Elphin Community College

Transition Year News

Anti-litter video

A large number of students from 1^st Year, 2nd Year and T.Y took part recently in an anti-litter DVD project. Sponsored by Roscommon County Council the theme chosen was based on the LMFAO Party Rock Anthem song. The shuffling song involved it was felt, would appeal to a wide variety of students in both primary and secondary schools. In fact Google has stated that the word ‘shuffle’ is the most frequently searched word on the internet. It was a lot of hard work but we had great fun along the way. The film crew turned up last Monday to record the three minute productions. It will be ready to launch in February of next year. On behalf of the students we would like to thank everyone involved especially, Charlene Mulligan our choreographer.

TY Mini Company School Finals

The TY Mini Company School Finals took place last Friday. At the time of going to print a winner had not been chosen. Well done to the following teams – “Games 4 You”, “S & L Designs” and “Pickur Frames”. Final results and pictures in next weeks paper.

Leaving Certificate L.C.V.P. News

On Wednesday, 7^th December, students from the Leaving Certificate Link Modules class invited committee members Eileen Sweeney and John Ames to give a talk on the service the Youth Café provides to the community.  The students gathered a lot of information, and they took the opportunity to present the committee with a cheque for €137.  This money was raised through a costume day in the school and was organised by Kieran McGrath, Daniel Harding, Richard O’Grady, Jack O’Donnell, Emma Farrell and Ieuan Weston.

On the 15^th December, Valerie Byrne came in to visit the Leaving Certificate Link Modules class to speak to them about the work of Support to Overcome Suicide (SOS).  The visit was a great success with the students learning much about the invaluable services and supports this organisation provides.  Students also presented Valerie with €236, which was raised through a Film Morning in the school.  This fundraising event was organised by Clare Cregg, Fiona McCann, Ciara Hennessy, Michael Sullivan, Damien Byrne and Ronan Beirne.

Cadette Boys Volleyball

The Cadette Boys ended their involvement in this years compettion when they lost in two straight sets to St Louis Secondary School, Kiltimagh on Tuesday last 17^th January.  While both sets were close, losing 25 – 22, 25 – 23 the boys were disappointed with their performance.  Team as follows Ryan Larkin (captain) James Dwyer, Austin Kielty, Sean Duarke, Christopher O’Connor, Joshua Roxby,   Substitutes: Jonathan Beirne, Padraig Neary, Richard Harding, Dominic Gnisz, Drew Bell, Ciaran Beirne and Francis Lee.

OPEN NIGHT

An Open Night will take place this Thursday the 26^th Janaury at 7.00p.pm   This will give parents of perspective 1^st years students the chance to come along to an information session in the school and to view the new facilities that we have to offer.

OPEN DAY

Following on from the Open Night the 6^th class students from the local National Schools will visit the school on Friday 27^th January, to look at our facilities and also to see a number of the subjects in action.   It promises to be an enjoyable and informative exercise for the students of the area.

LCVP WORK EXPERIENCE

The pre-leaving Cert students are busy preparing themselves for LCVP work experience which begins on Monday 30^th January.   We would like to thank all of those companies who have provided our students with valuable experience for their working life.

MOCK EXAMS

The pre Examination Mocks begin on Wednesday 1^st February.   Students from both the Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate are studying hard (or should be!!!) as they approach.   Best of luck to both groups.

STUDENT TEACHER

We would like to welcome Mr. Benson to the school.   He is on work experience from GMIT / Letterfrack and is teaching Woodwork and Technical Graphics to 1^st and 2^nd year students.

SENIOR BOYS FOOTBALL

The senior boys had a narrow 1 point victory over Coola V.S. in Riverstown last Wednesday.

Leaving Cert Ecology Field Trip

On Thursday November 10^th, the Leaving Certificate class travelled to St. John’s Wood, Lecarrow with their teachers Ms. Fallon and Mr. Hanley. The trip provided students with the opportunity to complete their ecology experiments in a woodland habitat, where they saw the natural flora and fauna of this old Irish woodland. This excellent service was provided by Rebecca and Dawn of the North Midlands Wildlife Education Centre (National Parks and Wildlife Service)

Leaving Certs Travel to Sligo IT Open Day

Our Leaving Certificate students attended Sligo Open Day on Thursday 24^th November. The students were given full access to the college and spoke to the Students Union regarding the possible reintroduction of college tuition. The students attended lectures about the range of courses on offer and got first hand information from staff and current students.

