Dear GCC Parents/Guardians & Students,
Communication with GCC Parents via Tyro
We wish to highlight that to 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. For example, Biology teachers will be sharing information about Additional Assessment Components [AACs] with parents over the coming days. Please access Tyro consistently and have notifications active to ensure you are accessing information from the school.
Glanmire Community College Open Evening Wednesday 23 Sept 2026
Glanmire Community College will open its doors to prospective students and their families on Wednesday 23 September at 6.00pm for our annual Open Evening.
This event provides parents, guardians and prospective students with an opportunity to tour the school, explore our excellent facilities and meet members of our staff, student body and school community.
The Principal’s Address will take place in the Gym at 7.30pm.
The evening will offer a snapshot of life at Glanmire Community College and provide a genuine insight into the ethos, core values and vibrant community that make our school such a special place to learn and grow.
GCC One Hour Classes
As we continue to consider the proposed introduction of 58-minute classes in GCC, we 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
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
Leaving Certificate Co-Curricular Activities Next Week
Parents are asked to note that a large number of our 6th year students will be taking part in obligatory, co-curricular activities in the coming week.
On Tuesday 22 September, over 130 6th Year Higher Level English students are going to see a production of Othello in the Everyman Theatre. Formal classes on that day will begin at 1:10pm when students return from the trip. There will be a supervised study centre open in the school for those students who are not going to Othello.
On Thursday 24 September, over 100 6th Year Biology students are going to Fota Wildlife Park for the full day on their Ecology Trip. Formal classes will be suspended on that day. There will be a supervised study centre open for those students who are not studying Biology.
GCC Activities of the Week Monday 21 to Friday 25 September 2026
Please click on the link to view the GCC Activities of the Week Monday 21 to Friday 25 September 2026:
GCC Activities of the Week Monday 21 to Friday 25 September 2026
GCC Upcoming Calendar Events – September/October 2026
| 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 |
| 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 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.
Mobile phones are not required by any student in the junior school to access or engage with the curriculum. Where the use of technology is beneficial to teaching and learning, staff have access to Chromebook trolleys that can be booked for classroom use.
We thank parents and guardians for their ongoing support and cooperation in implementing this initiative.
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
We were delighted to welcome all our students back following the summer holidays and look forward to supporting them as they settle back into the routines of school life over the coming weeks.
Our 1st Year students completed their first full week in school and have settled in very well to GCC. Lunchtime Clubs will begin Monday to Thursday next week and the Early Club takes place on Thursdays and Fridays at 8.10am in B46.
Please click on the link to view our our 1st Year base classes;
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
Erasmus+ Job Shadowing – Learning Agreement and Proposed Programme
GCC is delighted to welcome two teachers from Slovenia to Glanmire Community College from Tuesday 29 September to Friday 2 October as part of the Erasmus+ Staff Mobility Programme.
During their visit, our guests will take part in a range of activities designed to foster professional learning and the sharing of best practice between schools. The programme will include classroom observations, discussions on effective teaching and learning strategies, approaches to student wellbeing, relationship-building within the school community, and the use of innovative teaching methods and digital technologies.
This visit provides a wonderful opportunity to showcase the many strengths of our school community and to learn from colleagues working in a different educational context. Our visitors will also have the opportunity to observe some of the co-curricular and extracurricular activities that contribute so positively to student life at GCC.
We look forward to welcoming our Erasmus+ colleagues to Glanmire Community College.
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.
