St Ciaran’s College

Summer 2019

Junior school students were recognised for their many achievements throughout the year.

The guest of honour was past pupil Damien McDonald, Food and Beverage Manager in the new Hastings Grand Central Hotel

in Belfast. Damien’s career with Hastings began with a part time job collecting glasses at functions. He quickly became a

supervisor, working his way up to management. He then graduated from the University of Ulster, completing the

Management Ambassador Programme in 2014. Damien leads a team of over 100 employees, and is responsible for the

training and development of the future workforce within the company.

Awards were distributed to every year 10 pupil for completing KS3 programmes of study, and individual and group awards

were presented for attendance, merits, subject awards and sporting endeavours.

St Ciaran’s is also very grateful to Mrs Josephine Kelly, sister of our deceased past pupil Philomena McCann, who presented

the memorial award for the Spirit of St Ciaran’s.

Entertainment was provided by the superb talent of the junior school Traditional Group, who played a selection from ‘Lord of

the Dance’ called ‘Siamsa’. As part of the ceremony a video was shown, highlighting the many talents and skills of our Key

Stage 3 students. Katie McCaffrey and Caitlin McDermott danced a slip jig and a reel to complete a wonderful celebration of

Key Stage 3 achievement.

KEY STAGE 3 AWARDS CEREMONY

Winners of the Anne McGarvey Endeavour Award.

More photographs inside .

Above: Katie Rois McCann is presented with the Rev Patrick McPeake Trophy for achieving top

results across English, Maths and Science.

Below: Katie McCaffrey receives the Philomena McCann memorial shield for the Spirit of

St Ciaran’s from Philomena’s sister Josephine Kelly. Katie received the award for her participation in

many school groups, including School Council, Be Strong Online Ambassadors YPI and overall

endeavour.

Above: Rionach Hackett is presented with the Year 8 Endeavour Award.

Below: Alexandra Beattie is presented with the Year 9 Endeavour Award.

Megan McKenna is pictured

with Damien McDonald,

Fr O’ Dwyer and Mr Lavery

receiving the Cara Award.

James McKenna, Aisling Cush, Caoimhe Conroy and Tiernan McElroy

receive the Victor Ludorum Award for their performance at Sports Day.

They are pictured with Head of PE, Miss Woods.

Mr Halligan presents Anthony Ellison and Megan McKenna

with their KS3 Merit Awards.

World War One Battlefields Project

Niall Begley and Conor Kerr from 10NW represented St Ciaran’s College on a recent EA trip to the Battlefields of the First World War. During their four day tour of the Ypres

Salient and the Somme, with students from twenty-five other schools, the boys learned about key battles and the role of Irish soldiers who fought the Germans in the trenches

of Northern France and Belgium. At the Menin Gate they attended the Last Post Ceremony and in Thiepval Wood they visited original front line trenches.

“This history trip gave me the opportunity to explore the north of France and

parts of Belgium that were really important during the First World War. It was

a great experience to expand my knowledge and get to know some people

from other schools. Despite the long travel hours and questionable food it

was an amazing experience!

My favourite part of the trip was visiting the Lochnagar mine crater, as the

sheer size of the crater really showed the devastation that was caused during

the war and what man can do in a fit of anger. On the path surrounding it

were the names of people who served their country and died at the site.

There were also writings of miners who dug underground tunnels that would

be used to plant explosives to destroy the trenches of the enemy above. It

was at a German strongpoint called “Schwaben Höhe”.

Another great experience was visiting the trenches that had been restored. It

really showed you what the conditions would have been like and what the

troops had to put up with on a daily basis.

Seeing the St Julien Memorial was another great experience and was rather

breath taking. It was a massive statue of a Canadian soldier and was

surrounded with a garden. The statue towered above the trees around it. It

commemorated all Canadians who fought in the war.”

