Tag Archives: St Anne’s Community College

St Anne’s Community College has captured a remarkable rugby double, winning the Munster Girls Senior and Junior Cup finals in Musgrave Park, Cork on Wednesday.   Having won the Senior Cup last year, St Anne’s retained the title for the second successive year thanks to a 17-5 win over Ardscoil Mhuire, Limerick, who defeated their junior team in last year’s cup decider. To crown a glorious day for the Killaloe secondary school, their junior side mauled Coláiste Ide, Dingle by 47-0. This is the second successive year St Anne’s qualified for the Munster Senior and Junior Cup finals. St Anne’s defeated Clonakilty and ISK Killorglin on route to the senior final. Ard Scoil Mhuire Limerick and Colaiste Pobail, Bantry were defeated by St Anne’s on their way to the junior decider. When coach Grace Kearney set up rugby in St Anne’s back in 2015 there were very few girls playing the sport. She is thrilled to see girls winning the …

FOUR Clare students are among a record number to have been awarded Entrance Exhibition Awards from Trinity College Dublin. The awards go to the students accepted into the first year of a full-time undergraduate degree programme who achieve the highest points among Trinity entrants from their secondary school, above a minimum of 500 CAO points (or equivalent). The Clare recipients are: Lily Price from Colaiste Muire; Hugh Grogan, St Anne’s Community College; Ixim Dagge Hernandez, Ennistymon Vocational School and Nuoxi Zhang, St Flannan’s College. Many former awardees have gone on to make a significant contribution to the economic, cultural, and political life of Ireland and beyond. Past Exhibitioners include Tánaiste and former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar. Of the 2021 entrants to Trinity, 686 students qualified for an award, up from 527 in 2020. The students come from a record 497 different schools, 458 schools on the island of Ireland (up from 438 in 2020) and 39 schools from overseas (up from …

A CLARE-BASED driver education programme has launched Ireland’s very first e-scooter safety course which is set to be rolled out in schools across the country. The Irish School of Excellence, founded by Clare native Kieran O’Brien, has joined forces with Bird, a leader in environmentally friendly electric transportation, to launch the course. The announcement of the new programme comes just weeks after the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI), the Irish Wheelchair Association and the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind highlighted the hazards caused by e-scooters, calling for a ban on their use on footpaths and a reduced speed limit of 12km/h among other proposals. Mr O’Brien, CEO and founder of ISOE, explained that when it came to setting up the new course he was moved by the organisations’ statements to the Oireachtas Committee on Transport highlighting their concerns about e-scooters. “We were going to add e-scooter training as part of our overall driver education programme in schools, Mr O’Brien …

STUDENTS in St Anne’s Community College have pivoted to video in order to put across their message about stopping animal cruelty, writes Dan Danaher. Transition Year students had planned to deliver a power point presentation about animal welfare for primary school students in Killaloe and Ballina. However, they opted not to proceed with these plans due to the high incidence of Covid-19 and are now planning to film students giving an overview of their research project in a new video. Rebecca Rogers, Daniel Spaight, Amy Reilly and Dominik Maslanek are in the media group for their Young Social Innovators project. Having surveyed students in their class, the four teenagers discovered most of them had an animal at home and animal welfare was a topic that really interested the majority of the class. As part of their research for this YSI project, the students looked at Irish case studies of animal cruelty and are making posters to raise public awareness around …

THE strong bond between St Anne’s Community College, Killaloe and the local community has been lauded by its new principal, Eukaria O’Grady, Dan Danaher. A native of Limerick City, Ms O’Grady, who took up the post a few weeks ago, is very impressed with the respect between staff and students, which has been built up over the years. St Anne’s has almost 600 students and 45 teachers, which includes a few part-time. The previous principal, Aideen Walsh retired recently. As she settles in to her new role, Ms O’Grady, who is almost 40 years of age, is feeling more comfortable, and really likes the students and the local community. “It is a real community school. The staff and the parents’ association work with the community and the community works back into the school. “I get a great sense of that strong link between the school and the community in Ballina and Killaloe. There is a great interest among the staff …

OGONNOLLOE twin brothers had reasons for a double celebration earlier this week when they achieved outstanding results in their Leaving Certificate exams. Oisín McKeogh scooped the highest possible marks of 625 in the Leaving Certificate while his brother, Cathal secured 532. The two brothers attend St Anne’s Community College in Killaloe. Oisín hopes to study film and television production in the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire, which is a four-year undergraduate degree, subject to his Leaving Certificate results. The young film maker is very passionate about making films and is eagerly looking forward to honing his craft in Dublin. Acknowledging that securing accommodation in Dublin is quite expensive and will be challenging, he is nevertheless eager to take on the next steps in his academic career. It looks like Cathal will be in college much closer to home as he hopes to study Biological and Chemical Science in the University of Limerick. “I was very happy …

A NEW farewell video marking the graduation of Leaving Certificate students from St Anne’s Community College has attracted in the region of 8,000 views on the internet. School chaplain, Karol Torpey has revealed the school has received very positive feedback from people who have watched this video since it was posted on Monday, May 11. “Parents and students have commented and sent messages and other schools have contacted me to say it was excellent. It gave everyone a lift in a week we needed,” she said. “We wanted to say goodbye in a way that was proper. We get the know the students for six years and love them like our own. Sometimes teachers know students more than their parents because we spend so much more time with them during the day. “We end up in discussions on their own views about what is happening in the world. Students always have a special place in teachers’ heart. Even the ones …

LIKE thousands of schools across the country, St Anne’s Community College in Killaloe remains closed in a bid to limit the spread of the Coronavirus. And while the 500-strong student body are following the new rules of social distancing and staying apart, they are coming together online to keep their spirits up and to avail of support and guidance in these challenging times. School Chaplain Karol Torpey, who lives in Feakle, told The Champion that the school’s social platforms have come to fore in the current crisis. “Our Facebook page, Humans of St Anne’s Community College, is now operating as a virtual chaplain’s office. It’s a way of getting as much support and advice to people as possible and of gauging how people are feeling.” The importance of staying apart in order to protect the vulnerable is one key message that the school has been promoting across its social channels: “We have been working hard to get the message of …