ST. COLMCILLE’S COMMUNITY SCHOOL NEWS

6th Year Graduation
The 6th year graduation took place in the school on Tuesday May 23rd. Students and parents gathered in the school for their graduation mass followed by an award ceremony. Mr McKennedy spoke of “what wonderful leaders this group of students were to the rest of the school”. Dr Vincent Kenny, chairperson of the Board of Management, congratulated the students and wished them all the best in their future careers. Student of the year was awarded to Trevor O’ Connell and Rachel Ruddy took home the academic and Sports person of the year awards. Congratulations to all our 6th years and we wish them all the best in their up coming exams.

U14 Girls Gaelic Football
The under 14 girls Gaelic football team has had their most successful year since the school has opened. The team is made up of first and second years and for the first time they have reached a Leinster Final where they meet Greenhills of Drogheda . The road to this final was very tough with matches being played in sun, rain and galeforce winds. Their toughest match was in the Quarter final overcoming St Dominicans Cabra by a single point 4-7 to 5-3. The girls made hard work of the semi final against Loreto Balbriggan. Playing into the strong wind in the first half they found themselves down 3 goals and 3 points at half time. Tremendous goals by Elaine Mc Grath and Megan Carney brought the girls back into the game. A magnificent second half by everyone resulted in a win 6-5 to 10-3. Well done girls and good luck in the Final.

St Colmcille’s Student wins an Evening Herald Sports star award.
Congratulations to Lydia Flynn in 3rd year who was chosen as a sports star by the Evening Herald for her excellent achievements in swimming. She writes…
“On Thursday the 11th of May Ms. Kearon, Ms. Ryan, my mam and dad went to Croke Park for the Evening Heralds Sport Star Awards 2006. We had a lovely dinner followed by an awards ceremony, which was presented by Des Cahill from RTE. Malcom O Kelly, was also there to give out the awards. It was great fun. I received a lot of free gifts in addition to a glass plaque with my name and school engraved on it. After the ceremony we got a complimentary tour of Croke Park. I thought it was a great occasion and I am very grateful to Ms. Kearon for entering me into this competition”. (Lydia Flynn)

The West Leinster Schools Track and Field Athletics Championships
were held in Santry on the 27th April and the 2nd and 4th of May. Over the three days of the competition there were many excellent performances from St. Colmcille’s athletes, including 6 individual medals and relay silver.

Siobhán Pennycook got things off to a good start with a comfortable win in the junior 75m hurdles. Rebecca Tyson followed this up with a second place in the intermediate 80m hurdles.
On day two, Siobhán Pennycook added to her hurdles gold, with second place in the 200m; Eilis Knight finishing 4th in that race. Shauna Cannon had an excellent race to win the intermediate 200m with Lisa Barnwell in 3rd place.

On the final day Shauna Cannon added to her medal collection with 3rd place in the 100m. The girls relay team of Rebecca Tyson, Shauna Cannon, Lisa Barnwell and Natalia Hyland, who won junior silver medals in last years all Ireland Schools Championships, stepped up to the intermediate age group and again claimed the West Leinster title in convincing fashion. The junior girls finished 4th.

Some other creditable performances over the three days were: Elaine McGrath (4th minor HJ; 6th minor 80m), Natalia Hyland (4th intermediate LJ), Niamh Brien (5th minor LJ); David Scanlion (6th minor 1100m); Jamie Skelly (4th junior 1500m; 6th junior 800m) and Helena McGlinn (6th minor 500m).

Camogie: Senior B Champions
The girls senior camogie team have had a wonderful year which culminated in winning the Senior B Championship. A lot of players have been involved in camogie in the school since 1st year and we have won competitions in 3 of the last 4 years.
Many of the senior players are 6th years and it was great to finish their time in school with a championship win. The semi final against Rosary College Crumlin was one of the best matches our team has played. The narrow victory margin of 2 points reflected this. In the final against Clontarf the team again put on an excellent display and were comfortable winners in the end with a scoreline of 6-3 to 3-4. We would like to wish those players leaving school this year the very best of luck in the coming years and hope they continue to play camogie.
End of Year Student Awards
At the end of every school year each year group have an award ceremony. Awards are given to students, not only for their academic performance, but for their participation in extra curricular sporting and non sporting activities available in our school. Congratulations to the following students who received the following awards for the academic year 2005/ 2006:

YEAR GROUP ACADEMIC STUDENT OVERALL STUDENT
OF THE YEAR OF THE YEAR
1ST YEAR Stephen Jordan Sarah Mc Guirk
2nd YEAR Roisin Mc Hugh Rebecca Hennessy
3rd YEAR Amanda Keegan James Kilduff
5th YEAR Keith Jackson Aislinn O Toole