Welcome to the Yearbook 2009 . It is a great honour and privilege for me to write the introduction to our Yearbook, which offers us a very valuable opportunity to reflect on an excellent academic year for our school community. This has been an historic year with the retirement of our esteemed Principal, Mr. Brian Mc Namara last September and the ensuing changes in the Management of the school. We welcomed Miss O’ Brien as our new Deputy Principal and in the short time she has been with us she has become very part of our vibrant school community. We bade farewell to Ms Harkin and Mr Lavery who had been Irish and Art teachers respectively in the school for many years. Both are greatly missed in the Holy Child but I am assured that they, like Mr Mc Namara, are enjoying retirement to the full.
We also welcomed back Mr Dunne, a senior member of staff who had been seconded to the Department of Education for a number of years during the introduction of the new Geography Programme for Senior Cycle Students. The Holy Child is very fortunate to have such highly qualified staff who are at the cutting-edge of Educational development in Ireland. The recent death of our very dear colleague Mr Keogh who taught Maths and Computers was a source of great sadness for us all here in the Holy Child. May he rest in peace.
The Holy Child once again had a very successful academic year with so many great achievements, activities and events having taken place, all of which will be reflected in one way or another in our Yearbook.
The staff and students of the Holy Child arrived back last September to a beautifully refurbished Canteen/ Dance Studio. The students of the school now enjoy the privilege of studying Drama and Dance in a magnificent studio as well as enjoying healthy food in a this most pleasant environment. During the year the school has seen the upgrading of the computer facilities in the school resulting in the provision of two state of the art Computer Suites which are now accessible to all students and which will further enhance their learning.
We are very proud of our ongoing developing links with our Community in particular the recent school Fête which was held on Sunday 26th April. It was a marvellous day for the school and for all the families in the local and greater Community. Once again I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to all the staff, students and parents for their tremendous support and hard work in making this a most successful and fun-filled day for everyone. It would only be right and fitting to acknowledge the contribution made by our local businesses and our school suppliers who provided us with prizes for our Raffle and food for the day!
The Holy Child has always taken great pride in our ability to welcome and assimilate new students into our school community and indeed this year is no exception. As is customary, the school celebrated the richness of this diversity in its Annual International Day. This year we celebrated its fifth anniversary in the school and in so doing were honoured that Ambassadors from
Canada and Switzerland shared in our celebration. We were delighted to be also joined by Sr. Madeleine Mulrennan, Sr Mary Lalor, Mr. John Bristow, Chairman of the Board of Management and other Board members. The presence of our local politicians Ms Hanafin, Minister for Social & Family Affairs, Mr Barry Andrews, Minister of State for Health & Children, Mr Séan Barrett,T.D. and our local County Councillor, Mr Cormac Devlin was greatly appreciated on the day! It was a wonderful day for the school and the students did us proud as always! Our thanks in abundance must go to Ms Eustace and Ms Lawlor for organising this very special event!
The School also had another very special celebration this year! The Holy Child Schools around the world are celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Cornelia Connelly, the foundress of the Holy Child Order. In the Holy Child in Sallynoggin, we commenced our celebrations with the launch of a DVD which related Cornelia’s life story. The DVD featured beautiful snapshots from each Holy Child School in Europe and we in Sallynoggin also featured quite extensively! Sr. Madeleine Mulrennan very kindly joined us for our celebration which included a complimentary lunch for each student and a Table Quiz in the afternoon. It was truly a memorable day for all and a wonderful start to our year of celebrations marking Cornelia’s birth.
In keeping with our Cornelia Connelly bicentennial celebrations the two sister schools, in Sallynoggin and Killiney have also linked together to celebrate this special year. As part of our Staff Seminar Day in March it was our great pleasure to have had the company of the Staff of Holy Child, Killiney and some of our Holy Child Sisters, Sr.Mary Lalor, Sr.Elizabeth Mooney and Sr. Judith Lancaster who gave us an inspiring talk on Cornelia’s Vision for her schools.
Our 1st year students along with their P. E. teachers, Ms Johnstone and Mr. Jennings had a Cornelia Connelly Day in Holy Child, Killiney very recently. They enjoyed a feast of sporting activities and in the true spirit of Cornelia had great fun! We look forward to forging many more links with our sister school in Killiney in the future!
Our Annual Educational trip abroad will take us to Paris this year .This was eagerly awaited at present by the twenty three students from Transition Year and 5th Year who will visit as part of our trip visit our sister school, Ecole de Maillé in Cretéil. This is our second visit to our sister school in the last number of years. We received a wonderful welcome from Monsieur Mathieu Lafis, the Principal, Madame Marie Rose Ernand, Deputy Principal, Madame Pascale Lagrange, Principal of the Primary school and all the staff and students of the school. Upon arrival we were greeted by Monsieur Lafis and his team of students who took our students on a guided tour of the school. Our students had an opportunity to spend some time in different classes, after which we were all invited for lunch with the staff and students of the school. It was very evident that friendships were quickly made and e mail addresses were exchanged before we departed. We spent a most memorable day in Ecole de Maillé and are so grateful to Monsieur Lafis and all the team who made us feel so welcome. We look forward very much to strengthening the bonds between the two schools in the future.
Our school linked for the first time with a school in the North of Ireland, Movilla High School under the auspices of Co-operation Ireland Project. The Transition Year students under the capable direction of Ms Lawlor and Mr Walsh spearheaded a very successful link with this school. At the time of writing the students involved are preparing a presentation on their work in May. We wish them every success!
This academic year had an abundance of co- curricular and extra- curricular which will be reflected extensively in this Yearbook. There was a vast array of outings, visits to various places of interest, sporting and fundraising activities by each year group in the school. However I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts made by staff to provide every possible learning opportunity for the students of the Holy Child students. This requires huge commitment and hard work on the part of staff and for this I would like extend a heartfelt thanks to them for their tireless work in the pursuit of development of the academic, personal, social, spiritual, cultural and physical development of our students.
I would also like to pay tribute to those students who have represented the school at different events during the year. I hope that the experiences you the students have been afforded this year in the Holy Child have been fulfilling and rewarding for you. May I wish all our 6th Year and Adult students every success in their forthcoming exams and in the future.
I would like to acknowledge and pay tribute to the Parents’ Association who continue to provide such practical support for the school through the Book Rental Scheme and indeed in so many other activities. We are all only too well aware of the importance of the Book Rental Scheme in these hard economic times so parents/guardians please ensure that you offer as much support as possible to the endeavours of the Parent’ Association.
I would like to use this occasion to express my deepest appreciation to Mr John Bristow, Chairman and the Board of Management for the support which was extended to me as Principal during this year. I would also like to convey my gratitude to the all other members of staff, office staff, housekeeping and caretaking staff who support the students as they pursue their various activities during the academic year. As always I would like to thank all parents and students including Michael Twamley our School Captain, Jonas Casimpoy, Deputy School Captain, Jennifer Dodd, Sports Captain, Michelle Finn, Deputy Sports Captain and all the teams of Prefects, for their support throughout the year.
This yearbook is concrete evidence of the all the marvellous work which took place in the school in the course of this year. Our thanks must go yet again to our sponsors whose support is very much appreciated in these challenging financial times. I hope you enjoy the read and my heartfelt thanks goes to Mr Allen, Ms Johnstone, Ms Masterson, Mr Walsh and Susan O’ Neill for all their hard work in producing this masterpiece yet again!
May I wish everyone a happy and safe sun-filled summer and every success to all our exam students.
Le gach dea-ghuí!
Eileen Morris
Principal
