Dominican College Wicklow
CROSS COUNTRY
Huge congratulations to all those who participated in the schools invitational cross country event in St Gerard’s, Bray on Tuesday, November 7. Well done especially to our medal winners Ellen Savage (third Place) and Sadhbh Dolan (sixth Place).
DCW were the first overall team home so gold team medals went to Ellen Savage, Sadhbh Dolan, Dirreann Drennan and Alice Christie. Thanks also to their coach, Ms Wadden.
BAKE OFF
Congratulation to all who participated in the DCW Senior Bake Off 2017. A high standard was displayed by all entrants. Special congratulations goes to the winners: First Place Ellie Merrigan and Róisín Ring, second Place Kate Keaney and Melrique Smith, third Place Ailbhe Dowling and Emma Maguire and in fourth Place Isabel Lozano Ayala and Blanca Zalla Quintanilla.
WELLNESS WEEK
The sixth years were treated to a ‘Wellness Day’ on Monday, November 6. They started the day with a session making aromatherapy oils with Claire from ‘Wings’ in the town which the girls all really enjoyed. This was followed by a relaxing yoga session and an exercise in mindfulness with Ms Wadden.
The girls then enjoyed a very practical talk on ‘Stress management’ by ‘Supergeneration’. Thanks to all involved-it was a very welcome break for all the sixth years and an excellent start back to a busy year for the girls.
The third year students also enjoyed a very informative and helpful talk by ‘Supergeneration’ on ‘Managing stress’ in their lives. The girls were taught that not all stress is bad and how to take steps to manage the inevitable stress that is in their lives.
In other year groups students also got to enjoy ‘mindfullness’ exercises in their SPHE classes during the week. Overall the week was a great success in boosting students’ awareness in their ability to look after themselves both physically and mentally.
TY TALK
On Tuesday, November 7, the Transition Year students welcomed a speaker from Dell, who gave them a very informative and interesting talk on the job opportunities in IT in Ireland.
The girls got to hear about life working for a large multinational company and the choices and paths that can be taken in this area.
BASKETBALL
Best of luck to the Under-19 and Under-16 basketball teams who are playing their matches against Loreto Bray on Friday, November 10.
HOCKEY
The first year hockey team will travel to Newbridge to play
All parents/guardians of our third year students are invited to their parent-teacher meeting which will be held on Wednesday, November 15, from 4 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. It is a great opportunity to meet with your child’s teachers and discuss their progress in their Junior Certificate Year. We look forward to meeting you there.
IRISH DAY
The TY Irish classes are undertaking a challenge to speak as much Irish as they can next Tuesday, November 14. They will communicate with each other and the staff as much as possible ‘as Gaeilge’. This is part of a National Conradh na Gaeilge campaign in schools all over the country. Go n-éirí an t-ádh libh.
ART TRIP
On Tuesday the fifth and sixth year art students took an Art History Trip to the ‘Frederick William Burton, For the love of Art’ Exhibition at ‘The National Gallery’ in Dublin. It was a great day of culture with a very informative guided tour. The students had a super day and greatly appreciate this wonderful facility which is free of charge to all students.
TRIP TO KING LEAR
The higher level English Classes travelled to Smock Alley in Dublin to a production of ‘King Lear’ on Wednesday, November 8. The students enjoyed the great performance and took part in a workshop in the theatre following the performance. Thanks to Ms Walshe, Mr Doyle and Ms Lydon for organising and accompanying the students.
CHRISTMAS TESTS
The Christmas Exams are taking place from November 20 to November 24. See the School Website for a copy of the timetables.
CLOSING DATE
Friday, November 17, is the closing date for applications for the 2018/2019 school year.
Our under-15 boys soccer team played Gaelcholáiste na Mara in their second group game, having beaten Glenart College in their first game. Excellent defensive work early on from Niki Moulders in goal and defenders Max Richards, Ronan Gilpin and Scott Fitzpatrick helped to keep G na Mara at bay. An injury to Niki meant that Jack Jennings took over in goal.
Shortly afterwards, Jack made a great penalty save but a G na Mara attacker was first to react and tuck the rebound away. Unfortunately a recurring theme was our failure to anticipate danger and this led to two further opposition goals. In between we also created a couple of great chances with James Cardiff and Louis Harris particularly unlucky not to score. A fourth goal for G na Mara ended any lingering hopes of a comeback but to their credit our boys never gave up.
