Dear GCC Parents/Guardians & Students,

Communication with GCC Parents via Tyro

We wish to remind parents that Tyro has a facility which allows the school to email parents with updates instead of texting. You will already have noted that our regular weekly updates are now emailed on a Friday. It is important that parents have access to Tyro and are checking notifications for updates. Please access Tyro consistently and have notifications active to ensure you are accessing information from the school.

GCC Staff Development Day

Our GCC Staff Development Day took place on Friday. We would like to thank all our presenters and members of our various working groups who contributed to a very informative and worthwhile agenda. This designated day supports staff training, school planning and professional growth. Please see below the agenda on the day.

Time	Topic	Facilitator
9.00am – 9.10am	Reflection	Marie McInerney
9.10am – 9.50am	Autism Awareness	James Moroney [AsIAm]
9.50 – 10.20am	Tyro Functionality	Tom Pittam
10.20am – 10.50am	Oide Digital Portfolio Initiative	Lisa Hegarty
10.50am – 11.20am	Morning Break	O Crualaois
11.20am – 12.20pm	GCC SSE T&L	John Baldwin & SSE/T&L Working Group
12.20pm – 1.00pm	GCC 58 Minute Classes Curricular Plan	William Horgan

GCC Open Evening 

GCC Erasmus+ Job Shadowing

We are delighted to welcome two Slovenian teaching colleagues to Glanmire Community College next week from Tuesday 29 September to Friday 2 October, as part of the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Programme.

The key objectives for our visitors are to:

1.) Understand our in-school processes and our educational approach.

2.) Observe teacher–student relationships and practices supporting wellbeing; discuss
stress management, workload and support systems.

3.) Identify innovative learning techniques and methodologies which support inclusion.

4.) Observe how digital technology is used in teaching and discuss their benefits and
challenges.

5.) Observe the learning environment and wellbeing approaches and initiatives within the
school.

Please click on the link to view the outline timetable our visitors. A sincere thank you to Dean Grainger who is coordinating the visit and we are also grateful to all of our GCC teachers who have volunteered for their classes to be observed and/or include our visitors on cocurricular and extra-curricular activities. We are sure all in our GCC school community  will ensure they feel welcome.

Glanmire_Job_Shadowing_Timetable.pdf

GCC One Hour Classes 

A reminder that as we continue to consider the proposed introduction of 58-minute classes in GCC, we would welcome feedback from parents and students and encourage you to share any thoughts you may have on the proposed change by emailing our dedicated policyreview@glanmirecollege.com

We wish to highlight also that, if our school decides to changeover to 58 minutes classes, this decision should be in place by our next Board of Management meeting on Monday 19 October 2026. This is to ensure adequate time to prepare the new schedule for the 2027/2028 school year.

A reminder with the draft outline timetable based on 58 minutes classes which we shared last week:

• Our proposed start time is 8.45am each morning
• There would be one morning break Monday to Thursday of 15 minutes
• There would be one big break Monday to Thursday of 30 minutes
• There would continue to be one break on a Friday morning but of 20 minutes duration
• Tutorial would be for 12 minutes each morning*
• School would finish at 15.30pm Monday to Thursday and 13.09pm on a Friday

*Parents are asked to note that should the 58 minute classes be introduced to GCC, we are looking at the timing of our tutorial and whether to continue with it first thing in the morning as we have done traditionally or move it, as many schools have, to later in the morning once classes are up and running. In the outline draft below, you will see it is placed before the morning break, but this can be altered.

GCC Fire Drill

Parents are asked to note that the school held a successful fire drill on Thursday 24 September. Many thanks to all our students and staff for their cooperation in ensuring the smooth running of the drill. Please click on the link below to view our fire drill procedures and fire drill list. Parents are asked to note that we conduct a review after each fire drill and invite written feedback from staff about how we might improve our procedures.

