Beir bua agus beannacht!

Welcome to our 2010 Yearbook which I hope you will really enjoy reading!!
It’s hard to believe that we have now reached the final term heralded sooner than usual by the beautiful weather we have been experiencing recently.  At the time of writing, the examination practicals, oral examinations and task- interviews are well under way which all focus the minds on the proximity of the forthcoming State Examinations.

This academic year marked the historic handover of Trusteeship from the Society of the Holy Child Jesus to the new Le Chéile body.The very significant transfer ceremony took place in the school in November 2009 where we were honoured to have so many of our Holy Child Sisters from Ireland and Europe joining us. We were also delighted to welcome Le Chéile representatives on the day.    As a result of this transfer our school is now part of a “bigger family” of schools with St. Joseph of Cluny being our nearest Le Chéile relation!!
This year saw the retirement of our esteemed colleague Ms Marion Madigan who taught in the Holy Child for thirty six years. Tributes were paid to her for her long years of service to the school and we wish her health and happiness in her retirement.
We enjoyed, yet again, another most successful year in the Holy Child Community School with the dramatic upgrade of our Sports facilities. We are so proud of our new state of the art refurbished Sports Hall, magnificent outdoor pitches, basketball courts, tennis courts and long jump area. I know that the students are really enjoying the benefit of these. Our gratitude must go the Department of Education and Skills for its  kind assistance with this transformation which has made an enormously positive  contribution towards improving  the lives of our students and P.E. staff. I would like to acknowledge our architect Mr. Michael Brock, Mr Michael Mc Sweeney, builder and the P.E. Department ( Ms Johnstone, Ms Lawlor and Mr Jennings)  for their hard work in  planning designing and creating  our new sports area. We are looking forward very much to having our Official Opening on the 27th May by  Mary Hanafin, T.D., Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sports.
We continued to upgrade the   I.T in the school. We are very pleased to have introduced a new data management system called e portal, for attendance, assessment and recording student events. We are also delighted to announce the arrival of our new website which you can visit by going to   www.holychildcommunityschool.ie. We hope that you will take an opportunity to visit it!
This year marks the retirement of a number of parents from the Parents’ Association and the Book Rental team. Linda Kavanagh, Patricia Andrews and Brigid Byrne have been the backbone of these teams for many many years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them publicly for their commitment, loyalty and hard work in the execution of their duties over the years. The Book Rental is now being taken over by another vibrant and enthusiastic group of parents who are being taught the “ropes” by the outgoing team and we look forward to tremendous support and cooperation from all our parents/guardians with this scheme for 2010/11.We wish the new team the very best of luck and we would like to thank them so much for taking on the mantle of the Book Rental scheme on behalf of all the parents/guardians. Their generosity in giving of their time and effort is greatly appreciated by all. Linda Kavanagh has also represented the parents on the Board of Management for many years. She is also retiring from this position in June. She has given of her time and energy to the Board of Management and the school is most grateful to her for doing so.
As usual the Holy Child has had a very successful year academically, in the sporting arena and in the co-curricular and extra curricular aspects of the school. Great credit and gratitude is due to the staff of the school who give of their time to ensure that students are empowered and well prepared to sit their examinations and in their personal and social development.  Our students are very fortunate to have a school which endeavours to address all their learning needs and a staff who work tirelessly to achieve this. They really deserve our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation. May I wish all our examination students the very best of luck in June and wish both our 6th year and Adult students every success in their future careers.
 Great tribute is due 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 and I would like to thank you for being so pleasant and courteous. Our leadership team led by Joseph Fitzpatrick, School Captain, John Vickers, Deputy School Captain and Sports Captain Gemma Williams have executed their duties most conscientiously and responsibly.  May we wish them every success in the future.
As usual we enjoyed a vast array of activities, outings, visits to various places of interest sporting and fundraising activities by each year group in the school. Our annual contribution to Vincent de Paul was a staggering €1800 and a donation of over €2,300 was made to Goal, in aid of Haiti which was very graciously received by Mr John O’Shea’s daughter, Lisa.  We are very proud of the contribution we make in our school to those who are less fortunate than we are in the world and as always I would like to express my gratitude for the extraordinary generosity of staff and students.
Each year we continue to forge and extend our links with the local community. This year the local library was closed and after exploring several alternatives in the local community without success the Holy Child was approached by the Dúnlaoghaire /Rathdown Library Service. The Board of Management considered the matter and agreed to offer space in our school for the provision of this service to the community. At the time of writing the service has just opened and we look forward to developing its potential both for the school and the community at large.
Our current Transition Year students continued to build on the very solid foundation which we initiated last year with Movilla High School in Newtownards, Co Down, where both groups came together once again and discussed plans to address issues in their respective communities.  This year our school has chosen Graffiti and has had support from Dúnlaoghaire Rathdown in this regard. This most successful project would not happen without the drive and leadership of Ms Lawlor and Mr. Walsh and we are most grateful to them for devoting their time and energy to this annual event.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to Mr. John Bristow, Chairman of the Board of Management, to the Board members, all the staff of the school for all their support of me in my role as Principal and for their efforts to make Holy Child a very happy school where every person’s potential is nurtured and developed. I would also like acknowledge the tremendous ongoing support of our parents/guardians which is always greatly appreciated by the school.
Finally my gratitude must go to the Yearbook team, Mr Allen, Ms Johnstone, Ms Ní Shuibhne, Mr Melley and Ms O’Neill who have captured the moments and memories of 2009/10. We are very grateful to our sponsors who despite the present severe financial constraints still continue to support us and we hope we can support them in whatever way we can.
As you head into the long hot summer may I wish you all a safe sun-filled holiday!
 Le gach dea-ghuí
Eileen Morris
Principal