EastGlendalough School

TY NEWS

Thursday, May 18, saw the culmination of this year’s Transition Year with the annual open evening taking place. It was a showcase of the years hard work, talent and commitment and was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The students themselves compared the evening giving speeches on all aspects of the year. There were even some musical interludes.

The culmination of the night was the distribution of TY awards. Some 25 students received the converted Gold award this year. Our highest ever number and a great indicator of the high standard set by the student body. Finally tea and coffee was served alongside some delicious student backed goodies. This gave parents, students and staff alike a chance to peruse the thesis projects on display and to reminisce on a fantastic Transition Year.

SCHOOL BANK

Our School Bank Team of Tony Mooney, Saul Symes, Cian O’Reilly, Mark Norse, Aoife Gill, Anna Moelders and Florence Adaraloye were invited to a presentation at Wicklow Bank of Ireland last week. The event was in recognition of the teams wonderful achievement of reaching the target 100 student accounts. The team were presented with certificates of achievement by Branch Manager Robin Bradley and Meabh Litton APA.

Meabh, who worked closely with the team throughout the year said ‘They were enthusiastic, hardworking and extremely organised each week. Each member of the team are a credit to your school and I wish them all the very best in their bright futures’.

In reaching this target set by Bank of Ireland the team have won the much anticipated ‘match day’ for all the account holders, funds for the school and vouchers. The entire school body is very proud of the team and extend a warm congratulations to them.

STAFF STUDENT CHALLENGE

Three more matches have been played in our annual staff versus Form six Sports Challenge. First up on Sports Day was Hockey. This was a very evenly contested game with tremendous skill and determination in evidence on both teams. The student team took the lead but the staff team got a well deserved equaliser in the second half to secure a 1-1 draw.

Next up was the eagerly anticipated annual soccer match. And what a cracker of a game this turned out to be. The students raced into an early two goal lead and things looked bad for the staff team. However, they showed all their experience (and talent) to completely dominate the next 10 minutes of the match, scoring three goals in the process. The pick of the goals was a brilliant effort from Mr Reid, who finished off a fantastic team move with an outside of the foot volleyed finish. At this stage, the students were panicking (and rightly so). To their credit however they scored a nice equalising goal.

Not to be deterred, the staff team regained the lead and looked like they would complete a famous victory. Sloppy defensive work however allowed the students to equalize with just a couple of minutes to play. Both teams were anxious to secure a win and so the game went to extra time golden goal. It was going to take something special to separate the teams at this stage and Rian Daunt Smyth duely obliged, getting on the end of a low cross to finish clinically. The relief on the faces of the students was plain to see. For the staff team, it was a case of beaten but not bowed. Their soccer victory meant that the students were now one victory ahead in the overall challenge.

This meant that the staff team had to win the next challenge, which was Table Tennis. The deciding game was a real nail-biter between Mr Cronin and Evan Verveen. Evan looked like he had the edge at 19-16 but Mr Cronin showed nerves of steel to dominate the latter stages of the match and complete a brilliant 22-20 victory.

Both teams are now tied in the overall challenge. The deciding sport will be Tug O’War. Let’s just say that the staff are quietly confident!

EGS SPORTS DAY

Our annual Sports Day was held on Friday, May 12. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t kind to us but nevertheless everyone had a great day. There was the usual array of sports including: athletics, gaelic football, soccer, tag rugby, futsal, basketball, badminton, spikeball, volleyball, hockey and orienteering.

Mr O’Connor’s Cube challenge proved popular once again as did the inflatable games (Rock n’ Roll Gladiator and Pedal Power Sweeper). The fun events, organised by Mr Reid and Mr Gargan also proved very popular.

The inclement weather didn’t hamper the sales of ice cream and burgers too much either. Great credit is due to all students and staff for getting into the spirit of the day.

ATHLETICS

Congratulation to all the first year students who took part in the Athletics Ireland and Bank of Ireland Masterclass in school earlier this month. The overall standard of the students was fantastic. The students were put through their paces in the long jump, high jump and sprint. The overall top scoring boy on the day was Donal O’Donoghue and the top scoring girl was Zoe Herman.

SAILING

Congratulations to Sam Hennessy and Harry Noonan, James Beaty Doyle, Charles Heather, Howard Noonan, Nathan O’Connor, who competed in the St Gerard’s Sailing Regatta in Greystones. The East Glendalough School Team came in second place and enjoyed the day.

YOUTH LEADERSHIP

Joe Fisher, Hugh Bradshaw and Jen Scott attended the Rotary Youth Leadership Dinner on Monday, May 8. The evening was a great opportunity for our students to meet and chat with officials Wicklow Rotary and was enjoyed by all.