Students Travel To AIT

Transition Year on Retreat
Student on a recent retreat to Adventure Retreats Ireland in Tanagh, Cootehill,

Co. Cavan.

Volleyball News Girls Volleyball
Our Senior girls are in action on Monday 21st November in the National Quarter

Finals against St. Brigid's Clondalkin. This is after beating St. Mary' Secondary

School 25-21 and 25 - 11 in round 2 last week. They also defeated Balla Secondary

School 25 - 12, 25 - 14 to top their group. Well done and good luck girls.

Boys Volleyball Senior B Boys
Elphin Community College vs. Drumbshambo C and B on Thursday 17th November the

Elphin senior B team travelled to Drumshambovto play two of their teams. Elphin's

first opponents on the day were Drumshambo's B team. Elphin got off to a bright

start in the first set. It was a close set, with both teams winning point for point.

Ieuan Weston and Keiran Mc Grath were very effective as main hitters. A run of bad

luck and unforced errors seen Elphin lose the first set, a close 27-25.The second
set followed the same fashions the first. Jack O Donnel and Dillion Beirne were

impressive as they set for Ieuan and Keiran. Unfortunately for Elphin unforced errors

dictated the run of play finding themselves 20-9 down. Despite heroic dives and great

service from James Dwyer and the experience of Michael O'Sullivan Elphin still lost

this set and match 25-13. The second of the matches to be seen was versus Drumshambo

C team. The team started well leading 5-0 and the confidence was up, but bad

decisions and errors meant that elphin lost the lead. Despite this elphin still put

in a good fight and went tit for tat and unfortunately lost the match 26-24. An

unlucky loss for the lads with every player playing well in the set! What was to be

Elphin's final set of the day was another tight set but unfortunately for Elphin

the set didn't go their way and bowed out of this years competition.

Senior A Boys
The senior A boys are in action on Wednesday 24th November in Streete where they

will be in action against St. Raphael's, Loughrea in the National Semi-finals of

this years competition.

Volleyball News:

It has been a busy couple of weeks for volleyball in the school with the Senior Girls and the Senior A and B boys in action.

The Senior A Boys suffered a first round defeat to their near rivals Drumshanbo in the first round of this years competition. They lost 2 -0 on a scoreline of 25 – 23; 25 – 21. While the sets were close the team know the several unforced errors will need to be eradicated in the next round if they are to progress further.

The Senior B Boys topped their group when they took on two teams from St. Mary’s Sec. School, Drogheda in Street Community Centre. They achieved this in a strange manner after losing their first match narrowly to St. Mary’s B team  2 – 1. They then beat St. Mary’s A comfortably 2 – 0. The earlier result between the two Drogheda teams means Elphin top their group going into round 2.

The Senior girls qualified in third place in their 1^st round group beating St. Brigid’s Sec. School, Clondalkin  2 – 0 sets. They drew 1 – 1 with Portmarnock Community School, but lost to Mercy Sec. School, Tuam; 2 – 0. They take on St. Mary’s Sec. School, Naas and Balla Sec. School in Ballinagare on the 8^th Nov. TBC  in round 2.

Transition Year and Pre-leaving classes go Surfing and learn Irish:

By K. Rattigan -TY

 Transition Year and Pre-leaving travelled to the Donegal Adventure Centre in Bundoran on the 18^th October to improve on the students’ Irish Oral Skills and for some students to undertake a new activity – surfing!

The students departed from Elphin Community College at 8 o’clock on a cold Tuesday morning.  17 students along with two Irish teachers, Ms Connolly and Ms Gallagher went on the trip.  We arrived in  Bundoran at 10 o’clock and were introduced to the Irish teacher Rhia.  We had three hours of Irish classes from 10 o’clock to 1 o’clock.  During that period of time we improved on our oral Irish skills,  We didn’t just sit on our seats and learn Irish all day, we also played Irish games.

After the Irish class we got a quick lesson on how to surf at the Donegal Adventure Centre as it was too cold at the beach.  After the surf lesson we got changed into our wet suits and headed to Rossnowlagh which is a 15 minutes bus journey from the Adventure Centre in Bundoran.  When we got there our instructors gave us our surfboards and we went into the water.  We were surprised that  we were warm in the water as the day was so cold, it actually snowed in Donegal the previous day.

