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CMM Galway became a sea of ghosts and spooks, zombies and vampires, angels and devils, Fr. Teds and Dalmations as our students and staff let their creativity run amok and seriously put their best foot forward in an outstanding colourful display of costumes and make-up.

Huge thanks to Colette and the canteen staff for sponsoring prizes for the outstanding winners, to Ms. Margaret Lee for pulling it all together and to everyone who participated in the fun and the craic. Just look at those photos!

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Staff decided to come as dalmations! Cruella DeVille, or Ms. Ní Neill kept them all on their toes though!

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CMM Galway Transition Years had an action packed three days in the beautiful Delphi Adventure Centre, canoeing, abseiling, bushcraft, archery, highropes and forest walks, the weather was fabulous, the students were amazing, thank you to all involved

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Nothing too tough for our TYs

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A huge congratulations to our CMM Galway TY class of 2025 who were awarded their prestigious Gaisce awards

Gaisce - The President's Award is Ireland’s national youth award and is a personal development programme for young people aged 14-25. It is a direct challenge from the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, to all young people to dream big and fulfil their potential.

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Gaisce provides a positive youth development programme that encourages and rewards young people to discover their passions and challenge themselves, positively impacting themselves and the world around them. The Award programme empowers participants to cultivate essential life skills and foster a sense of responsibility and resilience through a nationally and internationally recognised non-formal education framework. The programme also fosters a sense of community involvement, with all participants giving back to their community via their chosen volunteer activity.

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Thank you so much to Emmet Major and Garda Joe Quinn from the Stay Sober Stay Safe campaign for their very important and informative session delivered to all 5th year and TY students.

It is so valuable to be aware of how to take care of ourselves and each other on those nights out. #staysoberstaysafe

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Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal 2025

We are delighted to once again take part in the Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal! This worthwhile project brings joy to thousands of children affected by poverty this Christmas

Students, families, and staff are invited to get involved by filling a shoebox with small gifts such as:

Toys (dolls, balls, games, teddies)

School supplies (copybooks, colouring books, pencils, colours)

Clothing & accessories (hat, scarf, gloves, socks)

Hygiene items (toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, hairbrush)

As always, we are so happy to accept any donation, large or small, of any of these individual items.

Please do not include food, liquids, sharp objects, or anything breakable.

Deadline for donations: Friday, 24th October 2025

All shoeboxes/items must be dropped into the school by this date to ensure they can be delivered in time for Christmas.

Every year we are blown away by the increased support for this special cause.

Together, we can help make Christmas extra special for children who need it most.

Find out more about the appeal here: teamhope.ie/christmas-shoebox-appeal

#TeamHope #ChristmasShoeboxAppeal #GivingBack

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We were delighted to have HOPE CEO International Operations, Maura Lennon, present the work of HOPE to the LCVP students. The Hope Foundation is a registered charity working with street-connected and slum-dwelling children in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India. working to free children and poor families from lives of pain, abuse, poverty and darkness.
Our staff and students provided a very warm welcome and were engaged in learning about the work of HOPE, and how they could help to support our awareness and fundraising efforts.HOPE itself posted that "it is very grateful to the wider school community of Coláiste Muire Máthair and in particular to LCVP teacher Sharon Loughnane , for their sustained interest in, and support to HOPE"

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Our 5th year LCA group went to Astrobay Galway Sports and Leisure Complex in Renmore recently where they competed in the Cube games are as a team bonding exercise. Great fun was had by all!!

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Our students had a great time celebrating European Languages Day with games and quizzes.Well done to their teachers for organising the events and leading the fun! #europeanlanguagesday.

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We are delighted to announce our Head Prefects for 2025-26 and wish them great success in their roles as ambassadors for Coláiste Muire Máthair this school year. Huge congratulations to Head Boy Ali Amirouche and his deputy Evan Smith, and to Head Girl Julia Matysik and her deputy Ada Axenti. These four students have demonstrated exemplary dedication to our school, and are outstanding role models for all our students.

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Our LC group took a well earned break from the classroom to join together on a hike up Mameen, and then on to Kylemore Abbey. Always a great idea to put down the pens for a while!

