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Junior Footballers off to winning ways

Knockbeg College 2-18      St Peters College 1-1 

By Brian Broderick (TY)

 

The Knockbeg Junior footballers got their championship off to a flying start on the cold morning of the 21st of October with an impressive win over St Peters of Wexford in Graiguecullen. 

There was a strong wind travelling across the field, but this did not affect Mikey Murphy as he converted his first of many points of the day through a free kick from close range to give Knockbeg an early lead. St. Peters responded with one of their own shortly after, before a second Murphy free and a fine point from Jack Behan gave Knockbeg the lead once more. Knockbeg kept the scoreboard ticking over with more points from Murphy before captain Jeremy Kelly got a point for himself at the end of the half to leave the score at 0-8 to 0-1 to the men in white and blue. 

Kelly opened the second half the same way he left it with a good point. Midfielder John Phiri was rewarded for his excellent fielding of kickouts alongside fellow midfielder TJ Nolan with a point of his own. The deadlock was finally broken as the lively Bobby Doyle struck for a goal. More points from Murphy, a second for John Phiri off the left, a third for Kelly and a deserved point for TJ Nolan really put daylight between the two sides. Full forward Murphy was also on hand to finish off a well worked goal, with subs Eoin Mulhall and Kyle Holden also getting their names on the scoresheet late on. Eventually the outstanding Knockbeg defence was beaten with a goal from St Peters who never gave up.  

Overall, it was a brilliant team performance, which also saw fifteen subs getting a run. Big thanks to coaches Mr Conway, Ms Moore and fellow management who have helped get the lads off to a wonderful start to the season. Hopefully this is the start of even better things to come! 

Michael Gaffney(Killeshin), Cian Cashman(Palatine), Daniel Wall(Grangeolvin), Cian Campion(Palatine), Mackenzie McIvor(Ballylinan), Darragh Loughman(Ballylinan), Kevin Fennelly(Annanough), TJ Nolan (0-1/St Laurences), John Phiri (0-2/Askea), Jamie Walker(Tinryland) , Jeremy Kelly (0-3/St Josephs), Jack Behan (0-1/Arles Kilcruise), Bobby Doyle (1-0/Tinryland), Mikey Murphy (1-9, 0-7f/St Josephs), Pierce O’ Dwyer(St Laurences). 

Subs- E. Mulhall( 0-1/Arles Kilcruise), O Kirwan( Grange), K Holden (0-1), C Fitzgerald, E English, E Askins, R Doran, J Milton( Killeshin),  C Tucker, A Downes ( Graiguecullen),  L Bramley( Askea), D Downey( Ballylinan), C Nolan, J Fitzharris( Palatine),A Hennessy, B Corcoran( Stradbally Parish Gaels), C Long ( Fenagh), D Walsh ( Athy)

Official Opening Video Recording

Many thanks to all those who took part in our official opening ceremony of the restored and extended college. A wonderful celebration of a campus that we are truly proud of. If you missed today’s event, you can view iCatholic’s excellent recording on https://t.co/UQZe5BajVk

Warm Welcome for our Incoming 1st Year Students

We were delighted to welcome our incoming 1st year students on Friday last, for their first day of school. They were greeted by Principal Mr Carew, Vice Principal Mr Ronan, Year Head Mr Conway, and their Class teachers in the morning.
The students then met with their Meitheal Leaders, who gave them a tour of our campus. A day of fun and activity followed in the glorious sunshine outside on our sports pitches.

School Choir

We are delighted to showcase the musical talents of our students and teachers through the performance of “I’ll Rise Up/Fight Song”, co-ordinated by Ms. Roche. A powerpoint presentation accompanies the song, which conveys images of our school and its community which showed great resilience through the Co-vid 19 Pandemic.

Enjoy!

Parents’ Day 2021

Our annual Parents’ day and Awards Ceremony was held on Tuesday 18th of May in St. Claire’s Church in Graiguecullen. Many thanks to Fr. Dunphy and all associated with St. Claire’s church for allowing us to use the facility to celebrate our end of year mass and Awards Ceremony. Mass was celebrated by Bishop Nulty, Fr. Dunphy and Fr Furlong, which was broadcast live via the parish webcam where students tuned in from their classrooms.

