Dear students, parents/guardians and friends of Elphin Community College,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the first edition of the Elphin Community College Chronicle. As the newly appointed Principal of our school, I hope this finds you all well in these unprecedented times, during what is a very difficult and anxious time for everybody. As you are aware, once again, we have implemented a school-wide system of remote teaching and learning. Thankfully, Elphin Community College is in a favourable space regarding ICT development in the school and students are competent and confident in the use of Microsoft Teams, our online learning platform.Even though I have not been amongst you for long, I am hugely impressed by the commitment of the school and the staff to the provision of an excellent all-round education for our students during the current period of school closure. Never has so much been asked of a school community. You can be proud of your resilience, tenacity and engagement during this period of emergency on-site closure and transfer to online learning.I look forward to working with you and your family going forward and I am convinced of the quality of education for all students, provided by our innovative school, which draws on the talents and skills of staff, students and parents to provide a host of educational programmes and projects. An extensive range of extra-curricular activities is on offer to students and care is taken to ensure the wellbeing of each and every student in the school. With a long and rewarding history of achievement in education behind us, our school community continues to move forward together with confidence, pride and enthusiasm. I hope you enjoy our newsletter and should you wish to contact us, please find our contact details below.

Yours in Education,

Ms. Siobhán Cullen,

Principal,

Elphin Community College.

Our Vision

Elphin Community College is a place of excellence where children can achieve full potential in their academic, social, personal, physical, moral and spiritual development.

Our Mission Statement

"Our school exists to serve the educational needs of the community which we serve. We aspire to provide an environment which acknowledges educational achievement, enhances student self-confidence promotes life skills and attitudes which will enable students to live fulfilling lives and so contribute to the betterment of society. We actively aspire to develop partnership between teachers, parents and the wider community".

We recently wished farewell to our Principal Ms.Anne Maria Egan. On behalf of all of the school community we would like to thank Anne Maria for her commitment, energy and dedication to Elphin Community College. We wish Ms. Egan every health, happiness and good luck in her new role.

The school would like to extend its deep appreciation and thanks to our Deputy Principal Mrs. Lee on her recent retirement. Mrs. Lee was a wonderful teacher and colleague and will be greatly missed by the school community. We wish Marie every health and happiness in the future.

The Transition Year students at Elphin Community College recently completed their Gaisce Adventure Hike 2020 at Slieve Bawn Walking Trail. A great day was had by all.

The school has been updating the school website https://elphincollege.ie with links to various student and parental / guardian supports with video tutorials and other links to Online Resources and Study Skills. Please take time to examine what has been provided at the following locations:

https://elphincollege.ie/it-support/video-tutorials/

https://elphincollege.ie/it-support/online-resources/

https://elphincollege.ie/teaching-learning/studyskills/

Transition Years enjoyed a Percussion Workshop recently in association with Music Generation Roscommon.

🏆A huge congratulations to the Elphin Community College debating team who were the unanimous victors in their recent Concern debate against Dominicans College. Onwards and upwards for this hard-working group of students!🏆

Sincere congratulations to Grace Kielty, past pupil of Elphin Community College, who will be awarded a scholarship at the upcoming Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology Scholarship Awards. Grace is excited to pursue further study in the area of Art and Design at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. Well done on your success Grace – everyone at Elphin Community College is very proud of you and we are sure you have a very bright future ahead of you in your chosen field!

Reminder to the parents/guardians of all incoming First Year students of the closing date for return of our Acceptance Form for 2021-22 Admissions. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any queries you may have.

Student of the Half-Term awards recently took place in Elphin Community College. Pictured above is our 5th Year recipient, Colin Burke. Keep up the good work Colin!

Photographed at our recent Student of the Term awards ceremony is our Transition Year recipient, Maria Keane. Well done Maria - keep up the good work!

Eoin O'Connor (3B), recipient of Student of the Term award who was presented with his certificate recently. Keep up the great work Eoin!

Student of the Term awards were presented with their certificates recently. Photographed above is 3A recipient - Ruby Kearns. Well done Ruby!

Second Year Celebrations! Student of the Term awards were presented with their certificates and photographed above is Second Year recipient - Amy Harrington. Keep up the great work Amy!

Fabulous First Years! Pictured is the First Year recipient of our student of the Half-Term awards, Shylah Tiernan. Well done on all your great work Shylah!