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Wet and windy in reality...but memories will paint a better picture!

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"Your school needs you!" Miss Sammon 's 3rd Year CSPE class has created some inspirational posters for our upcoming Student Council elections this October. Well done everyone, should get the ball rolling as election fever creeps in!

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Thank you to the Youth Work Ireland Westside for hosting the launch of Comhairle na nOg's safety survey report onFriday 12th of September.

The report was launched by the Mayor of Galway City, Cllr. Mike Cubbard,and attended by our student representatives Lucy, Rachel , Conor and Divine

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In September we celebrated SNA Appreciation Day. We have an amazing group of SNA's who work tirelessly with our students. Without them, there are many children who would never be able to attend secondary school, would be at risk of early school leaving or simply be unable to manage the day. Some days they spread themselves so thin they are almost see through!

A Massive thank you to each and every one of our SNAs for the magnificent work they do

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Welcome to the April Edition of Coláiste Muire Matháir’s Neurodiversity Newsletter. This month we are focusing a little closer on Neurodiversity in girls in some sections.

The feedback from our March Newsletter was so positive and very welcomed. We had so many excellent suggestions from families and we have tried to reflect the here. Keep the ideas coming!

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The Schools of Sanctuary is an initiative to celebrate the good practice of schools that welcome asylum seeking and refugee families into their school community and foster a culture of welcome and inclusion for all. Schools of Sanctuary offers a way to engage sanctuary seekers and families with their local communities and educate children and teachers about the human right to sanctuary. The aim is to create a safe environment that includes everybody in a school, regardless of people’s background, ethnicity, faith or gender.

CMMG is committed to be a safe and welcoming space for all. It is a school demonstrating a whole-school approach to support and understand those who may be seeking sanctuary. A School of Sanctuary is a school helping its students, staff and wider community understand what it means to be seeking sanctuary and to extend a welcome to everyone as equal, valued members of the school community. It is a school that is proud to be a place of safety and inclusion for all. In order to be awarded School of Sanctuary status we must present a portfolio of activities / events that we do during the year.”

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We were absolutely delighted to achieve the status of Champion School of Sanctuary. The monitoring committee, headed by Sive O'Connor from Schools of Sanctuary Ireland, and including Aidan Harte and Roisín Birch from University of Galway, Paul Fallon from Galway City Council, Tara Broderick from Galway Educate Together Secondary School and Cathy Joyce from Galway City Partnership, were very impressed with our presentation, highlighting all the hard work our Schools of Sanctuary committee, under the excellent guidance of Ms. Maura Geoghegan, have put in over the last couple of years in order to demonstrate that our school is indeed a welcoming sanctuary for the diverse range of students we have.

The monitoring featured presentations from our students, including some lovely cultural music and dancing from Africa, Ukraine and a wonderful rendition of Grace from first year student Amy O'Donovan. Our Home Economics Department, under the watchful eye of Ms. Caoimhe Dowling, really pushed the boat out with some delicious home baked treats featuring the cultural cuisine of many of the countries represented by our student bakers.

Our principal Ms. Betty Hernon, spoke about the way we unite as a school, enveloping the many different cultural backgrounds we encompass, Ms. Claire McLaughlin gave a very informative talk about our Neurodiverse students and our Sonas ASD units, while Ms. Fionnula MacAonghusa spoke enthusiastically about the work the Behaviour for Learning initiative does for students with difficulties. We were also delighted to have Ms. Marta Wilczynsko as a representative of our Parents' and Guardians' association.

Our school caters to a very diverse cohort of students, with a very caring and involved staff, and we in CMMG are delighted to accept the award on their behalf.

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There are 3 principles to the School of Sanctuary.

1. We have to Learn what it means to be seeking sanctuary.

2. We have to take Action to show our support for sanctuary seekers and newcomers in our school

3. We have to Share our learning and action with our wider community and network.

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We formed our committee in September and they, along with teacher members of the committee, have been instrumental in driving and organizing our many and varied activities all year

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Some photographs from our monitoring morning...plenty of learning, action and sharing from our wonderful students and staff

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More learning, action and sharing from our monitoring morning

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Our SOSI team carried out a survey in 1st Yr. classes to find out people's backgrounds and listen to their views on how they could become more integrated into our school.

