First year CAT 4 Assessments, Wednesday Nov 23rd.

CAT4 ASSESSMENTS

Dear Parent/Guardian of a First Year Student,

In line with good practice as set down by the Department of Education, Skibbereen Community School assesses all students to see what their needs are and how we can best help our students learn and achieve.

 

As part of this process, we administer incoming assessments to students during their first year at second level. We would like to inform you that our incoming assessments will take place during the school day, Wednesday 23rd November this year.

 

The Cognitive Ability Test that we administer is made up of a series of short tests, which assess a student’s reasoning (thinking) abilities in key areas that support educational development and academic attainment. No preparation is necessary; it is important that your son or daughter does not become anxious as no pre-learning or knowledge is needed to complete the tests.

 

CAT has many uses and can help your son or daughter and his/her teachers to plan appropriately and set targets for different key stages along their second level education journey so we would appreciate it if you would support our endeavours and ensure that your son or daughter is present for the assessment on the 23rd Nov 2022.

 

The test will take place on line so it is imperative that each student brings their device to school fully charged and that they bring a pair of earphones/headphones to use on the day as there will be audio instructions to complete the test.

If you have any queries or concerns, please feel free to contact us at 028 51172 or email info@skibbereencommunityschool.ie.

 

Yours sincerely,                                               

Mr Anton O’ Mahony,                                                                                    Ms Fiona Ronan, Mr. C O’ Brien

Principal                                                                                                              Guidance Counsellors

 

Classes to Finish at 12.10 on Wednesday November 23rd

Dear Parent/Guardian,


Classes will end at 12.10pm on Wednesday, November 23rd to facilitate the presentation of Junior Cycle Certificates. Buses have been informed.

Regards,

SCS Management.

In November we Remember

November is traditionally the month of remembering and praying for those who we have loved & lost and those who have gone before us.


The SCS book of remembrance has been placed outside the Chaplain's Office in our Sacred Space all month where staff and students could write the names of their loved ones. A candle was lit in their honour, and they were especially prayed for. We have also had prayer services to remember and pray for those loved ones & Ms Callaghan created a beautiful Garden of Remembrance with her class.

As November draws to a close, we would like to remind you that this Friday, November 25th at 7.30pm there will be a Bereavement Mass in St Patrick's Cathedral. You will be given the opportunity of writing the name of your departed on a candle and you can present the candle during the mass.

There will be a cup of tea afterwards in the Presbytery.


Annual Shoe Box Appeal

It was all hands on deck last week to help local woman Sally Daly and other local volunteers with the Annual Shoe Box Appeal! We were delighted to be able to link in with the local community to help such a worthy cause.

Many thanks to the teachers, SNA's and students of SCS who donated boxes, goodies and their time!

Rainbow Jumper Day

As part of Stand-Up Awareness Week SCS staff and students were invited to take part in Rainbow Jumper Day today!

All funds raised will go towards the School Memorial Garden & Belong to Youth Ireland. A huge thank you to the Wellbeing Team and to all involved in this week's activities!

Walk On Wednesdays

WOW! Walk On Wednesday and be in with the chance to win on Wednesday.

Join the Walk on Wednesday group at Trevor's at 8:30 am and receive a ticket to be placed in a draw to win a free meal at the school cafeteria. WOW2WOW!

Stand Up Awareness Week

Today, the Well-being Committee welcomed Luke Murray, a past pupil and now a youth worker with the YMCA, to give a talk to 4th year students as part of SCS Stand Up Awareness Week to support LGBTQI+ students.

Many thanks to Luke for the informative talk.

Remembering Craig and the Rodrigues family on his Anniversary today, Nov 16th.

The School Community were honoured to attend Craig’s Anniversary mass in Drimoleague today. The Mass was celebrated by Fr. Liam Crowley and our TY Year Group and teachers prayed with Craig’s family and friends. A Blessing was done at the graveside and everyone was invited back to the Community Hall for refreshments. The family showed a most beautiful video collage of Craig’s life .

We would like to thank the Rodrigues family for sharing their day with us. We would like to thank their friends and the parishoners of Drimoleague for serving the refreshments. We would like to thank our Chaplain, School Staff and Damien Long Coach Hire for the free buses. We would particularly like to commend our TY Students for the respect that they showed today. They were a credit to our school.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Craig and his family today.

Rainbow of Hands in support of Stand Up Awareness Week, Nov 14th - 18th.

Many thanks to our SPHE students and their teachers for making this Rainbow of Hands to mark Stand Up Awareness Week. This is an opportunity to celebrate and recognise our LGBTQ+ community. It is a time when we as a school show solidarity with students to ensure they feel seen, heard, and safe, and to ensure everyone knows that biphobic, homophobic, and transphobic language and bullying will not be tolerated.

DONT FORGET RAINBOW JUMPER DAY ON FRIDAY!!!!!!

