Reporting by Donal Dooley, President of the Student Council
On the 8th of October 2025, we held our open night in Coláiste Choilm for the current sixth class students and their parents and guardians from the town of Tullamore and the surrounding areas; Mucklagh, Durrow, Ballinamere, Killeigh, Daingean and Ballinagar to name a few. The aim of the open night is to help the sixth-class boys decide if they would like to come to Coláiste Choilm next year.
Open night 2025 was hugely popular with over 600 parents and boys gathering to see what ‘the brothers’ is all about. The evening opened with a greeting, followed by information about our school from Principal Mr. O’Sullivan and Deputy Principal Mr. O’Regan. Two first year students, Danny White and Darragh Waters, shared their perspective on how their first six weeks in Colaiste Choilm went. Following this insight, a member of the Cairde programme explained what their role is in helping the first year students settle into our school community in Colaiste Choilm.
When the address had ended in the sports hall, the parents and boys were broken up into groups and were brought around the school on a tour, to give the sixth-class boys an insight into what secondary school looks like. There were over 10 different stations set up around the school. These included the music room, the art room, the science labs, the woodwork and technology workrooms, the design and communication room, our two computer rooms (one was set up as a language lab for the boys to play games and experiment with new languages and the other had two sixth year students sharing their perspective as students who are nearly finished in Coláiste Choilm). Other stations include the fitness suite where recent sporting successes were on display.
One of the many highlights of the night was the VEX Robotics station, where members of our VEX Robotics team who recently travelled to Texas in the US, displayed their winning robot. There was a lovely atmosphere on the night with well over 50 students volunteering their time to ensure the night ran smoothly.