Douglas Community School Principal Jim Long congratulates Kevin Twomey on his ELEVEN A’s in the Junior Certificate.

In February 2010, Douglas Community School teachers Neil Bronks and Rosanne O’Callaghan travelled to Cardinal Nsubuga School, Uganda.  Here we can see movie clips and photos from their journey.

A Film by Rosanne O’Callaghan and Neil Bronks

A selection of photos from our recent DCS Development Day.

Douglas Community School was very fortunate to receive funding for visits by Irish teachers to Uganda and now, by Ugandan teachers to Ireland. We have also received significant project funding (€2500) to enable the beginning of Development Education in Douglas Community School and to facilitate the linking. Mary McCarthy, Education Officer from WorldWise, will be present for the Development Day. Cardinal Nsubuga Secondary School is a voluntary Catholic secondary school, located in Lugazi near the Jinja, the second city of Uganda. It is of a similar size to Douglas Community School (500+ students). Alot of the students have been orphaned by HIV and many of them are boarders. It is a mixed school. The local parish priest in Lugazi is Father Tom Smith, who has lived in Uganda for many years and has helped alot with the linking. He is the brother of former Minister Michael Smith.

Douglas Community School has had a relationship for three years with the Ugandan school. The linking was initiated by Dr Margo O’Sullivan (sister of DCS teacher Ted O’Sullivan) who is from Cork but works for UNICEF in Uganda, where she has been for a number of years. She will be present on the day. The Douglas teachers involved are Neil Bronks and Rosanne O’Callaghan, who have both visited our partner school during the February mid-term break this year. They are helped by Cian O’Mahony and Ted O’Sullivan.

The visiting teachers are Joseph Matovu and Annet Grace Nakuya. They will be in Douglas for a week and they will be half way through their visit when they meet the Minister. They will enjoy a trip to the coast and to a GAA match and will be going to Dublin on the Tuesday with two second year classes. I feel that it is important to thank the Irish Embassy in Uganda, particularly Clare McCarthy, who was very helpful in facilitating the visits by teachers in both directions.

Cian O’Mahony

There will also be visitors from 13 Non-Governmental Organisations.  Each of these visitors will arrive at about 9.15am and will be assigned a helper from Transition Year.  They will be speaking to various classes at 10.10am, for a maximum of 35 minutes, including questions.  At 10.10am, the guest will be brought to other pre-assigned classes.  From 11am to 11.30am some of the guests will have stands in the library.  Interested students can visit these stands, ask questions and take literature.

Speakers

Dr Margaret O’Sullivan, Chief of Basic Education, UNICEF Uganda.

Joanne McMahon, Aid Worker returned from Palestine.

Ronan Barry, Co-ordinator, Office of Mission Alive.

Mary McCarthy, Irish Aid funded WorldWise Co-ordinator.

Sheila Powers, Oxfam Ireland.

Jeremy Meehan, Director of Education, Bóthar.

Maggie Dwyer, Gorta.

Andrew Coleman, Christian Aid.

John Fleming, SightSavers.

Bernadette Hussey, VSO Volunteer returned from Mongolia.

Aoife Cahill, Chernobyl Ireland.

Fr Michael O’Connell, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

Brother Patrick, Presentation Brothers.

The NT1 class present a cheque for €1717 to Medecins Sans Frontiers’ Haiti Appeal. The money was raised by NT1, who organised a raffle in the school, and by the staff of the school who held a table quiz for staff and friends.

Cian O’Mahony

A sample of projects for Leaving Certificate construction studies.  Douglas Community School offers the choice of cabinet-making, model-making or building details.

Sean Fahy

The next and most significant part of the project will be the visit of two Ugandan teachers to DCS for a week in April.  It is expected that they will get to participate as much as possible in the life of the school.

On Monday 19 April, we will have a visit from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin TD, at 9.30am.  This will be the opening part of a Developmental Education Morning in the school.  We hope that as many students as possible will be able to participate in some way in this event.  We have organised for well over a dozen different speakers from various charities and development agencies to come to the school.  Each speaker will make a presentation to one or two class groups after the Minister’s address and exchange of plaques to mark our linking with the Ugandan school.  After the speeches, the charities and NGOs will have stalls with literature and will answer individual questions which the students might have.

During the rest of the week (15 to 21 April), the teachers from Uganda will attend classes, observing and participating in lessons and activities with the students.  Both Joseph Matovu and Grace Nakuya are very excited about the whole experience.

Cian O’Mahony, Ted O’Sullivan, Rosanne O’Callaghan, Neil Bronks.

Pictured with their outstanding woodwork projects presented for the Junior Certificate Examinations in 2009 are (standing, left to right) Chris O’Flynn, Kevin Twomey, Paul Beale and (seated) Cillian Fleming.