Wicklow Hospice Speaker
On Friday, 31 January, we welcomed Allison Ryder, Fundraising, Events and Campaigns Coordinator for the Wicklow Hospice, to talk to Fifth year and TY students about the hospice. Allison shared the funding background to the hospice's opening in 2020 which involved the work of the whole community and Daniel Day Lewis’s special role. She also explained how the 15 separate bedrooms enable patient and family dignity and privacy and the wide reach of the hospice through palliative homecare visits.
Wicklow Hospice is a charity and must fundraise millions each year to sustain its crucial services. CCM is therefore pleased that to have chosen Wicklow Hospice as our charity of the year for 2025.
Fifth Year Art Trip
Fifth year Art students travelled to Dublin on Tuesday, 4 February, for their Visual Studies trip. They visited the National Gallery of Ireland, where they explored the Realist and Impressionist works they’ve been studying, including Monet's expressive brushwork and Picasso’s abstract forms. The group then went to the National Museum of Ireland - Archaeology, where they saw artefacts from the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age, showing how artistic designs evolved from geometric shapes to zoomorphic motifs. This trip is a valuable experience for their Visual Studies exam next year.
Strive for Five – Pizza Parties
As part of an attendance initiative, CCM is running the 'Strive for Five' attendance campaign from 10 to 14 February 2025. The attendance rates in the school continue to be strong and are above the post-primary average, ETB average, DEIS, Non-Deis and Wicklow averages.
To reward and celebrate the improved attendance rates over the last few years, the best class on each side will receive a pizza party. As all first years have above 90% attendance, they received a pizza party on Friday, 31 January.
The classes with the highest attendance in Second, Transition and Fifth year enjoyed their pizza party on Thursday, 6 February, at lunch time, while the Third and Sixth year pizza parties will take place after the mocks.
Well done to all involved!
First Year Boys’ GAA
CCM First Year Boys contested the Br. Hubert Yellow Division Cup Final last Thursday, 30 January. We played a very fancied and strong Heywood Community School from Laois. The final was played in the impressive setting of Abbotstown GAA National Development Centre in Dublin on the 3G surface.
This game started at a frenetic pace, as usual in this competition, and the slick surface helped keep that tempo high. Heywood started brightly and scored a goal and point before CCM could draw breath. However, after a few slight changes, CCM grew into the game and took the fight to Heywood, something they hadn't experienced in this competition to date. Simon Lynch converted his own penalty and our boys went at the heart of the Heywood defence. Heywood just about survived the onslaught and were able to capitalise when they converted scores of their own in the first time of asking. The halftime score was not reflected of the game but it was a crucial indicator for the second half.
A seven-point difference was always going to be hard to pull back, particularly when suffering another goal on the restart. However, CCM battled to the end and made a final surge where they scored three goals without reply in the final ten minutes of the game but, unfortunately, it wasn't enough to get the win.
This was great experience for our boys and shows they can mix it with teams of a higher standard going into the future. There were some big performances from Simon Lynch, Dylan Butler and Christopher Delahunt and the rest of our boys gave everything they had. The final score was 5-03 to 9-06 in the favour of Heywood.
Second Year Girls’ Basketball
On Friday, 31 January, our Second year girls had a match against Greystones girls. Although it wasn't our day, the girls delivered a strongperformance. A special shout-out to Kayla Kearney, Mya Crean Dunne, Soliat Aroyeun, Carly McDonald and Aoife Lane who played to their best ability.
First and Second Year Basketball
The First and Second year girls had their final basketball match against CCA on Thursday, 6 February. The First year girls started out strong scoring 6 points within the first few minutes. Unfortunately, they were unable to hold this score against their strong opponents and the win went to CCA. Well done to all twenty girls who played.
The Second year girls started out fierce with each of the five starting players scoring, leading us 14-2 after the first seven minutes. Tonya Kayembe, Síofra O Mahoney and Mya Crean Dunne managed to maintain the momentum during the 2nd and 3rd quarter. Keeley O’Neill worked hard to get a few scores in the last quarter but, with just 30 seconds left in the game, CCA managed to pull ahead with a finishing score of 28 CCA - 23 CCM. A super exciting game and well done to the girls for their dedication and improvement each and every game.
