SCHOOLS REPORT

StKilian’s Community School THINGS CULLINARY

Parents cookery classes – This week was the final week of our Parents Cookery Classes. We have made lots of nutritious main course meals over the last few weeks with parents making spaghetti bolognaise and chicken curry to name a few. Well done to all parents who got involved and made this a great success.

Sugar craft classes – We recently had a parents sugar craft class in the school, where everyone made amazing emoji cupcakes and cake toppers. There were lots of fun ideas for parties. We send a warm welcome to all the new parents, who have joined our class this year.

Bord Bia Quality Mark Cookery Competition – We would like to wish Letitia Coster in class 2V the very best of luck with her entry for the Bord Bia cookery competition. Letitia created and cooked her very own creation using Bord Bia quality approved bacon. The name of her dish was ‘Pasta, Bacon and Brocolli bake’. Very well done Letitia and best of luck from everyone in St Kilian’s.

The great St Kilian’s Christmas Bake – All students are invited to create and bake something Christmassy and bring it to school on Friday the 16th for judging. We have a senior and junior category so all level of skill will be appreciated. Prizes will be presented to the star baker in each year group.

A big thank you to Ms. Whelan who never fails to inspire, with her ideas and creativity.

TY ACTIVITIES

The TY students in St Kilian’s CS had an eventful week. On Monday and Tuesday, each of the four class groups were treated to a ‘Poetry Slam’ workshop. The workshops were held on site in the school library. The students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the workshop helped to break down barriers about poetry as the students had to compose their own limericks and rap lyrics to name but a few tasks. Thanks to Ms Kavanagh for organising this event for the students.

On Wednesday, December 7, the students travelled to Dundrum on Ice and had a fantastic morning practising spins and pirouettes and enduring the odd fall in the process. Luckily, only pride was damaged on the ice and no injuries were sustained by anyone skating. Thereafter, the students had the opportunity to go shopping and take lunch in Dundrum Town Centre and everyone had a great time. Thanks to Ms Watson, Ms Ryan and Mr Leonard for accompanying the students on the outing; and of course to Mr Kelly for facilitating such a great line-up of activities for our lucky fourth years.

GREEN SCHOOLS SEMINAR

On December 6 Mr Donohoe and members of St Kilian’s Green School Committee attended the Green Schools Seminar Day at the Dominican Campus in Wicklow Town. The aim of the day was to provide a better understanding of the objectives of the Green Schools programme and how best the committee can help achieve these objectives and work towards a more sustainable way of life.

The day kicked off at 10 a.m. with a novel presentation by Red Hot Productions on energy usage. They had two bicycles, one to demonstrate an innovative way of creating energy – in this case using the pedal power of a bicycle to create a smoothie. The second bicycle was used to educate us on the amount of energy required to power our homes, by showing how much energy is required to power different electrical appliances.

This was followed by an interesting speech on biodiversity in Ireland by Aengus Kennedy from An Taisce and Nature Northwest. Aengus explained how all living organisms are co-dependent and how this co-dependency can be easily altered by human impact and the introduction of foreign species.

At 11.15, Sarah Millar from the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun set a design challenge using only recyclable materials. The challenge was to create a protective packaging around an egg, which would allow it to survive a drop of two meters. The aim of this was to create a better understanding of, and efficient use of our resources.

Dr Cara Augustenborg, an environmental scientist who also works as part of the Al Gore Climate Reality Project, then took the floor to discuss the effects of climate change on our earth. She outlined how we, as young people, can get involved in stopping climate change and how to make it a doorstep issue for politicians

We were then provided with a light lunch consisting of organic products grown on the farm on the Dominican campus. After lunch we were given a short tour of the farm, which highlighted its history and organic nature. This tour provided a fitting end to an educational and entertaining day. When asked, all agreed that this day was beneficial to our work as a Green School Committee and we wish to express our gratitude to the Green Schools Programme, the Dominican Farm and the Ecology Centre for hosting this event and also to our teacher Mr Donohoe for arranging this trip and to student Niamh Murray for writing this review.

Woodbrook College GREEN SCHOOLS

Our Green Schools Committee began work on theme three – Water in September of this year. So far, we have elected our new committee and conducted several audits on our Energy Usage, Water Consumption and Recycling rates. Although we are lucky to have such a great new building there is always room for improvement and we are keen to raise awareness around the issue of education and helping students to understand the role they can play in protecting our environment and living a more sustainable life. Our TY group and 1-O’Kelly took part in a workshop on Climate Change run by An Taisce in November and the school took part in Geography Awareness Week for the first time also in November. We were delighted to be contacted by a local group from the local area, Shankill for a Green environment, a couple of weeks ago, and look forward to developing those links in the community as the year progresses. We welcome the opportunity to work with any other local groups in the area, please feel free to contact Ms Suzanne Hand at the school about any environmental issue you or your group are working on. We have lots of plans for 2017 including a trip to the Irish Film Centre, a walk on World Water Day and attendance at the Dunlaoire Rathdown County Council Eco Conference in January.

FIRST YEAR HISTORY TRIP

All of our first year students and their teachers went on a history trip to Ferrycarrig as part of their course project work. The students had a great day and learnt a lot about Ireland’s cultural evolution in this outdoor museum which depicts 9000 years of re-created Irish History situated within natural forestry and wet woodlands. Here they experienced the unforgettable journey through Ireland’s past and experienced stories, sights and sounds that shaped our country.

UNDER-17 SOCCER

Our under-17 side played twice in a week in the Wicklow – Wexford League. The first match against CCM (Wicklow) saw a great fightback as the team battled back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 on our first use of our new soccer pitch. A superb double from Brandon King in between a Jack O’Brien strike won the points. Our next match, away, against CCA (Kilcoole) was a very close game. Although 2-0 down at halftime a long range screamer from Alex Griffin brought Woodbrook back into the match. Despite dominating much of the second half the under-17s could not find the other goal they deserved. Excellent performances from Adam Burke, Brandon King, Daniel Murphy and Lester Grefaldeo.

UNDER-15 SOCCER

The first, second and third year boys’ that represent the College at under-15 level have shown excellent commitment during the season. There has been consistently high numbers training every Wednesday that has increased competition for places on the starting 11. They demonstrated battling qualities and skilful attacking play when they have competed against other schools.

IRISH WEEK

Students from first, second and third year took part in Gaeilge 24; the first time Woobrook College has ever taken the ‘Speak Irish for a day’ challenge. It was a great success with students getting the chance to use Irish as a living language through comhrá, quizzes and games, while brilliantly raising over €600 in the process. Maith sibh go léir.

GIRLS SOCCER

Congratulations to our first year girls’ soccer team who were runners-up in the All-Dublin schools final. This is a great achievement for the team and their mentor Ms Doyle in our first year as a co-educational school.