Monsignor Byrne has been a marvellous ambassador for Knockbeg College down through the years. He has been a valued member of the staff and has been instrumental in getting the new school to the stage it is currently at. He celebrates 60 years of being ordained a priest this year and we at Knockbeg College want to acknowledge his passion for our school and congratulate him on reaching such a huge milestone. He was presented with a framed photo of Knockbeg College by the Board of Management.

Due to the disruption throughout this year and because of the lockdown no sporting events took place in schools during 2020/2021. However from the previous year a couple of notable achievements are worthy of mention.

The second year footballers won the 2019/2020 South Leinster A trophy.

The basketballers of 2019/2020 excelled after being promoted to Div. B. Congratulation to the first year, second year and Junior squads on winning regional titles.

Congratulations to all involved.

A massive congratulations to Luke Doogue, Lee Murray, T.J. Nolan & John Phiri of third year who placed 3rd out of more than 230 teams in the all Ireland schools quiz and to Cathal Ronan, Luke Kehoe, Ben Brady and Sean Rainey of second year who placed in the top 10%.

The Green-Schools committee, despite having a challenging year, still managed to realise several of their goals. Their Green-Schools theme for the year, Litter and Waste, saw them reducing plastic waste onsite by 90% as they collected bottles for the plastic bottle Greenhouse. The TY cohort of the committee engaged in a number of awareness campaigns throughout the year which culminated in a Waste on Wednesday awareness day on May 12th. Litter has also been highlighted and reduced by a huge amount onsite.

Our schools biodiversity also increased greatly as the committee, along with Johnathon our caretaker, added a large variety of plants, bird and bat houses and bee hives around the grounds. Hopefully, all the students work over the past two years will see them receiving a well-deserved green flag for our school.

Congratulations to Lee Brennan on been chosen by the Carlow Regional Youth Group to have the opportunity to speak with Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, on matters relating to Climate Change.

We are delighted to announce that this year our school has been awarded with our first ever flag – the amber flag. The amber flag initiative aims to promote positive mental health and well being for all students and staff within our school. Both the amber flag committee and wellbeing committee have carried out a range of various activities and initiatives during the year that has helped our school obtain the flag while also creating a safe, positive and healthy attitude towards both our physical and mental health. Together they managed to keep the positive Knockbeg Spirit alive despite the challenges we were faced with due to the arrival of covid 19. Well done to all involved for this great achievement.

Every year we invite members of the previous year’s leaving cert class, who have achieved outstanding results in their leaving cert. To recognise their endeavours and hard work, we as a staff want to acknowledge their achievements. From last years leaving cert class cohort I want to congratulate, on behalf of all in the Knockbeg community, Brodie Feeney on being a recipient of an entrance scholarship to Trinity College Dublin. Also to Ciaran O’ Hagan who was awarded an entrance scholarship to Dublin City University.

Well done to Patrick Murnane from TY who won the Carlow Senior Enterprise Programme with his mini company PM Sports selling massage guns and foam roller water bottles. Padddy represented Carlow in the All Ireland.

Juozas Cioladis, a third year student has been selected as the recipient of a tennis scholarship and will be attending the McCaulie School in Tennessee from next September for his fourth year in secondary school. 2019 was a particularly good year for Juozas having beed awarded Player of the Year from Tennis Ireland. He currently ranks #2 in Ireland in u16 age category. We congratulate him and wish him well in his studies abroad.

The Parent’s Council Award is awarded to a student or students whom the staff feel have contributed in a positive manner to life in Knockbeg. This year it was felt that the entire sixth year group had a lot to contend with after being discommoded, due to the lockdown, due to the uncertainty, while all the time trying to focus on what are very important upcoming exams. Our Head Prefect, Sean Tuomey, accepted this award on behalf of the Leaving Two Class of 2020/2021.

