Gradam 2017

Gradam 2017

John Hurley

A night of celebration in Mayfield Community School

The night opened with a musical performance celebrating the theme of student success and achievement right across student life and this theme carried through the evening. Guest of honour on the night, past pupil. Professor Susan Rafferty-McArdle from University College Cork, remembered her own attendance at Gradam as a student and shared her story of life in Mayfield Community School. Dr. Rafferty-McArdle spoke with fond memories of her
teachers, her involvement in the Students Council, the school bank and the hockey team. She encouraged all the Gradam nominees to get fully involved in all that Mayfield Community School has to offer today.

Mr. Golden, school Principal, welcomed the invited guests, parents and Gradam nominees with the great news that 84% of the class of 2017 are now in Third Level and Further Education. The other 16% are in employment. Mr. Golden paid tribute to invited guest, Mr John Murphy, the first Principal in Mayfield Community School and assured him that his educational vision lives on every day in the school.

The night celebrated what Mayfield Community School offers to the students. Sporting achievements were recognised in hurling, soccer, rugby, rowing and gymnastics. Top results were acknowledged in the Junior and Leaving
Certificate. Excellence in the many subjects on offer were rewarded.

Special awards were given to Kyle Crowley, second year, who is playing with the Cork under 14 hurling squad, Leona O’Dwyer who won the European Championships in 16kg kettlebells and to Connor Morrissey who represented
Munster in the under 18 inter-provisional championships. Breaking news on the night was that Connor has been selected to play with the Ireland under 18 rugby team.

Kieran Golden, school Principal, brought the night to a close, sharing with the large audience in attendance that the night was a great opportunity for the school community to come together to celebrate what is best in our school.

Back Row:
Kevin White; Mr. James McMurtry; Marina Birioukova
Front Row:
Ms. Kathleen Daly (deputy Principal); Dr. Rafferty-McArdle of UCC; Mr. Kieran Golden (principal); Mr. Paul O’Leary (chairperson of the board of management)

 

 

Back row:
Rory Murphy; Connor Morrissey; Sam Brickley; Loren O’Driscoll; Tina Busic; Leona Dwyer
Front Row:
Ms. Kathleen Daly (deputy Principal); Dr. Rafferty-McArdle of UCC; Mr. Kieran Golden (principal); Mr. Paul O’Leary (chairperson of the board of management)

 

Back row:
Kyle Crowley; Jake Courtney; Barnabas Somodi; Mr. James McMurtry (year head); Reuben Miranda; Sophie O’Flynn
Front Row:
Ms. Kathleen Daly (deputy Principal); Dr. Rafferty-McArdle of UCC; Mr. Kieran Golden (principal); Mr. Paul O’Leary (chairperson of the board of management)

 

L to R: Ms. Amanda Dorgan of AIB (Past pupil); Shelley Cashman (class of 2017); Ms. Marian Crowley of AIB

 

 

 

Homework Club

John Hurley

On Thursday 6th April, a number of our students represented our school at a ceremony at the Aula Maxima, UCC.
Since Christmas, these students and others from our Junior School participated in a Homework Club after school on Mondays.
This experience afforded students an opportunity to study in a supported environment as well as learn the value of working in a community of learners.
Ucc Plus marked the participation of both students and tutors by the awarding of certificates at this ceremony.
This initiative was supported in the school by Ms. O’Regan and Miss O’Sullivan.
On the night, Ms Daly and Ms Carne also joined in the acknowledgment of our student’s success.

Lifelong Learning Festival

Lifelong Learning Festival

John Hurley

A number of students represented our school at a Lifelong Learning Festival event at Mayfield Library today, the 5th of April.
Our students from 1st to 5th Year performed 3 different Abba numbers from the musical “Does Your Mother Know?” including “Thank you for the music”.

Much practice was put into this performance over a number of weeks and students were commended for their excellent singing and how well they represented the school by members of the local community.

The group were coached, supported and accompanied by Mr. Corbett, Miss O’Sullivan and Miss Holden.

SciFest and European Space Agency Winners

SciFest and European Space Agency Winners

John Hurley

The phrase ‘Out Of This World’ can be overused, but is exactly the right one to describe the amazing achievement of four of our Transition Year students in the past fortnight.

Sarah Buckley, Dylan Halpin Hurley, Sean Murphy and Rachel Sheehan were a winning team who have succeeded in getting their computer programs onto the International Space Station (ISS)

The students wrote two experiment programs on a ‘Raspberry Pi’ computer, as part of a competition with the European Space Agency.  This programs will be sent to space and the two experiments will be used on board the ISS.

One experiment is designed to measure when an astronaut enters or leaves the Columbus Module (a compartment on the space station) based on a change in the humidity, while the other is designed to measure anomalies in the Earth’s magnetic field.

The student’s work has been hugely successful, and they are the only team from Ireland that have programs going on the AstroPi (the space version of the Raspberry Pi).

In addition, they also won a SciFest award in C.I.T on Friday 31st March.  This prestigious award is further recognition of the work achieved by our Transition Years.

Click here for the full story of the work done by the team.

More information on the European Space Agency’s AstroPi competition.

The full list of winners of the AstroPi Competition

The Team at Cork Institute of Technology on Friday, 31st March, where they were awarded the Sci-Fest trophy.

The team at work with their programs in the science lab at Mayfield Community School.

 

One of our Raspberry Pi Computers, with the LED display lit up.

