TY night of celebration
We all enjoyed a lovely celebration of success on Thursday night, 18 May, with the TY students and their families. The choice of presentations, music, song and dance all created a lovely atmosphere on the night.
Thanks, in particular, to Ms Doyle and Ms Ivers for their leadership in supporting this programme. This year’s Transition Year course has been a tremendous success, and this was reflected in the wide array of photos, displays of work, presentations and student testimonials on the night.
Many thanks to all for making this a successful and enjoyable event, including Ms Gill and the Transition Year students who baked fabulous celebration cupcakes to mark the occasion. Warm congratulations to the recipients of the many awards handed out on the night. We look forward to working with the students in Fifth Year as they prepare for the Leaving Certificate.
Awards Day
On Friday morning, 19 May, the whole school assembled for the annual Awards’ Ceremony where a host of student achievements, curricular and extra-curricular, were celebrated and honored. The ceremony afforded us an opportunity to reflect on the successes of the past year and to reward students for their achievements and leadership in areas of academic life, sport, art, music, culture, science, enterprise, public speaking, to name but a few .
Sincerely thank you to our Master of Ceremonies, Mr Bosco Guinan and to Ms Gill for her seamless coordination of the event. As we congratulate the students who have received awards at the end of this year, we also look forward to new beginnings in September 2023.
Second Year Emerald Park trip
The Second years enjoyed a great day at Emerald Park on Thursday, 18 May. The excitement levels were at an all-time high as the group enjoyed the different activities on offer, and even the teachers braved the rollercoasters. Despite the absence of Mr Tayto, the day was a super success and the students were amazing from start to finish. Thanks to all involved.
TY Home Economics trip
On Wednesday morning, 10 May, forty-five Transition and Fifth year students, together with five teachers, set off on a fantastic culinary trip to Rome and Sorrento, Italy.
On their first day, they enjoyed a walking tour of Rome and visited the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, stopping for pizza and gelato en route, before traveling to their hotel in Sorrento. During the next few days, the students enjoyed visits to an Italian coffee factory, a honey and marmalade business, a mozzarella cheese farm, an Italian gelato business and an olive plantation. At night, they attended cooking school and learned how to make authentic Italian pasta dishes and pizza which was great fun. On their last day, the students visited the beautiful isle of Capri and had free time for shopping.
Thank you to the Home Economics department for organizing a fantastic trip and a once-in-a-lifetime experience the students will never forget!
Billy Kelleher MEP visits
Both staff and students were delighted to welcome MEP Mr. Billy Kelleher to CCM on Friday, May 12. A number of TY students presented on various aspects of the European Parliament Ambassador School (EPAS) program, along with other senior students who spoke about their involvement with an Erasmus project and the Model EU debates held in March.
We had the opportunity to show Mr. Kelleher a video that TY students produced for the EU50 competition to mark Ireland’s 50-year membership of the EU, a video that has won the TY class group a trip to visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Mr. Kelleher spoke passionately about his work as an MEP which takes him from Ireland to Brussels to Strasbourg on a regular basis. His focus was very much on the ways in which Ireland has benefitted over the past fifty years in key areas such as infrastructure, economics and people’s rights. He also spoke very knowledgeable on some of the current issues facing Ireland and Europe today, such as the environment, Northern Ireland and the war in Ukraine.
For the students, it was an excellent opportunity to mark Europe Day which takes place annually on 9 May and to cement what they have learned from completing the EPAS module in TY.
We would like to thank Mr. Kelleher most sincerely for taking time out of his busy schedule to visit CCM.
Multicultural Celebration
On Wednesday 17 May, members of CCM’s Multicultural Society held their Festival of Nations. They hosted stalls from countries from around the world, from Burundi to Moldova, South Africa and France. The students excelled in creating their exhibitions which celebrated their cultural heritage.
We are very lucky in Coláiste Chill Mhantáin to have such a diverse student body and the festival provided a wonderful opportunity to celebrate it. There was a wide variety of food on show and available for tasting which was gratefully received by our many, many visitors. We had flags and examples of traditional dress on the show and our kind hosts were happy to talk at length about the traditions of their heritage. A wonderful day was had by all.
Make A Book
A number of First and Second year students took part in the annual ‘Make a Book’ event, via Zoom, in the library on Tuesday, 16 May. ‘Make a Book’ is a national project where students create, write and produce their own book. The topic of our book this year is ‘Famous Landmarks of Wicklow Town’.
