A chairde,
An fhad is lá, tagann an tráthnóna, is an old Irish proverb meaning that no matter how long the day is evening eventually falls, and as evening falls, and another great school year comes to an end, I am delighted to offer you our Annual Report for the Academic Year 2017-2018.
It is appropriate that we reflect on the past academic year as we look forward to doing it all over again for the next academic year.
The great educationalist John Dewey said, “We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience”. We here in St. Paul’s Community College have a lot to reflect on as our students and staff have been involved in many great experiences over the course of our 17/18 school year. The many articles presented in this publication demonstrate the commitment of our staff to the education and welfare of the whole person.
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This is an opportunity for me to personally reflect on what an honour it is for me to lead our great team of dedicated teachers and students along with Ms. Murphy and our Team of Assistant Principals to support the teaching and learning in this school.
I would also like to formally welcome Ms. Murphy, our now not so new DP to St. Paul’s Community College and to acknowledge what a privilege it is to work with such a dedicated, competent colleague on our team. I also wish to thank Ms. O’Keeffe who was our Acting Deputy Principal for the first term and to thank her for her fantastic support to us all in that role.
It is with great pride that I take this opportunity to thank all staff members and parents of our students who have contributed to student’s journey of discovery here in St. Paul’s Community College especially staff who have generously given their free time to support student’s endeavours.
This publication is an opportunity for our school community to look back over the past year and reflect on the many varied activities, achievements, talents and skills of St. Paul’s Community College students.
And what a year we had, we began our year by rolling out a red carpet to welcome our first-year students, followed by a jersey day to support Waterford hurlers.
We hosted the BOI Enterprise Town, we welcomed Minister of State John Halligan for our rocket launch, and we attended TCD where we achieved TCD Trinity School of Distinction Award.
We rocked our school hall with raving reviews for four fantastic performances of Grease. We participated in the Solas run, we achieved the Amber Flag and we planted a tree of hope.
We celebrated friendship week, battled storm Ophelia and used our fallen treefor our Christmas craft fair. We participated in College Awareness Week and organised a Job Shadowing day for our 5th year students and a CAO day for our 6th year students.
The Big Déise Sleepout along with a clothes collection for homeless people, allowed us to reflect on others who are not as fortunate as ourselves at Christmas, also enjoyed a performance from the High Hopes Choir.
IIn December we welcomed our new Deputy Principal Ms. Murphy, students enjoyed Christmas merit trips, and a visit from Santa set the scene for Christmas.
from Santa set the scene for