Dear Parents,
Finishing Dates for Students
Parents are asked to note that Transition Year students are scheduled to finish for the Christmas term on Friday 18 December 2020. All other year groups will finish on Monday 21 December at 3.50pm. Teachers have been asked to continue with their programmes of learning up to this date. Please note 5th Year exams will continue on the morning of Tuesday 22 December for relevant students.
Christmas Exams
Please click on the link below to view the Christmas exam timetable for 5th Years. Parents and students are asked to note that exams for 5th Years will commence on Monday afternoon 14 December at 14:30. A standard class timetable is in operation on Monday morning and students should attend as normal.
Christmas Tests Timetable 2020
CAT 4 Assessments
On Monday 21 December CAT 4 Assessments will take place for Junior Cycle students for whom we do not have an up to date CAT assessment. If this applies to your son/daughter, you will receive notification during next week, asking your child to attend for this assessment. Please click on the link below to view some background information on the Cat 4 Assessments. The CAT 4 Assessments are used to access information about your child’s strengths, weaknesses and preferred learning styles. CAT assessments are also used, in combination with your son/daughters STen scores from primary school to track your child’s progress and monitor if they are performing to ability.
assessment.ie/products/cognitive-abilities-test-cat4/
1st Year Options Evening deferred until January 2021
Parents are asked to note that our 1st Years 2021-2022 Subject Choice Seminar has been deferred until January 2021. Round 1 offers for places in 1st Year next September 2021 had to be accepted by last Friday 4 December. We are currently making round 2 offers to students and these must be accepted by Monday 21 December. In order not to disadvantage a considerable number of students with regard to information around options and the closing date for choices, we have taken the decision to postpone the event until middle to late January. You will be contacted by text to inform you of the re-scheduled date.
Please note also that our CAT 4 Assessment morning for incoming 1st Years is planned to take place Saturday 6 February 2021. A final decision on this will be taken closer to the time. Again you will be updated by text and through the school website. Parents are reminded that First Year classes in Glanmire Community College operate strictly on a mixed ability basis.
Disposal of coursework and project work associated with the 2020 Leaving Certificate/Leaving Certificate Applied and Junior Cycle Examinations
In August 2020 the SEC advised schools that completed and or partially completed coursework and project work associated with the 2020 Leaving Certificate/Leaving Certificate Applied and Junior Cycle examinations should be retained until further notice. The SEC is now satisfied that there is no requirement for schools to continue to retain this material. Accordingly, completed or partially completed coursework/project work can be returned to students. If this is not possible arrangements will be made by the school for disposal of the work in a secure and confidential manner.
UCC’s Online DARE Clinics on applying for the Disability Access Route to Education
UCC’s Disability Support Service has organised a number of online advice clinics to disseminate information on the DARE application process.
Parents/prospective students/guidance counsellors and other interested parties will be afforded an opportunity to get advice on applying for the DARE scheme. Due to safety considerations with Covid19 they will host these clinics online using Pubble. Pubble allows users to type questions directly to a group of moderators. These questions are displayed on the site immediately and the moderators will be assigned questions to answer. The moderators then answer their assigned questions.
Please email dare@ucc.ie if you have accessibility concerns.
Dates and times of the advice clinic is as follows:
Date: Thurs. 14th Jan. 2021
Time: 6 pm to 8 pm
Pubble Link: Online via Pubble
It is essential to watch the DARE overview video before attending the Pubble Q&A. Click here to view the video: https://www.ucc.ie/en/dss/dare/
Christmas Themed Day
Next Friday 18 December students are invited to participate in a Christmas themed day. Students are welcome to wear a Christmas jumper or a red/green jumper on the day. Please note this is optional for students. Students who wish to take part also have the choice of wearing a Christmas hat. Students are not allowed to wear other items such as Santa suits, Christmas pyjamas etc. and we ask for your cooperation in following this request.
Covid-19
Thank you to all in our school community for your continued support of our Covid procedures. It is 14 weeks since the school reopened back in September and we continue to experience a high level of success with regard to our Covid protocols. As we have consistently requested, please continue to be committed to the basic principles of good hand hygiene, mask wearing, social distancing etc. to give us the best opportunity to reduce the risk of transmission in school.
We hope you have a nice weekend.
GCC Senior Management