TY Trip to Bantry Driving Academy

TY students headed to Bantry Driving Academy to take their first steps towards driving.

They got the opportunity to drive a car, change tyres, and learn various driver theories and road signs.

A great day for all involved.

Safe driving in the future.

TY Trip to West Cork Secrets Team Building Adventure Centre

TY students had a great day in West Cork Secrets Team Building adventure centre.

They completed various group activities that encourage team work and resilience.

You are only as strong as your weakest link.

A great day with a great group of students.

Science Week

1st years took part in 'The Spaghetti Tower Challenge' yesterday  as part of Science week.

The students had to design their own structure and then create it using just spaghetti and tape.

Well done to Jennifer & Patrick who created the tallest tower, it was 104cm high!

TY Digital Drop-In Initiative

Now that the Digital Drop-In concept has been tried and tested, Thursday 9 November was the first of the 4-in-a-row workshops for November, all on Thursday afternoons.

Participants were welcomed with tea, coffee and biscuits by Ellen and Rachel, who kindly helped us out with hot spotting our devices since the Wi-Fi network was a challenge, even with devices leaning against the window! It was quite an experience but armed with Cork County Council library cards everyone managed to progress with downloading and installing BorrowBox, and in a couple of cases, borrowing an ebook or audiobook. We are keeping our fingers crossed that next week we will be able to follow up with more knowledge sharing on this topic and in addition to BorrowBox we plan to include Libby, the library app for a world of magazines! Participants left the workshop armed with a notebook in which their mentors have started adding tips and tricks that they may refer to at home.

Tip of the workshop: If you’re not sure whether your smartphone data plan includes unlimited data,  have a look at a recent bill and it should tell you. If you don’t have unlimited data you may wish to avoid hot spotting to your smartphone since it could cost you money!

Many thanks to Mr Anton O’Mahony for the school’s participation and graciously hosting the workshops. Thanks also to Mr Conor Uhl and Ms Orla O’Sullivan for organising. 

TY Art Trip, Nov 7th

TY Art students and their teachers, Ms. Olivia Hoskins and Ms. Hannah Phelan went on a trip to see the Ardu Street Art in Cork City.

They saw some amazing murals scattered around the city. They also stopped off in the Crawford Gallery for a look around.

Team Hope Shoe Box Appeal for Christmas 2023

The RE Department have been running the annual Shoebox Appeal- and we want to say a huge thank you to all the staff and students for their generous donations!

Our local representative Sally Daly came up to SCS on Friday last to collect our donations and spoke to the 2A RE group. She reminded us of how our small sacrifices can make a huge difference to children in need. 

Well done everyone!

Sports RoundUp, Week Ending November, 10th

Wednesday November 8th : Hard luck to our U16 and U19 Boys Basketball teams and their coach Ms. Marie O Mahony who were narrowly beaten by Crosshaven away.

Wednesday Nov 8th: Congrats to our U15 Boys Rugby Team and their coach, Ms. Aoife Breen who won all their games at the West Cork Munster Rugby’s Schools Development Blitz in Clonakilty RFC.

Wednesday Nov 8th : Congrats to our First year Ladies Football Team and their coaches, Ms. Anna Ward and Ms. Kate O Donovan on beating St. Mary’s of Midleton in the LGFA County Championship

Wednesday 8th: Hard luck to our Senior Boys Football team and their coaches, Mr. Tony Harrington, Mr. Michéal Kelly and Mr. Colman O Driscoll on losing to Tralee CBS in the first round of the Corn Uí Mhuirí.

Thursday 9th Nov: Congrats to our Junior Ladies Football team and their coaches Ms. Ella Ryan and Ms. Anna Ward on beating Sacred Heart Clonakilty in the County Championship.

Halloween in SCS 2023

Desayuno Español

TY Home Economics and Spanish students joined forces to prepare and enjoy a typical Spanish breakfast together.  

Students were responsible for creating a shopping list and price comparison for different items of food, as they had a budget to adhere to. The TY Home Economics class prepared some of the foods & presented them.

The TY Spanish & Home Economics classes were also busy designing menus, decorating the room, sourcing suitable music, setting up the cafetería, serving the food, tidying up afterwards and teaching each other Spanish phrases.  The Home Economics & Spanish students also experienced the sensory challenge of differentiating between freshly squeezed orange juice and concentrated orange juice.  

We were lucky to have Jone, Wisdom and José in our group and they explained each dish in Spanish. Ivan also explained his typical Ukranian breakfast, and he also prepared a Ukranian breakfast for the TY students to try.

Students sampled freshly made pan con tomate, magdalenas, napolitanas, tortilla española, zumo de naranja, chocolate caliente and café con leche. 

It was a very enjoyable morning for all involved!!! 

