January 2019

The management and staff of St Mary’s College are delighted to announce that the  following students below have been selected by his teachers as prefects this year.

 

Shane Folliard (Head Prefect)

Tyler Molyneux

Evan Harte Conroy

Matthew Healy

Eimhin Mulkerrins

Tadgh Faherty

Alex Polchowski

Eamon MacDonnacha

Hubert Mateuszewski

Jakub Syzmonik

Cian Fahy

James Kebana

Bogdan Tabalae

Gerard Davoren

Usman Shahid

 

This is a wonderful achievement; a recognition of his pleasant demeanour, the respect shown by him towards his fellow students and vice versa, in addition to his overall positive attitude which is evident to us on a daily basis in the college. These students chosen have demonstrated their leadership within the student body and have shown the qualities we deem necessary to undertake the role of prefect within the student governance structure of college. The prefect’s role is an important one and we are very fortunate with the quality of prefects we currently have in St Mary’s College.

 

Prefects carry out a number of important tasks within the school:

• Support and mentor younger students;
• Represent the student body as part of the student governance structure of the college;
• Represent the school externally;
• Assist in the maintenance of discipline within the school;
• Support and help staff;
• Carry out other important functions in the school when requested.

 

The Head Boy for 2019 is Shane Folliard. Shane is pictured below with outgoing Head Boy, Paul Conneely  of Moycullen. Paul is currently studing Global Commerce in NUI Galway.  “Being selected as a prefect in Fifth Year and then as Head Boy in Sixth Year was gave me the chance to help my fellow students in ways that I couldn’t before. It also gave me an opportunity to enhance my leadership qualities and helped you become a stronger and a more responsible person. The students and staff of St Mary’s see you as a role model, so to meet these expectations, you naturally develop your skills.”

Kieran Sweeney, Principal of St Mary’s says “We’d like to congratulate Paul on a year well spent as Head Boy and wish Shane and his fellow prefects the best of luck as they begin their duties. It’s a good early taste of leadership and the responsibilities accompanying that. If you are a good prefect, people look up to you and want to be like you. Our prefects are very central in our school community here in St. Mary’s College Galway.”

February 2019

The Patron and trustees of both Our Lady’s College and St Mary’s College have, after much consideration, decided to amalgamate both schools. Doing so will create a new, large, Catholic, co-educational school in the heart of Galway city.

This decision is strongly supported by the Department of Education and Skills.

The location for the new unified school will be at the St Mary’s College campus on St Mary’s Road. This new school will bring together the traditions of the Diocesan St Mary’s College and the long and distinguished history in education of the Mercy and Presentation Sisters, incorporated in Ceist.

This new school is expected to open in September 2021.

Both Our Lady’s College and St Mary’s College will continue in their present locations and under their present management until 2021.

 

Congratulations to our Junior (U-15) Cross Country team who won the Connacht title recently. They now head to represent Connacht in the All-Ireland finals

Hard luck also to our Minor team who ran brilliantly but were unfortunate to finish in fourth place

Connacht Cross Country Photographs

March 2019

It has been 15 years since we had our last school musical but next Wednesday we turn back the clock and hit the hallowed boards again. In association with Our Lady’s College we will present the brilliant musical ‘Back to the Eighties’….and we promise it will be a great night’s entertainment. So, take a look at the Man in the Mirror’…channel your inner ‘Material Girl….get ‘Footloose’ and prepare for ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’…then walk those 500 miles to ‘Have the time of your life’ with our ‘Kids from America’

From the era that brought the world Footloose and leg-warmers comes this “totally awesome” musical Back to the 80s, with copious amounts of blue eye-shadow and numerous cans of hairspray along with some of the most popular songs ever written.

If musicals matter to you, pop along to ‘Back to the 80s’ this week which is taking place in the theatre of St Mary’s College from Wed March 6th to Friday March 8th. 

Tickets are available from the office of St Mary’s College or online at 

https://stmaryscollegeandourladyscollegegoesbacktothe80s.eventbrite.ie/ 

Wow…what a show! Along with our friends in Our Lady’s College, over four performances we sang, we danced, we brought characters to life, we entertained. Over weeks of preparation we listened, we watched, we learned, we bonded, we stepped out (way out!) of our comfort zones, we made friendships that will last, we brought two vibrant school communities together…we shared a wonderful experience. We’ll be sad that it’s over but thrilled we did it. Wouldn’t have missed a moment.

Great job everyone

They say a picture paints a thousand words…here’s a link to a thousand (+) photographs telling the story of our musical

Musical 2019

To celebrate La Semaine de la Langue Française et de la Francophonie 2019 (French Language and Francophonie Week), La Petite Crêpe are coming to St. Mary’s College on Tuesday 19th March to serve delicious crêpes to students. They cost between €2 and €3.50 and students who want crêpes will have to order them in French! See attached menu. Menu Ecole

May 2019

Dear Parent / Guardian, 

Please find an important letter from our TY Coordination Team below for your information. 