 

 

Post of Deputy Principal

John Hurley

** PLEASE EMAIL admin@mayfieldcs.ie FOR AN APPLICATION FORM **

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL

Mayfield Community School, Old Youghal Road, Mayfield, Cork

Category XIII

 

The Board of Management of Mayfield Community School invites applications from suitably qualified persons for the post of Deputy Principal to take effect from Monday 6th February 2017. The school is a co-educational community school with an enrolment of 322 on 30th September 2016.

 

To qualify for appointment candidates must have

  • Recognised post-primary teaching qualification
  • A minimum of 5 years’ satisfactory teaching experience
  • Registration in accordance with Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001

 

An application form may be obtained by emailing admin@mayfieldcs.ie

 

Completed application forms should be submitted in hard copy by post or hand only no later than 4.00 p.m. on Friday 20th January 2017.  Applications submitted by email will not be accepted.

 

Short listing may apply.

All appointments are subject to sanction by the Department of Education & Skills.

Canvassing by or on behalf of the candidate will automatically disqualify.

Late applications will not be accepted.

Mayfield Community School is an equal opportunities employer.

Gradam 2016

John Hurley

MAYFIELD STUDENTS AWARDED AT GRADAM 2016

There were proud scenes in Mayfield Community School recently when students, past and present, received awards in recognition of academic achievement.

Along with awards for academic excellence in each year group, special awards were presented for English literature, Science, Sport, Engineering, Music, History, Business and Enterprise. Transition year students were honoured for their Gaisce achievements.

Aaron Walsh O’ Reagan, now studying Chemical and Process Engineering in UCC and Natasha Cronin, studying Beauty Therapy in Cork School of Commerce were awarded bursaries form AIB while David O’ Gorman and Luke O Driscoll, studying for a Bachelor of Commerce (UCC)   and Bachelor of Design and Manufacturing (UL)  respectively were awarded Credit Union bursaries.

Representatives from UCC and CIT presented awards to Séan Murphy Phelan for excellent educational attainment and Darragh O’ Donovan for his achievement at third level educational.

Courtney Carroll received the prestigious Garda Community Award for her work in the community during transition year. Courtney continues to volunteer with Special Olympics Ireland and is a wonderful ambassador for Mayfield Community School.

Special Guest speaker Dr Kevin Cahill, School of Education in UCC, acknowledged the dedication and hard work of students and their teachers in Mayfield Community School. He congratulated the many award winners and their parents on the evening.

Commenting on the awards, Principal Kieran Golden said that “the school is exceptionally proud of the students who received their awards. In Mayfield Community School we pride ourselves on academic achievement and I think that this evening underpins the hard work and commitment shown by our students and staff.”

(click on the photo below to view the slideshow)

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College Awareness Week

College Awareness Week

John Hurley

Mayfield Community School students and staff embraced and promoted College Awareness Week in November.

 

Sixth year students enjoyed a really insightful and informative day at CIT’s Open day. Mayfield Community School works closely with UCC; voluntary undergraduate tutors come to our school each week to mentor junior students. As a result of their commitment to hard work, these students had an opportunity to visit UCC, participate in a campus tour, talk about college with their tutors and enjoy lunch on the UCC campus.  Students were absolutely delighted to see the Christmas lights being switched on outside the Honan chapel

 

Dr Chris Ngwa from UCC and Anne-Marie George, PHD student of Computer science spoke to all our Year 4 students about career opportunities in Science Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). Deidre Creedon from CIT also spoke to students about course options in the college.

 

Teachers in the school put up on the doors of their classrooms the names of the Colleges they attended. This was a huge talking point for students throughout the week and one senior student said “it was really interesting to talk to different teachers about their college experiences and it increased my motivation to seek out the best college opportunity for myself”.

Principal Mr. Kieran Golden said “I am delighted with our Career College Awareness week. It was received very positively in our school by students and their parents”

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Turning Mayfield Green

John Hurley

For Science Week 2016

  • A group of First Year students and a small group of LCA students built Bug Hotels
  • The idea of bug hotels is to provide shelter and a source of food for insects over the winter and into the spring
  • Insects such as Solitary bees and ladybirds are very important in nature as they can help native plant species to thrive.
  • Mayfield Community School is hoping to encourage these insects and others to take up residence in the grounds of the school
  • We would hope the bug hotels would contribute to improving the natural environment around MCS
  • The bug hotels were constructed using recycled materials including bricks,tiles,wood and chicken wire.
  • We constructed a large bug hotel in the garden at the back of the school
  • The smaller bug hotels in the garden pots will be placed in various locations around the school
  • Bird Feeders have been placed around the school grounds and it is hoped we will encourage the smaller birds such as robins,blue tits and chaffinches to appear more often around the school grounds.

(written by Adam Cunningham and Tyrone Meade of TY)

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Science Exploration in Mayfield Community School

John Hurley

Students in Mayfield Community School were spoiled for choice during Science week. First year  and LCA students built an insect hotel and put up bird feeders in the school grounds as part of a biodiversity project. Science teacher Ms Callanan said “First year student recycled old pots, twigs, rolled up cardboard, red bricks and chicken wire to create a safe haven for insects and learned the importance of protecting our native species by providing suitable habitats over the winter”.

Students enjoyed a plant tour of Biopharma Education Centre where they learned of the processes and conditions required in a pharmaceutical factory setup. Students also learned about career paths in the pharmaceutical sector.

Students had a unique opportunity to visit the Stardome set up in the hall of the school’s sports complex by Blackrock Observatory. Science teacher Mr Begley said “students gained a new perspective on the night skies in Ireland.” Students were excited to explore the possibility of travel to Mars and learned of the difficulties such a journey would entail. Science teachers in Mayfield Community School were delighted to host this exciting event as it links directly to topics on  the new Junior Cycle syllabus.

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