Amber Flag

We are delighted to announce that we were awarded the Amber Flag recently for commitment and dedication to promoting positive mental health throughout the year. To receive the Pieta Amber Flag, goals must be set and achieved during the course of the year. Our goals included hosting a positive mental health week in conjunction with JigsawDonegal focusing on The MyWee5, creating a wellbeing wall and notice board which includes positive/supportive messages written by students during anti-bullying/LGBTI week which we engaged in, hosting a wellbeing week with activities related to wellbeing each day and hosting a wellbeing fair attended by all our local organisations and support agencies. Many thanks to all the staff, the student council and the sports council for their involvement and assistance with the various activities and to the whole student body for their very positive engagement with all the activities.

Green Flag

We are delighted to announce that the college recently received confirmation from An Taisce, Green Schools Division, that we have been awarded the Green Flag for the Biodiversity Theme. The Green Schools Committee have worked on this project over the past two years, planting a wild flower garden, planting over 50 trees, making bird boxes and bird feeders, installing bug hotels and increasing the general awareness of the theme of Biodiversity within the college and the wider community. Many thanks to Mr. Cannon, Ms. Cowan, Mr. Gavigan, Mr. Mc Crea, Mr. Mc Ginty, Mr. Byrne, Mr. Sweeney, the student council, the global citizenship committee and caretaker Joe Mc Ginty who all played their part in this project.

EPAS (EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AMBASSADOR PROGRAMME)

As part of the EPAS programme, four Junior Ambassadors for the programme in St Columba’s College, Sarah Mc Menamin, Patrick Patton, Alissah Cullen and Aisling Cannon (all TY students) are producing a number of articles on Europe including how COVID 19 has affected the countries of the European Union and what Europe is doing to help countries financially. Well done to all the students involved.

Leaving Certificate Mass

Many thanks to everyone who was involved in the mass for our Leaving Certs  held on May 27th. It was not the end to school that we expected or could have imagined. Our thanks to Fr Anthony Briody for celebrating the mass with and for us; to Siobhan Doyle (Head Girl) and Sean Coleman (Head Boy) for the readings; to the very talented and gifted choir of Catherine Gallagher, Ciaran Coleman and Sean Coleman; to the teachers in the RE department for organising the mass and finally Warren Thompson for all his help in broadcasting the mass via Facebook.

Jan Amos Comenius Prize

Earlier this year our Transition Year students produced a video, with the assistance of DNK Media Productions, for a competition organised by the European Commission. The ‘Jan Amos Comenius Prize’ for high quality teaching about the European Union rewards secondary schools that help their pupils learn about the European Union in ways that inspire them. We received the good news in early May that we had won the Jan Amos Comenius Prize, which is a huge achievement for the TY students in the college and their teacher, Ms. Cooke. The prize is awarded to only 22 schools across the European Union. We are delighted that all the hard work and dedication of all involved has been acknowledged  by this award.

Home Economics

A lovely range of crafts presented by Ms. Howard’s 2nd year Home Economics students for their textile module. Well done to all involved.

Well done to 1st, 2nd and TY students in Ms Gately’s class who participated in the Easter baking and  to Ms. Howard’s TY students who cooked some lovely sweet and savoury dishes at home.

May Altar Project

Some of our 1st years pulled out all the stops when they set out to work on their “May Altar Project” . Some beautiful dedications to Mary in preparation for the month of May. Well done first years and their teacher Ms. Culkin.

CSPE

One of our 2nd year groups, class Enda have been learning about relationships in their SPHE class. One of the discussion points was centred around the area of families – which is so important at the minute.
The students were asked to create a poster based around the topic of family and relationships and their teacher was very impressed with some of the fabulous artwork produced. Well done to all involved.

Writing Competition

Congratulations and well done to Evan Carron Kee, 6th Year student, who won 1st place in the senior category of the NewsBrands writing competition. Last month, the newspapers representative group NewsBrands Ireland invited secondary school students to write about their experience of the Coronavirus crisis. Evan wrote about the Recovery Indicators (Economy, Well-being and Climate) in the aftermath of the current crisis. His article was published in the Irish Examiner and features in the Sunday Business Post today. Brilliant work Evan.

Book reviews

Thanks to the 1st year students who have written book reviews over the last few months, which we hope have inspired others to read more. Well done to Evan Corry, Keeley Mc Gettigan, Shane Collum, Sarah Conaghan and Caitlin Callaghan.