February Edition Nessan’s Newsletter

Just What Happened

Staff ZoneRoses are red violets are

blue….happy Valentines Day ..Lá shona everyone

Re O Laighleis author of Hooked and Ecstasy was welcomed to St. Nessans Community College by Principle Mr. E O’Brien, librarian Mr. J Gale and English Teacher Ms. M Toomey yesterday 4th of March, World Book Day. The author was really delighted to be invited into the school on this occasion and he read many extracts from his books Hooked (the book pulls no punches and there are no happy endings) and The Great Book of the Shapers. He followed this with a question and answer session from the students. He was really impressed with the students and appreciated that here in the school there is a great appetite for reading and various literacy initiatives. This visit was part funded by the Poetry Ireland – Writers in Schools Scheme. “That’s one of the valuable things about the visiting authors, every single one of them has a different story about how they came to write and its important for students who are starting out to realise that there isn’t one single way of doing it and that there are so many different approaches”, Ms. Toomey added “you cant expect to get better if your not going to read beyond your normal expectations of yourself. You need to kick start your reading because reading and writing goes hand in hand. Read-ing is key.” All the students involved deserve great credit for their behaviour and enthusiasm on the day. Hopefully this something the students will try at home.

Author Visit

World Book Day

On Friday the 4th of March St. Nessan’s Community College celebrated World Book Day in style. World Book Day is the biggest celebration of books and reading ever mounted in Ireland. The main aim is to encourage students to explore the pleasure of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.Each 1st and 2nd and 3rdYear student received a flip book-2 books in one! Seven specially produced World Book Day books have been published and again O’Mahony’s have generously sent out enough copies of these books for all our 1st and 2nd and 3rd Years.Again this year, there is one title as gaeilge which should keep the Irish Department happy and will be a nice tie-in with Seachtain na Gaeilge/Leabhar Power-two nationwide Irish books celebrations which surround World Book Day.Itinerary:We kicked off the day with an extended assembly for 1st and 2nd, and 3rd Years, which included -distribution of WBD books by the class prefects.-distribution of book tokens-book readings, open mic session by staff members.Next all 1st and 2nd Years visited the library, borrowed a book-most are now on the system in the libraryAll the Classes entered the many competitions that were held during the course of the day-design a Book mark competition, write a book review and design a Book cover competition. Results and winners will be posted over the coming days.The highlight of the day was the visit by renowned writer Re O laighleis whose novels and short stories are nation-ally and internationally acclaimed. He is widely sought after for readings and workshops here in Ireland, in Britain, Europe and North America. He is a writer of adult and teenage fiction and he has been the recipient of many literary awards including Bisto Book of the Year Award. He is a former Writer – in – Residence at the National University of Ireland, Galway.Re O Laighleis held a story telling session with all our 1st, 2nd and 5th Years and a writer’s workshop with all the 3rd Year students. A very enjoyable and productive workshop was had by all and this workshop tied in nicely with the 3rd Year English exam paper

1st FebTY work experience begins

State Examiner for LCA CLASS

2nd FebCandlemas Day

U14 Rugby Blitz.3rd Feb

Feast of St.Blaise, Fr Seavers blessing of THROATS.

U18’s Soccer Match, North Munster game against

Shannon Comp.Samaritan School visit

Leaving Certs.4th Feb

Student Council and Class Prefects Meeting

JC pre-exam in Art.7th Feb

1st and 2nd Year Water Talk by Environmental Scientist.

8th FebU14 North Munster Play Off

v’sPallaskenry9th Feb

1st and 2nd Year boys Rugby match,Bandon.Watch House Cross

Library Visit.Pre-Leaving

and Junior Cert Exams begin.

Leaving Certs attend LCFE and Central College plc

Open Day.LCA 1 attend LCFE and

Central College plc Open Day.10th Feb

County Final of the Mental Health Public

Speaking Competition.BITC Programme continues

with Session 2 for 5th Years.

11th FebL.C.A. Coffee Morning.

14th FebCupids Coffee Morning!!

16th FebTY,2ND Years attend “The Field”, INEC,

Killarney1DI bowling

with Class Tutor..17th Feb

TY qualify for Limerick City Enterprise

Final based on their business plan.

1st Year Soccer18th Feb

2nd Year JCSP Awards Ceremony1st, 2nd, 5th,TY

Parent Teacher MeetingsMid Term break -Yipeeee!

