1st Year Aoife O’Leary, Lucia Duarte, Nina Donovan, and Lucy Duggan who participated in a school cross country event recently
JANUARY
Our Science Department and students travelled to compete in the BT Young Scientist Competition.
Our 5th year students Ciara Donovan and Dominika Starzycka received a lovely token of appreciation from The Department of Justice and Equality for their efforts in the ‘Politics Needs Women’ competition.
FEBRUARY
On Thursday 7th February St Marys Transition Year Students attended the IWISH conference in the City Hall, Cork. The students found the day to be entertaining and informative as they decide on their senior cycle subjects and future college courses.
MARCH
Well done to Katherine Ansley and Eva Slattery who participated in the Apprentice Chef cook offs in Tralee IT.
ROAD SAFETY INITIATIVE- On Monday our 4th and 5th year students were given the opportunity to try out new VR goggles to help students to experience the impact of speed and dangerous driving.
Our very successful Well being week ran from the 7th -12 March.
APRIL
Well done to the music group comprising of students from trad group and choir who were commended by judges in the Waltons Music for Schools Competition. St Mary’s was included in the top 15 schools nationally. The group created a five minute performance based on the theme ‘Music =‘ directed by music teachers Aoife Donovan and Aoibheann Queally. The students will receive certificates of commendation.
3rd year students Marion Creedon, Kate Dromey, Ciara Bradley and Emily McSweeney represented St Marys in the Junior Cert Pi Maths Quiz in UCC.
Huge Congratulations to Radisha Fernando who came 3rd in the Photojournalism category of the National Press pass competition. Over 10,000 students enter the competition every year.
Our Charity Colour run raised €2500 for Macroom Hospital. Well done to Mrs Kerrigan, the Lourdes Committee and the Students Council for organising such a brilliant event.
MAY
Our last visit of the school year to Care Choice nursing home. Thanks to all the girls for their dedication all year, visiting the residents and for sharing their wonderful talent! Thanks to Elaine and Ms Queally for organising the visits and for rehearsing with the girls in preparation for the visits.
5th year trip to Gougane Barra. Thanks to Fr John for leading a lovely Prayer Service and the treats afterwards.
Well done to Mrs Casey and 4th year students Karolina, Daniella, Liadh, Jennifer and Luna who took part in the Final of the SEAI “One Good Idea” Competition in Dublin Castle today. They were one of the top ten teams out of over 1000 entries Nationwide. Massive achievement, well done to all involved.
Our fantastic Buddies organised a fun filled day of activities for the first years. A great day was had by all.
The winning continues at The Pfizer Chemistry Quiz – congratulations to the Pfizer Chemistry team who brought back more honours this year to the school.
Last year we won the overall quiz and this year our team did us proud by winning the general knowledge round. Well done to Daria Byrdziak, Jennifer Kehoe, Kate Murphy and Rosa Simmons.
Mrs Lehane’s 2A2 CSPE class hosted their film premiere “Walk in my shoes”. It was outstanding!
JUNE
State Exams took place and all Leaving and Junior Certificate students did extremely, all of their hard work paid off.
JULY
Nice article appeared in the EchoLive on 6th year student Meghan Sheehan who receieved a soccer scholarship to study Physiotherapy in Daytona University in Florida. Good luck to Meghan in her new adventure.
Fr John organised our School pilgrimage to Medjugorje.
AUGUST
Our Leaving Cert students received their results.
Mr Cooke took fourth years on their GAISCE walk on the Old Kenmare road and Black Valley.
Fourth year student Theresa Galvin launched her book “Lighting Nerve” in the Auld Triangle. The book was launched by her English teachers Jennifer Murnane and Lily de la Cour. What an amazing achievement for a young writer! We wish her every success.
We welcomed all of our new First Year Students to the school.
SEPTEMBER
1st Year Bonding Trip
2019 Leaving Cert Students – Eva Long, Aoife Foley, Joanne Kelly and Kate Murphy who came back to visit us. The girls came back to talk to current 5th and 6th year students and to give them advice, study hints and tips to help them as they prepare for their exams.
Our 6th year LCVP class, Ms Tobin and Ms Kelleher organised a great Sports Day for our Junior Students.