A number of the students split up into small groups to work on various parts of the project. Some students focused on the writing of the book and researched information on well-known buildings in Wicklow such as Wicklow Gaol and Wicklow Lighthouse. Other students focus on building models of the landmarks that accompany the book. A number of models of the Gaol and the Wicklow lighthouses were displayed at the event as well as a model of a Viking Longship.
The students spoke very well at the event and their work was really well received by both the event organizers and the students from other schools
CCM Community Garden
Our community gardeners have been very busy in the garden. Our Community Garden Celebration took place on Tuesday, May 23 from, 9-11 to celebrate the work and support of students, parents, staff and community members on the Community Garden.
U14 Ladies’ County Football
Two of our Junior Ladies Gaelic Football players, Brooke Byrne and Reece Hughes, represented Wicklow on the U14 Ladies Football Team.
They had a wonderful win over Wexford on Sunday, 14 May, in the U14 All Ireland Bronze Quarter Final in Laois. The final score was Wicklow 6-10 to Wexford 6-2. Both Brooke and Reece contributed to the scoreline, with Brooke adding 4-2 and Reece scoring 0-3. The entire squad worked really hard throughout this high-scoring encounter in what was a great team performance.
This win takes the team on to the All-Ireland Bronze Semi-Final against Donegal in two weeks’ time. Well done to everyone involved as players and also to the management.
DOMINICAN COLLEGE WICKLOW
DCW Lotto Bonus National Summer Draw
Feeling Lucky! Enter the DCW lotto draw for the 25th May and you will also be entered into the bonus national summer draw.
The DCW Lotto is a fundraising initiative and the money raised will be used to directly support your children’s education and purchase resources for our school, including IT equipment, sports equipment, classroom and teaching resources. Visit https://www.ourfundraiser.ie/org/dominicanwicklow
Author Jane Michell visits DCW
We were so lucky to have author Jane Mitchell visit the school on May 12th. Organized by the school Book Club, she answered all our questions and more and the hour we spent with her flew.
Writing is like building a sand castle, and all the budding writers in the audience are going to make great use of their words, their senses, and will be reading anything they can get their hands on! She walked into our Hawaiian themed school as it was our school sports day, the theme was chosen by the current 6th Years, so watch this space, this may yet make it into one of her novels!
Transport School
School applications for school transportation tickets are open now at www.gov.ie/schooltransportor contact the school for details of route pickups.
Breakfast Club
Cuppa and a chat every morning at 8.20am in the canteen. All are welcome.
DCW Sports Day
Whole schools participated in a variety of races, such as potatoes and spoons, sack races, tug of war, obstacle course etc. . In the afternoon another historic victory for the teachers.
In the teachers versus 6th year football match. Even though the teachers won the match 1-0, the teachers agreed to take the result to a penalty shoot-out. with Mr. Keddy scored the winning goal.
Teachers are training and looking forward to next year’s match already. Check out all the photos on the school website or on the socials. Great day had by all.
Muck Up day
Friday the 19th , 6th years held their traditional muck up day. This year’s theme is a jungle theme. Fantastic, but emotional day for the 6th year. The school ordered pizza lunch for the students and after lunch the class of 2023 entertained the teachers and students with songs, stories and memories of DCW.
Prize Giving
Monday 22nd the Class of 2023 and the students of DCW will have their annual prize giving awards. Details of the student awards and the recipients will be next week’s update.
ComputerScience
The staff of DCW wish the Computer science students every success in their Leaving Certificate exam which takes place on the 24th of May.
Graduation
The class of 2023 will graduate from DCW. Mass will be held at 5pm at the Dominican Chapel followed by a reception for students and parents at Fatima Hall.
Building Update
The foundations for the floors and the walls of the new building are going on this week. We are very excited to see the progress made over the summer when we return in September.
DCW Learning Leaders
IN DCW we evaluate our progress on learning targets each year. On the 17th the TY learning leaders held a focus group discussion with students from all the year groups to assess the progress we have made on this year’s learning target, which is feedback. Well done to all of our student Learning Leaders.
Head Girls and Deputy Head Girls
Interviews took place on Friday the 12th of May in DCW. DCW would like to thank the interview panel; Cllr. Irene Winters, Michael Connolly, Andy Bulger. The result will be announced at prize giving on the 22nd. Interviews will also be held for next year’s prefects and sport captains next week. We are also planning for next year’s student mentors. So many opportunities for student leadership at DCW.
One Good School
DCW is involved with the Jigsaw One Good School Program to support and reduce student anxiety. On Monday the 15th, the TY Peer Educators held a celebration for the end of the program. Well done to our Peer Educators.