One month to go...exam classes in their final flurry of study to face into the trials and tribulations of June and exam season. Meanwhile, there is sunshine to be enjoyed, tours to be embarked upon, graduations to be planned and ice-creams to be licked. May is always a busy month in schools!
We were absolutely delighted to achieve the status of
Champion School of Sanctuary at the start of the month. The monitoring committee, headed by Sive O'Connor from
Schools of Sanctuary Ireland, and including Aidan Harte and Roisín Birch from
University of Galway, Paul Fallon from
Galway City Council, Tara Broderick from
Galway Educate Together Secondary School and Cathy Joyce from
Galway City Partnership, were very impressed with our presentation, highlighting all the hard work our Schools of Sanctuary committee, under the excellent guidance of Ms. Maura Geoghegan, have put in over the last couple of years in order to demonstrate that our school is indeed a welcoming sanctuary for the diverse range of students we have.
The monitoring featured presentations from our students, including some lovely cultural music and dancing from Africa, Ukraine and a wonderful rendition of Grace from first year student Amy O'Donovan. Our Home Economics Department, under the watchful eye of Ms. Caoimhe Dowling, really pushed the boat out with some delicious home baked treats featuring the cultural cuisine of many of the countries represented by our student bakers.
Our principal Ms. Betty Hernon, spoke about the way we unite as a school, enveloping the many different cultural backgrounds we encompass, Ms. Claire McLaughlin gave a very informative talk about our Neurodiverse students and our Sonas ASD units, while Ms. Fionnula MacAonghusa spoke enthusiastically about the work the Behaviour for Learning initiative does for students with difficulties. We were also delighted to have Ms. Marta Wilczynsko as a representative of our Parents' and Guardians' association.
Our school caters to a very diverse cohort of students, with a very caring and involved staff, and we in CMMG are delighted to accept the award on their behalf.
A massive thank you to All Star Security, who sponsored gear for the lads, as well as funding their expenses for the trip to Dublin. Hugely appreciated
Our senior and intermediate athletes enjoyed a sunny day out at the South Connacht T&F finals at Dangan, with quite a few qualifying for the Connacht finals. Next up were the minor and juniors, where there was again some excellent performances on the day
The Transition Year students recently participated in an overnight visit to Petersburg. The activities undertaken included kayaking, swimming, a boat ride on Lough Mask and a lakeside campfire, all of which were thoroughly enjoyed by the students. We extend our sincere appreciation to Ms. Stephanie Duane, Ms. Jackie Dockery, Ms. Sybil Sheridan, and Ms. Liz Loftus for their dedicated supervision of this trip
Twenty six creative and enthusiastic students participated at SciFest hosted by
Atlantic Technological University, representing CMMG with thirteen projects from various science disciplines. Every single one of them received high praise from the judges for their interest, and the communication skills they portrayed in outlining and explaining their work.
To top it all off we also emerged with some prizes, making it a very successful day for science in CMMG. The SciFest Chemistry award was won by fifth year students Tiffany Djoukang, Julia Matysik and Ada Axenti, who won over the judges with their use of an Iodine Clock to measure the effectiveness of various drinks and juices as anti-oxidants. First year students Liya Walsh and Crystal Quinn followed up their BTYSTE success when taking the second place prize in the EirGrid Cleaner Climate category with their project investigating the abilities of Moss to act as an electricity producer. Another very successful first year student was Muhammed Ashir Anwar whose brilliant project, NeuroSync, where he designed a special headband programmed for the early detection of strokes and seizures, won the Boston Scientific Medical Devices award, and the opportunity to present his project in the national finals next September.
For many of our students this was their first time competing at this level, and hopefully will be the start of many more. Well done to each one, and their teachers for all the guidance and help over the past few weeks while they prepared their projects, and all at
SciFest and ATU for their organisation of the event
Class 2B recently undertook a visit to the incredibly interesting and historic Forthill Cemetery. We extend our sincere gratitude to the caretaker, Mr. Tony McDonagh, for his kind assistance in facilitating this visit for our students
Meanwhile, Our third year students enjoyed a great trip to Dublin as part of their history studies. While there they enjoyed a ...
Tour of the National Museum of Ireland where we learned about the Vikings & role of the archaeologist
Tour of Glasnevin Cemetery where we learned about everything from the Famine to the Free state. Students visited graves and learned about prominent Irish figures like Eamon De Valera, Countess Markievicz, Daniel O'Connell, Charles Stewart Parnell, and most importantly... Michael Collins!!
and, finally, an extensive shopping trip in Liffey Valley
The students were highly complimented and represented the school very well. Their super history teachers, Ms. Gallagher and Ms. Loughnane are super proud of their subject knowledge and interest
A huge thank you to Bridget Cullagh in the Physics Department of the
University of Galway for hosting our fifth and sixth year Physics students for a lab session on Thursday. Bridget has been so supportive of our school and students down through the years. The students had a fantastic morning, and they were delighted with the learning experience.
Representatives of our student body travelled to DCU on Wednesday to take part in a Ceist Student Leadership Conference. The students heard stories based on this year’s theme Creating Community and participated in workshops to hear all the great work happening by students and student councils right across the country.
We conducted some STEAM workshops with Junior Achievement Ireland programme Futurewize with 2nd Years. The delivering volunteer was Colomba Vellotti who works with Mathworks.
In the first session, students worked together to build the fastest rocket!
In the second, they learned about renewable energies and endothermic/exothermic reactions, using baking soda, vinegar and water to make a chemical reaction releasing Carbon dioxide to power their rocket
Then, in the third, they played a health and wellbeing board game.
The students really enjoyed their sessions, which were brilliantly organised and really well delivered.