Summerhill College

Champion in the Classroom

Summerhill College Notes

January start with a difference
Thanks to the record low temperatures and accumulations of snow, the end of the last school term came to a premature end after one day of examinations on December 18th. The end of year tests had to be postponed until the return to school in January.

These tests have since taken place. Arrangements are being considered to make up for some of the time lost during the record cold spell. A staff in-service day has already been deferred until the next school year and additional adjustments will be made over time. Parents and students can rest assured that the course will be covered in all subject areas in good time for the State Examinations. Third and Leaving Cert students are already focussing on their upcoming Mock Examinations, which will commence in early February.

The timetable for these examinations will soon be clarified.
The Leaving Certificate students are currently putting the finishing touches to their CAO applications. They are being assisted in this by Guidance Counsellors Ms. Teresa Kelly and Mr. David Mc Neive.

Burst pipes and flooded buildings
Burst pipes and flooded rooms were the downside of the big thaw in Summerhill. This was especially true in the Old Building. College Management and caretakers worked very hard to make the place fit for the return to school on January 10th.

Hopefully in a couple of years time we will not be as concerned about old pipes freezing in a hundred year old building. The planned construction of the new building for Summerhill took a step further down the road to commencement with the announcement of the chosen tender for the project.

Parent /Teacher Meeting time change
The Parent /Teacher meeting for Leaving Cert. students takes place on Wednesday January 19th in Father Flanagan Hall from 3.45pm to 6.45pm. This meeting was to take place during the day but in order to make up for lost teaching time due to the bad weather it is now an evening meeting.

This will the final Parent /teacher meeting for this group, most of whom will be leaving the school in June. We hope that the class of 2011 will perform as well in their Leaving Certificate examinations as the class of 2010.

This was a year notable for the large number of scholarships to Irish universities and a really impressive all round performance. Two students achieved the maximum 600 points in the CAO ratings.

Boost for Sports Fund
Summerhill Sports Department wish to thank all those Tesco customers who contributed to the Sport’s fund during Summerhill’s bag packing sessions in late November. The effort resulted in a welcome injection of €2000 to the college Sport’s Fund.

Mr Pat Tuohy , who organised the packing was very pleased with the funds raised and in addition to the Tesco customers, he wishes to thank all the boys who packed at the check outs, the teachers who supervised them as well as Tesco management for facilitating the fund raising effort.

New Arrivals
Congratulations to Mr. Kenny Donagher and his wife Maria on the birth of their first child, a baby girl. Congratulations also to Ms. Natasha Donlon and to her husband Leo on the birth of their third child, a baby girl.
Irish teacher, Ms. Maria Taylor finished up last week and will be on maternity leave for the remainder of the school year. We wish her a safe delivery .

Wedding Bells.
Congratulations to Mr Mark Breheny and to his bride Caroline on their recent wedding. Mark and Caroline married on Saturday December 18th. The reception was held in Castledargan Hotel .

The wedding was a white wedding in every sense with the snow lying deep on the ground. We wish mark and his well in their married life.

Old Trafford Trip
Fifty three Summerhill students travelled to Manchester United for the annual trip to see a European Champions league game. This annual trip is open to all students with a clean disciplinary record.

A question mark hung over this year’s trip because of the heavy snow at the time. Fortunately travel proved possible and the boys witnessed the great spectacle of Manchester United take on Valencia from Spain at the Theatre of Dreams.

As usual the trip was organised by Mr. Adrian Barret and all the travelling party wish to thank him for his work in organising this great trip.

Cup Winners return to Alma Mater
Sligo Rovers players and former Summerhill College students Conor O Grady and Mark Mc Goldrick returned to Summerhill to give current students a glimpse of boththe FAI Ford Cup and the Eircom League Cup.

Summerhill is proud of its long standing connection with Sligo Rovers and takes great pride in the success of its current and past pupils to don the bit of red. In recognition of their achievement college principal, Mr. Tommy Mc Manus made a presentation to both men to mark their achievement.

On the day of the Rover’s visit a non-uniform day was held to raise funds for a local charity. The students who paid to opt out of wearing the uniform on the day were requested to wear a red jersey to mark the visit of Sligo Rovers.

Another ex Summerhill student honoured in a similar manner by college management was Charlie Harrison in recognition of his selection as GAA All Star 2010. Some time earlier Charlie had brought his award to Summerhill to show it to our current crop of Gaelic footballers, in whose training he is closely involved.

Gaelic Football
The college’s Senior GAA team has had a very successful year to date and hope are high that some silverware may make its way to Summerhill this year. The team beat St Coleman’s Claremorris in semi final of the Connacht league.

Their opposition in the final will be the winners of the encounter between St. Jarlath’s Tuam and Rice College from Westport. The team looks a good prospect for the championship also. The championship commences for Summerhill seniors on February 12th when they play the winners of the match between St. Mary’s College, Galway and St. Colmans of Claremorris.

This is thanks to a very fine squad of players and the dedication of a management team led by Mr. David Conneely. The Juvenile team has also qualified from their group.

Soccer
The Senior soccer team emerged unbeaten from their provincial grouping to qualify foor the latter stages of the league. Their next opposition will be Athenry and we wish the team all the best in the remainder of their season. The team is managed by Mr. Anthony Flynn and coached by Mr. Dessie Cawley.

Mr. Carl O’ Neill’s Under 14 team have an upcoming fixture to determine their progress as has Mr. Brian Tivnan’s Under 16 team. We wish them all the best of luck.

Tag Football
A Summerhill College tag football team recently won the John Kent Sport’s Cup in tag football. The cup was the trophy for the winners of this fund raising competition to assist the Sligo Inter-county team. Well done to the winning team, which featured Niall Mc Manus, Niall Murphy, Vinny Cadden, Paddy Heraughty, Barry O’ Mahony and Conor Mc Donagh.

Congratulations to Young Scientist.
Congratulation also go to Fourth Year student, Thomas Endersby who came 1st in the Senior Chemistry section in this years B.T. Young Scientist Exhibition.
We will bring more information on Thomas’s project in the next edition of Champion in the Classroom.