January 2018
Mr. Tom Rochford from the National Children’s Cancer Charity ‘Aoibheann’s Pink Tie’ visited the College today to talk to our students about the work the charity does, and to accept a cheque for €9 000.
This money was the total collected through the efforts of all our students and staff during the Christmas Charity Drive. This year we worked really hard to raise funds for our chosen charity in the knowledge that it would be going someway towards helping the family of one of our own, Cailum Fitzgerald, and in the hope that his brother Richard would get some benefit from our efforts.
During the two week drive students took part in a number of activities including raffles, auctions, competitions and Carol singing all of which were very successful. However, by far and away the biggest money gatherer was the door-to-door selling of lines on our Charity Cards. Can we take this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank the people of Galway who contributed, and whose generosity year after year is an inspiration to our students. Thank you
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A large crowd of students travelled to Dublin to visit the Exhibition and to check on the progress of the eight lads we had taking part this year, and were not disappointed. It was a fun day out, and hopefully will inspire a few more to try their hand next year.
We didn’t win the competition, but we did get plenty of recognition, as Morgan and Hubert’s project on the Apathy of Teenagers Towards Politics, received the attention of a number of those same politicians who we are apparently apathetic about. In the end they received an invite to talk about their project in the Dáil, so watch this space.
Fergal and Michael received a prestigious Highly Commended Award for their project in they attempted to Establish a Correlation Between Gambling Tendencies and score on an Impulsivity Test. They impressed the judges who were very forthcoming in their praise for the project. All in all it was a great experience, and the lads are already planning their approach to next year’s competition.
Morgan and Hubert with their Project
Young Scientists
Enjoying their day out at the BTYS
BTYS Group visit 2018
Highly Commended Michael and Fergal
Well done and a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to make this year’s Charity Drive one of the best yet. In total we raised just over €11 300 over the two week period, all of which goes to support Aoibheann’s Pink Tie Organisation and in particular the Fitzgerald family as they support their son Richard.
It was a great effort on everyone’s behalf, from the Carol singers to the Auction to the Raffle, but most especially from those students who went out trudging the roads of their locality to fill up their sponsorship cards. A huge thank you is due to the people of Galway who once again contributed generously, and also to all the teachers and students who helped keep the administration and the organisation smoothly running.
Since the onset of the charity drive in 2002 we have now amassed a running total of almost €230 000 for numerous charities, a testament to the hard work and generosity of thousands of students over the years.
Fun on the Charity Day Obstacle Course
Enjoying the Charity Day Obstacle course race
First Year Soccer Charity Day Winners
War paint on and all ready for Dodgeball in the Dark
Charity Carol Singing in Shop Street
Charity Carol Singing in Lynch’s Castle
February 2018
We learned a lot about concern over the past few months. We also learned the benefit of our donations for others who are hungry. Hunger kills more than TB, Malaria and Aids combined in a year. The Concern Fast 2017 was done along with other fundraising events within the school. Altogether we raised just over 700 euro for Concern. This money will help the severely malnourished thanks to the school community working together for others. It will go toward the construction and running of schools. It will also go toward teaching farmers effective agricultural practices. We feel our sense of social responsibility has increased dramatically since the beginning of the project. It was a great experience and we would love to continue this work of helping others in our school, in our community and globally.
Thanks to Ms. Brennan and Ms. O Malley for the help with this project.
James Kebana (Concern Ambassador)
Eimhin Mulkerrins (Concern Ambassador)
Jakub Szymonik (Concern Ambassador)
Dear Parent / Guardian,
We had assembly with all of our 1st year students today. The theme of the assembly was the importance of homework. We explained to our students that we expect them to list the homework, as well as topics covered, for each class during the school day.
The benefits of homework are;
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Homework reinforces skills, concepts and information learned in class.
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Homework prepares students for upcoming class topics.
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Homework teaches students to work independently and develop self-discipline.
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Homework encourages students to take initiative and responsibility for completing a task.
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Homework allows parents to have an active role in their child’s education and helps them to evaluate their child’s progress.
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Homework activities relate what is learned in school to children’s lives outside of school and helps to connect school learning to the real world.
We ask that you support the school by signing your son’s homework journal every night in order to form good habits towards homework.