The John Paul II Award and the Papal Cross Award are awarded to students for their involvement in their local parish. Each of the recipients received their award earlier in the year and were invited to attend an online ceremony to celebrate. Many thanks to Catriona Kelly from Graiguecullen Parish Centre for her work in coordinating students from Knockbeg amongst other schools in the locality.

The John Paul II Gold recipients who received their awards at a Diocesan ceremony from Bishop Nulty are Conor Bolger, Oisin Byrne and Darragh O’ Brien.

The John Paul II Silver recipients who received their awards are Jamie Cullinan, Joshua Kane, James Mahon, Joshua Devereux, Matthew Buggy and David Fennelly.

Well done to all on those achievements.

Ten of our fifth year group began their roll as Meitheal leaders with the aim to help the first years integrate into Knockbeg and make a smooth transition from primary to post primary school. Well done and thanks to Conor Bolger, James Mahon, Rory Lawlor, Darragh O’ Brien, Shane Nolan, Oisin Nolan, Dan Culleton, Joe Morrin, Alex Kenny and Conal Hickson.

Best of luck to the Meitheal leaders for next year and hopefully you will have a positive impact on the incoming first years for September 2021. Those leaders are Patrick Joyce, Aodhan Lowry, Jamie Conway, Mark McDermott, Conall Bergin, Adam Dalton, Fionn Heslin, Patrick Murnane, Matthew Farrell and Jack Doyle.

To our six outgoing prefects – thank you for accepting the position of prefect and thanks for being such brilliant roll models in the school community. Thank you Sean Tuomey, Jack Ross, Ian Shanahan, Finn Cummins, Bill Fitzgerald and Kyle Rice.

To our six incoming prefects – Rory Lawlor, Colin Phelan, Coln Dunne, Joshua Devereux, Kyle Nolan and Oisin Byrne. we look forward to working with you in the next academic year and hopefully you will fill the position with honour and pride.

Finally, the presentation of the Merit and Achievement awards.

The Merit award is presented to a student in each year who the subject teachers feel has made the greatest progress and put in a huge effort to improve.

The Achievement Award is presented to the top performing student in each year based on his results in the formal exams throughout the year.

We would like to congratulate all our Award Winners, and wish all our staff, students and their families a happy and healthy Summer.

Michael Regan, member of BOM, presents Monsignor Brendan Byrne with a framed photo of Knockbeg College

Fr Shem Furlong, Deputy Principal, who will be leaving us in September to carry out Parish duties.

6th Year Achievement: Jack Ross

6th Year Merit: Ciaran Burke

5th Year Achievement: Colin Phelan

5th Year Merit: Shane Nolan

3rd Year Achievement: Luke Doogue

3rd Year Merit: Daniel Wall

2nd Year Achievement: William Owens

2nd Year Merit: Karol Bialkowsky

1st Year Achievement: Aaron Culleton

1st Year Merit: Ben Keady

Pasrents’ Council Award: 6th Year group, presented to Head Prefect, Sean Toumey

Amber Flag Award: presented by Bill Fitzgerald and Mr. Dollard

Webinar for Parents of students with Dyslexia

Webinar for Parents (1  hour) –

Dyslexia and how it affects students at Second Level

How parents can support the student at Second Level

 

  • How parents can support the student in the following areas
    • Organisation
    • Note-taking
    • Memory and Learning
    • Writing
    • Reading
    • Spelling and Vocabulary
  • Key educational choices such as subject choice, language exemptions and RACE.

 

The presentation is just over an hour with questions and discussion following.

 

Date: Monday 19th April

Time: 7.00 pm

Tutor: Wyn McCormack

To sign on for this course please email cwedcentre@gmail.com  stating  Name, School and a Zoom link to the webinar will be sent to you. There is no fee for the course.

 

Presenter Wyn McCormack worked as guidance counsellor and special education teacher as well as being the parent of three sons with dyslexia.  She has designed and presented courses on dyslexia for teachers, parents and students since 1996.   She is the author of the Factsheets on Dyslexia at Second Level (2014), Lost for Words 3rd Ed. 2007, and co-author of Dyslexia, an Irish Perspective 2nd Ed 2010.