Sunday 17th November 2019 is the 100th anniversary of a sad event in the history of St Columba’s College. The Warden in 1919 was Reverend William Blackburn. He came to the College in September 1909 from Oriel College, Oxford, where he had been Chaplain for some years (he had previously gone to school at Repton […]
On Sunday night we had the annual First and Second Form plays. These are a relatively low-key introduction to the Big Schoolroom stage for pupils who may so far have little experience of performing, but are important as first steps, given how much drama happens further up the school. This term the First Form play […]
Maxim Meddah gives an account of the annual TY House Speech Competition: On Sunday 29th September, the annual Transition Year House Speeches took place once again in St Columba’s College. Each house was represented by two pupils. The topic the pupils could choose was up to them. Some were serious and some were humorous. The […]
The College is delighted to be one of 30 schools featured in Tom Sherrington’s new book, The Learning Rainforest Fieldbook, just published by John Catt, with illustrations by Oliver Caviglioli. This is a follow-up to Tom’s hugely successful The Learning Rainforest: Great Teaching in Real Classrooms, and focusses on how schools around the world (mostly […]
We were delighted to host researchED Dublin on October 5th: a wonderful day with 350 people on the campus thinking about evidence-based practice, and networking. Since then we’ve sent out a feedback survey, and below are some of the comments that were made. They were overwhelming positive, with only a few minor criticisms, and some […]
PUPILS’ COUNCIL: the following have been elected for 2019-2020 – SIXTH FORM: Tassilo Thürwachter, Katherine Kelly FIFTH FORM: Caspar Ladanyi, Elise Williams FOURTH FORM: TJ Hopkins, Evie Pringle THIRD FORM: Harry Harbottle, Kate Higgins SECOND FORM: Josh Branagan, Phoebe Landseer FIRST FORM: Euan Flanagan, Holly Murray
On Saturday last, October 5th, the College hosted a researchED conference, the first time this international educational movement has been to Ireland, South or North. 350 educators, including 30 speakers, were joined by 25 of our own staff from morning to late afternoon going to presentations by world-class speakers from England, Scotland, Sweden and Belgium, […]
The programme for researchED Dublin at the College on October 5th is now available. Check it out below (to see it in closer detail, click the full-screen icon in the middle and navigate via the arrows).
There are under 4 weeks to go until researchED Dublin, Ireland’s first-ever such event (on Saturday the massive London conference, with 1500 delegates and 170 speakers, was a huge success). Our event is of course smaller, but certainly very high quality, and below are the titles of the 30 sessions available to delegates. The timetable […]
Parents will shortly be receiving Calendar information by email. Meanwhile, the main events of the school year are on the College Calendar here. Wednesday 4th September 2.00-2.30pm: arrival of new pupils at boarding houses, and unloading of luggage, followed by refreshments in Lower Argyle/Dining Hall. 3.30pm: Welcome and address by Warden in Big Schoolroom to […]
Many congratulations to our candidates, who this morning received their Leaving Certificate results, achieving an average across all candidates of 474 points out of 625, second only to last year. This is another very fine performance, and extends our run of consistently impressive results year on year. A few statistics: 61 candidates sat the examinations, […]
Our annual Open Day this year is on Saturday 28th September, and all prospective pupils and their parents are very welcome. No advance booking is needed: just turn up and you will be looked after (pupils will guide visitors from the car parks to the reception point). Everything starts at 10am: visitors are advised to […]
We are again taking part in the great annual event which is Culture Night, which this year is on the evening on Friday 20th September. As before, visitors to the College will have the chance to have an architectural and historical tour and talk, which will be given by the Sub-Warden, Julian Girdham. Visitors are […]
The latest edition of the pupil magazine The Submarine, or rather, given the time of the year, The Summerine, has just been published in school in paper form, and now can be read online here, or in flippable form on SCC English here (click for closer view and navigation, click on the arrows to move through […]
Tuesday evening saw the 26th annual TY English Evening, the longest-established Transition Year event in the school’s calendar. It was presented by the Head of Department, the Sub-Warden, who welcomed his predecessor, Mr John Fanagan, as the guest speaker. He also remembered with fondness Professor Terry Dolan, who died recently, and who for so long […]
Yesterday evening in the Big Schoolroom Mr McCarthy and Ms Maybury presented the annual TY awards. Mr McCarthy, shortly to step down as TY co-ordinator after 8 years, reviewed the impressive range of activities Fourth Form have undertaken during the year. He said it was particularly important that pupils grab the opportunities they are presented […]
That lovely late-season annual event, Voices of Poetry, took place on Sunday evening in the Big Schoolroom. It is a fine pause in the maelstrom of the ending of the school year, just before examinations start: listening to great verse in many languages is balm for the soul. Again Mr Swift co-ordinated with his characteristic […]
This evening the annual Public Speaking Competition for Second Form was held again in the Upper Cadogan. In recent years this has highlighted the work of pupils in their Classroom Based Assessments (the oral presentations), which are neatly timed to coincide with this event. There were excellent 2-3 minute presentations from Elys Walker, Kate Higgins […]