Fabulous Fifth Years! Student of the Half-Term awards were presented with their certificates at our November awards ceremony and photographed above is Fifth Year recipient - Ciara Nolan. Keep up the great work Ciara!

Welcome to the Elphin Community College Virtual Tour. The application process for the 2021-2022 academic year has been ongoing and prospective Parents and Guardians are invited to visit our school website at https://elphincollege.ie/admissions/ for relevant Admissions Information and Application Forms. Please contact the school office on if you would like to receive a copy of the form. Further information regarding our enrolment process will be issued to students in all primary schools in our catchment area or may also be obtained by contacting info.elphin@gretb.ie. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact us if you would like to arrange an appointment to discuss any aspect of the transition to secondary school. For further information check out the following link: https://elphincollege.ie/admission-notice-application-form/ We look forward to working with you as together we take the next steps in your child's education.

Just some of the recent projects from our Second year Wood Technology students - ready just in time for Christmas 🎄

Transition Year students recently had great fun paintballing in Midland Karting and Paintball. Thanks to all the staff for accommodating us 🏃‍♀️

🎉On behalf of the school community of Elphin Community College,the Student Council would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy, healthy & prosperous New Year! 🎉

🎼Big thanks to Music Generation Roscommon for their wonderful series of Percussion Workshops with our First Year students. Pictured are just some of our First Year students participating in the recent workshops 🎼

The Art Department of Elphin Community College was recently delighted to receive the beautiful gift of a set of art books and exhibition catalogues from The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Kilmainham. They will be put to great use by our our students in the vibrant and rich environment of our Art Department in Elphin Community College.

Student of the Half-Term awards were presented with their Certificates of Achievement at an awards ceremony in November. The Transition Year recipient was Grace Bracken. Well done Grace.

Our Transition Year students were delighted to take part in a Cycling Safety Workshop during the First Term. The students are now going to progress to a six week Couch to 5km course. A special thanks to Noel Feely for organising and running the workshop.

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Student of the Half-Term awards were presented with their Certificates of Achievement during an awards ceremony in November. Photographed above are 3rd Year recipients, Kédagh McLoughlin & Eolann Nugent. Well done Kédagh & Eolann on all your hard work to date.

Student of the Half-Term awards were presented with their Certificates of Achievement during a recent ceremony in November. Pictured is 2nd year recipient, Martha Nugent. Well done Martha.

Student of the Half-Term awards were presented with their Certificates of Achievement during our November ceremony. We start with our 1st year recipient, Stephen Kielty. Well done Stephen on a wonderful start to life in post-primary school.

Just one example of the creative hand-made wooden toys made by our First Year Students. Some fabulous work completed so far!

Award -winning motivational speaker and study skills expert Ray Langan facilitated a Parent Information Evening with a session entitled "The Five Biggest Threats Facing Parents of Teens Today" on Zoom, on Wednesday, 20th January. Students across the school community engaged in an interactive Motivational Study Skills Seminar with Ray the following day and picked up lots of tips and strategies to assist in developing resilience and a positive frame of mind.

We are conscious that this is a very important time of year for our 6th Year students as they prepare to progress to various university courses & Third Level opportunities. Many Third Level institutions are currently facilitating virtual Information Evenings and Open Days which students may be interested in attending. These include University College Dublin, the University of Limerick and St. Angela's College, Sligo, to name but a few. Leaving Certificate students have been finalising their course choices in time for the deadline of the 20th of January. Any student applying to the HEAR and DARE scheme have already indicated that they are applying for these programmes by ticking the box on the CAO form. This is the first stage of the CAO process. As always Students are once again reminded to ensure that they are familiar with the key dates relevant to this year's CAO process. Check out our social media channels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or contact the Guidance Department or school office with any queries.

Congratulations to Karl Gilmartin (TY 2019-2020) who was awarded the Technology Award for his project ‘Generating Electricity from Wastewater’ in the 2020 SciFest Competition. The award, sponsored by Intel, was awarded for the most innovative use of technology in a project. His innovative use of a Pelton turbine was created using the Engineering Department’s 3D printer. Karl was also awarded the Maths in Science Award by SciFest, which was held virtually in IT Sligo in July for the north-west region. SciFest is the largest second-level Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fair in Ireland, with over 10,000 students participating annually. Traditionally, the competition gives students the opportunity to showcase their projects at a series of one-day science fairs held at 16 regional venues across the island of Ireland. The winners from regional STEM go on to compete at a national final in November 2020. The national winner(s) will represent Ireland at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2021 in the USA.