St Mac Dara's Community College
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St. Mac Dara's Community College (Irish: Coláiste Pobail Mac Dara Naofa) is a school situated on Wellington Lane, Templeogue in South Dublin. It accommodates both Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate students which is run by the Dublin Vocational Education Association(V.E.C) and is a non-fee paying school. It has a Transition Year programme which usually restricted to one class, with a maximum of thirty students per year. The school also has a majority of sports and extra curricular activities for its students to choose from including Gaelic Football, Hurling, Soccer, Rugby, Basketball, Golf and Canoeing.
School Trips
The school regularly hosts trips and foreign exchange pro gramme's to different countries.
Past trips have included France, Scotland, Germany, Italy(skiing), Spain, Holland, Austria and for the first time in the school's history the school organized 2 skiing trips for students to bjuras,Swedenfor a week each trip.One of these trips took place during February, while the other in March, both accommodating for over 40 students each.
The school also has its annual Celtic trip which is organized by Irish teacher Mr.A Curren, in which students and teachers travel to Scotland to see Celtic play and meet the team where various activities are organized for the students.
The 2008 ski trip will take place in Boston, USA.The trip will occur over the Easter holidays.
Most Charitable school in Ireland
The school was also involved in a charity project, where a small group of students travelled to Honduras/Nicaragua. St Mac Dara's Community College is Ireland's number one charitable school for a sixth time in a row raising around €60,000 per year for the Irish charity Trocaire. In order the raise the money each year group is given a certain task to do in order to raise the money. First years do a 24 hour fast, second years do a table quiz, third years get Mr.Culleton, who is a teacher in the school, to do an embarrassing action which has in previous years involved him shaving his hair completely off and dying it pink. Fourth and fifth years do a soccer marathon in which the students, some staff and celebrities who attend the fund raiser play football all day. The sixth years organized a "Bomb Mr Curran" fundraiser where students paid to throw balloons at the teacher. All of the fundraisers proved very popular and successful.
Facilities
St Mac Dara's enjoys numerous facilities such as 4 Science Labs (one which has been newly refurbished), over 40 Different Classrooms, three Home-Economics rooms with essential Appliances, two woodworkand also two engineering rooms both of which have newly installed equipment e.g. Lathes, Pillar Drills etc., two Computer Rooms with over thirty computers connected to an active broadband line and two Technical Graphics Room. St Mac Dara's recently constructed a separate P.E Hall and Gymnasium on the school grounds which comes equipped with shower room and a full Gym. It was announced that the School toilet facilities are going to be refurbished in mid 2008
Organizations within the College
The College has many organizations and societies active. The School's Student Council has worked hard the last 2 years and have successfully brought a "Green Machine" into the college which replaces the old vending machine and now stocks more healthier products.The Student Council also run a stationary shop where students in the morning before registration on a Tuesday and Thursday by the student council members. This is liased by Mr. Carey. Currently the student council is undergoing changes in that students are elected democratically by their fellow classmates. With this have emerged a multitude of student made slogans to go with the students who are running (Vote for Sarah Mulcahy, and we won't judge ye!)
The Colleges Amnesty International Group encourages the campaigns of Amnesty International and organizes a yearly fair trade fair where fair trade products are sold. Also there are various other fundraisers run by Amnesty and organised by Mr. Shane Culleton. Some of the most recent would include the "May Day Gig" held on the 1rst of May 2008 (which was very successful, an extra "Rag Day" on the 30th April which raised over 2000 euros. Another event was the annual "Table Quiz" held Tuesday the 29th April. The winners were team 11 consisting of four second years who even defeated the teachers team consisting of Mr. Roddy (Geography), Ms. Duffy (Music, Religion),Ms. Kehoe (Irish) and Ms. Molloy.
The History Association which has been active since the birth of the college has talks on history every so often and organizes the schools infamous "rag day" where students pay a small fee to wear in the own clothes and the funds are then given to a selected charity. They also organize regular talks which aid Leaving Cert students in the weeks running up to exams.
There are many other societies within the school including the History Society, a choir-who have their very own fro-boy, orchestra and a Gaeilge society.
Involvement in Hollywood Movie
In October 2006, St. Mac Dara's was chosen over many schools in the area to be used to shoot an important scene in the forthcoming film 'Bog Bodies'[1], starring Vinnie Jones, and which is still in production. Some of the 4th and 5th year students were used as extras in the scene which was filmed in one of the science rooms.
25th Anniversary Celebrations
This year (2007/2008) will be the 25th year of the colleges existence.
There are many events planned for the year, including a school magazine and the musical production 'Carmen' The show is ran in the school, (17th - 19th December 2007). The cast was made up of students of the school, with sets, props and costumes all made and donated by parents and teachers.Carmen was played by Fíona Canavan of 6th year. The show is directed by Mr. Paul Kingston, vice-principal of the school.
There was a visit from the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanifan on the 5th of March as the guest of honor to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the school. The occasion was celebrated by invited teachers,staff, parents and students.