Christmas Newsletter
Primary School Blitz
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A big well done to all school that’s participated in our primary schools blitz today and to our division one (Tunnyduff NS) and two winners (Kill NS)....more
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Congratulations and a huge thank you to everyone who took part in the Run in the Dark Programme. This programme is an organized event that the Mark Pollock Foundation began in 2011, this charity specialises in paralysis research and development for people who have been majorly affected by paralysis. The run fuels Mark Pollock’s mission to cure paralysis in our lifetime. In case you don’t know Mark’s story: unbroken by blindness in 1998, Mark was the first blind person to race to the South Pole. Now, after a catastrophic spinal cord injury in 2010, he is on a new expedition to cure paralysis in our lifetime. . ....more
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5th Year Home Economics
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5th year Home Economics students cooked with Yeast as part of their practical coursework Journal assignments . They cooked a cinnamon plait and as you can see they turned out fabulous . Well done to all . ....more
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Halloween Fancy Dress 2021
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Congratulations to all our students and staff who dressed up in the annual Halloween Fancy dress day. Plenty of work and imagination went in to a lot of the costumes....more
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Mental Health Ambassadors
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St Aidans Comprehensive 5th years Mental Health Ambassadors have outlined a programme of events to highlight inclusion, provide information and awareness on a variety of wellbeing issues every month of the school year. This month was friendship month. So, teachers in class highlighted friendship and the Ambassadors organised workshops and fun activities throughout lunch times....more
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End of year awards 2021
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Congratulations to all our award winners from every year group. The awards given out included:
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Leaving Cert Awards 2021
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Congratulations to all our Leaving Cert award winners....more
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Computer Science News May 2021
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Coding and Computer Science students in all year groups participated in the Annual Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge during the first week in November 2020. 4 students were invited to National Finals which are usually held in NUIM. However, due to the ongoing restrictions, the Bebras National Finals 2021 were held online on Tuesday 20th April 2021. All students who were National Finalists were awarded a National Finalist Certificate in addition to the certificates awarded to all students who participated in the first round......more
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PyJama Day
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.A “non-uniform/Pyjama Day” was held on Friday 30.04.2021 in St. Aidan’s Comprehensive School.
The support for this was superb with students and staff participating. Over €850 was raised for St. John’s Ward in Crumlin Hospital, Dublin. This event was organised by an enterprise class from Transition Year. They hope to break past the €1000 mark by running an ice cream stand in the coming weeks. Now all we need is some sunshine! Well done to all concerned! .......more |
Creative Schools
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The students at St Aidan's have submitted their photographs under the title, Me and my World'.
During these difficult times we can see our students look at the world with their eyes, it’s all about communicating with each other. We have now started a photography club in school and invited local photographer, John Nutley to give us his perspective on the world through photographs. .....more |
Eu Code 2020
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Coding & Computer Science students participated in the EU Code Week 2020, which was held online 10th – 25th October. Algorithm skills were needed to develop the code for a traffic light sequence. Using a micro:bit, crocodile clips and some LED lights students proceeded to wiring up their project, downloading the code and got the chance to see their name in LED lights before activating the code to light up the LEDs. Students had the opportunity to personalise their code by amending the pauses between the lights and inserting their choice of emoji icon along with their name. It was the first practical coding session so lots of hand sanitiser before and after along with the use of gloves ensured the safety of all students and the cleanliness of equipment. ....more
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Keith Quille Workshop with 5th and 6th year Computer Science Students
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Keith Quille from TUD held a virtual workshop the 5th year and 6th year Computer Science students. The students enjoyed an introduction to data analysis and graphing. This will form part of the work computer science students will undertake as part of their Applied Learning Task 2 on Analytics where students are required to develop algorithms to analyse raw data and present the information in graphical form which will inform decision making. Whilst this was a different experience to Keith travelling to Cootehill in person, students enjoyed the workshop and are already looking forward to the next one! ....more
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WALKING FOR WELLNESS
