NEWS LETTER
ST PETER’S COLLEGE
June 2016
PETER’S
Thanks to all members of the school ST
community
forCOLLEGE
their continued dedication and hard work as we
come to the end of another academic year. I would like to thank our Patron, Bishop Denis Brennan for
2014
his support and encouragement throughout June
the year
and Mgr Joe McGrath, for his outstanding work
as Chairperson of the Board of Management. I extend a very special thank you to the members of the
Board of Management, the Students’ Council, Parents’ Council, and Past Pupils’ Union.
I congratulate the students for their efforts in so many academic, sporting and cultural events. Our
students continue to bring great honour to the College through their many outstanding achievements.
ST PETER’S COLLEGE
In particular, I thank our ’Senior of the House’ Patrick Hamilton and our ‘Sub-Senior’, Oisin Foley,
who were outstanding ambassadors of the College and represented us with distinction. I wish all our
students well with their Leaving and Junior Certificate exams and in their future careers. Thanks to all
parents / guardians for your support and encouragement over the year. St Peter’s College has
maintained a strong tradition of parental and community links over the years and I am confident this
partnership will continue to grow and flourish.
In St Peter’s we are blessed with a very talented and dedicated teaching staff whose influence and
commitment extends far beyond the classroom. I thank them for their on-going commitment and
8 orchestra, whose contribution to the Graduation
dedication. I wish continued success to the school
Mass again this year was fantastic.
To our Chaplain Fr Aodhan, a special thank you. I am glad to say that the Catholic ethos, friendships
and camaraderie that are synomonous with the College continue to flourish under your care.
To the administrative staff, secretaries, caretaker and security staff, I thank you for your extraordinary
contribution to the College, its staff, students and parents. Thanks also to the cleaning staff and the
staff of “Oven Door Catering” whose contribution is a valued and vital part of College life.
The characteristic spirit of the College continues to combine the academic, sporting, cultural and
spiritual development of the students in a Christian setting. The College continues to place
considerable emphasis on the pursuit of academic excellence through the consistent setting of high
expectations and standards. It also provides a holistic and balanced education, where teaching and
learning are central and based on an underlining respect for the rights of all.
Finally, I wish you all the very best for the summer months and look forward to your safe return to us
in late August. I wish the community that is St Peter’s College, God’s Graces and Blessings with
continued success into the future.
R O’Callaghan,
Principal
Parents are asked to note that the Board of Management cannot accept any responsibility for
students who are on school grounds before 8.45am or 15 minutes after the end of formal classes
Absences
Parents are reminded that all students must swipe in each day. You have received an ‘Absences
Report’; this is the official school record of your son’s attendance. Please check it to make sure that
your son has been swiping in. If there appears to be any discrepancies, please contact the Deputy
Principal as soon as possible. Please ensure that your son has a swipe card. If your son has lost or
damaged his card, he may order a new one in the first week back in September. Cost €10.
Detention
In the case of a Detention, you will be informed by telephone of your son’s misbehaviour, and the
date and time of the Detention. The details of the Detention will be available to you on the VSware
System where it will be recorded on the student’s VSware page. It is very important that your son
attends Detention on the date specified. If, for some reason, he cannot attend on that date, please send
in a note to the Detention Co-ordinator before the Detention date if possible, but not later than the
following morning. Students who do not attend Detention, and who do not bring in a note, will incur
another Detention and may be suspended.
School Uniform
Please ensure that your son has full uniform i.e., white shirt and College tie, grey slacks, wine jumper
and black or brown shoes for the start of the next school year. Canvas or runner type shoes are not
acceptable. Please note that sports jerseys or coloured t-shirts may not be worn underneath shirts.
School Diary
In September, your son will receive the School Diary. This should be checked and signed by
parents/guardians every week. Please ensure that your son keeps it neat, tidy and graffiti free and uses
it to record his homework each school day. Notes from teachers regarding your son’s progress are
often recorded in the diary. The School’s Code of Conduct is also printed in the Diary and this should
be read by all parents/guardians and signed. Other important information on school calendar and
Parent/Teacher meetings etc. is also printed in the Diary.
Lost Property
In order to facilitate the reuniting of lost property within the school with their rightful owners, it
would be appreciated if parents/guardians would ensure that their son’s name is on all coats, jumpers
and books.