J.C.S.P News Photo Gallery Second Year

J.C.S.P AwardsWhat a fantastic welcome Ms. Isabel Baker received when she arrived in St. Nessan’s on Friday, the 18th of February.The second year’s year head Mr. Johnston and Class tutors Ms. Toomey, Ms. Ahern and Ms. Campbell Cuddihy had a very unusual awards ceremony taking place. Each tutor had engaged with the class teachers to find the student who showed the most interest and enthusiasm for that teacher’s subject. The process was very enlightening and the outcome very successful. ‘’ EVERYONE IS GOOD AT SOMETHING’’. This saying happens his be true in the case of the second year students in St. Nessan’s Community College, Isabel said ‘’ the students should be proud that their teachers had focused on the skills and talents of each individual student ‘’. Mr. O’Brien and Isabel presented the awards. An excellent occasion was had by all.

We are all off to Cork yes it’s that time of year again JSCP’’ Make a Book ‘’First year students have a fantas-tic display . They have designed a brick wall with the main theme ‘Building On Success’. They have

completed the diary’s decorated the pages and taken the pictures. Ms. Kennedys’ Irish class are working on a fantastic bilingual project on Limerick. Ms. Heffernan, Ms. O’Brien, Ms. Brennan all have used lots of cross curricular work to make the first year books a success. They would like to take this opportunity to thank all the Art, Woodwork, Metalwork, IT teachers and office staffs for all there help. Ms. Toomey the second year English teacher has continued the wonderful book from last year and built on it’s success. Next month all the photographs of the event the new friends found and old friendships renewed be in the Newsletter.

J.C.S.P Profile FoldersThese wonderful colourful folders are now part of every class tutor classroom. The 1st year students are getting used to the subjects statements and the many learning targets they contain. The folders have been such a success that students and teachers are now thinking of having ‘’ Folder Days ‘’ every month. This means work can be review and excellent work from each student can be placed in the folder. The JCSP Coordinator wish to thank all the class tutors and teachers for their help in this enterprise.

2DE visited Watch House Cross Community Library on Wednesday 9th February. They were invited down to evaluate some teenage fic-tion and they also used the visit to complete their JCSP Library Skills statement. The class spent a very productive hour filling out their statements and perusing and inspecting the shelves.This class are to use JCSP jargon “reading ready”, so it’s no harm to up their library time and sell the reading experience. We are very thankful to Sinead at Watch House Cross Library for all her help and reading recommendations. These visits increase the students’ confidence and enjoyment of reading.

D.E.A.R.To continue the momentum of World Book Day, another D.E.A.R. session was held on Friday 11th March, Period 5.This is a great way of promoting reading across the whole school. It is a shared experience, which gets people talking about books and reading while conveying a strong message that the school believes in and supports reading.The best book in the world is quite simply the one you like best….....and that is something you can discover for yourself, by reading!

Read All About It

Mr. O’Brien and Isabelle Baker (JCSP) present students with their JCSP Awards.

Make a Book J.S.C.P

Transition Year News

The Second Years and TY’s are to be complimented on their trip to ‘Keane country’ yesterday, 16th February 2011. They did us proud and sat captivated for over 2 hours in the INEC, Killarney with hundreds of other students engrossed in the antics of The Bull McCabe and co. while watching a great production of The Field, directed by Joe Dowling and starring Brian Dennehy as The Bull McCabe. We all returned late that evening, tired but happy. As this play is on the reading list for the Junior Certificate the students got a great insight into the characters, setting plot, theme, staging and props.Massive thanks to Ms. Toomey and Ms. Campbell-Cuddihy for their enthusiasm and energy, to Mr. J for sorting the travel arrangements, to Mr. O Brien for supporting and endorsing the trip.

Public SpeakingCongratulations Anne, Tucker, Lisa and Emma. I felt so much pride to be part of St. Nessan’s yesterday. 11 teachers came along to support Anne and her gifted speakers. I couldn’t get over how brilliant they were. It’s a pity their parents didn’t go; it would have given them a memory to cherish forever. Anne you do so much for this school, working away behind the scenes and creating strong confident adults who will remember this and reap its benefits long after they leave St. Nessan’s Community CollegeMs. Teri Coffey.

