Important Dates Friday, 9th November Sixth Form Formal, City Hotel Week beginning 12th Nov Global Entrepreneurship Week Thursday, 15th November Year 13 P/T Meeting, 7.30pm Wednesday, 28th November Debating Workshops Year 8

Welcome to the Saint Columb‟s College

Monthly Newsletter

—

Should you have any queries or contributions, please email:

bodonnell202@stcolumbs.com

—

INSTITUTE OF IDEAS / DEBATING MATTERS NORTHERN IRELAND

COMPETITION

Congratulations to Senior debaters and in particular to Declan Frith and Jason Hayes who recently won the Institute of Ideas Northern Ireland competition held at Dalriada School.

Patrick Mulholland (Year 14) and Caolan Duffy (Year 13) proposed “Copyright benefits the arts” and a team from Dalriada defended current licensing laws in the “Boozy Britain” debate.

Having adjourned for refreshments and a chat with the judges and students from Dalriada, we moved to the main debate St. Columb‟s v Dalriada on “Factory farming is necessary”. In their feedback, the judges were complimentary to both teams but felt that the St. Columbs‟ team had dealt with the motion in a more comprehensive fashion and gave the boys due credit for the large amount of research they had done. As their prize a team of six St. Columbs‟ pupils will attend the Scotland and N. Ireland finals in March, to be held in either Edinburgh or Glasgow (to be confirmed). The Debating Matters competition is a great way of allowing students to engage with a broad range of social, scientific and ethical issues that society faces today. It offers the chance for students to interact with their peers outside of the formal setting of the classroom and get them thinking about some serious contemporary issues. In this competition the young people are recognised as intelligent and robust enough to have their ideas held up to critical scrutiny, and tough enough to defend their ideas. The judges are encouraged to be bold and challenging with them, offering praise and criticism where it is due. The competition offers serious intellectual interaction between young people and adults. This victory can be seen as a real team effort and the efforts of the boys of Key Stages 4 and 5 who attended the preparatory debates in school must be recognised and commended. They certainly put Declan, Jason, Patrick and Caolan through their paces and prepared them very well for the competition.

__

Volume 2 Issue 2 - Oct 2012

Pictured: Jason Hayes, Declan Frith, & Mrs J Smyth

Children in Crossfire Many thanks to all those who took part in the sponsored walk in Ards on Saturday 29th September in aid of Children in Crossfire. A special word of thanks to Margaret Burns and Martin McIlveen who organised the barbeque and to Martin McKinney for driving the school bus.

__

Careers Fair 2012

On Thursday October 11th St. Columb‟s College hosted its annual Careers Fair. This prestigious event was organised by Mr. T. Costigan, recently retired from the Careers Department, and the school would like to thank him for all the hard work and dedication involved in putting together such a successful day. With so many employers and organisations represented, our pupils, as well as pupils from local schools, had a great opportunity to network, ask questions and discover first-hand what their chosen career path entails. Our Key Note speaker who opened proceedings was Professor Liam Maguire, Head of School of Computing and Intelligent Systems, University of Ulster. We thank all involved, and most especially our exhibitors, for their generosity of time and spirit.

__

Junior Prize Giving

In a packed Assembly Hall on Wednesday 17th October 2012 students from last year‟s year 8, 9 and 10 gathered for their work and effort over this past year to be acknowledged. Parents present were also proud of their sons‟ work being recognised. Our guest speaker for that night was Professor Deidre Heenan.

The event was opened by Mr John Johnston and was followed by the procession, with music performed by Andrew Ross on the clarinet. After

Some Year 8 Prize winners

Some Year 9 Prize winners

Mr B Trainor & Mr M McConnellogue, organisers of Children in Crossfire Project

another short music recital followed the reflection from Mr. McConnellogue. The short music recital was under the direction of Ronan McKee and Mrs Margaret Burns. 9D performed two pieces on the African Drums; the „African Vibrations‟ and „Kurubi,‟ After the recital, Mr Madden, new Principal of the school, gave an address to the pupils and parents, congratulating them on their achievements. Then the presentation of prizes to years 8 and 9 began. It was clear that parents were proud and wanted their sons to win one next year too as prizes motivate pupils to strive for excellence. After the presentation of prizes to years 8 and 9, the guest speaker, Professor Deidre Heenan gave some helpful advice to pupils and parents. The assembly hall enjoyed her humour as they reflected upon her advice for pupils to do best in all classes as it leaves the doors open for a variety of careers we may undertake. The presentation of prizes to last years Year 10 pupils then followed. After that, the Head Boy, Dean O‟ Driscoll presented Professor Heenan with a gift. The event closed with the hymn „Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God‟ led by Andrew Ferry. Parents too were enthused by the evening. The parent of Dáire Hutton in 9H (2nd Academic) commented “This prize provides my son with motivation to keep doing well and achieving. I felt the night was very well prepared and organised. The guest speaker, Deidre Heenan, was very inspiring.” Michael Ward from 10E received a sustained improvement award. His parent commented „ This will improve his confidence and let him see that hard work does pay off.‟ Caoilean Melarkey and Adam Beales

__

Student Council Elections 2012-2013

Congratulations to all of the boys who were elected as Student Council representatives and many thanks to all students who put themselves forward for election. The Student Council would also like to thank all staff who supported the Year Council representatives, encouraging them to put themselves forward for election. Indeed, the speeches were of a very high standard, being well delivered by the boys. Without all of your help and support, the elections would not have been the huge success that they were and the day would not have run as smoothly as it did.