After surfing for 2 hours we got on the bus and went back to Donegal Adventure Centre in Bundoran.  We had a nice hot shower and put on our warm clothes.  We departed for Elphin at 4 o’clock.

Overall the day was enjoyable, we didn’t mind the Irish classes as we played games but the surfing was the best.

Maths Week:

By
Emma McDermottroe and Emma Muldowney.  

 Maths Week took place from the 15th October to the 22nd October. The years that took part in Maths Week were 2nd Years, Pre Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert.
It is a national event. It took place during maths classes throughout the whole week and students did the challenges at home. The challenges were set up by the maths teacher for each year group on www.mangahigh.com.

The majority of the students enjoyed the challenges and received gold, silver or bronze medals when the challenges were completed. The winning year group was 2nd years, winning 28 bronze, 4 silver and 5 gold medals overall.

www.mangahigh.com is a facility which is available online all year long. It is based on the Irish Maths curriculum and is a fun and a helpful revision aid.

Students Travel to Aviva Stadium

28 students from the school travelled to the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday the 11th October last to support the Irish soccer team, take on Armenia. The group celebrated a 2 – 1 win for the national side and hope to support them again in the play-offs on the 15th November when the Republic of Ireland take on Estonia to qualify for next years European Finals to be held in Poland.

Sposored Walk:

The school held its annual sponsored walk on Friday  14^th October. This fundraiser is organized to help with the large costs for the various sports teams in the school. €4088 was raised and we would like to thank all those who contributed to the event.

1st year and Transition Year Induction Evening
The school held an information evening for parents of our 1st year & T.Y. students. We would like to thank all thank all who attended.

Settling In Programme
The 1st Year students have recently completed a four week programme called ‘SETTLING IN’ organised by Youthwork Ireland. We would like to thank Ann
Marie Hourigan for all her help in delivering this worthwhile course.

On the afternoon of 1^st June 2011 the end of year awards took place

Following a very successful year in 2010/2011 the annual awards ceremony took place on Wednesday afternoon 1^st June 2011.  Students and staff packed the lobby in the new building.  An atmosphere of excitement and anticipation prevailed.

Students received Gold, Silver and Bronze Merit Awards for outstanding achievement during the school year. Awards were presented for the highest attendance in each year group.

Student of the year was awarded to the following:-

1^st year   -    Adele Hegoburu and Francis Lee

2^nd year   -   Robyn Bradley and Dominik Gnisz

Junior Cert – Siobhan Lee and Kevin Rattigan

T.Y. R – Laura Crotti and Shane Killoran

T.Y. L – Pooky Mitchell and Michael Macken

Pre Leaving Certificate  – Fiona Mc Cann and Ieuan Weston

Leaving Certificate -  Marie O’Reilly and Robert Kelleher

Sports Awards:

Junior Sports Awards were presented to Christopher O’Connor and Siobhan Hook

Senior Sports Awards were presented to Cherie Hook and Shane Killoran

Overall Sports Star of the year went to Gerry Cregg

Art Awards

Craft Award: Deven French

3 D Award: Kinga Pawlak

Painting Award:  Aoife Rattigan

Portrait Award:   Geeta Mitchell

 Technology Awards:

Junior Award was presented to  Joshua Roxby

Senior Award was presented to Robert Kelleher

The John Morkan Memorial Prize for the best Junior Certificate results 2010 went to Finbar Mc Dermott

The Liam Staunton Memorial Prize for the highest result in Junior Certificate Science 2010 went to Finbar Mc Dermott.

LEAVING CERTIFICATE MASS

On Tuesday the 24^th May, our Leaving Certificate students held their graduation mass at 3.00p.m. in the Parish Church.   It was concelebrated by Fr. Gannon.   The Leaving Certificate Students under the guidance of Andrew Reynolds sang for the mass.

We had a lovely evening with parents and teachers attending the school afterwards for refreshments provided by the Home Economics  teacher Sarah Coffey.   There was also a slide show of photographs and videos of the leaving certificate class over the past 6 years organized by Mr. Noone and Mr. Holohan.   We would like to thank Fr Gannon, Andrew Reynolds, Sarah Coffey and Ms. O’Sullivan for their valuable contribution to a successful and enjoyable afternoon.