Yellow Flag Award 2025
The Diversity Committee is delighted to announce that Coláiste Chill Mhantáin has now had its Yellow Flag status renewed from April 2025. This is the culmination of almost two years' work by staff and students of the Diversity Committee to recognise, promote and celebrate diversity in Coláiste Chill Mhantáin as well as raising awareness and working to prevent racism in our school community. We have written an anti-racism policy, which is a requirement of the Yellow Flag programme, and this has recently been brought to the Board of Management. We will be shortly presented with our flag for display in our school and the Diversity Committee will be invited to the Yellow Flag national celebration next year. Thank you to all the staff, students and Mr Donoghue for their support of the Diversity Committee along this journey and we are proud to have the Yellow Flag renewed once again as a symbol of our diverse and inclusive school community. Well done everyone.
Let it BEE Day at CCM 2025
30th April 2025 was designated as a day to recognise the world biodiversity crisis and climate emergency as declared by Wicklow County Council in 2019. Following on from this, ‘Let it BEE’ is a nationwide initiative to ask people to leave the grass long and flowering to provide forage for the bees over the year. This is especially important in Spring, where dandelions, clover, ivy and birds foot trefoil are very important plant species, including tree flowers for bees which provide critical food for them over all of the year.
Over 175 students in CCM and their teachers engaged in one-hour class with two local beekeepers from members of the Ashford Beekeepers FIBKA association, specifically a company called ‘lovethebees’. The day’s programme compounded the students learning through their TY Bee Programme and Agricultural Science senior programme, by physically seeing the bees, equipment, understanding the process of pollination and the importance of the sustainable production of food and our complete reliance on these little insects. It was a great success, and many thanks to the entire team at CCM for making this happen.
We had beautiful weather for the day which made the day even more enjoyable.
JCSP Summer Celebration and Awards Ceremony
The JCSP summer celebrations took place once again on Wednesday, 8 May, in the school library. These celebrations are designed to reward all the good work that the school's JCSP students carried out over the course of the school year. Well known RTE children's TV presenter, Reuben the Entertainer, was the special guest at the event. Reuben, a regular visitor to the school, performed his usual mix of magic tricks, comedy and surreal humour to keep the students entertained. Reuben performed three sessions for the First, Second and Third year students. At the end of each session, students, who teachers identified as having done particularly well in English and Maths, each received €20 Centra vouchers. Sweets and other treats were also distributed to all the students. A big thanks also to the large number of parents who took time out of their busy schedules to attend the event yesterday. It was much appreciated by the students.
Lourdes Fundraising
The Lourdes students have started their fundraising efforts for their upcoming volunteer trip in September. The four students attended all weekend masses in St Patrick's Church Wicklow over the weekend and held a church door collection. They met some wonderful parishioners who spoke of their own personal experiences in Lourdes. During Sunday's service, they were asked to participate in the offertory of the mass. Thank you so much to Fr Aquinas Duffy for giving us the opportunity and for your kind words. The students raised a huge amount of money that will help fund this incredible trip. Keep an eye out for even more fundraisers in the coming weeks.
The Lourdes students have been running a fundraiser all week in school with younger year groups. They have asked students to "Guess how many sweets are in the jar" for a prize. Congratulations to Tyler Devlin, 2 Liffey, who guessed correctly and won the whole jar of sweets. Thanks to all the students for their donations.
Fifth Year Summer Trip to Emerald Park
Fifth Year students enjoyed a fantastic day out on Thursday, 8 May, in Emerald Park in glorious sunshine. Students enjoyed the many attractions of the park including the giant rollercoasters of old favourite Cúchulainn and the newly built Na Fíanna Force in the new Tír na nÓg.
Thank you to the Fifth Year Pastoral Care team who accompanied the students. A great day was enjoyed by all!
TY Photography Tour
On Thursday, 8 May, TY5 went on the 'InstaTours' Dublin Sightseeing Tour. Led by David, a professional photographer, the students visited some of the city’s most Instagram-worthy locations, including Temple Bar and Umbrella Lane. Along the way, they learned valuable photography techniques, experimenting with different angles, lighting, and poses. The group then continued to the National Gallery of Ireland, where they enjoyed a guided tour of the collection, exploring works by Monet, Vermeer, and Yeats. Both tours were a great way to wrap up the photography module, learning new skills while exploring the city.
Irish Schools Golf Finals
Well done to Kale Conyard and Hannah Brabazon who took part yesterday in the Irish Schools Golf Finals which were hosted in Miltown Golf Club on Monday, 28 April. Both players posted scores of 5 over par with Kale finishing in Tied 18 and Hannah in 14th position. Many thanks to the parents who travelled on the day.
