We pride ourselves in the fact that our students are offered the opportunity to participate and compete in a wide range of sporting activities. This totals 13 different sporting activities at County, Munster and All-Ireland levels in a range of age categories. There are also a variety of clubs on offer for students to participate including Camera Club and Club Gaeilge. For any further information regarding Sport in Kinsale Community School please contact Ms. Marie Hayes.
Music
The Music Department at Kinsale Community School promotes Extra-Curricular Activities which include:
The School Choir
The Traditional Irish Music Group
The School Show
The Choir and the Trad Group rehearse regularly. Rehearsals for our annual school musical takes place every week for a number of months leading up to the show.
The school facilitates a variety of different music related events throughout the academic year which are very popular with the students. These include performances at the school mass, mass for the aged, opening evening and awards night. Students also enjoy performing for many celebrities who visit our school. These regular activities have proven to be of huge benefit to students both academically and culturally.
School Musical
School musicals are run regularly in collaboration between the Art and the Music department, and with the local community, parents etc. The Art department design and paint the sets and props for these shows. Most of this work is extra–curricular and done outside of class time with the help of pupils who volunteer their spare time. Last December a homage to Hairspray was shown, with a bright, 60’s themed, colourful set.
Junk Kouture
Junk Kouture is a national contest which encourages young designers in second level education to create striking couture designs and impressive works of wearable art from everyday junk that would normally find its way into the bin. This is a timetabled module with Transition Year students and taught by Ms Deirdre Kelly and Ms Hollie Archer. The school has had great success in the last few years with groups qualifying for the South Regional Finals in Limerick, and in 2021 we had two groups qualify for the Grand Final which was filmed and shown on RTE2.
Camera Club
The Camera Club is back in action this school year and has been busy shooting some wonderful shots this term and will be on display in the coming weeks. It is a wonderful opportunity to show creativeness and skills. The Camera Club meets every Thursday at lunch time in E03 under the guidance of Mr. Diarmuid O’Donovan. The door is always open and new members are always welcome!
Camogie
Our First year players start the camogie year off by competing in the Cork Colleges Blitz. The league commences later in the school year. This year our girls are competing in the B League after successfully winning last year’s league.
Following on from the success of the 2016/2017 season, with our Juniors winning both the County and Munster titles and our Seniors winning both a County and Intermediate title, both teams are now competing in higher divisions this year:
Cork Colleges
Junior-Division A
Senior- Division A
Munster
Junior- Division B
Senior- third highest level
The Munster competition advances to All Ireland level and we were successful to be crowned All Ireland Champions in 2012. Following on from this success we have been fortune that every passing school year is a successful one for our camogie teams.
You can keep up to date with all the latest fixtures and results by following @CamogieKCS
Equestrian
The school enters a team each year in the Interschool Hunter Trials and this team competes regularly throughout the year in Interschool Showjumping Events.
Basketball
Girls Basketball is competed at 4 different age categories - 1st year, 2nd year, Cadette (U16) and Senior (U19), in the Cork Schoolgirls Basketball League
Boys Basketball is also competed at 4 different age categories - 1st year, 2nd year, U16 and U19, in the Cork Schoolboys Basketball league.
An All-Ireland qualifying series and All-Ireland finals are the progressions from these Cork leagues.
Gaelic football
Teams at U14, U15, U16 and U18½ age groups are entered in the Cork and Munster Post-Primary Schools Football Competitions. The tradition of Gaelic football in surrounding clubs is fostered and developed within the school.
Golf
The School team participates in Cork Schools Matchplay and Strokeplay and Munster Matchplay and Strokeplay competitions.
Hurling
Teams at U14, U15, U16 and U18½ age groups are entered in the Cork and Munster Post-Primary Schools Hurling Competitions. The tradition of Hurling in surrounding clubs is fostered and developed within the school.
Ladies Gaelic Football
Since 2014 we have been competing in the Munster Post Primary Schools competition at Senior level. We always had a good record in making it to the semi-finals of this competition since its inception. We finally made the breakthrough in 2019/20. In this year we won the Munster C grade and went on to the All-Ireland series. Unfortunately, we were knocked out at the semi final stage, losing to St Clare’s Manorhamilton. With no football for a year due to Covid-19, we returned to Munster action in 2021/22 in the Senior B grade. We had a good year and made it to the Munster semi-final, losing out to eventual winners Colaiste Choilm.
At Junior level we compete in the Munster C grade. In recent years we have seen a huge increase in numbers at this age and are now able to field two teams in this competition. This is in no small part due to the efforts of the local clubs.
