Dear Parents and Students,

Important Calendar Dates for Christmas

• School will finish at 1.10pm for 1st, 2nd and 5th Years students on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 December. The relevant bus companies have been notified.
• Formal classes for 6th Year students will finish on Tuesday 17 December @ 3.50pm.
• 6th Year students have oral Irish exams on Wednesday 18 December and oral French exams on Thursday 19 December. 6th Year students come to school at their designated time on these two days.
• 3rd Years students will finish on Wednesday 18 December @ 1.10pm.
• 4th Year [TY] students will finish on Tuesday 17 December @ 3.50pm.

Department of Education – Newsletter 

Please click on the link below to view a newsletter for children and young people about the work of the Inspectorate relating to the 2024-2025 school year. The Chief Inspector Yvonne Keating has asked us to bring the newsletter to the attention of all children and young people in our school. The document was also shared with students via our Google Classroom platform.

Newsletter – from the Chief Inspector, Department of Education

GCC Board of Management – Election of Parent Nominees

A newly constituted GCC Board of Management will begin its new term in December and the new Board requires two new parent nominees. We would like to congratulate Alan Mulcahy and Jacqueline McCarthy who have been elected as the male parent and female parent nominee respectively. We would like to thank all parents  who expressed an interest in the role and allowed their name to go forward for selection. At a time when many schools are struggling to fill Boards of Management, we are delighted to see strong interest in our GCC BOM.

GCC Student Council

Please click on the link to view the minutes from the November Student Council meeting.

GCC November Student Council Meeting

GCC Community Links

Our TY Community Link Meitheal team have been working very hard in the community since September. They have visited and participated in activities with the Glanmire Active Retirement group. These activites included Yoga, quiz mornings and attending mass together. The team also visited Ballynoe Carechoice Nursing home having chats, participating in a games morning and enjoying each others company.

To bring the activites to a close this side of Christmas students visited the Nursing Home as part of the community links programme. They delighted the residents with an hour of festive music and song, followed by friendly chats. The visit concluded with the students presenting handmade snowman gifts, which were warmly received. We are looking forward to their next visit in January 2025 where we will treat the residents to a taste of our TY musical Sister Act.

TY Paired Reading

Below is a student account of the TY Paired Reading experience in Ballynoe Carechoice Nursing Home:

“Our English teacher Ms Hayes brought our class to the nursing home, the week after midterm. It was an enriching experience for our class as it was a great opportunity to get an insight about the older members of the Glanmire community. Our main goal was to read and get to know the residents of the nursing home in Ballynoe. We brought a big selection of books to choose from and we gave the elderly a choice of what books to read, and if they didn’t want to read we talked with them. We had to be respectful of our environment which was a good experience for us. Along with that, we had to be mindful of some of the residents with medical needs like dementia. Overall, it was a joyful experience for our class. We learned a lot and it was wonderful to be able to offer some of our time to these lovely people. We visited a few times and we would love to visit again.

GCC Student wins Cork ETB Music in the Community Award

We would like to congratulate 5th Year student Michael Lynch, winner of the Cork ETB Music in the Community Award. Michael won this award for leading the GCC school musical in his role as Bert in Mary Poppins last January, he is also the founder of the TY school band Rhubarb. Michael is a member of the school choir, and performed in the GCC Díograis Awards in 2024 writing the musical arrangements for the band’s piece on the night. Michael picked up his first musical instrument as a 5 year old and hasn’t looked back since. Beyond Michael’s contributions to music in the school community, he has preformed in duets and trios over the last number of years with the Cork ETB School of Music. We would like to wish Michael well as he continues with his musical journey.

GCC Activities of the Week Monday 9  to Friday 13 December 2024

Please click on the link below to view the activities for next week Monday 9  to Friday 13 December 2024

GCC Activities of the Week (Monday 9 to Friday 13 December 2024)

GCC Ski Trip February 2025-Information Briefing Thursday 12 December 2024

A reminder to parents of TY Year students going on the GCC Ski trip to Italy in February, that our information session takes place next Thursday 12 December in the Multipurpose Room B26 at 4pm. We would like to thank Mr Rees and our team of teachers who are providing this wonderful opportunity for our students.

Pastoral Visit to Glanmire Community College by Bishop Fintan Gavin

Parents are reminded that the Diocese of Cork and Ross is a co trustee of Glanmire Community College. From November 2022 to date, Bishop Fintan Gavin has made 24 Pastoral Visitations to Post Primary schools throughout the Diocese. GCC is delighted to welcome Bishop Fintan to our school on Wednesday 11 December, when he will meet our 1st Year students.

Charitable Refunds-CHY3 Form 6th Year Students 2024

As you are aware the school makes an annual charitable refunds claim to Revenue based on the voluntary contributions parents make to the school. Completion of the form is part of the enrolment process to the school in 1st Year. Unfortunately, the initial form only covers a student’s first 5 years in the school because not all students will enter TY. Therefore, we are obliged each year to ask the parents of 6th Year students to complete a new form in order for us to be able to claim against their payments.

Last Friday during tutorial we distributed new CHY3 forms to 6th Year students and asked for them to be returned on Monday morning at registration. The form is just one page (link below) and we hope a short turn around will help maximise the number of forms we receive back. Thanks to you our GCC parents for your help in ensuring we maximise this revenue stream which has proven invaluable to the school over the last number of years.

CHY3 Form & Explanation

GCC TY Progression

Please fill out the following form to indicate your child’s Leaving Certificate programme preference for 2025/26. Please note this needs to be completed by today, Friday 6 December.

GCC TY Progression Form for September 2025

Winter Health Advice from the HSE

Please click on the link to view the most up to date Winter health advice from the HSE

HSE Winter Health Advice

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 Christmas Exams Timetable 2024 

Please click on the link below to view the 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 have been given revision guides. 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

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 endeavor 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.

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)]