Message from our Principal to our Leaving Certificate classes

Postponement of 2020 Leaving Certificate examinations

The Minister for Education and Skills announced on Friday, 8th May:

  • The postponement of 2020 Leaving Certificate examinations
  • All students to be offered the option of calculated grades or sitting Leaving Certificate written examinations at a later date

A series of documents are being published to support this announcement. I am including the link to all these documents and I would ask you to spend some time reading through the guide.

The above material is available at www.gov.ie/leavingcertificate. This page hosts a series of Frequently Asked Questions.

We will hold an assembly on Monday, 11th May at 12.30pm. All our Leaving Certificate students and their parents are very welcome to attend this assembly.

Looking forward to meeting you all on Monday at 12.30pm

Kieran Golden

 

 

 

Gaelcholáiste Ghort Álainn

Scoil úrnua is ea Gaelcholáiste an Ghoirt Álainn le foireann óg fuinniúil. Tá sé suite I Scoil Phobail Ghort Álainn agus tá na seomraí, idir ghinearálta agus phraiticiúil feistithe go maith leis na háiseanna agus an trealamh is déanaí. Táimid tiomanta don oideachas is fearr agus is fairsinge is féidir a chur ar fáil d’ár ndaltaí uile. Cuirimid réime cuimsitheach ábhar ar fáil ag leibhéil an Teastas Shóisearaigh agus réimse leathan imeachtaí seach-churaclaim freisin. Tréimhse spreagúil dúinn í.
Gaelcholáiste an Ghoirt Álainn is a newly established school with a young and energetic staff. It is situated in Mayfield Community School, with both general and practical rooms fitted out with up to date equipment and facilities. We are dedicated to providing the best and broadest education possible for all our students. We provide a range of subjects at Junior Certificate level as well as an array of extra-curricular activities. It has been a very exciting time for us.
  An focal is tábhachtaí inár pobail ná ‘Meas’. Bíonn sé á múineadh againn dár mac léinn gach lá ar scoil. Beidh ar gach uile dalta a bheith ag caint le chéile ar bhealach an-bhéasach agus beidh air/uirthi meas a léiriú de gach duine comh maith chun áit slán sábhailte a chruthú do do pháiste.
With ‘Meas‘ or ‘respect’ being the most important word in our school community. It is actively taught to our students each and every day. We expect our students to speak to each other and treat each other with respect so that your child will always feel safe and secure in our school.

I nGaelcholáiste Ghort Álainn is duine linn gach dalta. Déanaimid freastal ar riachtanais phearsanta, shóisialta, oideachasúla agus spioradálta dó páiste leis an gclár tréadchúram, cuirimid romham athne phearsanta a chur ar gach dalta mar dhuine. Tá aithne ag na scoláirí ar namúinteoirí agus támuinín acu astu. Tá a fhios acu go mbeidh gach tacaíocht agus cabhair ar fáildóibh in uair na práinne. Tá múinteoir ranga ag gach dalta le dul I gcomhairle leis/léi más gá, agus bíonn doras na fáilte ar leathadh I gcónaí do thuismitheoirí. Tá Comhairleoir Treorach again agus foireann oilte tacaíochta.

In Gaelcholáiste Ghort Álainn each student is an individual. We look after your child’s personal, social, educational and spiritual needs through our pastoral care programme. The philosophy of our school is get to know each student on an individual basis. As our smaller class groups facilitate this, we are in a position to really get to know our students. Students know and trust the teaching staff and know that they are guaranteed every support and assistance if they experience any personal difficulties. Students have a class teacher to confide in when necessary and we have an open door policy for parents. The school has a very effective Pastoral Care Team which includes trained support staff.

Letter to Parents/Guardians

Dear student / parent / guardian,
 I hope this message finds you well during these challenging times.  Further to the Government’s decision to close schools to support efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, I am writing to share with you what our school is doing to support your learning and what we will do to help you to mind yourselves and your family in the coming weeks.

You will remember that last Thursday, 12th March, we asked all students to bring home with them their books so they could study and work from home. All of our parents received a text as well. By any chance if you did not get a text from the school, will you email me at kgolden@mayfieldcs.net and I will update that immediately.  Thank you. 