Niall Begley, 10NW

“I really enjoyed going to the World War One Battlefields. I enjoyed going to

all of the different Battlefields and Cemeteries. My favourite place was the

Lochnagar Crater. The Lochnagar crater was breath taking because it was so

big. I also really enjoyed visiting the trenches and getting to see and hold the

spoon which had a bullet go through it. It had been found during

archaeological digs in the trench sites.

We visited a lot of cemeteries. Each cemetery had different stories which

were very interesting. I enjoyed listening to the stories of the Ulster Divisions

and Irish Divisions. One of my favourite things was the ceremony of the

Menin Gate, which commemorates the soldiers who fought in the battle of

Ypres. My Grandad’s Uncle fought in the Second battle of Ypres and was

captured, I saw his name on the Menin Gate. I enjoyed walking through the

town of Ypres as it is full of Belgian chocolate shops and ice-cream parlours.

It was a really good experience and I would definitely go again and see more

of the Battlefields.”

Conor Kerr, 10NW

ENGLISH

OMAGH SHOW SUCCESS

Rionach Hackett, Katie Rois McCann and Ellen

McGirr were successful participants in the Public

Speaking Competition at the recent Omagh Show.

Rionach was third and Katie Rois and Ellen were

Highly Commended.

Well done girls!

Year 13 students Enya Mellon and Orla

Mulgrew were selected to participate in the

Generation Innovation Work Experience

Programme hosted by Catalyst at their

Innovation Centre in the Titanic Quarter

Belfast.

The four day event tackled real life company

challenges using design thinking and

development of a product/service prototype.

It culminated in a ‘pitch-off’ in front of 26

innovation companies.

The aim is to energise the imaginations and

aspirations of young people by increasing their

awareness of future careers in innovation.

The girls really enjoyed the experience, and it

gave them a great insight into the real life

challenges many successful companies face.

Bon Voyage to pupils who are going on the French trip in October. Ádh Mór to our pupils attending Irish Summer Colleges in the Gaeltacht and well done to all who were

awarded scholarships.

Many thanks to Leo Daly, Supervalu Aughnacloy, who

sponsored the water refreshments for both merit

trips—Tayto Park and M&Ds. Year 8 and 9 students

really enjoyed their day out!

MTECH PARTNERSHIP

St Ciaran’s College, Ballygawley, like all schools, faces the challenge of preparing our young people for a

knowledge intensive economy. We were delighted when Diane Morrow asked us to take part in a

holistic Mtech Academy programme which would provide a project-based, technology-centric

curriculum that addresses the specific requirements of students and teachers thus preparing them for

new opportunities in the digital world.

During their English class this year, 10FG students worked on a problem based learning activity

investigating the power of mobile technology in creating smart towns and cities. Throughout the year

these students engaged with industry and investigated some of the leading technological advances in

5G, AI, Autonomous Vehicles and Sensor Technology. Pupils worked collectively to create ideas for the

future and got the opportunity to pitch their findings on the stage in Barcelona.

Year 9 Young Enterprise Explore Business Event

took place on the 19th June.

BE STRONG ONLINE The Be Strong Online Ambassadors continually communicated to the school community

about their work and online issues via the school website, school twitter and school

Facebook, as well as by creating four noticeboards within the school.

Mr Lavery also showcased and praised the

work of the Ambassadors .

Well done SCC Be Strong Online Ambassadors on the fantastic work carried out all year. Mrs Donnelly, Mrs Muldoon and Mrs McGirr are very proud of you all.

You are all amazing!

The St Ciaran’s Be Strong Online Ambassadors pledged to reach an audience of 700 young people. However, this target was exceeded as the SCC Be Strong Online

Ambassadors actually reached 761 young people through the assemblies they delivered, and 147 young people in the PD lessons.

The Be Strong Online Ambassadors

continually participated in

‘Feedback Friday’ with the @Diana

Award and were delighted in April

to receive a ‘Well Done’ certificate

from the Diana Award.