School App
The recently launched School App can be found on Google Play (Android) and the App Store (Apple)
under 'St. Peter's College Wexford'. It provides a variety of services, such as daily notices, school
calendar, contact numbers and homework, amongst a wide selection of other features.
Spectrum
The school magazine, ‘Spectrum’ produced by the TY class in conjunction with the PPU and a
teachers’ committee was launched in May. Copies of this excellent publication are available from the
school office.
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Reminder
Students are not allowed to leave the College grounds during the school day unless they have a
Lunch Pass
Only LC 2 students, with the permission of the Principal, are allowed to bring a car into school.
Under no circumstances are students allowed to take cars out of the College grounds during the
school day or to carry other students in their cars
If for any reason you are unable to access your son’s exam results on VSware, please contact the
office for assistance.
Please be informed that the Admissions Policy for St Peter’s College has been changed by the
Board of Management. The new Admissions Policy will cover Enrolment from 2016 onwards. A
copy of the new Admissions Policy will be available to download from the school website from
early June 2015.
Cycle Against Suicide
This year, St. Peter’s College was chosen as one of the 22 Anchor Schools for Cycle Against Suicide.
After months of preparation by the whole school community under the guidance of the link teacher
Mr Gleeson, the day finally came. With the school transformed into a sea of orange at 6pm on
Thursday May 5th over 650 cyclists arrived to a rapturous welcome. This number included 100 of our
students plus teachers who had trained hard for this day. That night a Céilí Mór took place in T.
Morris and the next morning, students, teachers and many locals gathered in the Complex for two
hours of music and chat before the cyclists left for the next leg of their journey. We were joined by
students from all over the town who lined the streets of Wexford to give the cyclists a well deserved
send off. We raised €1500.66 from a raffle to help Jim Breen and his team continue this hugely
successful event. It was a remarkable event and always remember ‘it’s ok not to feel ok; and it’s
absolutely ok to ask for help’
Second Years are ‘Thinking about learning’!
In February, all second year students took part in a workshop designed to get them thinking about the
learning process. An obvious exercise, one would think as part of the education process. However,
research informs us that thinking about learning - ‘metacognition’ - is not something we often get
time to reflect on in schools. Albert Einstein said that “education is not the learning of facts but the
training of the mind to think”. Unfortunately, pressures of curriculum, syllabus restriction and the
ghastly ‘points race’ has ensured a system that focuses on the former rather than the latter. Our
objective was to expose the students to some strategies that may get them thinking about themselves
as organised and effective learners. We hope that some of the boys will begin to think more about
what their role as a learner is, and how to enhance their learning experience during their time in St.
Peter’s College.
Green Schools
Congratulations to everyone who helped us over the past two years in working on the Travel Theme
of the Green Schools Programme. We are delighted to have been awarded our FOURTH Green Flag.
We also applied for and were awarded a Covered Bike Shelter. This facility will, we hope, encourage
more to cycle to school. 150 students attended a puncture repair workshop held in April at the School.
TY
What a busy year it has been in Transition Year 2016. The five TY classes enjoyed the usual array of
modules as well as an exciting collection of trips out and in house events. All students are thanked for
participating so willingly in the Transition Year Programme and especially those involved in raising
money for charities. Over the course of the year, nearly €5000 was raised for local and national
charities which was, of course, greatly received by all. Best of luck to all TY students in their
Leaving Certificate years as we welcome our third years in to TY this September.
End of Year Mass and Prize Giving
Bishop Denis Brennan was Principal Celebrant of the End of Year Mass in Bride St Church on
Wednesday May 25th. He was assisted by the school chaplain Fr Aodhan Marken and Mgr Joe
McGrath. In his homily, Bishop Brennan spoke about the movie ‘The Bucket List’ and its main
message that “the best time of your life is now, so live in the moment”. He told the students that the
future is their friend where they will discover who they are and who they are destined to be. It’s not
yet written, they will write it every day and he wished them well with it – and their bucket list!
Student of the Year
The six nominees for the Student of the Year Award were: Oisin Foley, Conor Glynn, Patrick
Hamilton, Darragh Kenny, Ryan O’Donnell and David Ronan. The winner was Ryan O’Donnell and
he was presented with the award by Michael Breen, Vice President of the PPU.
Colm McLoughlin Award
The Award commemorates Colm McLoughlin who died in 1996. It is presented to the St Peter’s
student who achieves the highest marks in Junior Cert Science. The Award for 2015 went to Tadhg
Cleary.