They still have a very good chance of reaching the knock out phase of the competition.
HEALTH WEEK
Our annual Health Week took place from October 23 to October 27. Physical and mental health themes were covered in several subject areas. Highlights of the week included the Humourfit drama workshops and the sponsored walk/run which raised almost €4,000. Many thanks to all the students who participated and to the parents/friends/relations who sponsored them.
RUGBY NEWS
Sixth year EGS student Paddy McKenzie was selected to play for Ireland under-18s club teams Rugby against Portugal last Saturday in Jamor Portugal. This was a huge honour for our Wicklow/Leinster player. A fantastic achievement for Ireland’s young side outscoring their hosts by eight tries to three, on which Paddy scored, securing a win 46 – 27.
CROSS COUNTRY
Well done to the following EGS students who competed in the Wicklow Schools Cross Country event in St Gerard’s on Tuesday, November 7: Tadgh Lord, Jonas Stafford, Adam Logan, Sienna Dowdall, Hannah O’Connor, Lily Mullally, Grace Wakefield, Anna Hudson, Abby Horner, Mark Sheane, Adam Shephard, Ryan Wynne, Jack Jennings, Hannah Carton, Faye Dunne, Jane Mooney, Ciaran Gilpin, Jamie Cox, Tony Mooney and Chris Hudson.
Everyone ran really well and we came home with 14 medals. Fifth year and third year boys’ teams won silver. Third year girls’ team won gold. Abby Horner won a medal for fourth place. Chris Hudson won a medal for fourth place. third year individual medals – Faye Dunne third place medal, Hannah Carton fourth place medal, Jane Mooney fifth place medal.
EQUESTRIAN
On Sunday, November 5, five students headed to Wexford to take part in the next round of the Tri Interschools Showjumping league, hosted by Loretta Wexford.
The team of Robert Cherry, Lauren Codd, Jazmine Arthur and Sophie Bohm Leahy moved up a level this week to take on the Open competition. They put in a super debut open performance finishing on eight faults which was good enough for fourth place.
Sophie Bohm Leahy decided to have a go at the Open Individual competition and finished a fantastic second, again a great achievement.
Earlier on that morning, Cuan Sloane Kelly had competed in the Individual Novice derby and likewise finished up in second place.
Team EGS travel to Kilossery in north County Dublin Sunday, November 12. Best of luck to all.
CAREERS
On November 8 Dun Laoghaire Institute of art, Design and Technology gave an excellent and very insightful careers talk to senior students.
TRANSITION YEAR NEWS
This week has seen our TY’s plunged into the icy waters of Killary Fjord up in Mayo for their adventure week. Students will be writing articles of their experiences for next week’s paper so don’t forget to pick one up.
The week was action packed from start to finish and was a great success mainly due to the students great attitude and positive outlook. Yes it was cold, sometimes really cold, but wether up on a skyfall platform or being pulled along behind the speed boat all agreed it was worth every shiver and shake.
Highlights included Archery Combat where one or two of the teachers took aim at the student body with a little too much enthusiasm. Ms Walsh excelling on the wake board, Mr Finn... enjoying his time in the water.
As we get back to school after a long days travelling it’s nice to look back on a really amazing week made possible by the excellent staff up in K2 and the usual good natured enthusiasm of our students.
The best of luck to Alan Miley, who competes for Ireland in the Schools Athletics Competition in Scotland. Alan is competing in the Junior Boys combined event and will be doing the 60m Hurdles, 200m, 800m, Long Jump and Shot Putt.
WELL READ AWARD
St Kevin’s Community College was one of seventeen schools in the country to receive the National Well Read Award this week.
The award is given to schools with a proven record of nurturing a reading culture in their school and bringing about an overall improvement in student’s literacy skills using fun and engaging methods.
Some of our initiatives over the past three years include refurbishing the library, Drop Everything and Read, Word of the week, One Book, One Community, The Who’s Reading What Quiz and the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
A huge congratulations to all the staff, particularly Ms Hanlon and Mr Campbell, students, parents and all of the wider school community who were involved in achieving our status as a Well Read School.
TYB HORSE-RIDING