Greystones Community College
Annual Celebration of Awards - Thursday 19th May 2022
Every piece of work is a self-portrait of the student who completed it, and the students acknowledged at the Greystones Community College Awards day complete a masterpiece on every single occasion. It was a wonderful celebration as the college marked its annual awards day to honour the achievements of the students academically and in other areas of school life over the past year. The awards day, which was streamed live to parents and guardians in the school community was an opportunity to acknowledge those who left no stone unturned in their academic achievement but also their contribution to sporting and artistic endeavours and indeed fulfilling leadership roles during the year.
The Roll of Honour of Award Winners included the Bunchloch Awards for Respect, Excellence and Pride which were presented to three students from each year group who embodied the foundation stones on which the college is established. The Respect award went to Matthew Ryan and Saoirse McGann for their positivity, respectful nature and positive interactions will all in the school community. The Excellence Award went to Ena Dowling and Yasmine Judge who shows exceptional diligence and leave no stone unturned in every single task they put their minds to in the classroom. The Pride Award was presented to Ronan McGuigan and Amber Kilkenny to acknowledge their can-do attitude and enthusiastic involvement in all aspects of school life.
The Buaic Cloch Awards were presented to the Students of the Year at Greystones Community College. Buaic Chloch translates from Gaeilge as Pinnacle or Peak Stone and the worthy winners have certainly reached their peak this year.
The Buaic Chloch (Student of the Year) for the boys were Andrew Gaube and Morgan Durston. Their teachers have described them as hardworking, enthusiastic, and real leaders in the school community. These students portray consistent exemplary behaviour and grades.
The Buaic Chloch (Student of the Year) for the girls went to Abigail Langrell and Izabella Di Ruzza. From excellent grades in all subjects to involvement in sports and leadership roles, both girls excel at absolutely everything they do. The words phenomenal, outstanding, and inspirational were used by teachers to describe the Buaic Chloch winners and this makes them exceptional ambassadors for our school.
To acknowledge the student voice, GCC presented a Student Choice Award, and the winner was selected by the student body. This award is acknowledging a unique characteristic or trait seen by others in one particular student that may often goes unnoticed, something that the students feel is valuable and important to acknowledge. The award was presented by Haylie Foley, Chairperson of the Student Leadership Team to Jane Pan & Sofia Flores.
There were also awards presented for the student who excelled in each individual academic subject. These awards went to Emer Row and Naomi Wall for Business Studies, Angelica Di Tillio and Yasmine Judge for English and Ena Dowling and Amber Kilkenny for French. The Geography awards went to Morgan Durston and Sofia Flores, the Graphics awards went to Jane Pan and Zac Tarbett Kahn and the History awards went to Katie Farrell and Oisin O’Brien. The award for Home Economics went to Alessandro Del Rio and Zoe Gombos, the award for Irish went to Ena Dowling and Amber Kilkenny while the award for Maths went to Abigail Langrell and Jack Killilea. The Music student of the year was Emily Carrick while Angelica Di Tillio and Zac Tarbett Kahn were honoured in Science. Sahara Vernon and Jack Killilea were commended for Spanish, Aaron Joseph and Andrew Gaube were acknowledged for Technology and Pola Kedziora and Sofia Flores were selected as the winners of the Art Award. The final subject award went to Roan Morris for Wood Technology.
Achievements in sport were also acknowledged and sports awards were presented to the winners from our recent sports day including to our 100metre champions, George O’Toole and Dayle Carthy, while Klara Chowanska and Abigail Moran won the girl’s title. Our 400metre champions were Callum Halpin Rooney and Seren Stamper Walsh.
Student Leadership is central to the ethos of Greystones Community College and awards were presented to the Student Leadership Team, the Green Schools Leadership Team, Amber Flag Leadership Team and JigSaw One Good School Leadership Team for their leadership. The new Student Ambassadors for 2022/2023 were also announced. These students will mentor and support our incoming first year students and be role models for them in the year to come. In total, 62 students received leadership awards at the awards day, to acknowledge the great contribution our students have made in leading and developing our new school.
A special presentation was made to Celia Garcia, Ferran Josef and Anna Slaap, the schools three international students who contributed so much to the school community of Greystones Community College in the past year. They forged great friendships with their peers, improved their English and threw themselves into every possible activity which studying here. GCC will be sorry to see them go but wish them every success in their futures when they return to Spain.
Concluding the awards ceremony, Principal Ruairi Farrell paid tribute to the staff and students of the school who bought into the vision we all share for GCC. ‘I am so proud today to celebrate all these successes with you, to think how far we have come on this journey, and I am proud to think how many exciting adventures, opportunities and successes lie ahead for each and every student in the years ahead’.