GCC Fire Drill Procedures September 2026

GCC Fire Drill List September 2026

GCC Activities of the Week Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October

Please click on the link to view the GCC Activities of the Week Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October 2026:

GCC Activities of the Week Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October 2026

GCC Upcoming Calendar Events – September/October 2026

Wednesday 23 September	GCC Open Evening*	6.00pm – 8.30pm*
Monday 5 October	Briefing Session for Parents of 1st Year students	@7.00pm
Monday 5 – Friday 9 October	GCC Autumn Assessments	All Year Groups
Tuesday 13 October	Oide Subject Cluster Day	School closed to students
Wednesday 14 October	GCC Staff Meeting	4pm – 5.50pm
Monday 19 October	GCC Board of Management Meeting	@4.30pm
Monday 19 October	GCC Parents Council Meeting	@7.00pm
Tuesday 20 October	GCC 3rd Year PPTM	4.15 pm – 6.45pm
Monday 26 – Friday 30 October	Mid-term break	School closed to students

*Classes for students finish at 12.30pm

Reminders 

GCC Studyclix Licence 

Parents and students are asked to note that we have renewed our school licence with StudyClix for the 2026/2027 school year. StudyClix Plus will be available to students across all year groups in GCC until the end of June 2027. Please click on the link below to view details of how to access the content. Please note students are required to use their @glanmirecollege email to access the licence. Over the last 2 years students have  increased their usage significantly with almost 40,000 sessions and almost 45,000 quizzes accessed in the last academic year.

Please click on the link below to view details of how to access the content: 

GCC Studyclix Licence

GCC Mobile Phone-Free Learning Environment 

After the successful implementation of a Mobile Phone-Free Learning Environment for first and second year students over the last two years it has been decided to extend the Mobile Phone-Free Learning Environment to include third year students this year. All students in the junior school will NOT be required to have a mobile phone in school to access any part of the curriculum.

DARE Information Clinics

Access UCC’s Disability Support has organised live online advice clinics to distribute information on the DARE application process. Parents/prospective students/guidance counsellors and other interested parties will be afforded an opportunity to get advice on applying for the DARE scheme. For the first 30 mins approximately, there will be a presentation giving an overview of the DARE scheme with an opportunity for questions and answers afterwards.

Please note booking is essential for the online DARE clinics & once you have booked you will receive a reminder and link 24 hours before the clinic.

Please click on the link for more detailed information on the DARE scheme:

DARE Information Clinics – GCC Parents Update

GCC Lunch Time Clubs

GCC Supervised Study

After school supervised study started last  Wednesday 9 September. We continue to take applications for study. Please click on the link below to view the application form and relevant dates.  Priority will be given to 3rd and 6th year students for places but we will try to accommodate students from other year groups if spaces are available.

If interested, please print the form, complete it  and place in Ms Clare-Sweetnam’s office C5, upstairs in the C Block beside C19. If students need a hardcopy of the form, there are copies in Ms Clare-Sweetnam’s office. 

GCC Supervised Study-Term 1 2026

Agreed Report – GCC Board of Management Monday 31 August 2026

Please click on the link to view the agreed report from our GCC Board of Management Monday 31 August 2026.

Agreed Report – GCC BOM Meeting Monday 31 August 2026

GCC One Hour Classes

Parents & students are asked to note that GCC has begun exploring the possibility of introducing one-hour classes for the 2027/2028 school year. As part of the process the school welcomed Helen Cadogan, principal of St Brogans Bandon, to GCC last week and she spoke to our staff about the changeover which Brogans introduced over two years ago.

Please click on the link to view some of the information Ms Cadogan shared with us which highlight many of the benefits and some of the potential challenges. We advised parents at our GCC Parents Council last Monday that we will continue to discuss the idea with staff over the coming weeks and we will update all stakeholders on our progress. Please note, if the school decides to introduce the longer classes, the decision will have to be taken before the end of November in oreder to have a timetable ready for September 2027.

One_Hour_Classes_Presentation.pdf

Results of Review of One Hour Classes.pdf

Summary Document

Draft National Standards for CAMHS – Public Consultation – Survey 

The Draft National Standards for CAMHS Public Consultation Survey is an online questionnaire launched by the Mental Health Commission (MHC) to collect public feedback on Ireland’s first-ever quality standards for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.  

Please click on the link to complete the survey: 

CAMHS Poster September 2026.pdf 

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.

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.

We hope you have a nice weekend.

GCC Senior Leadership Team

Ronan McCarthy (Principal)

John Baldwin (Deputy Principal)

Tom Pittam (Deputy Principal)

Caroline Byrne (Deputy Principal)