School Equestrian Team - Interschools Show jumping

Congratulations to our school Equestrian Team who competed in the Sceilig Interschools Show jumping in Watergrasshill.

A stellar performance from our competitors and their four-legged teammates, for our first event of the season.

Our school was represented in both the team events and the individual classes.

Despite the wet and wind swept conditions, our equestrian team jumped their way into the 'Jump-off's'.

Well done to Muireann O'Donnell, Benjeman Wycherley, Niamh O'Reilly, Éabha O'Reilly & Oscar Wycherley,.

Wins for our Senior Ladies Basketball and Junior Ladies Football Teams today, Nov 14th.

Well done to our U19 Ladies Basketball Team and their coach Ms.Maria Wilson who beat Scoil Mhuire by 48 points to 23 points away today. Hard luck to our U16 Ladies Basketball Team and their coach Ms. Noirín O Brien who lost to their Junior Team. Well done also to our Junior Ladies Football Team and their coach Ms. Anna Ward who beat Carrigaline Community School at home today.

TY Karting and Paintballing in Watergrasshill, Nov 11th

TY students had a ball Karting and Paintballing in Watergrasshill last Friday. Many thanks to Mr. PJ Fitzgerald (Fastest Driver), Ms. Grace Callaghan and Ms. Shirley Wycherely for accompanying the students and thanks also to Ms. Gretta Burchill for organising the event.

U15 West Cork Ladies Football Team

West Cork Ladies beat Mid Cork Ladies in Banteer yesterday in the U15 Divisional Cup Final by 5-13 to 4-15.

SCS had seven students in the West Cork team. Congratulations & well done to Eabha, Emily, Allie , Kate, Holly, Aoife & Abbie on a great achievement.

Parental Involvement on the School's Board of Management, letter from the Principal, Nov 11th.

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Involvement of parents/guardians in the life of Skibbereen Community School continues to be a very important element of our mission, as we strive to develop a ‘Community of Learners’ where everybody works together to ensure that all the members of our school community, parents, staff and most importantly students get the best possible opportunity to grow and flourish.

The support, commitment and co-operation shown by parents/guardians to our school and students over the last couple of Covid driven years has been immense and very much appreciated. However, the restricted contact years of Covid made it difficult to maintain the more formal partnership structures that exist within the school.

First amongst these more formal partnership structures has been the Parent’s Association, which prior to Covid had built strong links and worked collaboratively with the school on a number of projects.

As we now enter a new post-Covid phase we are looking to renew and redevelop our more formal partnership structures and in particular the Parent’s Association.

The primary role of the Parent’s Association is to work in partnership with the school for the betterment of the students in the school in a manner that supports and empowers parents to be active in the best interests of their children’s educational journey.

The Association is open to all parents/guardians of the school but is generally run by a committee who work on behalf of the parents. To date this committee has been comprised of two parents from each year group in addition to the two parent representatives on the Board of Management.

Once formed, the committee then selects a Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and any other roles it deems necessary. In addition to the Parent’s Association, parents/guardians are represented on the school’s Board of Management. The Board of Management acts as a corporate body to oversee the running of the school on behalf of the Trustees.

The Board comprises of six nominees of the Trustees and two nominees each of parents/guardians and the teaching staff. These nominees are selected every three years which is the term of office of the Board of Management. The Board is about to begin a new three year term. Therefore, two nominees of parents/guardians must now be selected.

We encourage all parents/guardians to take an interest in both of these crucially important roles within our school community. We are now inviting interested parents/guardians to a meeting to select members for both the Parent’s Association Committee and Board of Management.

The meeting details are as follows: Date: Monday, November 14th 2022 Time: 7pm Location: Skibbereen Community School Agenda: Selection of a Parent’s Association Committee Nomination of Board of Management Representatives.

Looking forward to seeing you then,

Anton O Mahony Principal – Skibbereen Community School.

Wins for both our U19 Girls BB Team and Junior Ladies Football Team, Nov 9th

Well done to our U19 Girls Basketball Team and their coach Ms. Maria Wilson who beat St.Angela’s away yesterday in the league and to our Junior Ladies Football Team and their coaches, Ms. Ella Ryan, Ms. Anna Ward and Mr. Ger Carey who beat Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra Rathmore in the Munster Championship.

Teagasc Talk to the Farming Club and AgScience Classes, 28th October

Many thanks to Mr. Mike Dineen of Teagasc for giving an excellent talk to the School’s Farming Club and the 6th Year Ag Science class recently. He spoke about the latest research work being done at Moorepark and the latest innovations in dairy farming such as red clover silage swords, mainatining milk fat production during late spring, pasture digestibility and amino acid supply, environmental emmissions and home grown protein sources for winter milk systems. Thanks also to Mr. PJ Fitzgerald, Mr. Peter Swanton and Eoin Keane, 6th year for organising the visit.