In addition, each SCC Be Strong Online

Ambassador achieved a Diana Award Certificate

for their work in the Be Strong Online

programme this year.

YEAR 11 GEOGRAPHY FIELD WORK

Year 11 Geography students travelled to Magilligan Field Centre on the north coast on Wednesday 26th June, accompanied by Mrs C McLoughlin and Mrs M McCarron. The students collected data on river width, depth, discharge, velocity, cross sectional area and load. The purpose of the fieldwork is to develop student thinking skills and personal capabilities related to collecting, analysing, interpreting and drawing conclusions from the data in preparation for their GCSE Paper 3 in the next academic year. Paper 3 is an external written examination. The one hour paper focuses on students knowledge and experience of fieldwork. The exam is worth 20% of their overall GCSE Geography grade.

Aine, Alanna, Conan, Aaron and Caitlin Loughran pictured on their first day in 2014 and

on their last day in 2019. We wish them every success in the future!

LOUGHRAN QUINTUPLETS

ICT

Primary 6 pupils enjoyed Microbit programming in St Ciaran’s during their ICT sessions at the recent P6 Taster Day.

Key Stage 3 students recently used

MINECRAFT Education Edition during their ICT class.

Year 8, 9 and 10 ICT students took part in the Hour of Code during their ICT classes. Some Year 11 GCSE Digital Technology students also participated in the Hour of Code

as well. This consisted of the pupils completing Computer Science activities.

Many of the Year 8, 9 and 10 ICT and Year 11 GCSE Digital Technology students achieved a Certificate of Completion. Well done to you all!

SHARED EDUCATION

ALC SCIENCE QUIZ

The inaugural ALC quiz was held on Monday 17th June at St Ciaran’s. 10 teams participated and St Patrick’s Academy Dungannon were the winners.

Caoimhe May Lawlor, Ronan Cassley and Grainne McConnell represented NI at the Big Bang Science and Engineering Competition in Birmingham on 12th – 14th March, 2019.

Their project, ‘Smart Trough’ was very well received by the judges and they had an amazing experience at the event. It has ignited in them an enthusiasm for research and design and they are currently working on new projects. We have no doubt that they will

continue to be successful. Well done!

Year 10 students pictured at the SciFest Competition in St Mary’s College Derry. The

groups showcased projects and were interviewed by two sets of judges. On the day

Chloe Quinn and Hannah McVeigh (above right) were runners up with their projects

‘Wi-Fire’. The girls are now through to the SciFest National Final in Dublin where they

will compete for the Science Foundation Ireland ISEF Award.

Congratulations to Year 8 pupils Chloe Curran, Rionach Hackett and Aine McBrearty, who won second prize in their section at the Big Bang Young Scientists & Engineers

competition. As part of the competition the girls spent weeks of preparation designing and manufacturing their project. Their project was an Eco-Powered Doll’s house, that

was designed to educate young children about renewable energy. The girls were assessed by five different judges against competitors from across Ireland.

TECHNOLOGY

P6

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As part of developing the transition between primary and post-primary school and to get a flavour of what St Ciaran’s has to offer, over 200 P6 pupils from 15 Partner Primary Schools attended the P6 Taster Day held on the 12th June. All students had the opportunity of ‘tasting’ different subjects.

I loved Technology because I got to make things. I want to be an Engineer so this was perfect for me.

It was just perfect – I loved Geography because we had fun playing bingo and in Technology we made

pencil holders.

I thought it was amazing, I would love to come to this school.

English was great because we got to make our own character.

This is the best school in the world!

The staff and pupils made me feel so welcome.

Honestly, there is nothing you could change about the P6 Taster day, I loved it.

LEAVERS 2019

LEAVERS 2019

SPORTS DAY

2019

Just some of the action and relaxation from Sports day. The good weather ensured a

super day was had by all! Big thanks to the PE department for organising a fun filled

day with something for everyone.