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September 2020 has ushered in a new academic year unlike any other to date. The Covid 19 crisis has had a huge impact on all staff and students and it means we are digging deep to work and learn in a school atmosphere that has been transformed. Wearing masks and sitting apart, being in pods and groups, not being able to train teams or choirs – these are just a sample of the restrictions we find ourselves operating under. ...more
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1st Annual Youth Awards
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The Cavan /Monaghan Youth Awards took place on Thursday 20th February at Hotel Kilmore. These young people were nominated for this Award because of the positive contribution they have made to people in their community. A total of 16 individual and groups were honoured with Awards on the night. Katie Cooney, Emily Reynolds and Joshua Moore from St Aidan’s received Awards. ......more
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DCU Talk
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DCU gave a very informative presentation to 6th years about what courses they have on offer for Leaving Cert students. However, the students also got to meet a former students of St. Aidan’s that is actively involved in student life in DCU. Olivia Forde, the Vice President of Education and Placement, gave an inside account of what it is like to be a part of the Students Union in DCU and the opportunities that she has availed of. ....more
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JCPA day
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On Friday, 24/01/20 the Junior Certificate class of 2019 received their JCPAs in St. Aidan’s Comprehensive. This Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement details not only their official SEC marks achieved in the curricular exams taken last June, but also the descriptors awarded for CBAs (Classroom Based Assesments) in English, Science and Business alongside a summary of OAL (Other Areas of Learning). .....more
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Ulster Junior B soccer winners
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As the team left the school on Friday morning there was a sense of hope and expectation in the air. As the clouds amassed on the journey up and the rain began to fall it looked as if conditions would prove challenging on the day. However, as the Cootehill, bus expertly driven by Brian approached Ballyshannon, the clouds parted and the sun emerged to bring renewed optimism that the day ahead would be one long to be remembered in the St. Aidan’s soccer journey.....more
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High School Musical
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From the 12th to the 14th of November, St. Aidans’ students performed their take on Disney’s “High School Musical”. The show was directed by Born 2 Perform’s Gavin Quigley, choreographed by the incredible Paige Cunningham, and had Siobhan Maguire’s passionate and irreplaceable musical direction. We also had assistance from many of the most hard working teachers in the school, who took the time out of their evenings and weekends to make sure everything ran smoothly. ......more
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Team Hope Shoe Box Collection
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The annual shoebox appeal for Team Hope was very successful this year. Students and staff carefully wrapped shoeboxes, filled them with essential and fun items for this appeal. 205 shoeboxes were collected from the school on Thursday 21st November. These shoeboxes will now be distributed to children in some of the world’s poorest countries in time for Christmas. A huge thank you to all who contributed to this appeal and demonstrated great kindness. Well done to all!.....more
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Green School
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St. Aidan’s has achieved the success of five Green Flags since 2006 under the themes of Litter & Waste (2006), Energy (2010), Water (2012), Travel (2015) and Biodiversity (2019). The success criteria behind the Green Flags began by instilling an awareness in the student body on the importance of environmental issues and to think of protecting our environment for future generations to come. In 2016 St. Aidan’s celebrated 50 years of education in the Cootehill area. ...more
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Hearing impaired unit opening
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Official opening of HIU (hearing impaired unit) in St. Aidan’s Comprehensive School, Cootehill and the awarding of the Green Flag for Biodiversity. .....more
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Local History Project
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Last year transition year students undertook a local history project in conjunction with Creative Ireland and the Johnston Cavan Library to record old photos, memories, recordings and local folklore to preserve local history. The findings of the project were then uploaded and converted into a Sway website that can be updated in the future forming an online book on history of the local area.....more
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Leargas 2019-2020
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We are happy to announce that we have been able to secure funding this year for a Shared Education numeracy project with St. Kevin’s College, Lisnaskea under the PEACE IV Collaboration and Sharing in Education Project. This is our second year involved with the programme.. .....more
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Cups against Breast Cancer
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On Thursday, 10th October, a bake sale and coffee morning was organised in St. Aidan’s to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society and their “Cups Against Breast Cancer” fundraiser.
