Blessington Community College
BCC DEBATING
Last week a number of students took part in the annual UCD Junior Schools Debating Competition run by the UCD Literary and Historical Society and the UCD Law Society.
Junior Schools is a debating competition for first to third year secondary school students in Leinster. Three teams from Blessington Community College took part in the competition. The competitors were Finn Farrell and Jean-Luc Morris, Sorcha Nolan and Conor Cowley and Milena Mickute along with her team-mate, Lysa Tacadao.
All of our students performed excellently on the night and kept their heads when under pressure from opposing teams. All three teams will continue to the next round of the competition, which will take place, once again, in UCD Well done to all involved.
HIKE FOR LIFE
On Tuesday, October 3, Blessington CC was one of the 20 participating schools in this year’s Kildare Wicklow Education Training Board’s (KWETB) Hike for Life. This initiative began four years ago when the Kildare and Wicklow Vocational and Educational Committees (VECs) amalgamated. The importance of positive mental and physical health is central to what the combined schools aim to highlight when student and teacher representatives walk the 10km Spink Loop in Glendalough.
This year the autumn sun shone; energy and spirits were high as students and teachers chatted and laughed together. A total of €5,800 will be donated to Kildare Mental Health and Pieta House as a result of their efforts.
SCHOOL LIFE
Our sixth years went to Higher Options College and Careers Exhibition recently.
UL and Maynooth universities gave talks in school to fifth and sixth years.
Awards nights and Open Night are looming.
Preparations are under way for the college musical, ‘Guys and Dolls’.
Special mention goes to Rigan Roche, whose poem ‘Drums, Drums in the Deep’ was published in an anthology entitled ‘Wild Words, Vol. 5’ as a result of her entering a competition. Well done, Rigan. perhaps the prospective students could try their hand at few different subjects. Our senior students and staff will be on hand to answer any questions you May have. We look forward to meeting you there.
CROSS COUNTRY
Well done to all the DCW athletes Sadhbh Dolan, Mia McCann, Ellen Savage, Laila Hitchen, Lilly Devitt, Bella Doyle, Shauna Brett, Alice Christie, Jennifer Madden, Direann Drennan, Georgia O’Connell, Jessica Phelan, Katie Flynn, Emily Hogan and Erin Coffey, who competed on Tuesday, October 3, in the schools cross country event in Avondale Forest Park, Rathdrum. The DCW team performed really well. The girls are now looking forward to their next event on November 7. Training will resume on Thursday.
FRIENDSHIP WEEK
Friendship week runs from October 9 till 13th this year. There will be various activities organised throughout the week in different classes.
Overall the week is to enhance the sense of friendship and community in the school. We look forward to this very important week in our school year.
JERSEY DAY
On Friday, October 13, the TY students have organised a ‘jersey day’ for all. All proceeds will be donated to Goal. Many thanks to all for supporting this charity.
ROAD SAFETY SHOW
rules of the road and how dangerous speed is.
ZEMINAR
On Thursday all our TY students will travel to the RDS to attend ‘Zeminar’. This is an initiative directed at ‘generation Z’ to promote good mental health and overall wellbeing. Our TY students last year found the day to be a really good experience and we hope that this year’s TY students gain a lot from the day too.
AA TALK
On Friday the TY students welcomed a speaker from ‘Alcoholics Annonymous’ to the school to talk to them about the dangers of alcohol abuse. It was a very insightful talk and the girls were very appreciative to the speaker for their honesty and frankness with the talk.
COASTAL STUDY
On Tuesday, October 10, the TY Geography class will head down to the Murrough in Wicklow to carry out their coastal study with Ms Kelly. We hope the elements are good to you.
MUSICAL
The TY students are very busy with rehearsals for their Christmas Production of ‘Beauty and the Beast’. They are putting in long hours and their performances are really improving by the day. We are really looking forward to their production in December.
BASKETBALL
hockey, tennis and much more. It promises to be lots of fun. Places are limited. Sign up forms are available in DCW school reception or in Malone’s bookshop.
Our under-16 and under-19 boys basketball teams played their first competitive matches of the season recently against St David’ s, Greystones.
Our under-16 team had a convincing win, with point guard Ben Hudson particularly to the fore. Adam Neil and Max Richards were very effective under the boards and Niki Moelders, Donal O’Donoghue, Adam Shepherd and Jack Jennings all showed strongly in their respective positions.
Our under-19 team is made up of a lot of players with no previous experience of playing basketball and so it was particularly satisfying to see them perform so well in their first outing. Hugh Bradshaw, Jonathan Howell and Robert Norse were particularly instrumental in securing a fantastic win.
SPORTS COMMITTEE
Senior students enjoyed a talk by Dublin City University on the wide range of courses they offer.
TY YSI PROJECT
The TY YSI group are running a fitness challenge. This week, they are holding a fitness test in first and second years’ games and PE classes. After completing the test, the TY’s will be running a six-week fitness challenge with many activities to improve the students’ fitness from October 9 to November 24.
If any students have any suggestions for activities that the TY’s could run at lunchtimes or before school, please let them know. The week of November 27, they will hold another fitness test to see how the students have improved over the six weeks. Written by Cara Ryan, Transition Year student.
TRANSITION YEAR NEWS
a suitcase full of illegal cigarettes into the assembly hall.