Offaly school is a European Parliament Ambassador School

BANAGHER College is proud to be a European Parliament Ambassador School.

Transition Year Students have completed the European Parliament Ambassador School programme, EPAS. BCCNS students throughout this programme researched and learned about an array of topics from A history of the European Union, How the EU affects their lives, Europe without borders, European Borders, European Values, and their voice in Europe.

Twelve students were selected to represent Banagher College as the 2023 EPAS Junior Ambassadors. They are Eilidh Bacon, Lara Dias, Liam Donoghue, Emma Dolan, Paul Cahalan, Rachel Cleary, Eoin Cannon, Sean Daly, Taylor Mahon, Shauna Kenny, Roisin Kenny and Jennifer Glynn. Their next endeavour will be engaging in an online Q&A Session with MEP Maria Walsh.

Banagher College EPAS Junior Ambassadors hosted several events in school on Europe Day, May 9th. Congratulations to all involved.

Golf

Well done to Leaving Cert pupil Kieran Clancy who has been elected Junior Captain of Birr Golf Club for 2023. Kieran started playing Golf just four years ago and currently has a handicap of three. He won the Irish Junior Open in Castlerock, Co. Derry, this year also.

Basketball

Congratulations to our First Year Girls who won the Midlands Basketball Shield Final 21-14 in Portlaoise on Friday May 5th when they overcame St Farnan’s Secondary School Prosperous Co Kildare.

In Basketball, our Second Year Girls recently won their semi final, 38 points to 3 at home against Coláiste Naomh Cormac . Player of the Day was Kayla Hogan.

Awards

Congratulations to TY Students Eilidh Bacon and Emma Dolan who were recently honoured by Laois Offaly ETB. Eilidh Bacon received two awards, Overall Junior Cycle Student of the Year in Banagher College on achieving the highest results in her Junior Cycle year as well as the Junior Cycle for Excellence in Education Award from Laois Offaly ETB for her achievements in her Junior Cycle year.

Emma Dolan received the Junior Cycle Core Values Award from Laois Offaly ETB for displaying the core vales of LOETB which are Care, Equality, Community, Excellence in Education and Respect.

Italy 2023 Banagher College TY Tour (by Enya Lodge TY4)

In the early hours of April 17th, we headed to Dublin Airport from Banagher to head off on our TY trip to Italy.

When we got to the Airport, we went through security after checking in our bags and grabbed some food for our flight to Milan! The flight was three hours and then we landed in Milan at around 11 am Italian time. Everybody went through passport control and reclaimed their luggage, then we were greeted by our double decker coach and our bus driver Walter, who brought us through Milan, and we stopped at San Siro Stadium. We had a look around the shops and through the window to the pitch.

Later, we stopped en route for food and then arrived at Sirmione where Ms Dewane kindly got us all ice-creams, or gelato, and we had some free time to explore before we got onto the speedboats. They were fun, and we boated across Lake Garda. The boats did cool tricks and I got to DJ, which was the best choice, however Ms Kenny may disagree.

After our boat trips, we finally headed back to our hotel, San Zeno, after a long day of travelling. We got into our rooms, deposited our luggage and had dinner. After that we all had free time to spend with our friends and we then called it a night, and that was the end of Day 1.

Day 2, we had an early start and after breakfast, we made our way to Venice! We got off the bus and walked to the docks, where we boarded a boat that brought us into Venice. When we got there, we had an hour’s free time, which we took to explore the city and get some pizza, obviously!

We all met up at St Mark’s Square again to be separated into two groups for our guided tour around Venice, and after that we had another hour’s free time and we got to explore the rest of the beautiful city. When it was time to leave, we boarded our boat again and went back to our bus to head back to our hotel to get dinner and spend time with our friends after a long and memorable day.

Then, on our last full day, we headed to Gardaland! This was probably the most exciting day of the trip because we had six hours in the theme park and the queues weren’t long at all, so we got all the major rides done.

The weather was great for the aftermath of the water rides as well! After our time at Gardaland, we went to a shopping centre and did some shopping, got Italian McDonalds, and then went bowling. After a long day in the sun, we were worn out, so it was an early night.

Then on our last day in Italy, we said goodbye to our hotel and headed off to Verona. We went to Juliet’s House, where we saw the famous balcony. We then went to the Amphitheatre and got some great views of Verona. Then we had some free time for last minute shopping and a last look at Italy. We went to the markets and viewed the gorgeous landscape.

Verona was my favourite city of the trip. Sadly then, we went to Verona Airport and checked in our bags to return home. Thankfully, our flight was delayed so we were in Italy for an extra hour until we had to board our flight and head home.

Italy was a great trip, and I will remember it forever. The teachers gave us great independence and experiencing this with my friends was unbelievable and we were so lucky to have this opportunity.