Archive for May, 2021
All Ireland Debating Champions
May 19th
Hearty congratulations to our School Debating team who won the All-Ireland Concern Debating Final competition in June 2021. Read the report, as posted in The Donegal News newspaper.
ALL-IRELAND DEBATING SUCCESS FOR KILMACRENNAN SCHOOL
All-Ireland debating success for Kilmacrennan school
Posted: 9:57 am June 24, 2021
A DONEGAL village is celebrating after a team of primary school children won a new national debating contest that had over one hundred teams participating from around the country.
Fifth and sixth class pupils from Scoil Cholmcille in Kilmacrennan won the final of the inaugural All Ireland Concern Primary Debates, which is run by the humanitarian organisation Concern Worldwide.
The champions successfully argued for the motion that “GM Crops are key to ending world hunger” in their word-clash with Scoil Bhride from Paulstown, Co. Kilkenny.
Concern Primary Debates was set up to encourage awareness of global issues through debates about serious world topics and to improve the level of debating skills amongst young people.
The Kilmacrennan debaters – Conn McGettigan, Sadie McGettigan, Orla Kearney and John Cannon (captain) – were praised by their school principal and debating mentor John Devenney, who said: “We are delighted with this victory for the school.
“There has been a strong record of participation in debating competitions here in recent years, which is thanks to our teachers who have been fostering this tradition.”
The hundreds of students who participated in the competition each get a medal for their efforts and the winning school is awarded with a large wooden wall map of the world while the runner up will receive an engraved plaque.
The debates took part online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Concern Worldwide congratulated and thanked all participating pupils, their parents, teachers and wider communities.
“We applaud all Concern Primary debaters and those who supported them,” said Concern’s Head of Active Citizenship, Michael Doorly.
“Debating teaches us how to put our points across in a respectful, dignified, yet convincing way.
Any school that wants to participate in the next Concern Primary Debates competition can email debates@concern.net
May Newsletter
May 5th
We welcome all back to school after the Bank Holiday weekend and look forward to the remainder of term. We are doing our best to maintain our best practices in relation to Covid and, on behalf of the school, Mrs Doherty, our Covid Officer, wishes to commend the pupils and the wider school community for their continued efforts. It is important that you keep your child at home if you have any medical or Covid contact concerns, and that you follow HSE medical advice in this regard. We also request that the school is informed of any such concerns.
The ongoing concerns in relation to Covid is likely to impact on school religious services this year. A decision regarding Confirmation will be taken later in the term while we will follow guidelines from the Bishop and the government that strongly recommend that First Holy Communions are postponed until the Autumn term. We hope to give a provisional date for the Communions shortly.
The School Debating Team will compete in the Concern All Ireland Quarter-Finals on May 18. We are opposing the motion that ‘Tomorrow’s children will inherit a better world’. We wish the team all the best.
There will be no school for pupils on Friday 21 May (to facilitate Staff training).
I have posted details of the provisional dates for the forthcoming School Year on the school website.
Pupils from First to Sixth Classes will undergo standardised testing in English and Mathematics over the coming weeks, with selected classes also participating in testing in Irish. These results will issue to parents in June.
The Board of Management has submitted an application for a prefabricated building to house the second ASD Class which we are opening in September. The Board are also progressing plans for a permanent extension to the building (for Special Education).