Junior Cert Gold Medals
Gold medals for outstanding results in the Junior Cert were awarded to: Shane Doyle, David Corcoran,
Rory Cullen, Darragh Jones, Uilliam Kinsella, Alex Innes, Ben Bursnell Mooney, Neil Kelly, Eoin
Pinaqui, Dean O’Brien, Rory Ward, Luke Cox and Tadhg Cleary.
Past Pupils’ Union Achievement Awards
This year six students were honoured, they were: Patrick Hamilton who last year was crowned All
Ireland champion at the All Ireland Pony Club Open Eventing championship in Tattersalls. Mickey
Cullen was saluted for his achievements with his club Menapians Athletic. Last summer, he was a
central part of their 4 x 400 relay team which won the All Ireland relay title. Cillian Tobin and Sean
Byrne are making quite a name for themselves both on the small screen and on the big stage. They
were stars of the recent RTE drama series “Clean Break”. They then set out with Bridge Drama on the
road to Athlone for the All Ireland Drama finals. After all the performances from groups all over the
country, they were crowned All Ireland Drama champions for their parts as young brothers in the
Bridge Drama production of Lost in Yonkers. The final recipients were Matthew Arthur and
Darragh Sinnott who have worked extremely hard at Lifesaving to make their way to the top in
Ireland. They have both been selected to represent Ireland at the World Surf Lifesaving event in
Holland in September.
Equestrian
In the All Ireland Inter-Schools Hunter Trials Competition this year, the senior team of Patrick
Hamilton, Frank Ronan and Séan Staples finished 4th. In the All Ireland Schools Show Jumping the
individual prize winners were – Walter Ronan who came 3rd in Ireland, while in the novice event
Mikey Cullen came 5th in Ireland
Meitheal
Another successful year in St. Peter’s for the Meitheal program. When the First Years entered St.
Peter’s last September, our LC2 Meitheal Leaders helped them to settle down, integrate, navigate and
make new friends. Along with weekly activities and games, the Meitheal Leaders proved to be a
constant support and help to the First Years, providing guidance and encouragement throughout the
year. The highlight of the year came last November when the Loreto students were invited up for the
First Year Disco. This was entirely run by the Meitheal Leaders from both schools, and they did an
amazing and outstanding job. The spirit of friendship, togetherness and fun was evident. Our Meitheal
Leaders received their certificates at the Co. Wexford Meitheal Alliance Awards Day last January in
the Ashdown Park Hotel, Gorey. St. Peter’s are truly lucky to have such a dedicated, diligent,
considerate and kind team of Meitheal Leaders – they should truly be proud of their achievements.
Music
The St. Peter’s College Orchestra recently played at the College Graduation Mass and Prize giving in
Bride Street Church. Pieces included “Gabriel’s Oboe” by Ennio Morricone and “Sí Bheag Sí Mhór”
by Turlough O’Carolan. The orchestra is looking forward to new recruits from the incoming First
Years in September. Special thanks to our Violin tutor Emily Redmond and Cello tutor Michelle
Mason who continue to do great work with the students. Four of the members will be travelling to
San Salvo in Italy this July with the Co. Wexford Youth Orchestra to take part in the International
Orchestra Festival. We wish them a great musical experience performing with orchestras from all over
Europe. Earlier this year five of our students - Mark Donoghue, Pauric O’Toole, John Berry, Rian
Carty and Matthew Burke entered a competition to write a song to commemorate 1916. The song is
published in “Amhrán ag Comoradh 1916”
St Peter’s Trad Group
The newly formed trad group meets in the Demo Room every Thursday at lunchtime with help from
Ms. Murphy and Ms. Cummins. Our performances during the past year included playing at the Cycle
Against Suicide Céilí during Seachtain na Gaeilge and at the Proclamation Day commemorations. The
group caters for all years and many types of instruments including the flute, fiddle, piano, banjo,
uilleann pipes, mandolin, accordion, bodhrán and cahone. We are looking forward to another great
year with the group next year. All new members are welcome!
Basketball
The First Year Squad remained unbeaten throughout the entire year, with convincing victories against
Wexford CBS, Creagh College, Meánscoil Gharman and Bridgetown. Meeting tough opposition from
Ramsgrange in the final, St. Peter’s were crowned Wexford League First Year Champions for
2016. The Senior Basketball Squad also remained unbeaten this year in the Wexford League. They
played Wexford CBS, Bridgetown, Ramsgrange and Kilmuckridge. They met Kilmuckridge again in
the final, and beat them again to be crowned the Wexford League U19 Champions for the 2015/6.
