Dear Parents and Students,

National Parents Council [NPC] Education Conference 2024: Building Futures Together

The National Parents Council Education Conference 2024 takes place tomorrow Saturday 23 November in Kinsale. This conference will focus on key themes of children’s well-being, resilience and education, featuring insightful presentations from expert speakers. The conference is aimed at parents of students attending both primary and post primary schools.

Due to the red weather warning in place from midnight tonight to 10am tomorrow, we have decided that the most prudent thing to do at this stage is to live stream our conference. Therefore, the conference is still going ahead at 11am and all those who wish to travel, and are able to do so safely, are very welcome to join us on the day. The speakers will be in attendance as planned.

Speakers and Highlights:

• Mr. Shane Martin – Psychologist and expert on mental health and resilience, sharing evidence-based strategies to enhance wellbeing.
• Mr. John Kearney – CEO of the National Council for Special Education, sharing updates on recent changes in special education that impact students and parents.
• Mr. Billy Redmond – Principal of North Wicklow Educate Together Secondary School, discussing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for accessible education.
• Professor Peter Etchells – Professor of Psychology and Science Communication Bath Spa University, Bath, UK, looking at the potential positive and/or negative behavioural effects of screen time and will share evidence based data regarding mobile phones and their affects on children’s mental health.
• Dr. Megan Reynolds – Researcher at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre, sharing student perspectives on smartphone bans in Irish schools.

Please click here to Register

Irish Olympiad of Experimental Science

Congratulations to GCC 5th Year student Vimbainashe Matare who participated in the recent Irish Olympiad of Experimental Science. Every student had a choice of one Science subject. Options available were Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Vimbainashe chose Biology because it is her strongest subject and she finds it fascinating. The first round was multiple choice questions with theory, practicals and calculations in the Leaving cert ordinary level syllabus. Only the top 30 students were chosen from among approximately 500 students across Ireland with more than 100 schools competing.

Round 2 (National) was held in Dublin City University. Students were tested on the higher level leaving cert course in their subjects. During the awards ceremony the top 30 pupils in all three sciences gathered and the top 3 were given medals and the rest were given certificates of participation and acknowledgment for being top 30 students in their respective subjects across Ireland.

This competition was a game changer for Vimbainashe because it pushed her to read ahead. Vimbainashe was incredibly grateful for all the help Mr Browne gave to her.

GCC Activities of the Week Monday 18 to Friday 22 November 2024

Please click on the link below to view the activities for next week Monday 25 to Friday 29 November 2024.

GCC Activities of the Week Monday 25 – Friday 29 November 2024

GCC Paris Language Tour January 2025 – Itinerary

Please click on the link to view the Itinerary for the upcoming Language and Cultural Tour to Paris in January. We would like thank Mr Leahy and our team of teachers who are providing this wonderful opportunity for our students. We will meet with parents and students in the run up to Christmas for an information session.

GCC Paris Language Tour January 2025 – Itinerary

GCC School Gym

Parents and students are asked to note that our GCC school gym is open Monday to Friday before school for 4th, 5th and 6th year students. Students can use the gym upstairs in the PE Hall every day from 8:00am until 8:45am and it will be fully supervised. Thanks you to our GCC teachers for providing this wellbeing opportunity to students.

GCC Ethos and Core Values

GCC Christmas Exams Timetable 2024 

Please click on the link below to view the finalised timetables for our Christmas Exams in December. The schedule includes oral exams for 6th Year students on Wednesday 18 December for Irish and Thursday 19 December for French. 

 GCC Christmas Exams Timetable 2024

1st and 2nd Year students were given Revision Guides this week at tutorial. These revision guides list all the topics being examined in each subject for the Christmas exams. Please click on the link to view the revision guides.

1st Year Christmas Exams 2024 Revision Guide

2nd Year Christmas Exams 2024 Revision Guide

Coding Classes

GCC Homework Club for 1st Year Students

Homework Club for 1st year students is up and running every Friday from 1-2pm in B13. If you would like your child to take part please place a note in their journal for the attention of the class teacher. Homework Club is supervised by a teacher with the assistance of TY Gaisce students.

GCC School Uniform

We would like to remind parents that the GCC school fleece introduced this year is an outer layer to the school uniform. It is an alternative to the school jacket and cannot replace the school jumper. We will endeavour to maintain our high standards in relation to the school uniform and greatly appreciate the support of parents in doing this. Please ensure your child’s belongings are labelled, particularly the school jacket and fleece. This allows lost items to be returned to students efficiently.

Disability Access Route to Education (DARE )scheme

GCC CBA Assessment Calendar for 2024/2025

Please take note of the GCC CBA Assessment calendar for 2024/2025 displayed in the picture below:

GCC School Car Park

We would like to thank parents for their continued cooperation with our entry/exit system to the school car park. A reminder that:

• From 8.30am to 9.10am Monday to Friday the school car park is entry only. The exit lane from the car park will be closed at these times.
• From 3.30pm to 4.10pm Monday to Thursday and 12.30pm to 1.10 pm on Friday the school car park will be exit only. The entry lane to the school car park will be closed at these times.

We would be grateful if parents could remind students:

• to use the pedestrian footpaths and not walk along or between cars when entering/leaving the school
• use the pedestrian gates only and not enter or leave the school via the main gate

We kindly ask parents who are collecting their children from our school not to park their vehicles in appropriately. For example, we ask parents not to park up on footpaths. We are aware of some cars taking up the whole footpath, leaving no space for either our students or members of the public to walk freely by and limiting the access of wheel chair users.

We also ask parents and students to be respectful of the housing estates near the school around drop off & collection times. Cars queuing in school traffic on the Hazelwood Road are blocking the entrances to Old Avenue & Oakfield housing estates. Please leave a gap for residence trying to leave their estates.

We thank you for cooperation in ensuring added safety for our students when accessing the school grounds.

Cycle Against Suicide – Webinar Series

Anxiety is one of the most common challenges of childhood and adolescence. This has been reflected in the registrations to and attendee feedback on previous Cycle Against Suicide webinars delivered by Cycle Against Suicide and the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, UCD.

Building on the previous series, Series 2 will take a more in-depth look at anxiety in young people exploring different types of anxiety common in this age group. Each 1 hour session will incorporate content on the causes, symptoms and evidenced-based approaches which support recovery.

December 5th: Exploring Perfectionism and Obsessive-Compulsive Characteristics

These sessions delivered via zoom are free and open to all parents and teachers to participate. Register your participation please do so at:

https://www.cycleagainstsuicide.com/parent-talks/

GCC Upcoming Calendar Events – September 

We hope you have a nice weekend.

GCC Senior Management [Ronan McCarthy (Principal), Patrick O’Mahony (Deputy Principal) Caroline Byrne (Deputy Principal), Seamus Kennefick (Deputy Principal)]