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Summary

- 101 students were surveyed in 1st Year.

- There are 35 different nationalities / cultures represented.

- 59 (58%) of them were male students.

- 42 (42%) of them were female students.

- 47 (46%) of them arrived in Ireland less than 7 years ago.

- 30 different languages are spoken between them.

- In school, 61% socialise in a group with mixed cultures, 18% socialise in a cultural group that is different to theirs, 15% socialise only with people of the same cultural group and 6% don’t socialise with anyone at all.

- Of the 25 students who identify as being of Irish culture, 13 of them are from the Traveller community.

- All but 2 of the Traveller community students socialised only with their own ethnic culture.

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One of our big initiatives was to find out more about our students' backgrounds and to find out from them what the school could do to help them feel more connected and integrated here in CMMG.

Having a Cultural Day was the most popular suggestion!!

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Survey on Cultural Integration within CMMG

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Interesting statistics about our school cohort. If you would like to see the individual responses, contact Ms. Geoghegan

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Survey on Cultural Integration within CMMG

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Our student council recently carried out a survey amongst all our students which revealed that we have representatives from 78 different cultures enrolled in our school. To celebrate this diversity we held our first Culture Day, during which our students were invited to inform us all about their cultural heritage, through their stalls, songs, dance and traditional dress and foods. This resulted in plenty of excitement, and a very colourful gym for a few hours! We were delighted also to welcome Galway Lord Mayor, Cllr. Eddie Hoare, who delighted the students with tales of his days as a student in the school, which was of course St. Mary's College at the time, and of his thrill at being the representative for Galway City, the most culturally diverse city in the country. We were also thrilled to hear Irish Storyteller Niall de Búrca regale us with tales of his journey as a seanachaí, and loved his unique delivery of some old Irish ghost stories. This was a great day for our students, many of whom are represented here in these photographs with more accessible through our Website https://www.cmmg.ie/.../CMMG-2024.../106056/Index.html

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TY students along with St Joseph's Service Centre were given a guided tour of the aquarium, learning about native Irish marine life and were given a workshop of the damaging affects of plastics and pollution in our seas and oceans.

The TY group also regularly meet with adults from St Joseph's Service Centre Galway to collaborate on arts and crafts projects in the community at Áras de Brun Pastoral Centre once a week. These projects are facilitated by artists and crafts people from the community.

This project focused on painting and working in groups to paint a large-scale mural of the iconic Long Walk in Galway City. Each group worked on 1 of 6 panels which then joined together to complete the mural.

There was also the obligatory tea and biscuits break during each session for students, adults and teachers to chat and get to know each other.

The role played by our TYs in connecting with the community cannot be understated and his hugely beneficial to all, students and adults alike

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Friday May 10th was an incredible day at CMM Galway . The special classes from 8 schools, St. Josephs the Bish, Merlin College, Coláiste Iognáid the Jes, SC Ciarán Ceathrù Rua, Coláiste Einde, Galway Educate Together, CMMG and Galway Community College came together for an inclusive sports day and it was Amazing! It also afforded us a great opportunity to speak to the Minister Hildegarde Naughton T.D. about the valuable work being done in our classes. Another special visitor on the day, who we were privileged to welcome, was the Hungarian Ambassador Gergely Bánhegi who met with three of our Hungarian students and marked #europeday2024

In essence the day brought together an extraordinary group of people from Autism Classes and Moderate Learning Difficulty Classes from around Galway, with the students participating in a range of diverse activities, from penalty shooting to sack racing, wheelchair basketball to frisbee discus This was the first event of the Galway Bay League . Celebrating our shared purpose, wonderful staff and students. #specialclasses

Thank you to everyone who helped make this a reality, with a particular shout out to our wonderful TYs who made everyone feel so welcome and included. This is just the beginning of the Galway Bay League!

