. journey back down the mountain the Showgrounds, Early goals from Two busloads of and called it a successful day.

Jack Nicholson swayed the game adrenaline-filled TY’s took off for Many thanks to with later goals coming from Shay Boyle, Co Roscommon on Ms Mullaney’s Green Matters McMorrow, Ashton Conlon and Friday to try something a little bit 4C class who made use of the

Ryan Scully. different… Zip it! beautiful weather and began the On Wednesday last week, The experience offered aunique process of preparing the school Summerhill prevailed in a tight outdoor high ropes adventure for vegetablegarden for the Autumn game against St. Gerald’s in everyone to enjoy. season ahead. The girls began by Milebush, Castlebar. Losing 1-0, On Friday the 23rd they put away removing the weeds and clearing the away team came back well in their smartphones, while escaping the beds for new plants. Our the second half to win through the classroom amd zipped among talented gardeners’ green fingers Jack Nicholson and Ashton Conlon the trees in the Forest Park. We made light work of this project. efforts. totally recommend this exhilarating CONGRATULATIONS: We were activity! Even the teachers joined absolutely delighted to welcome in and they screamed their way back former students Rosha around Ireland’s highest zip lines! McDonnell, Sarah Gallagher and

This week, Laoise Moylan after their amazing as part of their PE programme, all success in achieveing 7 H1’s in their Transition Year classes took part Leaving Cert exams! in an entertaining day out to climb The girls’ hard work has Knocknarea mountain. The sunny definitely payed off and we couldn’t weather was a fantastic bonus and be more proud of their success. no one was lost along the way! Well done to all of the Class of 20212022 Although the 327m climb up was We wish you all a all the best difficult, it all payed off as the girls as you embark on this new path of got to enjoy the wonderful views life.

URSULINE COLLEGE

The

First Years have been paired with their Sixth Year Cairde who are helping them settle into the school environment.

Last week they all got to appreciate the sunshine while having a chat on the benches and later enjoyed a cone from the

SIXTY stories of Sligo’s many sportsmen and sportswomen are told in a newly published book by twin brothers and former journalists, Leo and Jim Gray.

Retired now after more than 40 years apiece covering all the major local sports news, the Gray brothers have been busy in retirement, producing ‘Local Heroes - A Celebration of Sligo Sport’ which is a serious body of work, running to 400 pages and 70 chapters.

With a foreword by another well-known retired local journalist, Tommie Gorman, whose passion for sport in Sligo and beyond is well documented, the ‘package’ offered by Jim and Leo, is cleverly presented.

They re-work the well-known facts and sprinkle them with a lively, fresh approach to the heroes they profile, ensuring that while you think you know your local heroes from various sports, you will learn something new reading ‘Local Heroes - A Celebration of Sligo Sport’.

What is particularly interesting is the stories they offer about various high-performance achievers that have not been told, their ‘back-stories’, these shine a new light on so many of the people they write about, making the book much more than another record of events and achievements. This, for many, will be the real attraction of the book.

‘Local Heroes - A Celebration of Sligo Sport’ is published by Red Stripe Press, an imprint of Orpen Press, and is available across the county in local bookstores.