Back row: left to right Amber Curtin, Nikole Murray, Emma Sheehan, Patricia Douanla and Anneka O’ Donoghue. Front row: left to right Ellen O' Shea, Eilis Lysaght (History Teacher) and Ciara Buckley
- Transition Year students from St. Vincent’s Secondary School have had outstanding success in the recent Discover Cork Schools’ Heritage Competition. This competition focuses on local history. The students had a clean sweep walking away with first, second, third and fourth places in the Leaving Certificate Individual Competition. Winning topics included: the North Infirmary, Bantry House, St. Anne’s Shandon Church and Fota House and Gardens. St. Vincent’s students also came second in the Leaving Certificate Group Competition with a project on Mary Aikenhead: Founder of our School and also received the award for the Best Railway Project.
- While the Leaving Certificate History programme is mainly based on national and international events, this competition concentrates on the history of the area where the school is located with an emphasis on social and individual history.
- History teacher Éilis Lysaght states that active learning helps students to develop a great interest in their local area. She further states that local history provides great training in historical methods, the evaluation of sources of evidence and the development of teamwork.
- Students and their families received their awards at a special Awards Ceremony held in the Silversprimgs Hotel recently and were proud to see their projects show cased.
- Ciara Buckley who won first place with her project on the North Infirmary states that the project was a great opportunity for her to listen to interesting stories from her grandmother. While Patricia Douanla who came third with her project on St. Anne’s Shandon Church states she learned a lot about the church - it was her first time to visit the church and it was everything she expected. In conclusion, she states doing the history project allowed her to take a moment and look around Cork and realise that the city has a proud history.