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"The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible" - Charles Kingsleigh, Alice in Wonderland

Students thoroughly enjoyed a week dedicated to the exploration of resilience. Sincere gratitude is extended to our student wellbeing mentors, Logan, Robert, Emma, Dean, Fionn and Megan, for their valuable contributions in engaging with our first-year classes and providing insightful discussions on cultivating resilience within the school environment.

Furthermore, mindfulness exercises, such as chair yoga, meditation and breathing techniques, were incorporated into the wellbeing classes throughout the week. These activities fostered inner strength and tranquility among the student body, proving to be both relaxing and beneficial for overall wellbeing

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Ho Ho Ho!!!

We had a colourful festive day today as the Christmas jumpers were on display to help raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society. Well done everyone, both staff and students alike! #Schools of Sanctuary Ireland

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All monies raised went to the Irish Cancer Society

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The Galway Bay League hosted an amazing disco at Árus Bothár na Trá with the proud help of CMM Galway . Our welcomed guests from the Special Classes of St. Paul's Oughterard , Coláiste Mhuirlinne/Merlin College , Coláiste Iognáid , Scoil Chuimsitheach Chiaráin and Coláiste Éinde enjoyed the talent of DJ David O Sullivan, spent time together dancing and playing games. Huge thanks to the TY students who made everyone welcome.

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Doing great work to include everyone

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Students from transition years have been working on a mural with adult service users from St Joseph's Training Centre.

The aim of the project is to bring students from CMMG together with the community in Galway to work on arts and crafts project

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Our Margadh na Nollag, organised to raise funds for Galway Hospice, proved a big hit with students and staff alike today. Well done to Ms. O'Donnell and Ms. Ryan for organising everything, the TYs for keeping the show going, and everyone who baked and donated gifts

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Irish Cancer Society  ·

Amazing jumpers all round! HUGE thank yous to all the students and staff who took part for their fantastic support!

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Our sports teams have a truly international feel about them!

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These senior soccer players could go on to represent quite a few countries one day...or maybe just Ireland!

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Congratulations to Ben and the Blues Band who won over the hearts and votes of the audience to capture the CMMG's Got Talent title for 2025. It was a brilliant event, showcasing the various talents and abilities we have amongst our students in CMMG. To perform in front of your peers is not an easy thing to do, so each and every one of our finalists deserve all your respect, which they got in bucketfuls from our packed student audience, who cheered in all the right places, helped out when a chorus was needed and created the perfect atmosphere for our performers to do their best. A huge well done to Mr. Patrick Devally and his team for putting it all together and affording our students the chance to show what they can do so well.

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CMMG definitely has Got Talent! January 2025

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CMMG definitely has Got Talent! January 2025

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If music and entertaining is your thing then we have a place for you here!

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Well done to Rachel, Conor and Mark who represented us all so well at the Galway City Comhairle na nOg Youth Conference recently. they contributed brilliantly to the Galway Biodiversity plan and had their say on how to make Galway a safer more inclusive city for everyone. Proud of you guys!

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Comhairle na nOg Youth Conference October 2024

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Comhairle na nOg Youth Conference October 2024

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Well done to Lucy and Conor who participated in the Youth Consultation on Safe Spaces in galway in conjunction with the Galway City Council 

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Brilliant study and presentation from third year Ukrainian student Yehor, who exhibited his project 'A Ukrainian Perspective' detailing the mental health and well being of fellow Ukrainian students in Ireland. Yehor won a display award for proudly and cleverly using his national colours for his poster. He also got to discuss his situation with Junior Minister Hildegarde Naughton

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In light of what is happening at the moment in places like Ukraine and Gaza, from where we have a number of fellow students in our school, it important that we observe International Peace Day on Saturday, 21st September.

The International Day of Peace (“Peace Day”) is observed around the world each year on 21 September. Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.

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The College prefects, ten from fifth year and ten from sixth year, with equal gender representation, are chosen by their teachers. The criteria is that they portray characteristics and behaviour that best represents the College, and from the many nominated and recommended the top scoring students are selected.

During the year they attend formal functions as representatives of the student body, and are seen as students who are role models for our younger students. From the 6th year prefect cohort the Head Boy and Girl are chosen.