Teachers and students worked together to bake many delicious treats such as apple tarts, cup cakes & biscuit cake. These were then sold to the staff and students. €266.50 was raised during the bake sale.....more |
Leaving Cert Ecology Trip
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The Grassland ecosystem was thoroughly investigated by 6th years froom St. Aidan’s Comprehensive school recently on their Ecology field trip. Habitats within the ecosystem, trees present in the ecosystem, organisms, flora and fauna were all identified and analysed. Populations studies were carried out as well as light intensity and wind speed measurements. Predators, the food chain and food web featured also.
All in all, it was a fun and highly informative and useful trip. ......more |
Amazing Brains 2019
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Courtesy of Bernard Thompson from the company Amazing Brains, students from 2nd- 6th year in St. Aidan’s Comprehensive recently attended informative workshops to assist them to develop the study techniques and strategies essential for success. Through practical, meaningful and relevant activities, students discovered the merits of active learning, the importance of perseverance and the role of a 'can do' attitude. .....more |
UCAS event
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ER& M marketing company in conjunction with Vivien Drury, Guidance Counsellor, of St .Aidan’s Comprehensive organised a UCAS Roadshow for students in St. Aidan’s and surrounding schools in Cavan and Monaghan.
Students experienced a talk about the options in England, Scotland Wales, Northern Ireland and Europe like Holland and Germany for further studies. The idea is to show students the opportunities for study open to them outside Ireland. Students then visited stalls from the universities to find out information for themselves. A really great informative day was had by all. .....more |
Careers day in St. Aidan's
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On Thursday the 14th of March Students from St. Aidan’s Comprehensive and Bailieborough Community Schools attended a career event in St. Aidan’s. The event reflected the diversity of options available to students after school. Students attended stalls from universities including NUI Maynooth, UCD, DCU, St. Angela’s College, as well as Institute of Technologies DKIT, Athlone IT, Sligo It , TU Dublin( formerly known as DIT) Colleges of Further Education National Learning Network, Ballyhaise College, Cavan Institute, Monaghan Institute and O’Fiach Institute . Universities and Colleges from the UK and Northern Ireland were also present including University Of Ulster, CAFRE College as well as University of Bradford and University of Staffordshire.....more
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Healthy Eating Week 2019
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Healthy Eating Week has been a busy week with lots of activities happening in classes and at lunchtimes. 1st Year Home Ec students started off the week on Monday by making a healthy dessert: Apple and Berry Crumble. 1st Year students also attended a very informative talk given by Sylvia Sexton on the Healthy Ireland Initiative. On Tuesday, 6th year LCA Hotel Catering and Tourism took on the takeaways by making their own healthier spice bag!
On Wednesday, cheese tasting took place at lunchtime in the kitchen and proved to be very popular with students and staff alike. Students tasted various types of cheese and discussed the importance of calcium in the diet......more |
Cheese Tasting
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As part of Healthy eating week at St Aidan’s,Students and Staff enjoyed tasting a variety of cheeses in the Home Economics roomt at lunch time. They sampled cheeses from Ireland like the traditional red and white chedder. An array of other cheese were sampled also , like parmesan, mozzarella, gouda, camembert, brie, port salut,Emmental , wensleydale & cranberry and a few other soft cheeses. Cheese would not be complete without some crackers, grapes and some Moran’s pineapple and red onion chutney ....more
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Ms. Gallagher Blanket Fundraiser
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As part of the Transition Year enterprise project students in this class learned the skills of crocheting and knitting, all students then made squares which were sewn together to form a blanket. This blanket is being raffled by the students and any money raised is being donated to “Aoibhinn's Pink Tie”, a charity concerned with children's cancer and the Liver Unit of St Vincent’s hospital. .... more
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St. Aidan's Fundraiser
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The 1st year students in St Aidan's School in Cootehill, Co. Cavan organised a 10K fundraising walk in memory of a much-loved former pupil of the school, Karen Jackson. Karen died recently at a tragically young age. The students' objective was to fundraise for the Liver Unit in St Vincent's. Having undertaken this gruelling endeavour the students raised the magnificent sum of €2,000 for the Unit. .....more
