I hope you enjoy this latest edition of our East-er Newsletter produced exclusively by Transi-tion Year students. I cannot lay claim to any of the content, however, wanted to provide a short introduction praising the work ethic and commitment of our TY students in their pro-fessional endeavour to produce a worthy end of term publication for you.

And what a term it has been! As you know we received the exciting news in January 2014 that we are to enter the Free Education Scheme from September 2014. We are busy preparing for the new academic year and look-ing forward to lots of fresh new first year faces as well as an increase in our student population in other years. These are positive and encour-aging times for Gormanston College and my thanks to all members of the school communi-ty including the Franciscan Province for their continued support, effort and belief that Fran-ciscan College Gormanston will maintain and promote strong educational values and excel-

lent standards in teaching and learning.

Our Transition Year students have been busy with website construction, cake sales, charity work, twenty four hour bike rides, work expe-rience, mental health awareness in young peo-ple, trips, presentations, interviews and of course classroom experience…… I could go on and on! To witness the confidence in these stu-dents as they interacted with visitors to our school at recent open events confirms for me the importance of a successful Transition Year Programme and the spirit in which this pro-gramme is delivered and absorbed by all mem-bers of our school. My thanks to Ms. Cummins, Transition Year Coordinator, Ms. Cumiskey, the school’s Guidance Counsellor and Mr. L. Dunne, 4th Year Year Head for their support to the school management in ensuring an effective and positive academic year for our TY students.

I am confident that we can all look forward to a successful new academic year with another vi-

Principal’s Address

Gormanston Newsletter

BT Young Scientist 2014

The BT young scientist convention took place in the RDS earlier this year and two second year students from the College were selected to partake in this showcase event.

These students, Pauric Leech and David Newcomen told me all about the app they created for mobile media devices. The app was described as being “a simple but effective app to help farmers manage there farm, whether it be dairy or tillage.”

The idea for this app is an original idea of the students as well as Pauric’s father. It began as a casual idea which soon became an idea for the BT Young Scientist com-petition.

Work on the app began in September of last year and was completed in December using the Windows Webmatrix 3.0 software program. So far the app has received positive reviews and was featured in the Farmer’s Journal. Paraic stated that he may continue work on the app in TY but next year he will be focusing mainly on his Junior Certificate Exam.

Welcome to the third

year of the Transition

Year Newsletter. This

publication has been

wholly compiled by TY

students as a part of

their Gaisce Award. The

hard working students

are:

James Hughes

Drew Keeley

Conor McKenna

Sean Eoghan

McLaughlin

Eoin Gormley

Ellen Meehan

Franciscan College April 2014 Volume 1, Issue 2

Pauric & David

at BTYS

After talking to the first years about their expe-rience so far this year at Franciscan college Gor-manston. They have over all found this year to be great. Though most of them seemed to not

like the long days or the homework on Fridays. Many of first years loved the great sports facili-ties and the huge grounds that the school had to of-fer especially the swimming pool. They had not

heard of any oth-er schools with a swimming pool. They all loved the change and mak-ing new friends and discovering more subjects. They most partic-ularly liked hav-ing more teach-ers.

1st Year Interview

Work Experience

Volume 1, Issue 2

“You can cut all the

flowers but you

cannot keep Spring

from coming.”

Pablo Neruda

Page 2

Ty's had their second and third weeks of work experience between the dates of 3rd until the 14th of February 2014. Some of the work experience ranged from farm work to office jobs, from air traffic control to the Four Courts. Everyone took the chance to vary what they were doing with the 3 weeks in total over the entire year and get a much experience as possible in many dif-ferent work placements.

As Transition Year students we all agreed that the work place was much more difficult than school life and we appreciate going to school and being with our friends much more.

Overall, the feedback was very positive from TY students. They really enjoyed their experience and would love to go back again.

The Gormanston Sailing Team with Mr Buckley at the helm has seen a huge improvement over the course of their training at Dún Laoghaire. The team was estab-lished at the beginning of the academic year comprising sailors of some experience and some with no experience whatsoever! The recruited team of Oran Cas-sidy (crew), Richard Donnelly Devine (crew), Eóin Gormley (helm), Max Tipp McKnight (helm), Cormac Murphy (crew), and Leonard Lintzen (helm) had been training at the Royal St. George Yacht Club since Novem-ber 2013.

The team have been preparing for the Leinster School Champion-ship, which was held on the 29th

March. The coaches nominated the Gormanston team, the most improved out of a very experi-enced group of sailors that at-tended.