High Drama on “Field Trip”

Broadening Our HorizonsMy class completed the University of Limerick Broadening Horizons internet based careers programme in January 2011. We went to the computer room five times with Ms. O’Sullivan so that we could research what courses we might do when we finish the Leaving Certificate. While on the UL website we learned how to find the CAO codes and the CAO points required for the courses we were researching. We found out that some courses have high points as they are in big demand and most courses are four years long. It was easy to see the essential subject requirements for different courses e.g. Honours Maths for Engineering. We learned new vocabulary like module, prospectus, semester, merit, professor and so on. At the end of it all we were delighted to be awarded with certificates, something to put under the Achievements sections of our CV next year! We had a nice awards ceremony on Friday 28th January in the company of Ms. Sharon Nolan, UL Access office to whom we are very grateful for giving us this opportunity, Mr. O’Brien, Ms. Patton and Ms. O’Sullivan. We hope to build on this learning in our careers classes in Fifth year.

We are the CHEETAHS, a group of Transition year students from St. Nessan’s Community College in Limerick. This year we are participating in the F1 in Schools Challenge. This is the first time our school will participate in this competition. We have already qualified for the Regional finals which will be held in the University of Limerick on the 11th of March. View our promotional video hereF1 in Schools is a competition, open to all secondary schools, to design and manu-facture compressed air-powered racing cars. Shown below is the car that we will be racing in the Regional FinalsWe will compete against teams from other schools in the Regional and National Championships to determine the best-engineered and fastest car in Ireland.The competition is an exciting educational experience, we are getting an opportunity to express our creativity, skills and team working ability in a fun and positive way.

Cheetahs cruising along nicely

Layout & Design: Michael O’ Connor (Smile SCP), Senior Editor: Ms. Toomey. Photography: Mr. O’ Connor, Mr. Treacy & Ms. Campbell Cuddihy.Sub-Editor: Arron Moloney & Luke Morrosey. Sport’s reporters: Anthony Quinn, Christopher Mc Inerney. Typists: Shannon O Neill, Danielle Quinn, Jody King. Research: Alan Kelly, Daniel Ryan, John Daly & Edward O’ Keeffe. Reporters: Angelique Coughlan, Ellen Hogan & Grainne Hackett.

St. Nessans’ Community College was head hunted by the Limerick City Council Environmental Officer Sinead Mc Donnell to participate in a project to raise the awareness of WATER.2000, 500ml plastic water bottles were delivered to the school. The project involved creating a 3D sculptures the equivalent of 1 cubic metre of water. The sculpture piece is a very visual image of the quantities of water they use in every day life.The artist facilitator Diarmuid Neilan “ekotree” gave the students of the Green Flag Committee huge guidance and help in completing the 3D sculpture over three days. St. Nessans’ would like to thank Diarmuid Neilan for is time and commitment with our students’. We are thrilled to have such expertise shared with us.Subject teachers and their students prepared mini water units of class work to add impact to the 3D sculpture. These will be on display during the parent-teacher meeting 18th Feb 2011, for all the proud parents to admire. The 3D sculptures will be on show at an art exhibition in May. We will keep you posted!!The school website www.stnessans.com shows pictures of the progress of the green flag committee working on the 3D water sculpture project.

Zone again next month, Ms. D.

Spotlight on our Students Thomas Meehan and Lisa Roche are the worthy participants of the ‘’Spotlight’’ this month. ‘’ Charity begins at home’’ so Thomas and Lisa decided to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis a condition experienced by a large number of Irish Children and Adults. The fund raising has included coffee morning in the staff room and a parachute jump undertaken by Thomas. These young people are so modest and respectful that the staffs of St. Nessan’s are proud that they are our students. Thomas and Lisa have undertaken to give a lecture and show a video too students in St. Nessan’s to provide education and understanding of Cystic Fibrosis. The incredible good nature and visionary thinking of Thomas and Lisa is fantastic. You make us realise education is for life and about life.

The 1st year soccer team were eliminated from the 1st year cup after a tough game against a very good Killarney side in the last 16. Prior to that game, they drew 1 -1 against Kilmallock in a friendly in early February. A series of friendlies over the ext few months will take place which will serve them well for the U14’s competitions next year. The u14’s lost 2 - 1 in a play-off against Salesain’s College (Pallaskenry) depriving them of a spot in the semi-finals of the North Munster Cup after coming through the group stages. The u16’s are starting their campaign in the North Munster Cup and have a difficult qualifying group which contains Desmond College (Newcastlewest), Colaiste Chiarain (Croom) and Salesian’s College in Pallaskenry.The u18’s are finalists in the North Munster Cup and will compete against the Crescent Comprehensive to see who will be crowned North Munster champions at a later date.

Soccer Update

Green Flag Initiative