The 2023-24 Head Boy is Parsia Jahanzad, while Precious Williams is the Head Girl

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Mikey Murray and Emma Forde are this year's nominated Head Boy and Girl

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We carried out a survey to find out about the different nationalities of the first years who came to our school in 2024. We found 35 different countries represented, as well as numerous ethnic groups and religions. This shows how truly global we are as a school, a true representation of our New Ireland.

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Brilliant win for Parsia, Amala, Johnathan and Sean and at the ISTA Irish Senior Quiz Championships...a truly international team featuring students whose original home countries are Iran, Nigeria and Ethiopia

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Huge thank you to all our school community for your contributions to our annual Team Hope #ChristmasShoeboxAppeal. We are so proud of all our student volunteers and donors, and to Ms. Gallagher, Ms Whelehan and Ms. Hession for coordinating the collection.

We are delighted to have contributed many boxes to children in need all around the world. This year, we had approx. 60 boxes and they will likely go to Africa.

# Schools of Sanctuary Ireland

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October is #BlackHistoryMonth and as part of our Schools of Sanctuary Ireland programme we held numerous table quizzes for our students highlighting achievements that have paved the way for equality and inclusion in our society. On Thursday the quiz overlapped with our Trick or Treat Thursday Halloween costume event...hence the odd looking uniforms on some

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We urge you all to bring in whatever you can to help out those less fortunate this Christmas...drop off points in the front hall

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Claddagh Watch Christmas Meal December 2024

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Claddagh Watch Christmas Meal December 2024

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Huge well done to Collette and all the canteen staff who raised over €600 for Claddagh Watch with their delicious Christmas dinners.

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Ms Geoghegan about to enjoy her Christmas Meal in aid of Claddagh Watch 

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Well done to the Schools of Sanctuary Ireland team on their brilliant initiative to rename/rebrand our classrooms to include the languages of our students...look out for yours!

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Classroom names and flags German ( germany nepal)

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As a member of Schools of Sanctuary Ireland we celebrated #europeanlanguages day with a series of hugely enjoyable European based table quizzes organised by our Modern Foreign Language classes...great craic had by all

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Getting to grips with some European Facts and Figures!

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We certainly do have talent, and plenty of it! Well done to everyone who took part in our CMMG's Got Talent show, and to Ben and the Blues band who came out top of the heap.

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Doesn't matter what your background is...music and dancing are inclusive of everyone.

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Well done Justin (2nd), Ben (1st),  Mehedin and Adam (3rd)

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Massive congratulations to First Year student Muhammad Ashir Anwar who won the under 16s category in the Europe Direct Ballinasloe speaking competition in the lovely Ballinasloe Public Library

He came away with a brand new iPad AND a place in the national finals next Tuesday in Dublin! A huge congrats to all our students who participated on Tuesday - Konrad, Aodhan, Rudy and Nathan, and to their teachers Ms. Whelehan and Ms. Gallagher. They did CMMG proud and presented excellent arguments against the motion that "AI is Not a Threat to Humanity".

A fantastic and competitive event held in the beautiful library in Ballinasloe. Well done to all involved and best of luck to Muhammad Ashir in the final

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Europe Direct All-Ireland Debating November 2024

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Europe Direct All-Ireland Debating November 2024

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Well done to First-year student Muhammad Ashir Anwar who competed in the Europe Direct Soapbox under 16s public speaking national final! Ashir did both himself and CMMG proud in what proved to be a highly competitive category. Unfortunately, a win didn’t come his way, but we have no doubt that this is just the start of his spectacular journey as a master orator! The event was held in the beautiful Royal College of Physicians building on Kildare St and we also had time to sneak a snap outside Dáil Éireann on the way! Thanks to Ballinasloe Library and Europe Direct for organising a wonderful competition

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First Year Christmas Disco December 2024

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First Year Christmas Disco December 2024

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Well done to the hard-working Student Council who organised a brilliant 'get together' disco for our first years...even Santa turned up!

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Head Boy and Girl, Mikey and Emma, with their able deputies Rob and Maya

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First Year Outing to Diamond Hill May 2024

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First Year Outing to Diamond Hill May 2024