GCC Parents Update Friday 26 April 2024

Dear GCC Parents, Guardians & Students,

GCC wins Multiple Green Schools and Sustainability Awards 

GCC continues to set the standard and lead the way nationally with regard to Green Schools and sustainability. We are delighted to announce the school’s success in the following programmes at regional and national level:

• Our GCC Green Schools committee application for Green Flag status has been successful. The Green Flag will be presented to our school by An Taisce on Wednesday 15 May at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island, Cork.
• Our GCC Green schools committee are thrilled to be named Regional Water School of the Year in the Southern region. The school will be awarded prizes at the Water Awards Ceremony at the Hyatt Centre Hotel in Dublin on Wednesday 15 May.
• Our GCC Green School’s committee are delighted to have 3 projects from our school shortlisted for the finals of the Young Environmentalists Awards 2024. All teams are invited to exhibit and compete at the final showcase and awards ceremony at Dublin Royal Convention Centre on Wednesday 15 May.
• Nikola Mis GCC 2nd year student who was selected as the winner for the secondary school category in the Southern Region Water Poster competition (see below). The awards ceremony will take place at the Hyatt Centre Hotel in Dublin on Wednesday 15 May.

We would like to congratulate all the students and teachers involved. Our continued success is testament to the outstanding work being done in GCC to promote Green Schools and sustainability. We are very grateful for the time and input of staff and the support being offered to our students which is providing them with such wonderful cocurricular learning opportunities.

Peer Instructional Conferencing and Coaching Programme

GCC recently graduated Cohort 1 of the Peer Instructional Conference and Coaching programme. The Peer Instructional Conferencing and Coaching Programme is designed to provide teachers with skills to develop positive coaching relationships with peers in order to help them make sustained change in their professional practice. It has been specifically developed for teachers who have successfully completed the Instructional Leadership Programme and wish to extend their professional skills and knowledge and for schools that wish to support sustainable whole school instructional change initiatives. Pictured below left are GCC principal Ronan McCarthy and teachers Susan Casey & Clare Madden.

GCC Summer Exams

Our GCC House Exams will commence on Friday 24 May as per our agreed calendar. Our Summer Exam timetable will be shared with students next week via Google Classroom and with parents via the school website. In preparation for the exams, revision guides have been developed to support 1st and 2nd year students focus in the next few weeks. Please click on the links below to view:

1st Year Revision Guide Summer 2024

2nd Year Revision Guide Summer 2024

MTU SciFest win for GCC student Toby Tangney

Congratulations to Toby Tangney 5th year who won the Technology Category prize at Scifest in MTU on Friday 19th April.  Toby’s project involved programming a smartphone app which allowed sensors on phones to continuously send data to a cloud storage facility which he then used to get behavioural insights on society.  This was a great achievement for Toby to be amongst the prize winners as there were approximately 250 students competing with approximately 120 projects from schools across Cork at MTU.

GCC Student Council Meeting Minutes April 2024 

Please click on the following link to view the minutes of our recent GCC Student Council meeting.

GCC Student Council Meeting Minutes April 2024 

European School Survey on Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD)

Please click on the links below to see information on a European wide survey being conducted with secondary school students on drugs and alcohol. The European School Survey on Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD) is a collaborative effort of independent research teams in more than forty European countries and is the largest cross national research project on adolescent substance use in the world. The overall aim of the project is to repeatedly collect comparable data on substance use among 15–16 year old students in as many European countries as possible. GCC has been invited to be part of the research study.

European School Survey – Glanmire Community College (glanmirecc.ie)

National Voter Registration Day

Please click on the link  below to view details of Ireland’s National Voter Registration Day which takes place next Tuesday 30 April 2024. We have been asked to encourage all students in fifth and sixth year so that those who have reached the age of 18 can register to vote. It is important that our younger citizens realise both the power of their vote and the importance of using it.

.National Voter Registration Day

Activities of the week Monday 29 April to Friday 3 May 2024 

Please click here to view the planned school activities for the week Monday 29 April to Friday 3 May 2024.

Review of the Week Monday 15 to Friday 19 April 2024

Please click here to see the review of the activities that took place from Monday 15 to Friday 19 April 2024.