On the day of the event the team assembled at Dún Laoghaire just after 9am. The boats were rigged and ready to go. This was the first year in our schools history that a sailing team had represented Gormanston College. The team didn’t expect to win any races considering their minimal experi-ence. Although competing against Leinster best, the team went out fully motivated and won their first race.

This was a great achievement for the newly founded team!All in-

volved hope that sailing at Gor-manston can continue and be brought to the next level! The team hope to get some training at a local sailing club and continue to represent their school at a local, provincial and hopefully in the not too distant future, at national level. Mr Buckley must be commended on his work with the sailing team as he has given up a lot of his own time to ensure the team were prepared and en-joyed the experience. The team are very grateful for his support! It was clear during the competi-tion that our College team showed great potential and with some experience and improved tactics, the Gormanston Sailing team could be at the top level.

will be “Don’t Be Ashamed”; they are raising awareness on mental health in young people across County Meath. As a part of their project, they have made a website www.dontbeashamed.org and a QR code that can be used to be sent directly to the website. Also, the class has made a Facebook and Twitter page for their pro-ject and also made on Twitter, #DontBeAshamed.

This year, the TY classes have decided as a group to take part in this year’s YSI (Young Social Innovators). The aim of this pro-gramme is to have each class that participates raise awareness in any subject that they find could be given more information on. From things like sexu-al education, legal issues, and drugs and alcohol too. The 4A1 class has decided that this year their project

Finally, 4A1 has made cards that will be handed out to the entire school and other schools during the Speak Out.

Leinster sailing club

TY YSI Cycle-A-Thon

Images from Anti-Bullying Week

Page 3 Gormanston

“Knowing what's

right doesn't

mean much

unless you do

what's right.”

Theodore

Roosevelt

With two titles in the bag, this young Gor-manston team travelled up North to take on the Ulster Champions, St. Joseph’s of Crossmaglen, in the All-Ireland semi-final on Saturday, March 8th. In what was effective-ly a ‘home’ game for Crossmaglen, Gor-manston struggled from the throw-in to match their opponents speed and intensity. They went in at half-time one point to the good, 1-05 v 1-04

but achieved this with the aid of a very strong wind. Evan Murphy’s fine solo run goal from wing back the highlight of the first half.

The second half began with a renewed intensity from the Gormanston team as they fought for every ball but still strug-gled to put scores on the board. Crossmaglen’s dominance started to pay and they opened up a 5 point lead. Another goal

from Evan Murphy re-duced the deficit to two points which kept Gor-manston in the game with 15 minutes to play. How-ever, although the whole Gormanston team battled bravely, Crossmaglen kept it extremely tight at the back and exposed gaps in attack. They fin-ished the game 5 points to the good to win on a score-line of 2-11 v 2-06.

SNR Football All—Ireland Semi-Final

Business Opportunity for 6th Year Student

a Golden Ticket to attend a weekend business workshop in Globe Business College Munich. I managed to over-come the complex German train system and arrived in Munich safely. The weekend was based on three aspects of business, the scientific side, the creative side and how to mix them both. On the Saturday we were all given the skills needed to make a professional presenta-tion to a mock business, which we would have to pre-sent on the Sunday. Every-one was nervous before mak-ing their presentations but it all went well in the end. Be-fore I arrived in Munich, I assumed I was getting in-volved in a weekend of tak-ing notes and being told to do specific things, I can glad-ly say that the weekend was very interactive and I learned a lot without taking many notes. I had a great time throughout the duration of

the weekend and learned a lot of valuable lessons that hope-fully I can apply to real world business in the future." Dr Susan Walsh, Dean of Globe Business College Mu-nich spoke highly of Daragh; “We really enjoyed having him here with us in Munich. He was motivated and fo-cused for the whole week-end. He is great with people and no matter what group we put him in he jumped in and became a valued part of the team. He is a credit to you and the school”. Well done again to Daragh There will be another oppor-tunity for 2 other lucky stu-dents from Gormanston Col-lege to participate in the Globe’s Summer School 2014. If you are interested please contact Ms Cumiskey in the Careers Library.

