To celebrate the end of Science week, Transition year student's demonstrated various Chemistry and Physics experiments to a full and intrigued 1st year audience in the Theatre. 

Well done to all involved.

Congratulations to Daniel Hegarty, Patrick Moroney and William Hetherington from 6th Yr. who came 2nd place in the Irish Science Teachers Associations Regional Senior Science Quiz which took place in University College Cork on Thursday night. 

 The quiz questions were drawn from the Leaving Certificate Biology, Chemistry and Physics courses, as well as general science knowledge and news content.

 The team of three have qualified to compete in the national final which will take place in Trinity College Dublin on the 3rd of December. 

Well done to our other two 6th Yr. Teams which took part in the quiz. These teams were made up of Andrew Cuddigan, Sean Herlihy and Dylan Costello and Jack Kingston, Evan Lee and Joe Mac Namara. 

Photo shows Left to Right: Mr. Allen Donnelly (Chemistrty Teacher), Daniel Hegarty, Mr. Cian O'Mahony ISTA representative, Patrick Moroney, William Hetherington, Ms. Claire Lynch (Biology Teacher) and Mr. Ian Lehane (Physics Teacher)

Well done to all involved and a special thanks to our Science teachers in helping our students prepare so well for this quiz.  

Well done to all our 1st Yr. students who took part in the 1st Yr. Science Quiz as part of a very busy Science Week in P.B.C.

Thanks to All our Science Department for such a well organised, busy and inclusive Science Week. 

Recently Class 1D completed an extremely exciting project, 'My European Union, My Ireland, My EU50' 

This is to commemorate 50 years of EU membership in Ireland, students had to make a series of videos, PowerPoints and conduct interview's, which included, students from their class, former TD Tom Meaney and detective sergeant’s Paul Johnson and Michael Lynch of the national cyber-crime Bureau, in Europol building the Hague. 

This competition is aimed to celebrate with young people across the nation, to see their creativity and innovative ideas about Ireland and Europe. ‘MyEU50: The Ireland EU50 Youth Competition’ will run over all three levels of education in Ireland; Primary, Post-Primary and Third Level. We wish all the students involved the absolute best luck!! 

Mr. Casey 

Recently the Preslink committee met with Br. Martin and two vissiting Presentation Brothers from Ghana, Br. Godfrey and Br. Valerius. The meeting was very informative for our Preslink committee who learned more about life in Ghana and the important work carried out by the Presentation Brothers there. The Brothers also informed the commtiiee about the vital work carried out with funds raised through Preslink. 

Photo shows Br. Martin Kenneally, Br. Godfrey, David Barry, Principal and Br. Valerius.

Group photo shows the Preslink committee with the visiting Presentation Brothers from Ghana.

Br. Martin Kenneally, Jack Bugler, Michael Mullins, Andrew Maume, Devin Giltinan, Br. Valerius, Andrew Stack, Br. Godfrey, Sam Hernon, Stuart Gilbert, Robert Barry, Peter Burke, Alex Cronin, Tadhg Andrews and Luke Mullins.

T.Y. Film and Photography Module Students along with their teachers Ms.Walsh and Mr. Casey embarked on a trip to Killarney on Tuesday 15th Nov. To take photographs and shoot film footage on location at Ross Castle and Aghadoe Heights. Both locations did not disappoint, the bright calm conditions provided the perfect light and backdrop for the students to create memorable footage. A productive and enjoyable day was had by all. 

SENIOR BOOK CLUB

Starting Friday 18th November and every Friday going forward the school library will host a book club where 4th, 5th and 6th Year students will be able to discuss their favourite books, recommend books to each other and discover new titles.

The first official senior book club will be held at 12.55 pm (lunch break) on Friday 18th in the school library. Here, students will introduce each other by talking about their favourite book, or a book that made a big impact on them.

As students will likely be busy studying for their Christmas exams, these first few book club events will focus on being light and fun, as students won’t want to take on extra reading challenges on top of their studies. However, later book club meetings will expand to include long-term reading challenges and themed book weeks.

Transition year Biology students visited UCC  on Tuesday for a DNA workshop which was presented by Dr. Sinead Kerins. 

This workshop is facilitated by the School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology in UCC and it provides our TY’s with a deeper insight into the science behind DNA, Genetics and Data Analysis. 

The initial lecture provided our students with the theoretical knowledge relating to the experiments which the students were completing during the workshop; Detecting Sickle Cell Anaemia, Isolating DNA from Green Peas, and Isolating DNA from Cheek cells. 

Students used and further developed their critical thinking skills during the experiments to analyse the data they collected. 

A big thank you to the Science Department in the school for facilitating this workshop.

A Month in the Library

October found the library well-stocked with a selection of spooky Halloween reads, with everything from Goosebumps to the short stories of Henry James gracing the shelves.

Halloween Creative Writing Competition

Students were encouraged to take a step beyond simply reading scary stories this October, as our Halloween Creative Writing competition tasked students of all ages with creating their very own spooky tale. The work submitted ranged from tales of vengeful ghosts to poems about trick or treating techniques, and it was a great display of creativity and imagination from all involved.

Overall Winner – Ronan Murphy, Terminal

Ronan Murphy took home the gold for this eerie tale of a prophetic AI and the end of humanity, and by ‘gold’ we of course mean a 20 euro Vibes & Scribes book voucher.

Second Place – Liam Fitzgerald, Beetles and Worms

This gruesome short story was gut-churning enough to earn Liam Fitzgerald a hardback copy of Junji Ito’s Shiver.

Third Place – Daniel Barry,A Scary Story

Simple but effective, this story packed so much suspense into a single page that it won Daniel Barry a book of illustrated Norse myths.

Highly Commended – Ronan McCarthy,Halloween Story

In an extremely competitive shortlist, Ronan McCarthy’s inventive, frantically-paced story of supernatural revenge only just lost out on a third place prize, but he still won a copy of Stephen King’s Dark Tower.

Best Poem – Michael Scott, Real Life is a Horror

A compelling and thoughtful take on the idea of a Halloween poem, Michael Scott’s poem stood out and earned him a copy of If All the World and Love Were Young by Stephen Sexton.

Halloween Fact Files

October saw the Junior and Senior Library Teams host daily fact files about famous horror authors, exploring the life and works of authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King and Shirley Jackson.

Book of the Month

The Halloween displays resulted in plenty of students checking out Halloween favourites, with younger students in particular opting for books from Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak series and Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events. However, the classics won out this October, as several students decided to check out Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein. Although everyone knows the name Frankenstein, many of the students who chose the book were trying it for the first time, and were interested in reading about the origins of this famous horror icon.

Word of the Month

SIALOQUENT – tending to spray saliva when speaking.

Coming Up in the Library

Out with the Halloween decorations, in with the Christmas spirit! As well as a change of scenery, November will see the library play host to workshops for this year’s edition of The Unfinished Book of Poetry, a collection of poems from emerging young writers.

Ms Sophie McKenzie P.B.C. Librarian