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We were bursting with pride to lead the Blessington St Patrick’s Day parade this year. Our students along with Mr OConnor, Ms Costello and Ms Murphy celebrated the diversity in ourschool, representing all 42 nationalities that make up our student body. We displayed the flags ofother countries in our contingent showing just how colourful and vibrant we can be when we worktogether. Learning about our own culture, sharing our traditions and expanding our own understanding of theimportance of national identity by exploring the cultures of others is very important to us. Last week was Ethos week in BCC and we would seek to promote Respect, Equality, Communityand Care along with Excellence in Education. Providing a welcoming and inclusive space is crucialand we strive to foster this spirit in our student body. Join us in offering a Céad Míle Failte to all that walk through our doors and live in our community2023-24 ISSUE 22 BCC WEEKLY NEWSFROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK19th March 2024

2ETHOS WEEK

3Last week in our school was Ethos Week, where we celebrated the ETB’s five core values ofRespect, Care, Equality, Excellence in Education and Community. As an ETB school, our ethos is underpinned by these five values.Events included a poster competition where students were invited to create a poster using atleast one of the core values. The winning posters will be displayed in the school’s concourseand at open nights to inform the school community about what the five core values are.We also gave our students the opportunity to write what they appreciate about their teachers.Over one thousand comments were received and it put a smile on all of our faces. Thanks toMs. Gilheany and Ms. Shirran for coming up with this wonderful idea!We are in the process of recruiting students to become Ethos Ambassadors. The role of theEthos Ambassador is to embody the core values and make our school more of a safe spaceand inclusive environment for all. Interviews for the five ethos positions will be held beforethe Easter holidays and the successful candidates will get to wear one of our new EthosAmbassador badges.Thanks to all the staff and students of BCC for all their help and support.Ms. CostelloETHOS WEEK

4ST PATRICK’S DAY

5IThe first year boys picked up their first bit of GAA silverware for the school. The boys whohave been working hard all year, training at 7:45am on Friday mornings got what they earnedas they beat St. Davids from Greystones on a scoreline of 13-9 to 5-12 in Bray on Tuesdaythe 12th.There was an excellent display of football on the ball from the lads, in particular from LiamRichardson, Evan Quinlan and Kayden McMahon who hit the majority of the scores. Aspecial shout out to Rian Elliot in goal who pulled off some excellent saves to keep us in thegame early on and showed some brilliant ability with his kick outs and playing out from theback, in a position he claims is not his natural position! As always everybody got a run out,Seamus Byrne and Kyle Kinane doing great when they came on.The lads are awaiting the draw for a Leinster semi final, let's hope they can keep going andwin a double.Thanks again to our sponsors Renault and Embankment plastics and also Mr Kirby and MrDunlea for their help with the team.Squad:Rian ElliotSean ByrneCillian TaylorJamie PowerKayden McMahonOscar MageeEvan QuinlanRhys Fitz-HenryAaron HendrickCallum BrennanLiam RichardsonSeamus ByrneKyle Kinane 1ST YEAR BOYS FOOTBALL

6CLOTHES SWAPClothes Swap - The Avon Bank Holiday market Our Student Environmental Council teamed up this bank holday with Blessington Tidy Towns tooffered a swap service (bring an item, take an item), a free to take rail, and €5 and €10 rails. Allmoney raised will go to environmental and sustainable projects in school. We are very grateful to Blessington Tidy Towns, particularly Jason Mulhall and his volunteers;Eileen, Pieter, Paul and Anita who supported the students in offering this service to the community. The council will definitely be running this event again. It is important that we promote sustainableliving as much as we can and reusing our clothes instead of buying new, is one of many easyways to decrease our carbon footprintThank you to Orla and Laura in The Avon for providing us with the space and storage for free. Wewant to also thank the Parents’ Council for helping us collect donations, rails and We are very grateful to you all.

7CAREERSCollege Talks for 5th yearsThanks to Conan Meehan from the University of Ulster who gave an excellent talk on UU andUCAS - the UK system of application to university. Interested 5th year students have been invited to sign up to the UCAS 2025 google classroomby Ms. Lillis. These students will be seen before summer so that they can do their courseresearch and complete any work experience needed over the next few months. Ideally they willapply in late autumn. Open days in the UK are usually during the summer, while UU and Queens have theirs inSeptember (Northern Ireland). Ms. Lillis will also organise an online application workshop,which normally takes place in early September. This is also hosted by Conan from UU. Maynooth University will be giving a talk to interested 5th years next Thursday. Students haveto sign up as a maximum of 60 can attend in Room 40. The form is on the 5th Year googleclassroom and is on a first come first served basis. Some talks will have a max of 30 as Room 40 is well used and not always available. This wasdecided on by 5th years through a questionnaire earlier in the year. College talks are organised so each subject/band of subjects have only one talk - to keep classdisruption to a minimum.

8COMMUNICATIONIMPORTANT NOTE FOR PARENTS!Make sure you have your VSware app installed on yourphone and push notifications are enabled. This is how you will receive all communication fromschool from now on.We are always seeking to be as responsive as we can to our community. As busy as schoolis, it can be hard to find time to stop and listen to each other. With that in mind, we have setup a digital “comment box” where you can offer feedback to us. We want to hear what parents have to say, and as best as we can, we will respond throughthe newsletter, where appropriate of course. We would ask that you are thoughtful about your comments and be respectful whencommunicating with us. Click the link here to access the form. You must attach your name and email address. This is not an anonymous forum.

9RESPONDING TO YOUR COMMENTSAlthough our form is not anonymous, we will respond generically to comments to maintain confidentiality and privacy forour students and families. As such, comments below have been paraphrased“VSware points system: My son was not awarded anypoints last year, yet won an award. He therefore doesnot have faith that the system is consistent”This current system has only been formalised since September. It wasreviewed, redesigned and introduced to this year’s students for thefirst time. In past years, while the points system was operating, itwas inconsistent and did not speak to our values as a school. We are monitoring it all the time and welcome your feedback“Communication is improving”. “The newsletter is really helpful, I have a much betterunderstanding of what is going on in school”We are working hard to improve our outgoing communication fromschool. It is a busy place and sometimes it is easy to forget to keepour community updated on what we are about and activities going on. Keep in touch with us through the comment forum, we are listening toevery word!!“I think it is a good idea to consider allowing studentswear their PE uniform during exam times from theperspective of comfort”Our uniform is an important part of who we are and how we present ourselves in BCC.However, we do acknowledge that times have changed since it was designed, students needsare different and it is becoming tricky to enforce the rules. We are in the middle of a review ofthe uniform policy, engaging with teachers, parents and students equally. There will be noradical sudden changes, but it is important we are all talking and listening to each other tocome to a collective agreement going forward. Watch this space, we will keep you up to date

1 0VSWARE POINTS