[ General ]

As part of the process in preparing the pupils in Form V for their final year and beyond, a session of 'mock' interviews was organised last Saturday morning.The pupils were divided into groups of four and assigned an interviewer. Then each group spent an hour and a half together, each acting as interviewer, interviewee and observers. The whole process was extremely well designed and implemented. The day was organised through the Guidance Counsellor but facilitated by Gina Rhatigan, of Rhatigan Interview Techniques. The interviewers were all experienced members of the business community and included PJ Crear owner and CEO of TCL Plastics, Anne Galligan, owner and director of Micro-pro Computers, Tom Waters owner of the Watershed Label Centre, Margo Meyley from Cadbury’s and of course Gina Rhatigan. The whole event was a great success and the interviewers commented extremely positively on the pupils, describing them as “confident, articulate, well read but also friendly and good humoured They also commented on how many of them seem particularly suited to their chosen career areas. The mock interviews are an integral part of the Guidance Plan in St. Columba’s College. For more information on the Careers & Guidance Department click here.  

[ General ]

To celebrate National Tree Week Form IIIb has planted a mountain ash on the college grounds as part of their Junior Cert. CSPE Action Project. Every year, at this time, the Tree Coucil of Ireland raises awareness around the country of the importance of trees to our environment and the addition they make to our quality of life. There are hundreds of events and thousands of trees planted during this week, country-wide.

Last Wednesday Kezia Wright and Josh Kenny spoke in chapel about the aims of tree week. Other members of the set have made awarness raising fliers and posters while Mark Agar and Ilya Zyzlaev quite literally did the spade work! The slogan for this week's celebrations is 2010 - Plant Again. Hear, hear.

See Lily Guinness's poster here.

[ Performing Arts ]

The college was well represented at the Wesley music festival on Saturday with many being highly commended and others winning awards.In the vocal competition Kezia Wright (1st twice and 3rd), Sobhan Brady (1st, 2nd twicw and 3rd), Fred Mann (2nd), Andrew Martin (2nd), Emma Moore (2nd), Molly Buckingham (3rd twice) , Sally beeby (2nd) were the top performers.Highly commended performances also from Poppy Vernon, Rishi Manuel  and Marina Wright. In the instrumental section, Philippa Peters (2nd, senior strings), Siobhan Brady (3rd, junior strings) and Lingfan Gao (3rd, junior piano) did very well. There were promising performances form Olivia Plunket , Sophie van Brauchitsch, George Beeby, Mark Russell amd Nicola Dalrymple.

This evening's concert in the BSR was a very pleasant blend of solo and ensemble playing, vocal and instrumental music, relative newcomers to the stage and those with more experience who have Leaving Certifcate praciticals coming up soon.As ever, the experience of performing can never be understated, building confidence and forging a relationship with an audience. The emphasis this time was on playing in combination and in groups so there were several vocal duets, piano trios and string quartets. Mr. Alan Grundy, who teaches guitar, accompanied Zach Stephenson in a duet and Mrs. Malone Brady lent her talents on the oboe to the wind section.Mr. Clarke introduced some new songs with his Sine Nomine choir.Congratulations to the music staff in preparing their pupils so well.

[ Academic ]

Miranda Krestovnikoff was the adjucator at TY academic prize evening in the BSR last evening.Six members of Form IV, reduced from an entry of twenty, presented their topic and fielded questions from an attentive and interested audience.  The standard was uniformly high, showing extensive research, thorough preparation and excellent delivery according to Ms Krestovnikoff.  Leonhard Dihlmann spoke on the 'preparations for the D-Day landings', Lingfan Gao on 'the organ throughout the ages', Aoise Keogan-Nooshabadi on 'time', Michael Kemp on 'Brit Art', Emma Moore on 'Dickens' London' and finally Rab Sheeran on 'whaling'.  The winner was Lingfan Gao and runner-up Emma Moore

[ Sports ]

The senior girls did themselves proud in the league final against Newbridge College this afternoon in Grange Road.In a tightly contested game, which swung from end to end, it was 1-1 at the end of normal time.Extra time could not separate these well-matched sides and it came down to penalty strokes.Rebecca Murtagh was masterful in goal, ably assisted in defence by Sarah O'Mahony, Alex Owens (only in Form II!) Stephanie Brann and Kaila Korschen.The forward line of Anna Traill (captain), Philippa Peters and Kate Boyd-Crotty worked tirelessly, creating chances and harassing the opposition.The midfield consisted of the talented Muehler Methling sisters, Leonie and Caroline, who, along with Aifric Tracey, must have ended the match exhausted such was their effort.Disappointment came in the series of nail-biting penalties,eventually losing 2-4.