__

Some Year 10 Prize winners

Caoilean Melarky and Adam Beales

PRIZEWINNERS, YEAR 8 2011-2012

PRIZEWINNERS YEAR 9 2011-2012

PRIZEWINNERS YEAR 10 2011-2012

And Finally … A secret is something you tell to one person at a time. Fete: a boring party worse than death. An apple every eight hours keeps three doctors away. If “fire” didn‟t rhyme with “desire” and “right” with “tonight”, most boy bands wouldn‟t be able to write a song. To err is human; to blame it on s o m e b o d y e l s e s h o w s management potential.

Academic Commitment

10A 1. Eoin McElhinney 2. Jack McGeehan 3. Fintan McGuinness

1. Sean Duffy 2. Ruairi McShane

10B 1. Anthony Gillespie 2. Aodhan Foster Emmett Hargan (joint winners)

1. Mark Gormley 2. Daimin Campbell

10C 1. Andrew Ross 2. Joseph McGinley 3. Liam Bradley

1. Niall Nash 2. Aaron McKeever

10D 1. Niall McCallion 2. Conor Quigley Jack Quigley (joint winners)

1. Conor Duffy 2. Ruairi Doherty

10E 1. Michael Hegarty 2. Jamie Hutton 3. Diarmuid Molloy

1. Mateusz Kubala 2. Liam Devine

10F 1. Conor McGuinness 2. Kieran McCauley 3. Caolan Doran

1. Gerald Doherty 2. Aidan Dunne

10G 1. Peter Madden 2. Bobby Cusack 3. Anthony Black

1. Coilean Melarkey Oisin Murphy (joint winners)

10H 1. Caolan Flanagan 2. Aodhan Burke 3. Darragh MacFarland

1. Gary McBay 2. Vincent Callaghan

10K 1. James O‟Neill 2. Peter Gallagher 3. Jack Lafferty

1. Dylan O‟Driscoll 2. Gavin McCafferty

Academic Commitment

9A 1. James McGinley 2. Aaron Hagan 3. Ryan Hume

1. Ciaran Lonergan 2. Dalan McGilloway

9B 1. Justin Crawley 2. Daniel Doran 3. Mark Kivelehan

1. Andrew Ferry 2. Callum Porter

9C 1. Jack Henry 2. John O‟Hagan 3. Timothy Rankin

1. Aidan Deery 2. Sean Harnett Seamus Quinn (joint winners)

9D 1. Aodhan McGuigan 2. Jamie Mansfield 3. James Duffy

1. James McLaughlin 2. Rhys McKeever

9E 1. Ethan McKeegan 2. Ryan McKeever 3. Mark Condren

1. Liam Cullen 2. Steven Bulloch

9F 1. Dermot McCrossan 2. Jack McKeever 3. Eoghan Concannon

1. Ryan McChrystal 2. Tom Mooney

9G 1. Mark Kelly 2. Cathair Kerrigan 3. Robert Coyle

1. Daniel Wright 2. Cyon Vigurs

9H 1. David O‟Connor 2. Daniel Deery 3. Jordan Barrow

1. Cianan Cassidy James McCourt (joint winners)

9K 1. Conal Fagan 2. Darren Holmes 3. David Thompson

1. Kieran Kehoe 2. Eli Doherty

Academic Commitment

8A 1. Conor Houston 2. Dean Chambers 3. Jason Feenan

1. Eugene Burns 2. James Lynch

8B 1. Adam Beales 2. Joseph Guthrie 3. Jack McDevitt

1. Reamonn Daly 2. Cathair O‟Doherty

8C 1. John Muir 2. Jack Foley 3. Luke O‟Reilly

1. Mark Doherty Brian McCarron (joint winners)

8D 1. Eoin McMullan Odhran Casey (joint winners) 3. Ben McLaughlin

1. Reece Moore 2. Stephen Doherty

8E 1. Josh Varghese John 2. Ryan Doran 3. Gavin Kelly

1. Samuel McGarvey 2. Keelan Doherty Kevin Forbes (joint winners)

8F 1. Conor Kelly 2. Daire O‟Sandair 3. Fearghal Wade

1. Conor O‟Neill 2. Caolan Spence

8G 1. Robert Kelly 2. Callum Feeney 3. Callum Harkin Henry O‟Neill (joint winners)

1. Ronan Foley Oran McAnaney (joint winners)

8H 1. Cormac McElholm 2. Daire Hutton 3. James Friel

1. Conan Doherty 2. Jack Porter

8K 1. Jack Ferguson 2. Adam Patton 3. Cathal Turton

1. Malachy O‟Neill 2. Dylan Browne