The management and staff of St. Farnan's Post-Primary School in Prosperous were delighted to host our first in person Awards Ceremony since 2019. We welcomed a capacity crowd on September 29th and the Deputy Principal, Mr. Cleary, extended a warm welcome to the award winning students, their families and invited guests to what is always one of the highlights of the school calendar.
Over 200 students received awards for their excellence in academic subjects and extracurricular activities, as well as a number of special categories.
Among the many awards presented was the prize for the best academic achievement at Junior Certificate level, which this year was awarded to Ellen Kenna while the prize for outstanding achievement in the Leaving Certificate was awarded to Karen O’ Donohoe. The Leaving Certificate Applied Student of the Year was awarded to Sarah Tuite.
Many of the school's sports stars received awards in recognition of their excellence and achievements in extracurricular activities and these included Jude Harman and Orlaith O’Mahony for Senior Gaelic football, Jasmine Kelly, Ella Dwyer, Tadhg Cashman and Ross Murphy for soccer and Bence Gal, Michael Behan, Faith Agbele and Shannon Keane for basketball. In recognition of their involvement in Soccer in the Community, awards were also given to Ben Byrne Symes and Faith Agbele.
St. Farnan’s involvement in the new World of Work programme was also celebrated. The coordinator of the project in the school, Ms. Flanagan, explained that the school has a long history of collaboration with the multinational tech company, SAP. She said that the St. Farnan’s students had been exemplary in their participation in the initiative and were a credit to their families, school and community. All of the 2nd year students from this year’s group were commended for their outstanding contribution to the programme and they received special certificates from the company and the Business in the Community organisation.
A new addition to the school’s Awards Night was the recognition of some students’ achievements in other Awards Ceremonies recently. Keenan Brereton was awarded a Garda Youth Award for the Naas District by Garda Gary Cogan who commended Keenan for his outstanding contribution to the school and local communities. Lauren McArdle, Amy Cooney and Aoife Cashman also received nominations for this award. Aoileann O’Mahony, Sophie Cullen and Suzanne Carew were also commended for the JPII Awards they received from Cooleragh Parish. Suzanne was also the recipient of the Croì Laighean Credit Union Bursary this year.
Dylan McDonagh Dunne was the recipient of the annual Colin Fox Award for this year, while Michael Dempsey was presented with the award for 2021. Mr. Joe Fox presents this prestigious award annually in memory of his son, Colin, a past student of the school, who died in a traffic accident in 2002. The Fox family has given a generous prize and specially commissioned engraved mirror to the student in the school who is most gifted with his or her hands for many years now and before awarding the prizes to Dylan and Michael, Mr. Fox gave a heartfelt speech in which he spoke of how much both he and his son, Colin, enjoyed their years in St. Farnan's and that he was delighted to return to the school on Awards Night to present this award in memory of Colin.
Mr. Cleary brought a very enjoyable evening to a close by commending the school's recently appointed Senior Prefects who assisted the school staff in all aspects of the evening's organisation. They ensured that all attendees received a warm welcome and expertly guided all students receiving awards through the ceremony and photography session afterwards.
Mr. Cleary also paid special tribute to the staff, teachers, secretarial and ancillary, whose dedicated work and attention to detail ensured that the evening went seamlessly. Special thanks were reserved for the Awards Committee, whose work in preparing for this evening had begun before the summer break.
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