Best wishes, 

Mr. Sweeney

Acting Principal

TY Letter Trip to Parents 7.5.19

A big well done to the lads who participated at this year’s SciFest competition at GMIT. We had 13 projects entered, the second highest of all Connacht schools, and tasted success when second year student Liam Murphy won the Institute of Physics award as best Physics project

• An Investigation Of The Factors Affecting Hydrogen Yield In Electrolysis

All in all it was a great experience for all the lads. Our full list participating projects was:

• What is Quantum Physics and How Much Do People Understand It? Ron Degani
• To investigate the impact of different types of hurls on sliotar distance…Mark Bradley, Mark Kearns and Sean Stafford 
• We make poor ear witnesses. How our poor hearing perception makes us unreliable when trying to identify voices. .Mircea Tabalae, Cathal Forde and Russel McPherson
• Is our support inherited: a statistical analysis into the factors pertaining to which team we support and how it can impact on our mental health…Cathal O’Grady Corcoran
• Does barefoot running give you the edge?…Jesse Ezeogu, Favour Odion, Hedris Ofili
• Dip or dunk what biscuit is most durable for tea…Alex Coveney and Matthew Lukyanov
• To show the effect of macrofauna on leaf litter fragmentation…Dan Carey
• Could the megalodon still exist today?…Sean McDarby and Michael Jiminez
• Should a mobile phone just be called a mobile? What are teenagers using their phones for?…Jan Macatangay 
• How soon before the effect: an analysis of energy drink effectiveness. .Nathan McNeela, Nabil Latidoye, Rhys Plower
• Is the Duracell Bunny pulling the wool over our eyes…Conor Croke, Alex Pitman 

October 2019

All of our students participated in a general. Climate Action day,starting off by cleaning up the College Grounds. Pollution of all types is a blight to the environment, not only because of its unsightly nature, but also because of its detrimental effect on wildlife and their habitats. Some students also left then to participate in the Student Strike organised for Galway on September 20th. Photos linked here show some of our action on the day

Re: Time Management

Dear Parent / Guardian, 

We discussed ‘Time Management’ today with some of our students and your son was involved. 

Please discuss the presentation at home this evening. 

Click HERE to access the material we covered. 

Please do not hesitate to contact the school office if you have any queries. 

November 2019

December 2019

One of our local primary schools; Scoil Fhursa will be joining us on January 6^th 2020 here in St. Mary’s College.  Scoil Fhursa are beginning the development of an extension and they will be accommodated here for the duration of that build.

Their temporary accommodation here is located in areas of the new sports hall and the circular canteen. They will have the use of the tennis courts for their breaks, the times of which are different to ours. 

School starts for them at 8.30 am and the traffic arrangements are as follows:

All Scoil Fhursa traffic will enter via St. Mary’s Rd. entrance and will have set down at the Y junction and proceed to exit at the Shantalla gate. The pick-up arrangements will be the same. 

There are only  4 classes that will transfer and they will be accompanied by 9 staff members and some parents. 

The toileting facilities are already in place by way of portacabins to the front of the sports hall. 

Scoil Fhursa students will have access to the sports hall whenever that facility is free and not in use by our students.

Please email office@stmaryscollege.ie if you have any queries. 

Meet our Student Council!

Student Council

A Student Council is a representative structure through which students in a post-primary school can become involved in the affairs of the school, working in partnership with school management and staff and parents for the benefit of the school and its students (Department of Education & Science, 2002).

The Student Council in St. Mary’s College plays a central role in school life and aims to empower students by giving them a voice. They also create awareness among the student population about important matters related to wellbeing, voting rights and health and safety concerns in the school building. They deal with all other matters arising that affect students.

Chairperson for 2019/2020

Colm Downes

Student Council Representatives for 2019/2020

1st Year                                     Michael Downes / Samuel Shomefun

2nd Year                                   Sean Okeke / Ethan Conneely / Henry Cao

3rd Year                                    Cathal O’ Grady – Corcoran / Tom Browne

Transition Year                        Evan Lynam

5th Year                                     Solomon Shomefun / Najmudeen Binuyo

6th Year                                     Colm Downes / Adrian Asogu

Key functions of Student Councils

The functions and activities of a Student Council should support the development of the school and the welfare of its students. In planning and undertaking activities during the course of the school year, the Council should:

• work closely with school management, teachers and parents,
• consult regularly with students in the school, and
• involve as many students as possible in the activities of the Council.

Representing the views of the student body to the school management 

This should be one of the fundamental aims of every Council. It involves talking and listening to the student body, considering their views and concerns, and discussing these with the school management on behalf of the students.

Promoting good communication within the school

Improving communication within the school community is a shared responsibility and a Student Council can contribute to this process. 

Our aims for 2019/2020

• Improve the physical environment of St Mary’s College
• Promote awareness of physical health and fitness as well as mental wellbeing throughout the student body.