No cup held aloft this year but plenty of promise for the future.The coaches, Ms. Lawson and Mrs. Fair, had prepared the team magnificently and can be rightly proud of their team's achievements.

This time of the year we come to the decisive stages of the league and cup competitions in many sports.This week alone saw twelve fixtures in boys' and girls' hockey, girls' basketball and senior rugby.The senior rugby progressed to the final of their shield competition but pride of place must go to the senior girls' hockey who made it to the final of league division 1 after an incredibly tense match against Tullamore on last Wednesday.  Leading 2-0 but pegged back to 2-2 by full time, the SCC girls finally won on strokes after extra time.  The final will be played next week: keep an eye on the twitter feed for details.

[ Academic ]

The Hilary half-term begins today at 1.00pm after the parent-teacher meeting. Boarders return on Sunday 21 February at 8.30pm with Chapel and classes resuming at the normal time the next day. 

The Big Schoolroom at 7.30pm is the venue and time for the Transition Year information evening where the organisation and content of this important year are explained in detail by the coordinators, Dr. Stone, Ms. Maybury and Mr. Jones. It is an opportunity for the present third form and parents to hear about the wide range of academic curricular and extracurricular activities organised, and the options available.

[ General ]

Toss aside your 3D glasses and get comfortable. This is entertainment at its simplest, and best.

Today saw the final of the Form I Speech Competition in Blackburn. Topics were varied: speakers doing parrot impressions, an unusual tale about the journey of a euro coin, the origin of well-known sayings such as ‘sleep tight’, eating camels’ hooves in China, Christianity, and much much more.

The overall winner was John Clarke with his speech entitled ‘My Brother’, about his brother Jamie. His speech was funny, authentic, used anecdote to great effect, and was perfectly pitched. He might as well have tossed his notes aside along with the 3D glasses - he didn’t need them once. Well done to John, and the seven other finalists, for informing and entertaining us in such style!

This morning was one of those mornings when some of the music pupils in the College perform, setting a contemplative mood at the beginning of the day.Siobhan Brady sang a beautiful Irish lullaby followed by Fred Mann who sang Schubert's Der Lindenbaum.  On the piano Poppy Kirwan Browne played the first movement of a Haydn sonata and Lingfan Gao played a Prelude by the American composer Lennox Berkeley.   

[ Performing Arts ]

The Junior Play, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, was a most impressive production in the BSR on Friday and Saturday last. Directed by Mr Evan Jameson, it featured a great central performance by Patrick Tice, and many others in a nicely-paced, touching and funny story. Read TY pupil Opeline Kellett's review here.

Our Head of Photography, Mr Peter Watts, took plenty of photographs of the Friday performance, and they're now online on the English site here, including an Animoto music video, and the stills album.

Today's Sunday Times (Irish edition) has a 'Parent Power' pull-out on the 'Top 400 Secondary Schools in Ireland.' Visitors to this site are invited to read our previous explanation of why the figures on St Columba's are extremely misleading, based as they are solely on entry to Irish and UK universities.

In 2009, the average points score of all our candidates in the Leaving Certificate was 445 points.

This weekend features the 2010 Junior Play, on Friday and Saturday nights in the BSR, both performances starting at 7pm. It's Sue Townsend's The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, directed by Mr Evan Jameson, who also put on last year's impressive Romeo and Juliet. A fine cast is led by Patrick Tice in the title role, and also Kezia Wright as his love-interest, Pandora, Emma Moore as his mother, Robin Fitzpatrick as Mr Lucas and Jack Donne as Adrian's father. The full cast list can be seen here.

[ General ]

Our third (free!) e-newsletter will go out at half-term. If you haven't signed up, please do so on the right of this page by typing in your name and email address. These won't be used for any other purpose and you can easily un-subscribe. Those who have already subscribed don't need to again.

Our first two newsletters were well-received, and included lots of items on the busy life we lead here at the College. We plan to send out two each term.