January Edition 2010Nessan’s Newsletter

Just What HappenedTwo years on and going strong

We are delighted to announce the second year anniversary of the Nessan’s Newsletter. Over the 2 years, it has gone from strength to strength. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff and students who submit articles monthly to our press team, making the newsletter an enjoyable read for all. We would also like to thank Mr. O’Brien for his ongoing support and encouragement. The newsletter reflects just a portion of the magnificent work that goes on in St. Nessan’s throughout the academic year. We hope our readers continue to enjoy the monthly editions , and continue to submit articles each month.

Remember - “You make it what is it - Thanks” Michael O Connor (SMILE SCP) & Marie Toomey.

As of January 2011, Nessan’s Newsletter is available to view or download on the revamped St. Nessan’s Community College website - www.stnessans.com and the new SMILE School Completion Programme’s website - http://smilescp.wordpress.com/.

Staff ZoneSt. Nessan’s C.C have launched their new revamped website -

www.stnessans.comIf you have any suggestions

and/or articles - present them to either Gavin Doyle , Michael Treacy, Michael

O’Connor or Eugene O’Brien

SMILE SCP have launched their new website which can

be viewed on http://smilescp.wordpress.

com/.Pilates Classes are starting in

the school with former student Emer Kelly on Tuesday, the

1st of March. Classes commence

at 5p.m.

10th Jan

Welcome back everybody.

12th Jan TY decoupage workshopHugh Campbell Stylists Grooming Workshop

TY Coffee morning for mini-companies

14th Jan New school web-site

launched. 1ST Year Soccer.

D.E.A.R.20TH Jan

U18’s soccerNorth Munster Game.

21st Jan 1st Year

Basketball TournamentSchool received €200 Hasbro voucher for

National Board Game Playing Day.

25th Jan 1st and 2nd Year Basketball

MatchTY attend Development Education Workshop at

WHC Community Library.27th Jan

Green Flag Whole School Initiative launched.

29th Jan 25 Year Class Reunion of

St. Nessans C.C.31st Jan

TY begin Work Experience

J.C.S.P News

First year students took part in a’ mega’ maths competition. Rounds, heats and tournaments finally produced a truly worthy winner in Tadhg Carroll .The maths department in St. Nessan’s were very impressed with the high standard achieved in the competition by all the students. Tadhg may have the title for now but there are many challengers waiting in the wings.

Read all about it!!The photographs are taken, the folders are handed out and the race is on to see who can be St. Nessan’s first Word Millionaire. The title can go to a class or an individual. The first year English teachers have taken on this mighty challenge. Look out for the’ Word Millionaires’ in the coming weeks and months.

Who are all these happy smiling faces? Yes it is official the class of 2010 are now famous. Their gorgeous photos are now displayed on the Library windows. Watch this space for all Good News up-dates on the class of 2010.

Second Year students are busy saving for their trip to ‘BEL HARBOUR’ in May .Their Year Head Mr. Johnston and the class tutors are planning a fantastic trip for all second year students this May . Lots of things to be decided on yet but the trip is finally underway . The Class Prefects put a lot of work in the choice of venue and looking for good deals for the students .This event should be lots of fun for all the students.

A D.E.A.R. session to kick off the New Year, took place on Friday 14th January, Period 5(11.55-12.35pm). We are all aware of the apparent drop in literacy levels among Irish students as flagged by the OECD/PISA Survey before Christmas, with the ranking of Irish teenagers plummeting from fifth to 17th place.To address this and to encourage more reading, TY students visited all 1st Year classes on Friday during D.E.A.R. with a reading trolley and a reading record for each student. The 1st Years browsed the trolley and selected a book to read during the session. While not taking away from the role of the library, this is an additional way to help with the logistics of getting a book into the hand of every student.TY were genuinely engaged in this, and enjoyed working as librarians for the day and they appreciate that success in reading can be accom-plished if they follow a step-by-step approach and implement one single change at a time. Transition Year students are eager to continue on with this project and target all 1st,2nd and 3rd Year students with their READING TROLLEY over the next few weeks. This is just one of the many literacy initiatives taking place in the school where there is a great drive to get students reading.A goal without a deadline is like a book with no ending.