Our Buddies organised an amazing First Year Bonding Trip to Ballyhass Lakes. Congratulations to Caoimhe Buckley and Ciara Quinn who came second in the Macroom Food Festival Schools Cook Off.
OCTOBER
We held our very successful, enjoyable Open night where we welcomed 6th class students and their parents to have a very interactive visit to our school.
St Mary’s Senior History classes went on a field trip to Dublin. They visited Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin Castle, The Chester Beatty Library, The Revenue Museum, The old House of Lords on Dame St. and Glasnevin Cemetery. The theme of the trip was Walking in History. Smiles and tears of joy today in St Marys as our lovely Transition Years received their Junior Cert/Cycle results. The girls did amazingly well.
Our two Irish Gael Linn debating teams qualified for the next round of debating in both the Junior and Senior Category.
Junior Team: Aoife Downey, Abigail Kelleher, Aine Sheehan and sub Siobhan O Leary.
Senior Team: Alannah Cunningham, Lorraine Casey and Marian Creedon.
The girls have generously prepared some shoe boxes for team Hope.
NOVEMBER
Ms Donovan and our Transition Year Students put on an amazing show – “My Best Friends Brother’. It was such an enjoyable show, well done to all involved.
The ‘Bin it’ Roadshow paid a recent visit to St Marys. First Year students and members of the Green School Committee were treated to a highly entertaining and interactive presentation on the importance of reducing litter and caring for our environment. The students did a number of ‘experiments’ on why we litter and more importantly what we can do to stop!
Our 6A1 LCVP Class, along with their Teacher Ms Tobin, organised a Visit to Wright Medical as part of their Enterprise Education Module. The girls got an extremely informative presentation from Jerry Lyne (Senior Technical Services Manager) and Ger O’ Donovan (Operations Engineering Manager). This was followed by a tour of the plant, a demonstration of products and an extremely interesting and engaging question and answer session. We would like to sincerely thank Dan Griffin, Ger O’ Donovan and Jerry Lyne for facilitating this visit.
Word Power’ is a radio series on Life FM 93.1, run in association with Cork County Council, which celebrates young writers in Cork. We are delighted that two of our second year English students had their work showcased on the series. Emer O Connor’s story ‘The Fifty Cent Sweets’ and Sarah O Leary’s poem ‘Storm’ were both chosen to be aired on the radio series. Their work will be performed by experienced actors, complemented with music and fun sound effects.
LARA’S TRIP TO BRUSSELS
Well done and go n-éirí go geal le Lara O’Sullivan who represented St. Mary’s on a trip to Brussels and the European Institutions as a result of writing an essay – ‘How will life be different if or when we achieve gender equality?’ The competition was sponsored by Sean Kelly M.P.
Daria Byrdziak received a JP McManus All Ireland Scholarship. This will help enormously with her studies in chemical engineering at CIT. Aoife Doyle received a Language scholarship. Heartiest congratulations to you both.
Congratulations to our fantastic under 19 basketball team who beat Bandon Grammar Secondary School in the Semi-Final of the county.
DECEMBER
Our Transition Year students had a Public Speaking Workshop with Fair City’s Alan Devine.
Twelve 4th Year students took part in the Bank of Ireland money smarts challenge.
A group of 11 Athletes from St Marys travelled to Riverstick on Thursday the 5th of December to compete in a schools Cross Country event. Lucia Duarte finished in 2nd place in the 1st year girls followed shortly by team mates Aoife O’ Leary, Nina O’ Donovan and Lucy Duggan. Brigin Kelleher was first of the St Marys 2nd/3rd year team to cross the line, finishing in 12th place just outside the medals. Her team mates were Danielle O’ Neill, Lisa Kingston, Liadh McMahon, Siobhan O’ Leary, Caoimhe Dineen and Grace Kiernan. This 2nd/3rd year team were placed 4th overall on the day!
We enjoyed our annual Christmas Day in St Marys on the 12th of December. This is an amazing, fun filled day where all students and staff can enjoy a day of Christmas fun together. This day would not be possible without our amazing staff member Trish who prepared and cooked Christmas Dinner for all of our students.
We had a lovely year in St Marys and we would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our parents, students and staff a very Happy Christmas and a healthy and peaceful New Year.