Latest Update on the works being carried out by Sorensen Civil Engineering

Please click on the following link to view the latest traffic management updates from Sorensen Civil Engineering:

Glashaboy Flood Relief Scheme Traffic Management Update

Safe Routes to School [SRTS] – Cork City Council Public Consultation 

Parents and students are reminded that Cork City Council is conducting a Public Consultation regarding the GCC Safe Routes to School project. Below is a link to the plans and the proposed works as well as the online public consultation portal. The plans are available for public inspection from Tuesday 9 of April 2024 until Monday 13 May 2024 and can be accessed electronically via Cork City Council’s Online Consultation Portal or via the public reception desk of Cork City Council’s offices at City Hall, Anglesea Street. The deadline for receipt of submissions and observations is 4:00 pm on Monday 13 May 2024. Please click on the link below to view plans and particulars of proposed works for our SRTS project.

Safe Routes To School Update and Details ; Glanmire Community College

GCC Mobile Phones

Parents are reminded that 1st Year Rang Aine students have been working in a Mobile Phone Free Learning Environment since February. The feedback from teachers and parents has been very positive. Since last Monday 15 April, all 1st year teachers have been asked to refrain from using mobile phones for any classroom activity. Teachers at school activities have been asked to email work for 1st year classes to Deputy Principal Caroline Byrne instead of uploading work on Google Classroom or give the work to the students in advance of the class. Some parents may support 1st years in not having a phone at school. Chrome books and computer rooms are available to teachers to book should their lessons require the use of technology.

GCC Student Development Fund 2024/2025 School Year 

A reminder to parents that at our GCC Parents Council meeting on Tuesday 19 March, it was agreed to maintain the annual parent contribution to our GCC Student Development Fund at €300 for the 2024/2025 school year. The alleviation of school fees for families of one or more children in the school will also continue. We would like to thank parents for your continued support of the Student Development Fund which allows us to maintain many of the supports we provide annually to our students. These include payments for:

• School Buses
• Junior & Leaving Certificate Pre-Examinations
• Transition Year Activities
• Student Insurance
• School Counselling
• Wellbeing Activities
• Health and Safety Work
• Awards Ceremonies
• Servicing of Equipment
• Staff CPD
• ICT Maintenance and Upgrades
• Building Repairs
• Contract Cleaning
• Print Management
• Upgrading of School Facilities

Once again this Summer we have work planned to develop a GCC Reflection Room/Library, painting of staff and student bathrooms across the entire school and upgrading of our B Block Art Room and PE Office area. This work would not be possible without the consistent support and contributions of parents to the school. As always we will continue to support parents and families that may have difficulty in paying this money. For the 24/25 school year, we will set up the payment facility on Way2Pay in May/June.

Email Communication with Teachers 

At our GCC Parents Council Meeting in March, we asked that parents looking to contact teachers, would do so through the school office. We highlighted in particular scenarios where parents attempt to email teachers directly by assuming their email is their name followed by the @Corketb.ie domain.

Parents are asked to note that the @Corketb.ie domain is used across the entire Cork ETB (CETB) organisation which has thousands of employees and students. Given that there may be multiple staff and/or students with the same name across the CETB, it is imperative that staff are contacted through the school office to reduce the risk of sensitive information being shared with the wrong recipient. Please email the school office at glanmirecc@corketb.ie  in the first instance and your email will be forwarded to the correct recipient by our office staff. We appreciate the support of parents in this matter.

Díograis Awards 2024

The preparations for Díograis 2024 are well underway and we are looking forward to celebrating the wonderful achievements of our students on Thursday 9 May. This week the ‘long list’ of nominated students received a postcard detailing the award they were nominated for. Teachers will collaborate and decide on the short list of nominees who will be invited on the night. Please click on the link below to view a power point presentation on Díograis.

Díograis 2024

All First Year students were shown the presentation at tutorial this morning. Thank you to the TY Meitheal team who designed the presentation.

GCC Book Drive & Book Reviews – Well Read Initiative 

GCC is thrilled to announce our book drive aimed at enriching our school’s reading spaces and igniting a passion for literature among our students. We kindly request your donations of books! Donation boxes are conveniently located outside the school office and at Supervalu. A heartfelt thank you to all who have generously supported this endeavour!

Additionally, we are in search of parents to contribute book reviews for our parent’s update. Your unique insights and perspectives will play a vital role in enhancing our community’s engagement with literature. If interested, please reach out to Aishling Ryan at glanmirecc@corketb.ie

1st Year Library Membership

As part of our Reading Initiative GCC has launched a 1st year Library Membership Drive. Please click on the following link for further details:

1st Year Library Membership – Glanmire Community College (glanmirecc.ie)

Senior Cycle Redevelopment Information Note

Please click here to view information on Senior Cycle Redevelopment.

Senior Cycle Redevelopment Information Note March

GCC Upcoming Calendar Events