Over the coming weeks, our teachers will continue to work with you in a number of ways:

  • All of us have access to google classroom and your teachers have invited you to join their classes so you can continue to complete your assignments. If you have forgotten your password or log-in, please email jhurley@mayfieldcs.net and Mr Hurley will get you set up pretty quickly. Parents if you are not sure whether your child has logged in or not, send a message to jhurley@mayfieldcs.net or kgolden@mayfieldcs.net  and we can let you know straight away. 

Thank you to those of you have been so good at really getting involved in this way of learning. I know that many of you are doing really good work here. Thank you as well to those of you who have sent lovely pics of their work back to their teachers – we will award some prizes to the best pictures of artwork OR pictures of anything you cook or bake OR clips of you exercising / dancing in the next week. We’ll get some more details to you about that competition. Great prizes to be won 

  • There are really helpful directions on how to use google classroom on our facebook page, our school Instagram account and our school twitter feed. Keep a close eye on these social platforms as we are posting the best advice available on these official accounts.

  • Teachers will send work to you through our school addresses and you can reply using the email addresses given to you. All of this helps you to stay in a routine which is very important for your physical and mental health. 

 

  • There are some really good websites out there and all of these ones you can access for free:

      • https://irevise.com/ie (Additional notes and tutorials) use the code STUDYCENTRE and you will get free access for a month
      • www.studyclix.ie (Exam builders) all our Leaving Certificate students have full access to all their subjects 
      • The Educational Company of Ireland is giving you free access to their JC and LC e-books – for Junior Cert, the user name is jcedcobooks and the password is edco2020 and for the Leaving Cert, the username is lcedcobooks and the password is edco2020

Some updates from the State Examinations Commission

We heard yesterday, Thursday, 19th March that our Minister for Education announced the cancellation of the Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate Oral and Practical Tests. (Orals in Irish and French – Practical performance in LC Music and practical performances in JC Music and Home Economics)

All of our students will be awarded full marks for this part of the exam – yes you read that right – FULL MARKS. Now it is well within you to push on and get really good scores in those subjects. Go for it…

We will go through challenging times over the next few weeks. I would like to remind our students to be kind to their parents and to thank them for everything that they are doing for you. They want the best for you and it is important that we look out for each other.

I would ask all our students to do the following every day for the next seven days:

  • Get 30 minutes of fresh air

  • Be thankful for what you have

  • Clean your bedroom

  • Drink 2 litres of water

  • Do any 2 of the following: 60 second wall-sit, 10 push-ups, 20 jumping jacks

  • Say thank you to three people close to you

  • Wash your hands with soap at least ten times a day

We are in unchartered waters and our community will come together to find solutions. It is an unusual time for us all and we need to work together to delay and limit the transmission of the COVID-19 virus.  We encourage parents to emphasise the importance of social distancing to all in their care, so we as a nation can protect the most vulnerable in our communities.

We encourage all our students to do the best they possibly can in the coming weeks. We are very proud of you all, we miss you and we are thinking of you at this time.
Finally, I would like to thank all our staff for their commitment and dedication to support your daughter(s) and son(s).  Our staff and your daughter(s)/son(s) are a credit to our school community.
I am always contactable and if I can be of any help to anyone, please do not hesitate to contact me at kgolden@mayfieldcs.ie.

Take care, stay safe and mind yourselves and your loved ones.

 Yours faithfully,

Kieran Golden                                           Kathleen Daly

Principal                                                    Deputy Principal

School Closure

3 rd February 2020
Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s),
ACCS has informed the Board of Management that all TUI members have been directed to take strike action on Tuesday 4 th February. Pickets will be placed on all schools where TUI members are employed on that day.

Due to this strike action, the Board of Management will not be in a position to discharge its responsibilities with regard to the care of students in its charge on that day.
The Board of Management is therefore requesting you not to send your son/daughter to school on Tuesday 4 th February.

The Board of Management regrets that this course of action is necessary. The Board has no wish to interrupt the education of students in this school.

Yours sincerely,
Mr. Paul O’Leary
Chairperson of the Board of Management.

Students and Principal attend Gala Dinner in Kilkenny

Mayfield Community School students were invited to entertain guests at this year’s National Association of Principal and Deputy Principals (NAPD) Gala Dinner in Kilkenny.
The Gala Dinner was attended by Deputy Joe McHugh. Minister for Education and Skills and his officials, representatives from the management bodies, trusts, parent bodies, teacher trade unions and over three hundred school principals and deputy principals.