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Christmas Cake Decorating
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Well done to all the first years who took part in the Christmas Cake decorating/Sugarcraft club after school on the 13th and 14th December. Students learned how to roll out, dye and mould fondant icing into festive figurines and designs. Ms. Kilkenny would like to thank all the first years for taking part, as you can see wonderful Christmas cakes were made......more
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School Musical
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On Thursday 16th November the students of St Aidan’s Comprehensive, Cootehill, put on a Broadway Showstopper. The show was made up of extracts from a number of musicals, including Wicked, Chicago, Les Miserables and more. The show performed by the students was outstanding and a credit to their talents, efforts and hard work. Students from all years were involved. Everyone had a part to play and they all pulled it together so well, the teamwork and cooperation was so evident with the emotional last performance of ‘This is Me’. A number of students had solo parts, where their showcase of talent was incredible. In ‘Wicked’ we had Aoife Shalvey playing Glinda and Kayla Farrell as Alphabel. ............more
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Team Hope Shoebox Appeal
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Every year students and staff from St. Aidan’s are involved in the annual Team Hope shoebox appeal. Shoeboxes are wrapped and filled with beautiful items to surprise a young child in poorer parts of the world. This year a total number of 164 shoeboxes were collected. Ms. Vogan would like to thank each and every member of the school community who supported this worthy cause. She would also like to express her thanks to Ms. Brady and all members of the Religion department for helping her gather shoeboxes and promote the charity. ....more
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MATHS OLYMPIAD
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The 32nd Irish Mathematical Olympiad round one was recently held with five students, Matthew Foster, Alexander Horne, Antonia Kray, Lorenzo Portis and Oistín Rutledge from the 5th year Computer Science class taking part. The students with the highest scores are then offered the opportunity to attend Mathematics Enrichment classes at one of the five universities involved. The closest to Cootehill being University College Dublin and Maynooth University. .....more
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Brickx Lego workshop
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Clodagh Malone from Dundalk Brickx Club Came to St. Aidan’s Comprehensive School on Monday 12th November for workshops. The first workshop was with TY students; their challenge was to code their phone number into binary code using Lego. Afterwards they built many impressive structures and vehicles demonstrating their creative skills to build without following set instructions. ....more
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3rd Year Students ‘blown away’ by the arrival of Storm Gerry
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Everyone knows the Irish love to talk about the weather and St Aidan’s most recent visitor brought talking about the weather to a whole new level. On Wednesday 21st November Gerry Murphy, a Met Éireann meteorologist and University College Dublin lecturer, arrived in St. Aidan’s to educate the 3rd year students in Meteorology – much to the delight of students and teachers alike.
Geography teacher, Ms Ni Bhaoill, decided to construct a weather station in the school to aid the students in their studies of weather and climate. Gerry took time out of his busy schedule to come and make a presentation to the students on meteorology and his work within Met Éireann.....more |
1st and 2nd Year Sponsored walk
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All First and Second Year Students were involved in raising funds for the charity ,in which they raised over €2,500. Each student was provided with a sponsor card distributed and managed by Ms Ni Bhaoill.....more
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Mangahigh Maths Games
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All students in 1st year participated in the nationwide Mangahigh Maths Games competition as part of Maths Week 2018. There was great competition between the tutor groups. The overall tutor group winners were Rand Ide with 307 medals earned by all students. Maureen Enriquez won the individual competition from Rang Ide....more
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Cora Staunton Visit (Day 2)
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On Monday the 15th of October Cora Staunton came back for the second time as part of the Lidl LGFA Female sports participation programme. All the girls who took part the last day gathered again in the library and we quickly revised on what we talked about from the first day.
