Achievements, success and activities throughout Meán Scoil Mhuire, Longford

Honouring Outstanding Academic Achievement
We would like to congratulate two of our former students from the Leaving Certificate Class of 2025 who last week received prestigious awards from Trinity College and Dublin City University. These awards were presented as an acknowledgement of both students’ outstanding results in the 2025 Leaving Certificate examinations. On Thursday January 22, Danielle Kanyinsola Richard-Akinyemi received the Trinity College Entrance Exhibition Award,2026. Danielle Kanynisola is currently studying Engineering in Trinity College and Ms Kearney, Deputy Principal, was delighted to represent Meán Scoil Mhuire, at the awards ceremony. Ríonagh McCormack was awarded the Dublin City University Scholars Award 2025/26 on January 22.

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Ríonagh is currently studying in the area of Actuarial Mathematics and Mr MacAodha, Deputy Principal, was thrilled to represent Meán Scoil Mhuire at the ceremony. We have no doubt that the achievement of both students will inspire our current cohort of students to pursue academic excellence. We would like to acknowledge the determination, dedication and diligence of both Ríonagh and Danielle Kanyinsola to their studies while in our school and thank our staff for the support and guidance that they showed the students throughout the course of their studies.

Go n-éirí libh a chailíní

TY Young Social Entrepreneur County Winners
We would like to congratulate our TY students Aoife, Aoibhinn, Olivia, Isabelle and Emily on their outstanding achievement at the TY Social Entrepreneur of the Year Competition last week where they were awarded the accolade of overall County Winners. Aoife Smith, a member of the team kindly outlined her experience of the project below for our school news: The idea for the social enterprise competition was to create a concept that would align with the idea of social enterprises. Our group consisted of Olivia Johnstone, Emily Quinn, Aoibhinn O’Brien, Emma Darby and I, and we came up with an idea called Teen Threads. The main objective of Teen Threads was to create a sustainable youth-led enterprise selling pre-loved clothing for teenagers. Teen Threads would only operate on weekends to suit young people’s schedules around school and to create meaningful employment opportunities for teenagers. Teen Threads would also be an outlet for clothing donations which in turn would reduce textile waste, promoting sustainability, circular fashion and environmental awareness. We would like to thank Ms O’ Brien for her encouragement and support!

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TUS Nursing Taster Programme
Career exploration is one of the four student dimensions on which the foundation of the new TY Programme is based and last week three of our students certainly enjoyed the opportunity to gain first-hand nursing workplace experience. Grace, Sarah and Emelia relished the chance to partake in the TUS Nursing Taster Programme as part of their TY experience. The students attended TUS alongside first-year Mental Health Nursing students, visited St Loman’s Hospital and attended talks on schizophrenia and anxiety. The students concurred that the programme was incredibly insightful and educationally beneficial. Thank you to all involved in providing our students with this experience.

TY First Aid Course by Erin Larkin
We attended the day-long First Aid course on Wednesday, January 28. In the morning, we were taught about heart attacks and cardiac arrest. We learned that heart attacks and cardiac arrest are actually two different things. A heart attack is when blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked and causes muscle damage, and cardiac arrest is when your heart stops beating. After the break we were told how to treat a person who is having a heart attack, in cardiac arrest or is having an allergic reaction. After lunch we got to practice performing CPR on a dummy. We also got to practice using a defibrillator on the dummy.

Sport, Sport, Sport!
Last week was an action packed sports week in Meán Scoil Mhuire. On Monday last, our First and Second Year Basketball teams travelled to Tullamore to face Tullamore College. Congratulations to our First Year team who emerged victorious finishing with a cohesive defensive effort. Unfortunately, our Second Year team was defeated by a stronger Tullamore team. We look forward to our next match in two weeks time. On Thursday, January 29 our First Year Rugby team participated in a series of games today against Coláiste Phobal Ros Cré at Mullingar RFC. The event was organised by Leinster Rugby. The wet and cold conditions did not hamper the team’s spirits, and there were fantastic performances throughout the day, with many girls new to the sport quickly grasping the game. Thank you to all team members for their dedication and to all the inspirational coaches!

The Merchant of Venice Production
In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio’s ships are feared lost at sea due to a tumultuous storm and our Third Year students certainly experienced the aftermath of a severe storm as they navigated a flooded M50 to attend the Mill Theatre, Dundrum, production of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” on Tuesday last. Despite the inclement weather and gridlocked road, the students and teachers eventually successfully arrived at their destination and were treated to an outstanding production of Shakespeare’s comedy. We would like to thank the English Department for organising such a beneficial and worthwhile trip to the theatre.

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Robotics Competition Success
We would like to congratulate Anne-Maria, Eva, Patrycja and Weronika on winning two awards at last week’s regional final of the VEX Robotics Competition. The girls showed serious skill and determination to win the Teamwork Champion Award and the Overall Excellence Award. Thank you to Ms McGoey for all her dedication to the promotion of robotics in the school to date!