The next golfing competition will the Inter Schools Competition which takes place on Tuesday, 13th May, in Blainroe Golf Club.
East Leinster Track and Field Report
Day 1 of the East Leinster Track and Field Championships commenced in a sunny Morton stadium in Santry on Wednesday, 30 April. There were some great performances across the day. These were highlighted by Aoife Lane and Soliat Aroyeun who both had convincing wins in their respective Junior Girls’ 200m heats and they then followed up with strong runs in the semi-finals. Daniel Mitchell finished our day off with a brilliant 3rd place in the Intermediate Boys’ 3000m final and qualifies for the Leinster Championships in Tullamore on May 12th.
Ultimate Frisbee
The CCM Ultimate Frisbee team travelled down to Limerick on Friday, 2 May, to compete in the Schools’ All-Ireland tournament in three divisions: Junior Boys, Senior Boys, and Girls.
Our Junior Boys’ team came into the tournament seeded 7th but they beat this ranking finishing in 5th place. They had two decisive wins to propel themselves forward, one against Fintan’s and the other against Mount Saint Michael’s. MVP for the day was Luke Doyle. The team maintained their ranking from last year, showing how much depth the school has, even in this lower division.
The Senior Boys started the day with a difficult battle against the eventual winners of the tournament, but came out firing against a strong Fintan’s team, taking their first scalp. Unfortunately, a gap in the timetable saw a loss of momentum leading to losses against LETSS, and Gonzaga. Not wishing to place any lower than 5th (their placement last year), the senior team played a commanding game against Mount Saint Michael’s taking the win. Finally, in the 5-6 playoff, CCM faced the Fintan’s side they beat previously. However, CCM demonstrated it was no fluke, taking a large lead at the start. This lead proved essential as Fintan’s fought to bring it back to within one as the buzzer went. Thus, Senior Boys also took 5th place and MVP for the team was graduating Sixth Year, Cuan Beirne.
The highlight of the day, though, came in the form of our Girls’ team. Coming into the tournament ranked 6th, they started against 2nd seed, Sancta Sabina D. Taking points with ease, they moved the disc fluidly, scoring rapidly. This was the first time CCM has ever beaten a Sancta Sabina team. They then played Sancta Sabina C, losing in a hard-fought game. CCM quickly dispatched John Scottus in their quarters through really aggressive, offensive play. In the semis, CCM had a further Sancta Sabina team, and, with excellent patience and serious grit, CCM fought back to take the win 7-6. The girls emerged victorious and headed into the final. They faced off against the final Sancta Sabina team, made up of 12 previous Ireland players. CCM struggled to keep up with their long throws and excellent takes in the air. Despite their loss, we were all so proud to take 2nd in the country!
Not satisfied with just that, the girls brought home some further silverware in the form of the Spirit Award, given to the team most supportive in creating a positive frisbee environment, showing not only their excellence with the disc in hand but also in personal character and sportsmanship. MVP of the day was graduating 6th Year, Samara Dempsey.
Cassels Cup
Last weekend the national indoor area hosted a school’s mixer tournament where people were placed on teams with others from their local area. CCM sent 18 players out on the day (one of the biggest cohorts from any school in the country) and they represented us well with one of the Wicklow teams taking 3rd. Well done to all the players on the day.
Junior Boys GAA Final
CCM 5-7 Avondale CC 1-12
CCM claimed their first ever Wicklow A Junior Boys’ title with a hard-fought win over Avondale CC on a score line of 5-7 to 1-12, played out in a sunny Aughrim County grounds on Thursday evening, 1st May. CCM began the slower of the teams, trailing to early scores and pressure from Avondale who were out to get even with CCM after losing the previous group stage game before Christmas. Points from Harry Butler, Alex Mernagh and Daniel Murphy helped settle CCM into the game while battling performances from David McCormack, Sam Conyard and Alex McKenna gave CCM a foothold in the half, resulting in goals from Alex Healy and Rian Abell Ward to give CCM a halftime lead of 2-3 to 8 points while feeling they had yet to play their best football.
The second half began with an early chance for goal for CCM but for a fantastic save from the Avondale keeper which started a counter attack that ended with a point to Avondale to tie the game. This did not panic CCM though, two quick fire goals from Alex H and Alex M with further points from Harry and Alex M pushed CCM into a sizeable lead to control the second half along with midfielder, Sean O'Brien, claiming some vital kickout marks to maintain possession. A final goal from the very impressive Alex M secured the win by 7 points.
This was a deserved first Wicklow A title for CCM after a very impressive campaign with 4 wins and a draw. The future is very bright for these players and they look forward to challenging for Senior A titles in the coming school years with CCM. Well done to Mr. O'Keeffe and Mr. O'Toole for coaching the team this year.