Golf
Having qualified from the league stages, the St Peter’s College Senior Golf team of Brendan Rossiter,
Nathan O’Brien, Andre O’Brien and Jack Sinnott travelled to Courtown to take on Gorey Community
School in the first knockout round of the Leinster Matchplay competition. Jack and Andre played well
but lost by two holes. Brendan and Nathan were a combined two under par in their match but still lost
by six holes. However this team are all available next year so hopes are high that they can make the
knockout stages and qualify for the final stages of the competition.
GAA
1st Year Hurling - There was huge enthusiasm from First Years to be involved in hurling activities
this year. Skills training took place in the alleys at lunch time and many in-house blitzes were
organised throughout the year. Panels were also picked to attend blitzes in St. Kieran’s College and
challenge games against the juvenile team of Wexford CBS. Recently two panels attended a blitz in
Kilkenny where we played Coláiste Eoin and St. Brendan’s, Birr. Training continued until the Tom
Walsh Memorial Cup in Good Counsel won by the hosts. An in-house skills competition took place in
Power Park at the end of the year.
Junior Football— The Junior Footballers made it to another South –Leinster Semi-Final this year. St.
Peters qualified on top of the group after beating Patrician Newbridge, Good Counsel College and
Knockbeg. St Peter’s College won the semi-final against Scoil Dara, Kilcock but came up against a
very strong St. Mary’s, Edenderry team in the final. It was a very close game that went right down to
the wire with St Peter’s College just losing out by a single point. Edenderry went on to win the
Leinster and All Ireland titles.
Junior Hurling - Junior hurling got off to a disappointing start when St.Peters College travelled to
Kilkenny to take on Kilkenny CBS. A few mistake throughout the game led to us losing by 5 points to
strong opposition. With only 3 teams in the group St. Peters went into a must-win game against
another Kilkenny opposition, Castlecomer. The team battled very hard throughout and came away
with a big victory which saw them qualify for the Leinster Semi-final. The team then took on the
eventual All-Ireland champions and yet another Kilkenny opposition in St.Kierans College. St. Peter’s
started the game brightly in the end St. Kierans ran out comfortable winners.
Juvenile Hurling - The campaign began in December with challenge matches played against Good
Counsel, Coláiste Eoin, Wexford CBS and Gorey CS. In the league, St. Peter’s faced Dublin South,
St Kierans, Westmeath Schools and Mountrath CS. In the Leinster Championship, St Peter’s
defeated Castlecomer CS before losing to eventual winners St Kierans in an entertaining game. The
season ended in a defeat to Good Counsel in the Marty Barrett Cup final.
Senior Football - St. Peters Senior Footballers lost the first round of the Leinster Championship to
eventual finalists Athlone Community College. They were also unlucky to lose to Newbridge College
in the League Final.
Senior Hurling - Although they trained hard and prepared well, the senior hurling team were
defeated in this year’s championship by a very strong Dublin North side.
Taekwondo
On June 26th, Fionn He-Adley and Stuart Vaughan will travel to Dublin for their first black belt
testing in Taekwondo. The grading, a sheer test of endurance, will last three hours.
Swimming
In January, eight students competed in the Leinster Senior Schools Gala. Darragh Sinnott, Matthew
Arthur, John Matthews and David Matthews won silver in the Medley Relay and then added a bronze
in the Freestyle Relay. Darragh also won individual silver in the 100 backstroke while Stuart Vaughan
won bronze in the 100 breast stroke. Liam Devaney, Niall Griffin, David Larkin and Stuart Vaughan
were 6th in the 200m Medley Relay plus 7th place in 200m Freestyle Relay. In the nationals, both
relay teams came 5th while Darragh was on the Leinster team who came 4th in the All Ireland.
Athletics
A great start to 2016 began in April and May with the South Leinster Track and Field Athletics
competitions. A number of athletes qualified for the Leinster Track and Field Competition. These
included - David Cantwell, Dylan Patel (first year) Jack Hayden (third year) John Murphy (TY),
Shane Parle, Peter O Shea, Dylan Furlong (LC1) and Conor Gaffney and Mikey Cullen (LC2). Shane
Parle, Mikey Cullen and Conor Gaffney also qualified in their categories for the All Irelands which
was a great achievement.
