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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

CEIST is the new trustee body for the voluntary secondary schools of the Daughters of Charity, the Presentation Sisters, the Sisters of the Christian Retreat, the Sisters of Mercy and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

CEIST ONLINE DEVELOPMENTS

We are currently revamping our website and members' area and both developments are due to go live in early September 2009.

The new website will feature sections from our Faith Development, School Support and Finance departments. It is hoped that the new site will be a useful vehicle for our departments to promote their services and to provide a platform for sharing resources, ideas, best practice, etc, amongst our audience.

One of the features planned for the new site is a "School of the Month" which will provide an opportunity for our Principals to promote their school on the website.

The new members' area offers great potential for our members to collaborate on various topics and to upload and download resources within the private site. We will be providing all of our school principals with logon details once re-development work is completed.

We would very much welcome your feedback on any topics you would like to see included in the new website or members' area, click here to send via e-mail or you can contact us on 01-6510400.

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Celebrations

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) recently celebrated the centenary of their arrival in Cork.

MSC is an acronym from Missionarii Sacratissimi Cordis - the Latin title of the Congregation. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have one school, Coláiste an Chroí Naofa, which is located in Carraig na bhFear in Cork.

Scoil Mhuire Memorial Garden

Scoil Mhuire in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, constructed a memorial garden for all students and teachers who have passed away.

The memorial garden was officially opened by An Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen.

Presentation School Ballingarry Awards

Presentation Secondary School, Ballingarry, Thurles, Co. Tipperary celebrated their annual awards on the 15th May 2009.

Calasanctius College Newsletters

Calasanctius College have published their end of year newsletter.

The college also published a special edition detailing the girls U16 basketball team who recently represented Ireland in the World Basketball Championships.

Mitchelstown Student Recalls trips to Uganda

Theresa O'Keeffe, a transition year student in Presentation Secondary School, Mitchelstown, shared with us her experience on recent visits to Uganda.

Theresa was so taken by her trip to mBula that she organised a second trip completely independent of the school!

Christ King Student Letter to President Obama!

Christ the King Cork Tranisition Year student, Niamh Burke, won the senior category of an International letter writing competition organised by Concern.

Participants were asked to write a letter to President Barack Obama with the letters focusing on critical global issues.

St Anne's School Win Local Business Competition

Transition Year students from St Anne's in Tipperary Town celebrated a great win recently.

The students won first prize in a local business competition where over 300 schools nationwide had participated. The school won €600 in prize money and also received an all-expenses educational trip to Belgium where they visited EU Parliamentary buildings.

Secondary Schools to Receive High-Speed Broadband

The Minister for Communications, Mr. Eamon Ryan, has announced a 100Mbps Post Primary Schools Project which will deliver high-speed broadband access to second level schools.

The first 78 schools to receive the high-speed broadband have been selected and congratulations to the following CEIST schools who were on the list;

St. Leo's Carlow, Christ King Cork, St. Columba's College Donegal, St Joseph's College Lucan, Coláiste Bríde Clondalkin, Presentation College Warrenmount, Presentation College Headford, Calasanctius College Oranmore, Coláiste Naomh Mhuire Naas, Coláiste Íosagáin Portarlington, Presentation Secondary School, Sexton Street, Limerick, Mercy Secondary School, Longford, St. Vincent's Secondary Dundalk and Killina Presentation Secondary School, Offaly.

Internet Safety

O2 recently announced details of a new service to combat bullying on mobile phones.

The service, which is free of charge, allows you to block unwanted messages from other mobile phone numbers.

 

CEIST Educational Conference

The fourth annual CEIST Educational Conference is being held on the 1st and 2nd of October 2009.

It is being held this year in the Clayton Hotel, Ballybrit, Galway.

We are currently putting in place timetables for our workshops and keynote speeches.

The conference agenda will be distributed to our schools and available for download on the website shortly.

 

Sharing Best ICT Practice in Schools!

A very effective resource available on the Internet for showcasing best practice in ICT in education is the ICT Register, click here to access.

You can apply to join the register if you have particular strengths you wish to share.

If you are looking for support in ICT you can search for a school with particular strengths and request further input.

Perhaps CEIST schools could share their own strengths in ICT and upload questions (and hopefully answers!) within our new members area going live in September.

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