Boston Day 7 and 8

Day 8 was a jam packed day that followed a wonderful evening in Tinker’s Son Restaurant where we were honoured to meet local celebrity and award winning chef Nr. Brian Houlihan from Boston who cooked in Bia in Bantry and the Riverside Restaurant as part of West Cork Food Festival. His shepherds’s pie is superb! After meeting the school’s librarian Tracey Newman, we headed off to JKF Library. The nation’s official memorial to John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States was a stunning building. It was off to the Irish Pastoral Centre for lunch where we were given an incredible welcome by the staff who fed us chicken curry and lasagne. Before we left Fr. Dan Finn and Mr. Noel Daly sang “The Banks of our own lovely Lee”. It was so lovely to also have lunch with Ms. Kathleen Adams, Ms. Mary Ann Casavant, Mr. Neil Hurley, Ms. Amy O’ Connell, Mr. Albert Swanton (a native of Skibbereen) and Ms. Roisin Lee. They do such important work and provide incredible support to the Irish. We also loved seeing the Bumblebee Knitting group. Tks again to Brenda O’ Connor as always for accompanying us and guiding us along the way.

Scituate Boston Blue Men’s Group update. We had a great night out at the Blue Men Group in Boston. We were roaring laughing when Liz and Brenda were asked to go up on stage. This was a wonderful show definitely worth seeing that plays all over the world and is going over 30 years to date. It was a nice celebration of our final night together. Thanks to Brenda and Ed O’ Connor, Liz Grindle, Christine Walsh, Carol Sullivan Hanley and Kate Ciulla for accompanying us.

Boston Day 4 and 5

Day 3 Boston Update. Our students attended the first few classes in Situate High school. They attended French, Maths, Art and Photography classes. Our Principal, Mr. Cormac O’ Brien and Ms. Orla O’ Sullivan were given a guided tour of Situate Middle and High School buildings by Ms. Kate Ciulla. The staff were so welcoming, the buildings were beautiful and there was such a positive vibe from everyone they met. It was very obvious to them the caring ethos of the school. There were mottos everywhere like “set sail, dream, explore, discover”etc.They learned about the differences too. They have full time qualified nurses working in the school and a full time police officer who carries a gun and a taser gun.   Officer Sherry was very nice and like the others took time to meet with them and explained that his role was mainly a positive one to build relationships with students. Still while we have had fire drills, they have had lockdown drills. They were introduced to Principal Mr. Mark Loranger. Then it was off to Target a huge shop followed lunch in Situate Town library kindly organised by Ms. Brenda O’ Connor. At four o’ clock there was a welcome party in the Drift Inn. They were welcomed by the Situate committee members, families, Ms. Hannah Curran Chair of Situate Select Board and Ms. Heidi O’ Driscoll Assistant Superintendent of Situate Public Schools. The day ended with a high as we were invited to a Home Football Game that Situate High School won. Our principal was invited to join their principal with the team during the match. Our very own Andrew Scannell ran out with the team carrying our Irish
Flag as all of the supporters were dressed in Irish colours to welcome us! We were very proud to be Irish.We met their mascot and were honoured to meet Mr. John Danehey from Scituate Town Comittee who founded it all. Thanks to Christine Walsh Scituate Committee member for accompanying us.

Day 5 Scituate, Boston Update! Another great day was had by all. We were taken to The Massachusetts’ State House on a yellow bus! We were given a guided tour of this magnificent building and met Mr. Patrick O’ Connor, State Senator. He gave an inspirational speech where he advised everyone to avoid conflict and  to learn from each other as a better way to generate good ideas. He told them Massachusetts was the first state to abolish slavery and he spoke about important people in History who had an important cause to believe in for change. They also saw an area specifically dedicated to the role of  women in politics who had to overcome significant obstacles due to their gender. In typical Boston style, we just had to stop Dunkin Donut for a coffee and doughnut, we are in America after all. Carrying our stereotypical cups of coffee, we were then given a walking tour of Boston that specifically incorporated a poignant famine memorial. If a picture paints a thousand words, this image we saw at the memorial did! Then it was off to Faneuil Hall where everyone had lunch in different places, for example Union Oyster House, barbecue ribs, bagels, pizza and pasta and there was another opportunity for shopping. Tks so much to Ms. Brenda O’ Connor who organised this special day, Ms. Patrice Maye, Ms. Carol Sullivan-Hanley, Ms. Gail Rowins for accompanying us.

Boston Trip - Day 2

Mr. Anton O’Mahony, Mr. Cormac O’Brien and Ms. Orla O’Sullivan were officially welcomed by Mr. Jim Broudeau Scituate Town Administrator, his team and Mrs. Brenda O’ Connor.

We were given a guided tour by Bob Chessia of key Scituate places: Scituate Lighthouse, a water tower and The Maritime Irish Mossing Museum.

A lovely lunch was provided in The Mill Wharf.

The group were very touched that Mr. Noel Daly and his daughter drove from Boston to meet everyone as he was related to two students.

Boston Trip - Day 1

The first day of the Boston trip got off to a great start in Scituate where the group were formally welcomed.

One of the highlights for the group was travelling in one of their yellow buses.

Freaky Fancy Dress Friday

SCS are organising the inaugural Freaky Fancy Dress Friday on October 27th.

We are asking all students and staff to dress up in their spookiest Halloween costumes. There will be fantastic prizes on the day.

This will still be a regular school day with classes as normal. All costumes should be appropriate for school. For anyone who does not wish to partake, it is full school uniform.

Looking forward to seeing everyone's ghoulish costumes on the day!

Second Year Energy Transforming Devices

Second years have been busy designing and building energy transforming devices in science as part of their Junior Cycle course. They have showed some great design and engineering skills in the process.