Vacancy for 2022-23

Our English Department is looking for:

• a full-time teacher of English for next year (initially, with extension possible), starting Monday 29th August, covering the Junior and Senior Cycles (including Leaving Certificate).
• a part-time teacher of English next year, as a maternity cover. The contract starts on Monday 29th August 2022 and concludes on Friday 10th February 2023, covering both Senior and Junior Cycle. The successful teacher will have 14 hours' classroom teaching a week.

The Department is a close-knit supportive one, with three experienced teachers available constantly to support the person appointed. Classes are small (for example, there are about 16 pupils in the Fifth Form set). 

The College operates a six-day timetable, with no classes on Wednesday or Saturday afternoons (or, for the successful candidate, Friday afternoons).

Applicants must be fully qualified teachers and will ideally have some experience.  They must also be native English speakers and have appropriate Garda vetting.
Applications, including a Curriculum Vitae and the names and addresses of two referees,
should be forwarded as soon as possible/or by June 25th (maternity cover) or by June 30th (full-time post) at the latest to:
The Warden, St. Columba’s College, Whitechurch, Dublin D16 CH93 or by email : warden@stcolumbas.ie.
www.stcolumbas.ie

Any query in advance of application can be sent without prejudice to sccenglish@stcolumbas.ie.

 Vacancies on College website.

Leaving Certificate English papers 2022

 For analyses of the Higher Level papers this year, go to the links - Paper 1 and Paper 2.

The Submarine, June 2022

Well done to Editors Elizabeth Hart and Isabella Treacy on the final edition of 'The Submarine' magazine this school year. It can be read here in flippable form.

 

The cover is by Alexia Fantacci, and other artwork is by Tabitha Larke, Safia Walker, Iona Chavasse, Daniel Moran, Isabel Warnock, Alison Wang and Antonia Ladanyi. On the writing front, there is an entertaining interview with Mr Duffy, Edna Johnston's 'What is Mars was made out of a Mars Bar?', Zining Wang's artist profile of Sixth Former Iona Chavasse, an interview with the author Richie Conroy, an account of the talk on race by Clinton Wokocha, and an untitled poem by Anna Rose MacManus.

Vacancy, 2022-23

The English Department is looking for a part-time teacher of English next year, as a maternity cover. The contract starts on Monday 29th August 2022 and concludes on Friday 10th February 2023, covering both Senior and Junior Cycle. The successful teacher will have 14 hours' classroom teaching a week.

The Department is a close-knit supportive one, with three experienced teachers available constantly to support the person appointed. Classes are small (for example, there are about 16 pupils in the Sixth Form set). 

 
The College operates a six-day timetable, with no classes on Wednesday or Saturday afternoons (or, for the successful candidate, Friday afternoons).

Applicants must be fully qualified teachers and will ideally have some experience.  They must also be native English speakers and have appropriate Garda vetting.

Applications, including a Curriculum Vitae and the names and addresses of two referees,
should be forwarded as soon as possible/or by June 25th th at the latest to:

The Warden, St. Columba’s College, Whitechurch, Dublin D16 CH93 or by email : warden@stcolumbas.ie.

www.stcolumbas.ie

Any query in advance of application can be sent without prejudice to sccenglish@stcolumbas.ie.

 Vacancy on College website.

Senior Poetry Prize 2

More excellent poems from the recent Peter Dix Memorial Prize for Poetry, this time from Yilong She.

Boating

Moss-encrusted rocks littered along the bank
Low-lying leaves of a willow weeping
just above the stream,
in shining rings rippling a still sky.
The vast dawn spread over the waters,
Where reflections like sparks, bright and vivid
Catch the expanding ripples and the misty air,
Some troubledness in the wails of the birds.
The trees afar are taller than the horizon
Shadowing the breeze to the river depth,
Where salmon dip and plump-trout
Glide under the cattail and bladderwort -

A white creature
Mingling a descending ball of light,
Erect on one golden cane.
Calling out, and louder yet,
The mist and parading shadows flee,
Between the rows of glowing, golden foliage
Between the flowing, flowering ripples
her wings beat on.
And call back, in deeper mimicking, -
Let me be stirred
By the murmuring trees or the humming birds;
Will she again sing the next spring?
 

 

Rain

A long dream, cold.
Damp cracklings of fire
In vicious tenderness
Sing, ring, and fling
Itself down. Drowning
The soft fragrance of
Hot oil in the street-
Vendors’ buns. Lights
In green, yellow and
Red blinking rigidly,
Mechanical liveliness
That sparks a humid
Splash of fresh earthly
Smell. Always wishing;
With myriad hands
It carries on looking,
Listening to the plops,
Pitters and splatters -
Searching, always.
Children passing by, a
Long row of iridescent
Flowers, hanging low.
Singing in overt unison,
A sweet, unadulterated
Chorus.                                               
 

Sea

White flowers that bloom
folding on itself
white petals sprouting from the blue
whirling along the selkies’ song.

The shimmering and swelling of the shifting current
surging and plunging
and again surge
blowing its soul into the withering desert
 
I watch it rise above my ankles and retreat back
again and again
with a fresh tenderness
and I will continue to watch it, rolling on.

Transition Year English Evening 2022

 

The 28th Transition Year English Evening took place last night in the Big Schoolroom, compèred by Mr Jameson, after its two-year hiatus. The guest of honour was the author Richie Conroy, whose comments on the individual pieces are in italics below

Nine members of the Fourth Form read out pieces of writing: Phoebe Landseer opened up with a piece on her first home, in which we were transported by the power of words, followed by Zara Chohan (‘The Watcher’, a piece of fiction, which was gripping with lots of tension), Isabella Treacy on the joys of books (read by Raicheal Murray, a superb piece that made us feel we were in a second-hand bookshop), Daniel Murray (on censorship, an effective piece), Lara Hunter with a fictional piece which was superb, Georgia Goodbody (on her grandmother and her home, now sold, an amazing picture), Belen Olea (on the oldest person she knows, a fine piece which showed how important it is to pay attention to the older generation), Lily Boyle on learning poetry in primary school (a lovely window into the past) and finally Alannah McKee on her last day at primary school (a real journey in her piece, and a really powerful ending).

Mr Jameson presented the annual trophy to the editors of The Submarine magazine, this year Elizabeth Hart and Isabella Treacy. He then handed over to Richie Conroy, who used his experience of running the Dublin City Marathon for the first time to give the pupils important advice about writing. We all have a voice in our heads (for Richie, ‘Kermit’), which discourages us, but we need to say yes to new experiences. No experience is wasted. Reading is so important. Richie handed out writers’ notebooks to the presenters and advised them to jot down ideas, characters, good lines, dialogues. He spoke funnily, accessibly and with great encouragement to all the young writers in the audience.

Finally, the following were congratulated as winners of Premier Awards this year: Hannah Bergmann, Lily Boyle, Alison Coogan, Elizabeth Hart, Alannah McKee, Cameron McKinley, Belen Olea, Rachel Shaw, Calvin She, Isabella Treacy, Cayden Wong.