Dear Parents/Guardians,
Diograis
Parents of nominated students will have received this week details of the category/categories in which their son/daughter was nominated. Next week the short list of nominees will be published on the school website with the winners being revealed next Friday 4 June.
GCC awarded the Green Flag
GCC are delighted to be informed on Thursday 27th May that our application for the Green Flag has been successful. The assessor and the team at Green-Schools were very impressed with the application and congratulated us on this success.We would like to pass on our thanks to all the hard-working members of our Green-Schools committees, Students and teachers, and all staff in the school for their contributions. The theme for this flag was litter and waste and a new theme will be introduced each year with continuous assessments to meet high standards contributing to a more sustainable campus.
“You all deserve a huge amount of credit for your efforts. The work that are doing is really having a positive impact, and when the work of all schools is combined it’s truly amazing! As the deadline was extended until the end of June, we hope to celebrate with all awarded schools in September. Further details about our virtual ceremony will follow. We will ensure you receive your Green Flag and certificate in September and hope that you can celebrate with a flag raising in your own school then. Congratulations again on your success.”
Cathy Baxter (Green-Schools Manager – An Taisce)
GCC VEX Robotics Team Makes Overall Finals in The World Championships
On Thursday 20th to Saturday 22nd May, the school Robotics team competed in the virtual live remote world championships. The team have worked hard all year designing, coding and building the robot which they named ‘Holly’ to complete specified tasks for this year’s competition. The team members successfully sought outside sponsorship and were generously supported by Glanmire Credit Union, JOS Carpentry & Construction Ltd, Johnson & Perrott and many more, enabling the purchase of new equipment so that they could compete with the bigger international teams. The long hours spent all year working every lunch break as well as afterschool sessions, and weekends and late nights at home paid dividends as GCC navigated two days of qualification matches to earn their place in the Saturday knockout stages, making it through to the quarter finals against the very best high school Robotics teams in the world. This marked the end of a successful year of both challenge and achievement, including:
Working remotely via Google meets and other platforms; Receiving thousands of euros worth of sponsorship from local businesses; Winning the Irish national competition; Winning the European championships; Qualifying to the world championships; Making the finals of the world championships. Next year, the goal is plan to travel to Dallas, Texas in person to represent Ireland at the World Championships in 2022
Here is a link to one of the teams matches, and click here to view their website.
GCC Vex Robotics team: Toby Tangney (Captain), Bobby Twomey, Emma Harrington, Fionn Barry, Adam Cowley, Rian Leahy, James O Leary
Thanks to Mr Ronan McCarthy and our mentors Mr Steele and Mr Byrnes for their support, to Ciara Coughlan in the office for all her help and to our generous sponsors.
GCC Vex Robotics Team
FAI School Soccer
Past Pupil Rob Walsh Receives his International Cap having represented Ireland Schools team. He is presented the cap by Aiden Twomey FAI schools, and John Kavanagh, past pupil, PE teacher at Presentation College who also received an International cap representing Ireland Schools previously. Pictured also is School Principal Ronan McCarthy and GCC PE teachers Billy Woods and Carys Johnson who have both received international caps for Ireland and have had very successful soccer careers.
Left to Right: Billy Woods, John Kavanagh, Aiden Twomey, Rob Walsh, Ronan McCarthy, and Cary Johnson
Congratulations to Past Pupil Mia Furlong
Congratulations to past pupil Mia Furlong (UCC Glanmire) who has been selected for the Ireland U20 women’s basketball squad for the FIBA European Challenge 2021. Mia completed her Leaving Certificate last June and is studying Chemical & Biopharmaceutical Engineering at Munster Technological University (MTU). For further details see below.
Glanmire basketball ace Mia Furlong makes Ireland U20 international squad (echolive.ie)
Leaving Certificate Accredited Grades
Our Accredited Grades process will continue next week with 6th Year Teachers coming to school to validate and sign off on their Accredited Grades. The Accredited Grades data must be returned to the State Exams Commission (SEC) by the school before close of business on Thursday 3 June.
Post Primary Entrance Exams
Schools received direction yesterday from the Department of Education (DES) that conducting entrance assessments at this point in time would not be permitted in line with current public health advice. Schools have been advised to delay such tests until public health advice allows for them to be conducted or until the start of the next school year.
State Examinations
We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our 6th Year students well in their Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied exams beginning on Wednesday 9 June 2021.
End Of Year
Summer assessments finished today for all students. We would like to take this opportunity to thank both parents and students for their engagement with our learning programmes over the whole school year and to wish you well for the Summer. Preparations for the new school year in September have already begun in earnest and we will continue to update you throughout the month of June. We look forward to the new school year when we hope a degree of normality will return. Together we will continue to push the school forward. Have a safe and enjoyable Summer
Regards,
GCC Senior Management
Ronan McCarthy (Principal)
Gertie Cahill (Deputy Principal)
Seamus Kennefick (Deputy Principal)
Sean McGrath (Deputy Principal)