6yh Year student Daragh Clarke, grabbed the oppor-tunity to participate in Mu-nich's Globe Business College weekend of business discov-ery. Throughout the week-end the lucky Golden Ticket holders experienced many things, for example: - Finding out what it is like to study at College - Get a first taste of studying Business Studies at third level - Enjoy the Individual Expe-rience at Globe Business Col-lege - Make new friends and initi-ate their professional net-work The two day event was struc-tured in a series of interac-tive workshop sessions and innovative project work, culminating in group presen-tations at the end. Daragh describes his experi-ence below: "I was one of the people cho-sen around Europe to receive

Volume 1, Issue 2 Page 4

Leinster Champions 2014

tainable development in home and

school and whether or not some stores

sell fair-trade products. Mr. Flynn our

geography teacher helped us to com-

plete them. When we visited Sonairte

a few days layer, we arrived with our

projects, presented them and had a

tour of the area and the garden and we

discussed the environment and how

what we do greatly effects it.

Recently, the TY’s had a workshop

with Sonairte where they discussed

topics such as sustainable develop-

ment, fair-trade products and how

products do not always spread in-

come out evenly between the pro-

ducers and the sellers at the mar-

ket. At the end of the workshop,

the students were all assigned pro-

jects that were to be completed for

our next visit to Sonairte in Lay-

town. The projects were on a vari-

ety of issues about examples of sus-

Gormanston,

Co. Meath

Phone: 018412203

Fax: 018412685

Email:adminsec@gormanstocollege.ie

Franciscan College

“For the glory of God and

honour of Ireland.”

Our College Mission Statement Franciscan College Gormanston is an educational es-tablishment wherein Catholic values are promoted in accordance with the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi.

Its aim is to create an environment that is safe, a cen-tre of learning committed to the personal develop-ment of each individual student and where the dignity of all is promoted and cherished.

It will strive to create accountable and principled stu-dents in the Ireland of today and in the wider world, in accordance with our Franciscan tradition for the Glory of God and the honour of Ireland.

Sonairte

www.gormanstoncollege.ie

The Second Year trip to the Criminal Courts/National History Muse-um/Natural History Mu-seum and lunch in the Dáil! They sat in on a real murder trial (amazing) and

met lots of politicians in the Dáil as they were all considering the future of Alan Shatter at the time!!!. Thanks to Fr.Ulic, Mr. Black & TD Robert Troy for organising such a great day for all.

ry Section (NPCPP) and there is plenty of infor-mation available on their website www.npc.ie in-cluding details of infor-mation sessions and semi-nars. The Annual Sports & Family Fun Day is in the planning again, in conjunc-tion with the School staff, and if any parent is inter-ested in helping out you would be most welcome. It is a great day and an op-portunity to meet other parents and is always lots of fun. Just e-mail fcgpac@gmail.com to let

The Parents Association would like to wish the Fran-ciscan Community, School Staff, Students and their Fam-ilies a Very Happy Easter.

We hope that you all have a well deserved break.

The Parents Association are looking forward to continuing to work with the school man-agement bodies and the Fran-ciscan Community to grow and develop the relationship as the School transfers to the voluntary sector. We are now affiliated to the National Parents Council, Post Prima-

us know.

An integral part of the Fun Day is the Cake Stall and we send out a call to all bakers to join in and lend a hand. All baked goods are accepted and are sold to raise funds on the day.

If any parent is interested in joining the committee you would be most welcome – the next meeting is sched-uled for the end of April or the first week in May, (date to be confirmed) just email fcgpac@gmail.com if you wish to attend.

2nd Year Excursion to The Courts

Parent Association

YSI Speak– Out

On Thursday the 27th of March the TY group headed off to the TLT theatre in Drog-heda. It was the day of our YSI speak-out, the result of many months hard work to promote our chosen topic, Animal Welfare. The show began quickly once we arrived, with schools from all over North Leinster promoting their projects in the most crea-tive way possible. Topics ranged from mental health awareness to gay rights and it was no secret that the competition was tough!

Following an antagonising wait, we were called up to do some last minute preparation backstage and the adrenaline levels were high all-round. After a minute or two we all walked on to much applause to begin our drama. Freddy, acting as our judge in full attire, announced that Old McDonald of 4A2 had been accused of animal cruelty in the area. Mr. Old McDonald, played by myself, was quick to refute and showed that in fact, our many actions- including two bake sales, guest speakers and an appearance of LMFM- proved that he was not guilty after all. After two minutes of court room action on stage, the animal onesie-clad jury found Mr. McDonald not guilty of animal cruelty and encouraged him to keep up all of the great work promoting animal welfare awareness!

Page 6 Gormanston

“Spring is the

time of plans and

projects.”

― Leo Tolstoy,

Anna Karenina