The Gala Dinner paid tribute to Kieran Golden, Principal of Mayfield Community School, who has acted as President of NAPD for the last school year. The Presidency has been a great honour for Mayfield Community School and its principal, Kieran Golden.
NAPD is the only professional association representing principals and deputy principals from all sectors and has over one thousand members. The National Conference this year was held at the Lyrath Hotel in Kilkenny and registration had to be closed at 600 delegates. Kieran Golden’s keynote Presidential address took place on Friday morning and all delegates were looking forward to the Minister for Education’s response.

The students from Mayfield Community School sang, danced, and played a variety of instruments at the start of the Gala Dinner. They have all practised hard and worked closely with their teachers, John Casey, Siobhán Carne, Orla Byrne and Lisa Meaney.

Ms Daly, Deputy Principal of Mayfield Community School, said that “our school is very proud of Mr. Golden and are delighted that our students had the chance to show the audience at the Gala Dinner how talented they are.” All the money collected for the President’s Charity on the night will go to Cork Penny Dinners. This charity was chosen by Kieran Golden knowing that all the money raised will go to a great cause.

Our students with Ms. Carne, Mr. Golden, Mr. Casey, Ms. Meaney, Ms. Daly, and Ms. Byrne before their performance on Friday night.

Digital Leaders Award

Our school,  as lead school in our local Digital Learning Cluster, reached the final of a Tech Leaders competition run by it@cork.

We were shortlisted in the category “Excellence in Education” which was kindly sponsored by Trend Micro.

Teacher Liam Begley, who started the Cluster and is also teaching the new Leaving Cert Computer Science course in our school was joined by John Hurley to accept the award.

The citation mentioned that our school uses G Suite, giving all students access to email and cloud storage; Our implementation of Computer Studies as a Leaving Certificate Subject; Our success in the Astro Pi competition where students had experiments used on the International Space Station; and our involvement in the local Digital Learning Cluster.

The shortlisted Schools – Droichead na Banndan, Coláiste Éamonn Rís, Mayfield Community School
Mr. Hurley & Mr. Begley. Proud to accept the award on behalf of Mayfield Community school.

Open Night 2019

Mayfield Community School Open Night 

On Tuesday 10th September Mayfield Community School hosted their Open Night. The event started at 7pm with a constant flow of visitors until 9pm. All visitors were greeted at the main reception by Mr Kieran Golden  Principal and Mrs Kathleen Daly Deputy Principal.

Parents and their children were given a guided tour around the school by student representatives. They had the opportunity to visit many specialised rooms for example Music, Business Studies, Home Room, Computer rooms, DCG, TG, Home Economics Rooms, Science Rooms, Art rooms, Woodwork room , Engineering room , Computer Auotmated Design room while also visiting the core subjects of Irish , English , Maths, French, Religious Education, History and Geography. On hand also that night were representatives of UCC, CIT and Access to education Bridge to Employment (ATEBTE).

Parents were also welcomed by our Parents group with tea and coffee and then finally made their way to the school library where they were addressed by the school Principal Mr Kieran Golden and past pupils of our school that have gone on to study at third level. It was great to see so many new families showing interest in our school but as always, seeing old familiar faces always finds a place in our hearts.

Adam Nugent from the class of 2019, ready to start in UCC
Ms. Byrne with our music class demonstrating percussion
Happy drummers
Experimenting with a microscope in one of our well-equipped labs

 

Practicing hoops in our malls with Mr. Bonass, our PE teacher.

 

Students demonstrating their skills in our metalwork room.

Our Music Teacher, Mr. Casey, conducting the orchestra.

 

Jack O’Driscoll Fundraiser

RACE NIGHT in aid of the Jack O’Driscoll fund, Saturday the 19th of May, 8.00 pm in The Clayton Silversprings Hotel.

Free admission, strictly over 18’s event. We hope you can come and support Jack on the night.

New First Years

New First Years

Our Principal, Mr. Golden, met with the parents of incoming first years to go over some of what our school has to offer.

As part of his presentation, he had this slideshow for them to view.

During and after the slideshow, parents were offered the chance to ask questions about starting in Mayfield Community School.

Click Here to download the presentation