Raising a virtual Irish Flag to honour the Front Line Workers in Ireland and around the world on International Workers Day. Many of our parents, past students and friends are working extremely hard during these very difficult times.
On behalf of all in Dunmore Community School – Thank You and Keep safe.
Planet Youth have allowed us to upload this video for you to watch following up feedback from the first night of their course. You might find it useful.
Some of our transition years students got involved in Break the Seal Programme this year. It is an NUIG initiative that aims to support students who wish to complete a Research Study Report. As part of this programme, DCS got in contact with Ms. Anne Tierney, President of the Old Tuam Historical Society. She engaged with all students, gave them advice, guidance and the skills required to research a topic in history. Anne and the editorial committee initially agreed to publish one of our students’ articles in JOTS (a magazine published every year by the Old Tuam Historical Society). After reading all our articles, she was so impressed with our students that Anne and the editorial committee, has decided to publish five. She has complimented all students involved and is only disappointed that she can’t publish them all but has congratulated all students on their work.
Our participating students have developed a range of skills such as collaboration, critical analysis, narrative expression and technological proficiency which will benefit them all when then move onto senior cycle.
All students are still going forward for the competition in NUIG in the coming weeks and I would like to wish them the best. Ms Brogan.
Well done to our P.E teacher Ms. Grehan who completed the GAA Future Leaders week 4 #GAASolo challenge with an impressive 14 handpasses in 30 seconds! She is looking forward to introducing GAA Future Leaders Initiative to her students in September.
All students were set this challenge this week!!! She is still waiting for the videos!
Remember to stay at home and follow HSE guidelines… Why not give this a go while you’re there and send in your video?! #GAAFutureLeader #GaisceAtHome #ItsInOurHands #20×20 #CantSeeCantBe
You may have noticed a new link has now appeared on the top menubar of our website linking to our newly developed Careers Portal site. This is a site that Ms Scarry, our Career Guidance Counsellor, will be updating with relevant information for our students on a regular basis.
In light of the current situation in schools, CareersPortal is now offering full access, free of charge, to all 6th years students to the REACH+ Career and College Preparation Programme. This service is being made available to them directly through Ms Scarry, our Guidance Counsellor, who has been receiving online CPD for the new system. She has already been in contact with all our Leaving Certs, giving them individual access to the REACH+ site. This resource is designed to help all 6th years students and Guidance Counsellors, who are supporting them, to continue their career learning and planning during this stressful time. We hope our 6th-year students find these sites useful. If they are having any difficulties, please get in touch with Ms Scarry.
Planet Youth will be running some workshops for parents over the next couple of weeks covering some of the main issues that we are all finding at home at the moment. The first of these particular Parenting your teenager during Covid19 events ran for Mayo parents last week and went down very well with them.
These events are interactive workshops using Zoom so something a bit different. If any parent wants to attend they just need to email events@planetyouth.ie expressing an interest in either date and they’ll get a link that way.
Each night is limited to 50 parents as they have 10 facilitators per session as well as a host and key speaker. They’re free events, no strings attached, supported by Healthy Ireland funding. First come, first served and you have a choice of the 28th or 30th at the moment, details are in the poster.
Well done to our Binja’s and their mentor Ms Canny on winning the National Final yesterday. #OneGoodIdea
Staff and students watched the Virtual National Final together in a Video Meeting and it was lovely to celebrate together, even if it was online!
We are so proud of their achievements. When we return to school in the near future we have no doubt their great work will continue.
As you will all remember earlier in the year, a group of our 2nd Year boys entered the SEAI One Good Idea Competition with their
creative idea of the BINJA’s. In the battle against climate change, these boys created an original and attention-catching 1 min film along with their mentor Ms.Canny and formulated the plot, costumes (from recyclable materials of course!), drafted in actors from 1st and 2nd Year and produced it all themselves. Special thanks to Barry Murray for his shining performance in the lead role! Their film along with the promotion of their campaign of the 3R’s (reduce refill recycle) throughout the school and community secured their rightful place in the Regional Final in Limerick. Here the BINJAs film was played on the big screen in the Omniplex and the boys presented their Presentation Pitch discussing all their work and the importance of their campaign. To our delight, the Binja’s did not just qualify for National Finals but came 1st place in the Regional Final which was an incredible achievement considering it was the school’s first time to enter the competition! School closures followed but we are now delighted to announce the National Finals will still go ahead tomorrow in a Virtual format on YouTube at 2 o clock. (Thursday 23rd April)
The event will begin with a short speech from the SEAI followed by the 4 Primary school films and the winner announced. Following this, the 8 Post Primary winning films from around the country will then be shown and the All Ireland Winner will be announced! The very best of luck to our Binja’s!
We are so proud of all you have achieved and will be tuned in tomorrow to see your amazing film being aired no matter what the outcome! Best of luck to all!
We hope to have a virtual meetup tomorrow at 2 pm for all those involved. Keep an eye on your email for an invite to the online meeting!
The Jigsaw Support Line is now up and running on freefone 1800 JIGSAW (544 729). This new initiative, developed as part of Jigsaw’s Covid – 19 response, aims to provide free, relevant and accessible mental health support, education, advice and guidance to young people aged 12 to 25 years old, and/or their parents/concerned others who are resident in the Republic of Ireland.
Alongside the Support Line, we are also offering an inbound SMS and email service, both operated by a designated group of Jigsaw Clinicians. Both additional offerings aim to give all potential users various options to get in touch and initiate a request for a return call from a Jigsaw Clinician.
Contact details and opening hours:
1. 1800 JIGSAW (544729) Opening hours: Monday to Friday 1pm- 5pm.
2. SMS 086 180 3880. Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.
3. Email help@jigsaw.ie. Opening hours:Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.
If you have any questions about any of this or the Jigsaw Online offerings for young people, parents & guardians and people working with young people, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Tomorrow, the 20th April, is the start of the final term of the 2019-2020 school year. This is normally a very busy term with exams classes preparing for final exams, practicals, project deadlines, and the more enjoyable aspects of planning for the end of year awards, graduation ceremonies etc. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic and current lockdown, it will no doubt be a very unusual and different term.
The three weeks in the run-up to the Easter were a learning curve for us all, with everyone adjusting and upskilling with online learning and staying isolated at home. Thankfully our staff, students and parents/guardians embraced this change so positively. Thanks to all who completed the survey at the end of the last term, your feedback was very much appreciated. In response to the feedback and comments from students, teachers and parents/guardians we have developed a set of guidelines that will hopefully make the next few weeks more structured and sustainable and address some of the issues that were occurring. Parents/guardians should have received a text earlier with a link to a letter outlining the guidelines, but I am attaching them here in case you didn’t.
It is vital that our students keep engaging with the material teachers are setting, both from an educational point of view, but also for a focus each day for them. We do understand the issues of poor ICT facilities, poor Broadband etc and we would encourage you to let us know if there are ways we can assist/advise. I know some of you have issues of several children in a home using the same laptop, hopefully the more structured approach to assigning work will assist in this regard. I would also encourage your child to install the Team app on their phone.
Of course, there is no real replacement for the classroom environment, but we will do our very best to assist our students as we head into the final term. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance over the next few weeks.
Kind regards and keep safe, DQuinn.
