PICS: Ballyphehane students settle into school life as academic year gets underway
Fourth year pupils of Presentation Secondary School, Ballyphehane, Cork pictured with their principal Mr Barry O'Shea. Included are from left, Faith Nyamangnerde, Aoife Delaney, Ploy Pnolsak, Chelsea O'Shea, Rebekah Blake and Sophia O'Leary. Picture: Dan Linehan
STUDENTS have eased back into school life once again after the summer holidays in Presentation Secondary School, Ballyphehane.
The principal of the Cork City secondary school Barry O’Shea said the students are already back in a routine. “The first-year students started back on Thursday, August 24 and all the students were back in on Monday, August 28. We are back in a routine. We are very happy with the number of first year students who have started with us. We have a very solid number,” he said.
The secondary school principal remarked that this year’s first year students at the all-girls school didn’t seem nervous at all.
“The first-year students weren’t that nervous at all. We have a very good welcoming programme for our first-year students. We have a serious of themed weeks. Week one we focus on homework, week two we focus on friendship and week three we focus on settling in. At the end of September, we have a celebration to mark the end of the first month in secondary school. We have a strong ethos of a supportive school where everybody rallies around the first-year students."
“It is a very close-knit school,” added the principal. “We have a very strong sense of community, and everybody looks out for everybody else. We have a couple of hundred students. It is a good size. The size still allows us to get to know everybody. Everyone in the school knows everybody on a first name basis. The class sizes also allow the teachers to get the best out of their students. It allows every student to achieve their full potential.”
Mr O’Shea said the secondary school possesses strong academic links with University College Cork (UCC). “Academically the school is doing very well. We have very strong links with University College Cork (UCC) through Access UCC and UCC PLUS+ Programme. Between 60% and 80% of our students on average progress on to university after the Leaving Cert. We have very high academic standards.
“Fourth year is a very strong year for our students both from an academic and extracurricular perspective. We do a lot of school tours. Our students last year had trips to Spain and Poland. They take part in lot of sporting activities. There is a very strong camogie tradition within the school as well,” he added.
The secondary school principal said their remit is to serve the needs of the local community.
“We get students from Ballinhassig and Ballygarvan, but principally from Ballyphehane, Togher and Turner’s Cross. We serve the local community well. The new teachers are settling in very well. The use of new technologies and new approaches to teaching are always highly valued in our school.”
Mr O’Shea added that they took the chance to upgrade the facilities in the school during the summer recess. “The school was established in the mid-1960s," he explained. "The older part of the building was opened in 1969. We have great facilities. We did a good bit of work over the summer. We opened a second computer room and a weights room. We have a state-of-the-art PE hall. We offer PE as a Leaving Cert subject, and we take sport very seriously in the school.”
The principal is looking forward to the academic year. “We are looking forward to a successful academic year. We want our students to be happy and to feel good in school. That is really valued as a cornerstone of doing well in school and progressing from an academic point of view.”
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