Badminton
St Peter’s had a very successful season in Wexford Schools Badminton this year. Our Seniors finished
1st and 2nd in Division 2, both teams qualifying for Leinster. In Junior, St Peter’s were runners up in
Wexford Division 1, and our second team won Division 3. In Juvenile, our 1st team were very strong
and won Division 2; however the competition in Division 3 was just too strong with Enniscorty CS
taking the Division 3 title. In Leinster, all teams had a similar fate - we were able to compete with
some schools but the Dublin schools all proved to be too strong.
All-Ireland Linguistics Olympiad
This year a record 48 students sat the first round in the All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad. Once again
we were successful and all three of our students who were selected for the final in Trinity College
were awarded medals. Conor Gaffney and Conor Hillis were ranked silver and David Ronan bronze.
Conor Gaffney narrowly missed out on making the Irish team to compete in India.
Debating/Public Speaking
Congratulations to Uilliam Kinsella, Liam Turner and Ben Bursnell Mooney on reaching the quarterfinals of the Leinster Schools Senior Debating competition in UCD. In the Leinster Schools Junior
Debating competition, many students took part in debates held in UCD earlier on in the school year.
Oisín Tiernan, Ryan Wardick, Ruairí O’Sullivan, James O’Leary, Scott Byrne and Shane Corrigan all
represented the school with distinction.
German Debating/Essay Writing
Congratulations to the 2015 / 2016 Senior German debating Team of Joe Wickham (Captain), Cormac
Porter, David Ronan, Robert Murphy and Jamie Doran. We were narrowly defeated in the third round
of the Siemens All Ireland Debating Competition. We also had success in the Leargás essay
competition; Conor Doyle made it to the final 4 out of 300 entries and Oisín Tiernan the final 16. Our
Twitter account Ettlingen@Ettlingen11 where articles of interest relating to German can be found.
Euro Languages Training and Selection Course
Both Paul Curtis and Jamie Doran beat off stiff opposition in the Euro Languages Training and
Selection Course which took place on March 21st and March 22nd 2016 in St. Patrick’s Training
College, Drumcondra, Dublin. They were both selected for the role of Assistant at Euro Languages
Colleges nationwide this summer. Paul Curtis will be an assistant in Galway while Jamie Doran will
be located in Clongowes Wood, Co. Kildare. The French Department Twitter account is
www.twitter.com/spcfrench where lots of new of new vocabulary and latest news in French can be
found.
St. Vincent de Paul
This was the first year of the SVP Youth Council in the College, made up of eleven TY students.
They volunteered their time to organise the Blind Date event in conjunction with the Loreto
Secondary School and raised €545 for SVP. Every Monday, the team visited the local nursing home
to chat with the residents. They have spread awareness all around the school about SVP and
represented the college at a Youth Day in Kilkenny.
Science Week Table Quiz
As part of this year’s Science Week, all First Year students took part in a Science Table Quiz.
Congratulations to the winning team “Disco Stew” with team members Stuart Hession, Cillian Kehoe,
Ben Logue, Ben McAleese, Patrick McMahon and Daniel Muriithi.
Engineering Week 2016
Engineering week took place from 28th February – 5th March. Students had the opportunity to read
and learn more about the different Engineering based careers on offer. There was also an Engineering
Challenge where students had to use simple coding to crack a code. Out of all our budding engineers
Calvin Mc Donnell was the winner.
SciFest 2016
Two projects from St. Peters were selected and went to represent the College at the SciFest regional
event held at Waterford Institute of Technology on Wednesday 27th April. Darragh Jones and John
Murphy took this opportunity to present their project “To investigate whether the amount of sleep a
person gets has an effect on their performance at doing exercise”. The second project “Do video
games affect the way we sleep?” was presented by Thomas Reilly, Joshua O’Callaghan and Joshua
McLoughlin.
Art
In the National Texaco Children’s Art Competition, 2nd Year Jack Duggan won a special merit award.
Library
Lots of activities in the School Library during the year including Chess lessons from Spanish Grand
Master Mauel Gardenes who is scheduled to return next year. There were visits for all First Years to
Wexford Library organised by a TY Committee. Fresh donations of books and games are always
welcome!