We all thought about what the ‘4 values’ which was recognition, respect, responsibility and trust. . ......more |
6th Year Ecology Trip
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6th Year Biology and Agricultural Science students attended Tayto Park on Monday the 09/10/2018 to Carry out an investigation into a grassland Ecosystem. The Students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and encountered many new flora and fauna as well as first hand observation of predator/prey relationships within a variety of habitats in their chosen ecosystem. Our students got to use all sorts of equipment associated with the ecosystem study and really got hands on with the practical. The students were also treated to a guided tour of the Zoo that Tayto Park have established and got a squad photo with one of the main attractions; the Tiger. The whole experience is sure to aid our students in their revision of Ecology for the Leaving Certificate Exam. A big Thank you to the staff in Tayto Park for their Knowledge and expertise on all things associated with the grassland Ecosystem..... more
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Cora Staunton Visit
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On the 21/09/18 Cora Staunton, an Irish sporting legend known for playing ladies intercounty football with Mayo and AFL with the Sidney Giants came to visit our school. All 1st,TY and 5th year students were invited into the hall for a talk given by Cora during assembly. She talked about her journey this far in her Sporting career and gave us an insight into both her sport and personal highs and lows which was very inspirational. Cora told us about how she was chosen to go to Australia and play a new sport with The Giants and how she had to follow a very strict regime in terms of training on and off the pitch while also leading a very healthy lifestyle with good eating habits. Cora gave us an insight into her life as she progressed through primary and secondary school fast becoming one of Ireland’s best ladies Gaelic football players to have ever played the game while also balancing the many tough issues thrown at her in her personal life....more
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Claire Byrne Show
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I had a fantastic opportunity to attend the Claire Byrne Live Show at the RTE Studios on the 1st October with TY, 5th and 6th years accompanied by Ms. Sweeney and Mr McCaul. We embarked on our excursion at 6pm that day and arrived at the studio, situated in Donnybrook, Dublin at 8.30pm. We darted straight for the entrance door and waited in the foyer for directions to the studio. We were guided into a room adjacent from the studio where we filled out our ticket application which included our name and whether we were affiliated to any political group. .....more
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Amazing Brains
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Workshop for 3rd and 5th year was held by the company Amazing Brains in September. Third year participated in the 'Drive for Results’ programme which provides the foundations for students to succeed in their first formal state exams. Through practical, meaningful and relevant activities, students discover the merits of active learning, the importance of perseverance and the role of a 'can do' attitude. Students develop the study techniques and strategies essential for success. ...more
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Gaeltacht 2018
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On September 10th 42 students and their teachers Ms. Scanlon and Ms. Ní Bhaoill travelled west to Achill Island County Mayo for a two night adventure trip in the Gaeltacht. While the weather was not too kind to us on day one it improved from there on. The students were entertained by a number of sporting events such as archery, cliff diving, surfing, rock climbing, bog obstacle courses, scenic walks along the cliffs and some céilí dancing.... more
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Sports Day 2018
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Sports day 2018 took place on the 18th of May.......more
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2nd year History Trip
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On the 18th and 19th of April, all of second year went on a history trip to Wexford. We left the school at 8 a.m and after a three-and-a-half-hour bus journey (and a stop at Applegreen) we finally arrived at our first stop, Vinegar Hill, the site of the most famous battle of the 1798 Rebellion. Ms Mc Entee told us some interesting facts about the site and then we had lunch at the top of Vinegar Hill.
The next stop on the trip was the National 1798 Visitor Centre. Here, we went from room to room, looking at the different exhibitions as our tour guide told us everything that happened leading to and during the 1798 Rebellion..... more |
Healthy Eating Week 2018
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From the 15th -19th of January 2018 Healthy Eating Week took place in St. Aidan’s Comprehensive, which was spearheaded by the Home Economics teachers in the school. Throughout the week there were a variety of events taking place in the school to promote healthy eating.
On Monday, Charlene Brady from ‘Charlene’s Wholesome Pantry’ came to the school for a demonstration with 5th and 6th year Home Economics students. Charlene made energy balls using a variety of healthy ingredients. The students really enjoyed the demonstration. Some of the 5th year students were even roped in to help out during the demonstration! ....more |
Junk Kouture 2018
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This years Junk Kouture design by students from St Aidan's Comprehensive school cootehill is based on the idea of a Greek sea Goddess. The dress uses in its design different plastics that you find in the sea that are polluting our fish and sea-life, these plastics were sourced from the builders currently working at the school.The skirt flares out dramatically decorated with plastic bags denoting the rubbish people throw away. There are coins and jewels as under the sea we also find buried treasure and the headdress uses real shells in its design....more
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