Thank you in anticipation of your support,
Mr.Kieran Sweeney
Principal
April 2018
St. Brendan’s (first year) visited the Computer and Communications Museum this morning in NUIG. In the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland you can explore and experience the evolving technological landscape across the decades, see early radios and iconic computers, and explore vintage games, including ‘Space Invaders’, ‘Mario’ and ‘Pacman’.
St. Mary’s College would very much like to thank Mr. Brendan Smith for allowing our students to engage in such a positive experience.
September 2018
Our brand new TY class had a great non-mucky outing to the Ploughing Championships in Screggan Tullamore recently. From all accounts available they had a mighty time and now all want to be farmers when they grow up.
October 2018
We received fantastic news during the week as five of our projects were accepted to exhibit at the BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition in Dublin in January. Only twenty projects from the whole of Galway county
were selected so to have a quarter of them from our school alone is a great achievement. In total over 5000 students and 2000 projects from all around the country entered,with less than 500 ultimately being selected. Unfortunately, the other ten projects we entered were not successful this time around, but it will not deter the unsuccessful lads from trying again.
Each project is very different so the lads are now working hard to get them ready,and who knows, we may have a young scientist winner yet!
Well done to Liam and Dan, Cathal and Mircea, Eamonn and Michael, Alex and Conor
Brilliant news for Jakub Szymonik and Alex Polchowski as they have again successfully made the shortlist for the ReelLife National Science Video competition. Last year they finished in fifth place out of 108 entries with their video on How Sound Works, and this year so far they have improved as they have made the top three from over 175 videos entered.
November 2018
This year they attempt to bust the myth that we evolved from Monkeys… watch it on the link below
The results will be announced during Science week.
Michael Lukyanov also entered an excellent video and in our opinion was very unlucky not to make the shortlist. Watch Michael’s video below
Centenary Cup Blitz 2018 Photographs
Everyone enjoyed themselves, and hopefully learned a few new things while overcoming one or two fears, when the ‘Bug Doctor’, Dr.Michel Dugon from NUIG paid a visit for Science Week. We also learned what to do if bitten by a snake…handy to know! We think the photos speak for themselves!
During Science week Three Mary’s teams took part in the ISTA Senior Science Quiz hosted in GMIT. 28 teams from schools all around Galway participated as part of a coordinated nationwide quiz featuring over 600 schools. Our three teams finished in second, third and fifth place on the night…a fantastic achievement. Michael,Alex and Andrei finished second, Harold, Brian and Jakub finished third, thus qualifying for the All-Ireland Final, while the team of Eamonn, Zalan and Hubert were extremely unluckily to miss out on a place in the final by a solitary point.
Over the weekend both qualified teams travelled to Trinity College in Dublin where they took their place amongst the top fifty school science teams from all across the country. There each team acquitted themselves brilliantly, finishing 7th and 20th overall. Our first team narrowly missed out on a podium finished because, as they said themselves…’they mucked up a few banker questions!!’
We’re very proud of their efforts… and they have clearly shown that Mary’s lads can hold compete on an equal footing with the best.
December 2018
It’s that time of the year again when the Mary’s Christmas Charity kicks into action. Since 2002 thousands of students from the College, aided by our hard working staff, have taken part in this annual charity…selling lines, Carol singing, buying raffle tickets, collecting for and buying from the auction, making calendars and rattling buckets…basically trying everything to raise much needed funds for so many different charities over the years.
Now we are approaching €250 000 collected in all that time and we return to the inspiration for our first collection…the wonderful Temple Street Children’s Hospital…as beneficiaries this year. Keeping it local we are also supporting the Galway Autism Partnership and the Galway Speeders, who promote sport for young people with disabilities
If you come across any of our lads out collecting please support them…it’s only your generosity that makes our efforts so successful.
Pictured are Ihtasham, Mircea and Bogdan braving the status Orange weather to collect a few bob outside Sweeney Oil in Terryland 
Our traditional Christmas Dinner was greeted with its usual enthusiasm by our 400 hungry students.Well done to all the organisers. Full range of photos at this link
Congratulations to our new Fifth Year prefects who joined their sixth year counterparts to take up their new duties recently. We’re sure they will represent the College with honour and dignity.
Well done to Shane Folliard who was elected Head Prefect for the year. Maith Thú
