Dear GCC Parents/Guardians & Students,
GCC Return to School August 2026
We were delighted to welcome all our students back to school this week following the summer holidays and look forward to supporting them as they settle back into the routines of school life over the coming weeks.
On Thursday, we were especially pleased to welcome almost 200 enthusiastic and eager First Year students to the GCC community. Their Year Head, Ms Marsh, addressed the group, encouraging them to always do their best, show kindness to others, and work in together with both the school and their peers to achieve their full potential. She urged students to embrace this exciting new chapter, get involved in new activities, be open to making mistakes as part of the learning process, seek support when needed, and treat one another with kindness and respect.
With the continued support of staff, parents and classmates, we are confident that all students will have every opportunity to engage positively with their learning and enjoy a successful and rewarding school year ahead.
Parents are asked to note that there will be some minimal disruption to 1st Year classes next Monday from 8:55am to 1:10pm to facilitate TYRO photographs. Any student who is new to GCC this year will also have their photograph taken. Our school photographer John Roche will be working in the B-block social area throughout the morning. Thank you for your cooperation.
GCC Leaving Certificate Results 2026
We would like to congratulate all our GCC students who received their Leaving Cert results last Friday. We were delighted to see so many students present in person at the school on the morning to receive their certificates. While the impact of grade deflation was evident, particularly affecting results in the 550+ bracket, the vast majority of students we met were very
satisfied with their results and confident that they would achieve entry to their CAO course of choice on Wednesday. We would like to especially like to congratulate Owen Williams who achieved an excellent 613 points with Ben O Connell
receiving 602 points.
We extend our sincere thanks to our dedicated teachers for their hard work and commitment and to our parents and families for their continued encouragement and support. We wish all of our students every success and happiness as they embark on the next exciting chapter of their lives.
GCC Student Achievements
We would like to congratulate the following GCC students for on their outstanding sporting achievements over the Summer:
- Luke Merrigan (5th yr) who represented GCC at the All-Ireland School’s in late May in Santry and qualified for the European Championships which he ran in in July in Italy.
- GCC 5th Year student Aaron O Sullivan who was a member of the Cork minor football team that won the All-Ireland in July.
- GCC 4th Year student Lev Lobanets who won one gold and four silver medals at the Irish Summer Youth & Senior Championships. He also recorded two National Junior Pathway qualifying times.
- GCC 6th Year student Aoife Treacy and Keeley Goggin (5th Year) who were members of the Cork minor LGFA team that won the All-Ireland in July.
GCC Parents Council
Parents are asked to note that our first GCC Parents Council meeting of the new school year will take place next Monday 31 August at 7pm. We are always grateful for the support our parents offer across so many areas of school life. Sincere thanks as always to parents who helped on a number of days over the Summer to ensure our books were ready for students in their lockers on Thursday. Our thanks also to Mr Dooley for coordinating the Book Rental scheme and stationery in conjunction with Ryan’s Supervalu Glanmire. We would also like to extend our gratitude to our dedicated SNA team who are always on hand to support and help with preparing for the new school year.
Labelling of School Items
As per our update in June, parents are kindly requested to ensure that all uniform items (and especially the school jacket and fleece) are labelled with your child’s name. This will assist us in the prompt return of misplaced items.
GCC School Car Park
Parents are asked not to drive into the school car park when dropping and collecting students from school. Our school car park is always very busy and it is important that we minimise the throughput of cars on the school grounds.
We would also be grateful if parents could remind students:
- to use the pedestrian footpaths and not walk along or between cars when entering/leaving the school
- use the new pedestrian gates only and not enter or leave the school via the main gate
- students are to take care in general when walking or cycling to school particularly with so many different sets of roadworks happening currently in Glanmire.
We kindly ask parents who are collecting their children from our school not to park their vehicles inappropriately. For example, we ask parents not to park up on footpaths. We are aware of some cars taking up the whole footpath, leaving no space for either our students or members of the public to walk freely by and limiting the access of wheel chair users.
We also ask parents and students to be respectful of the housing estates near the school around drop off & collection times. Cars queuing in school traffic on the Hazelwood Road can block the entrances to Old Avenue & Oakfield housing estates. Please leave a gap for residence trying to leave their estates.
We thank you for cooperation in ensuring safety for our students when accessing the school grounds.
GCC Upcoming Calendar Events – September
| Monday 31 August | GCC BOM Meeting | @ 4.30pm |
| Monday 31 August | GCC Parent’s Council Meeting | @ 7.00pm |
| Tuesday 8 September | GCC Staff Meeting | 4.00pm -5.00pm |
| Wednesday 23 September | GCC Open Evening* | 6.00pm – 8.30pm* |
| Friday 25 September | GCC Staff Development Day | School closed to students |
| Monday 28 September | School Closed | School closed to students & staff |
*Classes for students finish at 12.30pm
