School notes - 20/05/2022
Minister’s Visit
It was a great privilege for us to welcome Minister for Education Norma Foley to our school on Wednesday last as part of her tour of schools in South County Longford. To begin her visit, the Minister was met by school management, staff members, Chairperson of BoM, members of our Parents Council and, most importantly, our students. Our students led the visit on the day by playing music for Minister Foley, asking her some important questions, demonstrating their use of digital technology and presenting the Minister with some fresh produce from our school greenhouse. The Minister also visited our ASD classes and raised our Green-Schools Blue Flag on the day. We hope that Minister Foley enjoyed her trip to Longford and look forward to welcoming her back to Mercy Secondary School Ballymahon in the future.
Green Schools
Congratulations to this year’s Eco-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Award winners! TY students Aisling Lane, Kiera Dunican and Alannah Hannan won 1st prize in their category for their fantastic water conservation and awareness project. They did tremendous work, which was instrumental in our school recently being awarded our Green-Schools water flag.
Mercy Ballymahon’s Eco-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Award winners! Transition Year students Alannah Hannan, Aisling Lane and Kiera Dunican.
Intergenerational Award
Well done to our Transition Year students who were awarded a prize as part of the Intergenerational Awards, an annual competition led by the Age-Friendly University Office in DCU. The students recently took part in a Community Time-Machine project, collecting stories from senior citizens in Ballymahon Day Care Centre and creating artefacts based on those stories. Thank you to Mr Mulvihill and Ms Cribben for facilitating this.
Mercy Ballymahon students who recently won an Intergenerational Award for their involvement in the ‘Community Time Machine’ project.
Sports
Well done to our Senior Boys who were victorious against Ballymahon Vocational School in the inaugural Ballymahon AFC’s School Senior Cup. Played in difficult weather conditions, the game finished on a scoreline of 2-1 to Mercy SS. Furthermore, well done to our 1st year boys GAA team who took part in a blitz in Clonguish last week. Thank you to Longford GAA for organising and to coaches Mr Farrell and Mr Sammon for accompanying the lads on the day. As we are approaching the end of the academic year, last week each year group enjoyed a sports day. Thank you to our TYs, Year heads and our PE department for organising.
TY Activities
Last week saw the finale of this year’s TY Bake Off. Well done to Muirne Ginty, Shauna Maguire and Ava O’Connor who scooped the top prize with their coffee cake. 2nd Prize winners were Róisín Conlon, Sarah Haughey and Sarah Keenan with their chocolate cake. 3rd prize on the day went to Sean Egan and Shaun Donnelly who made some delicious chocolate chip cookies. Thank you to Ms Minogue and Ms Moran for organising this annual event which brings great excitement to the school. Our TYs also visited Tayto Park last week to mark the end of their school year before graduating this week.