Congratulations to our two competing teams who have entered this competition. Our first team is composed of students Niamh Linehan, Maire O’Neil, Orla Gillespie, Kevin Healy and Evan O’Brien, while Caitlyn Heffernan, Lisa Finn and Jenny Buckley complete our second team.

The Irish Angus Producer Group devised a competition in an effort to further increase awareness of Certified Irish Angus Beef among consumers and to further promote the benefits to farmers and their families. The aim of the competition is to encourage young second level students to become involved to a greater extent in their families’ farms and to gain an understanding as to how beef produced on those family farms is marketed in a manner that represents the care and attention that has gone into the production and processing of their animals.

In entering the competition transition year students make a 3 minute video detailing the importance of agriculture to the school community and how they would plan for the promotion of the Certified Irish Angus in the area. Their videos contained trips to the local Mart in Kanturk where they offered samples of certified Irish Angus steak burgers to those in attendance, while they also visited local butchers as well as visiting farmers in the local area.

If their video is successful the students will be invited to an interview, in which a selection of entries will be invited to attend an exhibition event in Croke Park on 15^th March 2017 which will be attended by Agriculture industry representatives.

If successful in Croke Park the group will be in with a chance to win five, six month old Angus calves which they will collect at the national ploughing championships in September. The students will rear these calves through to slaughter to coincide with their Leaving Certificate Agricultural Science project. As well as this students will be in with a chance of to receive an additional €2000 payment towards their further education.

Good luck to both teams.

Open Day took place on Saturday 22nd October. Blessed with wonderful weather we welcomed an enormous attendance of primary students and their families to view our school facilities and meet with the staff of Scoil Mhuire.

Activities on the day included maths activities, language plays, science magic shows, cooking demonstrations, snippets of the upcoming production of the ‘Sound of music’, project work in Technology and Construction Studies, fun and games in the gym as well as artistic make-up in the art room to tie in with the Halloween theme of the day.

Principal Ms Miriam Downey addressed the gathering where she outlined the caring student focused environment afforded to students in Scoil Mhuire as well as the outstanding academic track record of the school. Others who addressed the gathering included current first year students and Mrs Clare O’Keeffe who gave a very insightful talk of her experiences as a parent of past and current students in Scoil Mhuire.

Following on from Open Day we were delighted to receive very positive feedback from visitors to the school on the day. In particular the acknowledgement of the dedication of the Scoil Mhuire staff and feedback on the willing and happy disposition of our students on the day were very welcome indeed.

This positive feedback was supported with an increased enrolment for 2017 when we held on enrolment morning at the start of November. We look forward to welcoming this new cohort of students in September and working with them to ensure they each reach their full potential.