Year 1 Sibeal pictured in front of the new Davis College building in Summerhill, Mallow, this week. Davis College has eight class groups starting first year, and the remainder of the classes will be featured in next week’s Mallow Star.
Last Friday saw our first-year students arrive in Davis College for the first time this year. Naturally, students were nervous entering a big new school which is a significant change in their lives. At this point in time, six years in secondary school appears like an eternity but it will be gone in the blink of eye. The young children who walked through our doors last Friday will walk out through those same doors in six years as mature young men and women. One of the many things they will have in common is the sense of wonder at where the time went.
Something else they will all share and are unlikely to ever forget are the circumstances in which they started secondary school. Masks, hand sanitising and cleaning were the order of the day. Welcome packs were somewhat different to normal, consisting not of stationary but of face mask, antibacterial wipes and tubes of hand sanitiser. Schools are now operating in a reality scarcely imaginable a few months ago. Despite this, the school still has a job of work to do. Now, more than ever, we must be true to our mission of educating students so they may be free to pursue their dreams in life. We must continue to inspire students to fulfil their potential, to nurture their ambitions and to facilitate them to be independent caring, confident and respectful individuals.
Our first years will also remember 2020 for a very different and far more positive reason. They will be the first class group to take up residence in our €9.7m extension which was handed over to the school yesterday, Wednesday. The building has an array of general classrooms as well Engineering, Construction, Woodwork, Home Economics, Art, DCG, Science and Computer classrooms. In addition, there is an SEN suite where our ASD classes will be located. The facilities available to our incoming first years are state-of-the-art and sure to enhance their educational experiences in the coming years.