Just a follow up to Board Game Playing Day, last October.Ms. Toomey received a €200 voucher from Hasbro after Christmas, thanking us for our involvement in this initiative.Ms. Toomey and some members of 2DE went shopping yesterday-I know it’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it-and as a result the library is now well stocked with various games. Word games such as Boggle, Upwords and Hangman can be a fun way of developing and reinforcing literacy skills, particularly spelling ability and vocabulary developmentWe are urging all teachers and students to make use of these board games as an educational tool, either in the library or they can be signed out to your classroom.Don’t just wait for our next Board Game Playing Day - Play today.Game on.

‘BEL HARBOUR’

New Year New DEAR

€200 Voucher from Hasbro

Maths Brain of St. Nessan’s

Grainne Hackett, Emma Roche, Danielle Quinn and Ellen Tobin Hogan pictured with their teacher Mr.Doody

displaying their futuristic design.

Leanne Roche & Noami Mitchell decide which games to best spend the €200 voucher on.

Photo Gallery First Year

Tadgh Carroll with Mr. Chawke

Transition Year News J.C.S.P News “Food for Thought” - Development Education WorkshopTY students attended a Development Education Workshop on Wednesday 26th Jan at Watch House Cross Library at 10.30am.This was in conjunction with Limerick City Adult Education Services and Irish Aid and the workshop was provided by Ms. Collette Devlin.The students, accompanied by Ms. Toomey enjoyed the workshop which was both interactive and thought provoking. The workshop was nicely pitched and the students learnt a lot about food and where it comes from and that what you buy locally affects others globally.The workshop ended with a quiz, congrats to the girls team who were the undisputed winners - Angelique, Shannon, Danielle, Ellen and Grainne who picked up a fantastic Fair Trade hamper with loads of Fair Trade chocs and coffee.

Youth Conference at Thomond Park.Limerick City Comhairle na n-Og rounded up 2010 with a youth conference involving over 80 students from secondary schools, youth projects and youth clubs in Thomond Park on Thursday 9th December 2010.Our own Transition Year students and the Student Council representing the students took part in the event.The theme for the day was bullying and event organisers Kaillia Dunne and Eamonn O’Brien explained why it was the chosen topic.“We choose bullying as it’s a subject relevant to everyone and we felt we could promote discussion on this topic and challenge perceptions”. A clever medium was used to promote the ideas generated at Thomond Park.“We decided to use technology and with the help of the youth workers, young people developed comic strips. These comics allowed them to easily share stories on a sensitive topic and promote their message.“We hope these comics will appear on a number of local and national websites and also as posters in secondary schools in the New Year”.The event was supported by Limerick Youth Service and Limerick City Development Board. A very interesting and informative day was had by all.

New Year New DEAR

€200 Voucher from Hasbro

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. F1 in Schools is a competition, open to all secondary schools, to design and manufac-ture compressed air-powered racing cars. We are currently still designing our car but you can see the latest version of our car below.We will compete against teams from other school in the Regional and National Championships to determine the best-engineered and fast-est car in Ireland. The competition is an exciting educational experi-ence; we are getting an opportunity to express our creativity, skills and team working ability in a fun and positive way. You can find out more about the F1 at the website: http://www.f1inschools.ie/public/index.html

Cheetahs

Grainne Hackett, Emma Roche, Danielle Quinn and Ellen Tobin Hogan pictured with their teacher Mr.Doody

displaying their futuristic design.

Christmas Celebrations at St. Nessan’s C.C

Photo Gallery First Year

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.

Up and RunningThe Green Flag Committee are up and running what a great start to the New Year!! Students: Jordan Guerin (1DE), Jennifer O Carroll (1DI), Ross Bowen and Kayleigh Barrett (1DA), Dylan Considine and Naomi Mc Inerney (1DN) Calvin Prendegast (2DE) Jordan Mc Carthy, Nora Doyle, James Daly (2DA) Evan Kittler, Jason Griffin(2DI). Staff: Mr. Kieran Griffin, and Ms. Maedhbh Dennison.New Year Eco ResolutionsThere are so many to choose from, our top 5 this month are – Drive less, walk, cycle, or use public transport. Avoid buying things with lots of packaging. Use recycled computer paper and print on both sides. Switch off TV and computer when not in use. Get involved in a community garden or join the local “Grow it Yourself ” group. Zone in again next month, Ms. D. The Green Flag Committee pictured with Ms. Dennison.