Senior Boys Football Team win first game in Corn Uí Mhuirí, October 26th

Well done to our Senior Boys Football Team and their coaches/support staff of Mr. Tony Harrington, Mr. Colman O Driscoll, Mr. James McCarthy , Mr. Chris O Brien and Mr. Elliot Connolly on beating Presentation Secondary School Milltown of Killarney in the first round game of the Corn Ui Mhuiri. The final score was 14 points to 1-9.

Match Report by Murt Murphy, Irish Examiner.

Skibbereen deservedly got their Munster Colleges Corn Ui Mhuiri campaign off to a winning start when they beat Presentation Milltown on a heavy surface at Ballyvourney. However they were made fight all the way by the Kerry side who will regret wasting two great second-half goal chances that might well have cost the West Cork side.

Overall Skibbereen were physically stronger and in centre forward they had their star performer in Niall Daly who troubled the Pres Milltown defence all afternoon and kicked some superb points, while Sean Connolly in the corner was also a thorn in the side of the losers.

Pres Milltown had an outstanding defender in full back Shane Clifford who kept tall full forward Luke Shorten quiet before Shorten moved out the field in the second half and duly did some damage. Gearóid Evans was superb at wingback while the Kerry side dominated midfield thanks to the impressive Liam Evans and Fionann Griffin but lacked penetration up front, the outstanding Dara Hogan was ploughing a lone furrow.

The first quarter saw both sides try to get used to the conditions and they were level at 0-3 apiece after a tit-for-tat spell. Niall Daly converted an early free for Skibbereen but Gearóid Hassett levelled after Mark Murphy was fouled. Skibbereen then took the lead when Sean Connolly converted a mark after Dara Hogan had given Milltown the lead.

While mistakes on both sides saw scoring chances being coughed up Dara Hogan kicked a superb long-range point as Donal O’Callaghan and Hugh O’Donovan forced Pres Milltown turnovers.

Connelly levelled from another mark, before Niall Daly cut through to give Skibbereen a 0-4 to 0-3 lead. Two Dara Hogan frees helped Pres Milltown retake the lead but Skibbereen regained control thanks to the promptings of Daly and Cathal Hegarty and they hit four unanswered points from Shorten, Kevin O’Driscoll and two from Daly to retire 0-8 to 0-5 in front at half time.

Two early second-quarter points from Luke Shorten and Daly saw Skibbereen move five clear and Pres Milltown were under the cosh. But then the turning point of the game came in the 40th minute when Dara Hogan played Fionnan Griffin and he rounded the keeper but found himself seemingly almost too close to goal and somehow put it wide. The miss laid the foundations for Skibbereen to kick on with points from Daly and Connolly but Dara Hogan kept Pres Milltown within range and after another Griffin goal attempt drifted wide, Skibbereen appeared to relax. Hogan dropped a free short in the 61st minute that Darragh Clifford finished to the net, but it was too little too late for the Kerry side.

Scorers for Skibbereen CS: N Daly (0-7, 2fs), S Connolly (0-3, 2marks), L Shorten (0-3, 1m), K O’Driscoll (0-1).

Scorers for Pres Milltown: D Hogan (0-7, 5fs), D Clifford (1-0), T Gosney and G Evans (f) (0-1 each).

SKIBBEREEN CS: S O’Shea (Illen Rovers); D O’Callaghan (Castlehaven) H O’Donovan (Clan Na Gaeil); D O’Hourihane (O’Donovan Rossa), C Hegarty (Tadgh Mac Cárthaigh), F Hurley (O’Donovan Rossa); T Ó Donnabháin (Clonakilty), S O’Connell ( Castlehaven);K O’Driscoll ( O’Donovan Rossa), N Daly (O’Donovan Rossa), B O’Driscoll (O’Donovan Rossa); L McCarthy (Kilamcabea ), L Shorten (Tadgh Mac Cárthaigh), S Connelly (Illen Rovers). Subs: C Coombes (O’Donovan Rossa) for L McCarthy (56), D Cleary (Castlehaven) for K O’Driscoll (59).

PRES MILLTOWN: D Kingston (Beaufort); D O’Connor (Milltown/Castlemaine), S Clifford (Laune Rangers), M O’Callaghan (Keel); D Evans (Listry), D Corcoran (Keel), G Evans (Keel); L Evans (Keel), F Griffin (Keel); T Gosney (Listry), E McCarthy (Annascaul), C O’Brien (Milltown/Castlemaine); D Hogan (Milltown/Castlemaine) , D Clifford (Laune Rangers) , M Murphy (Keel).

Sub: G Quirke (Milltown/Castlemaine) for D O’Connor (45), J Clifford (Listry) for M Murphy (54), M Byrne (Keel) for E McCarthy (58).

Referee: D Hickey (Tipperary)

SCS Students attend Farm to the Future Ideation Day

Pictured below are students who attended the Farm To The Future Ideation Day in Farm Zero C in Shinagh House, Bandon today.

The event was hosted by The Ludgate Hub, AgTechUCD, and Munster Technological University’s AgriTech Ireland Cluster.