In 2016 a new competition was established for 1st year girls. This gives these girls the opportunity to get to know one another as we are lucky to have a number of feeder clubs. In 2021/22 we had two teams which gave almost 40 girls several days out in the KCS colours. One of our teams achieved the ultimate honours at the County blitz in Ballincollig and brought home their first trophy! We hope that these girls continue to gel as a team and achieve more success in the coming years.
Prior to 2014 we had unprecedented success in the Cork Vocational Schools competition and worked our way up from the 'C' grade at Senior level to competing in the 'A' grade at all levels in the latter years of this competition. Restructuring of ladies football in Cork saw the end of this competition in 2013. One of the stand out players during this time was Orla Finn, who went on to become a vital player for the Cork Senior Ladies team and a household name.
We are always very proud of our students who are selected to represent Cork on the intercounty scene, and there have been many down throughout the years. On occasion students have also been selected on the Munster Post Primary Schools team which competes at Senior cycle only.
Our representatives since 2017/2018 are:
Munster PPS – Georgia Gould, Tracy McCarthy, Sadhbh O’ Leary.
Cork Adult & Underage – Orla Finn, Caoimhe O’ Callaghan, Sadhbh O’ Leary, Faye Ahern, Georgia Gould, Jenny Murphy, Fiona Keating, Ellen Maguire, Siobhan O'Donovan, Geraldine Tyner, Ava Mulhall, Kate Redmond, Caoimhe Heffernan, Catherine Murphy, Lily Collins
2022/23 Training Schedule:
Seniors Thursdays 15:30 – 16:30 (Ms Dullea/Ms Kelleher)
Juniors Tuesdays 15:30 – 16:30 (Ms Kelleher/Ms Malone)
1st Years Wednesdays (Ms. Copithorne/Ms Ambrose)
Check MS Teams weekly for venues
You can keep up to date with all the latest fixtures and results by following @KinsaleCSGAA
Soccer
A Senior Girls team represents the school in the Cork Senior Schoolgirls league and Cup and the Munster Schoolgirls Soccer Cup.
A 1st year Boys team, U14, U16 & Senior Boys team enter the Cork Schoolboys Cup and Munster Schoolboys Cup each year.
Track & Field
Students of Kinsale Community School participate in the Munster Track & Field Championships each February in Nenagh. Qualifiers from these Championships then compete in the All-Ireland Track & Field Championships. The school works in conjunction with students' parents to ensure students have the opportunity to participate in these competitions. This working collaboration between parents and staff shows the school working together as a whole community.
Gaelbhratach
Gaelbhratach is a reward-based scheme which officially recognises schools which are active in the promotion of Irish throughout the school. Gael-Linn is in charge of the Gaelbhratach in the schools in partnership with Conradh na Gaeilge at second level. It is a highly prestigious achievement and we are delighted to have been awarded our first Gaelbhratach in 2017.
What is the aim of Gaelbhratach?
The aim of this scheme is to encourage and enable schools to promote Irish in a planned, ongoing, enjoyable way.
The objectives for post-primary schools taking part are:
To encourage the use of Irish in the school
To promote active cooperation between the students, teachers and the school authorities
To gain recognition from the community in which the school is situated of the school’s commitment to the promotion of Irish.
Green Schools
The Green Schools is a programme run by An Taisce, Green-Schools is Ireland’s leading environmental management and education programme for schools. KCS was awarded a Green Flag for Recycling and Litter in 2021. We are currently working on achieving our flag for Water Conservation. We will be applying for this flag at the end of this year. Last Year we took many actions to raise awareness around water conservation. We organised an action week which involved a Walk for Water, poster competitions, guest speakers, H20 drone footage and a trip to the Hollies. Our Green Schools Committee are a mixture of students from first to sixth year. Students are provided with a specific role depending on their strengths, interests and skills. The Green Schools Committee meet on a weekly basis to discuss future actions, activities and ideas on how to raise awareness around our community about how to conserve water.
Erasmus+
In March 2020 just as Covid-19 was hitting the headlines we applied to the EU to participate in an Erasmus+ programme. An Erasmus programme entails travelling abroad to a European country to engage in cultural, social and academic activities. At second level, an Erasmus+ programme involves the exchange of students over the course of a week to collaborate with partner schools on a common project. We partnered with schools in Germany, Sweden and Poland to work on a project entitled ‘Challenges, Choices, Change – Our Mutual Footprint’. This was a climate themed project which aimed to get students to: 1) Accept the CHALLENGE to fight for environmental protection 2) Make a CHOICE about what should and can be done/changed by us 3) Effect CHANGE 4) Be strong and efficient in working TOGETHER transnationally. During the project, five major environmental topics were addressed. These were: nature conservation, waste, water consumption, sustainable food and renewable energies. Besides making the Choice to reduce waste & recycle more, we also raised awareness of sustainable living the school communities in all four countries, through each of our exchanges to our partner schools!