SPOTLIGHT ON A STUDENT Ability to be a star that’s our Nicola. Limerick Ladies Soccer under 18 have just signed the a superb new talent Nicola Griffin a student at St. Nessan’s Community College to the team. We are so proud of Nicola she is a true professional in every thing she gets involved with. Her record in Transition Year saw Nicola’s team win first prize in the Sustainability Section of the Enterprise Awards. Nicola is full of enthusiasm for the sport of soccer. She has just been accepted to train as a soccer coach under the Kick Start programme. The Limerick Regeneration has sponsored Nicola in this scheme. It is the true sign of a character when someone wants to share their talents and give back their time and energy to the local community. Nicola hopes to be involved in coaching young people in the soccer summer schools .Genius, brilliance, with clever skill and dexterity these are some of the words that describe our Nicola.

Soccer UpdateThe u18’s progressed to the North Munster semi-final after a hard earned 3 -3 draw against Colaiste Chiarain from Croom. St. Nessan’s were slow to start and went down 2 - 0 in the opening 30 minutes. Croom were playing well and it seemed a place in the semi-final was about to slip away from St. Nessan’s in their final group game. A very poor performance in the first half was salvaged somewhat when an inspired moment of trickery from Alex Purcell pulled a goal back for St. Nessan’s just before the break.After a muddled clearance from Croom, Alex with his back to goal, lobbed the Croom keeper with a delicate bicycle kick.The feel good effect was short lived however and it seemed St. Nessan’s were destined to lose the game as from the break, they conceded another goal to fall behind 3 - 1. Enough was enough for John Sheehan and he demanded that Nessan’s wake up and get into this game. Not a team to shy away from challenges, St. Nessan’s came roaring back into the game and started playing soccer again which lead to a well taken goal from Shane Wharton. It was all to play for and as Nessan’s piled on the pressure in search of an equaliser, Michael Guerin came on for George Molloy and played with a maturity well beyond his years. It was only a matter of time before we scored and it was Christopher McInerney who equalised with 5 minutes to go. Knowing that a draw was enough to secure a place in the semi - finals didn’t stop a Nessan’s team who contin-ued to press in search of a winner. A winner wasn’t to come and the game finished 3 -3, securing St. Nessan’s a semi-final spot against Shannon Comprehensive. MOM: John Sheehan

Transition Year visit City HallThe Transition Year class recently visited the Mayor of Limerick Cllr. Maria Byrne in City Hall. Cllr. Byrne spoke to the class about the work that she does and what she hopes to achieve during the year. Christopher enjoys trying on the mayoral chain, maybe this is a sign of the future! Refreshments were enjoyed by the class and Ms. O’ Brien. They were all very surprised that only four women including Cllr Byrne have held Mayoral Office. The visit was very much enjoyed by the class and they look forward to a return visit to St. Nessan’s shortly by the Mayor.

Classy CutsHugh Campbell stylists recently visited St. Nessan’s to talk to stu-dents about Hair Care. Avril and the team also cut and styled some students hair. Dylan, Luke and Aaron were our brave models while Ellen got a fabulous up style done. Sr. Margaret was delighted to see one of her past students back as a stylist. Our thanks to Hugh Campbell’s staff for a great workshop.

Student CouncilAn introduction to the Class Prefects

1st Yr - Jordan Guerin & Shannon Falvey (1DE), Jennifer O’Carroll & Jonathon Roche (1DI), Ross Bowen & Kailey Barrett(1DA),Noami McInerney & Dylan Considine(1DN)

2nd Yr - Leanne Roche & Calvin Pendergast (2DE), Ciara McInerney & Shane Franklin (2DI), Jordan McCarthy & Nora Doyle (2DA)

3rd Yr - Nicola Murray & Daniel McInerney(3DE), Ben Johnson & Nicole Purcell(3DI), Sen Price & Vanessa Woodland (3DA), Danielle Tuite and Dylan Hoare (3DN) and Ger Walsh (3DC).