Languages Week at Coláiste Fionnchua
Coláiste Fionnchua, Mitchelstown recently celebrated Languages Week, which acknowledged the myriad of languages being taught in our school, but allowed students to acknowledge the myriad of languages being spoken by our students.
A number of events were planned to take place in Irish, German and French classes. These events encompassed the sporting, academic and wellbeing traditions in the school. Our TY’s led a day packed full of workshops in Spanish, German, French and Irish for our first year students. They also organised a German football challenge, international food tasting and an afternoon of European language movies.
As part of the House system, TY German and French students completed an MFL themed quiz. In addition to this, 2nd year French students took part in a ‘Ligue 1’ soccer tournament, representing French soccer teams like PSG, Clermont, Lorient, Montpellier, Marseille and Toulouse while 3rd year French took part in a Francophonie Countries Quiz.
Our Gaeilge students also got involved with 5th years completing Jenga Béil and 3rd years wrote kindness messages as Gaeilge in SPHE. 1st year students took part in a giant Tráth na gCeist.
VISITORS TO THE CLASSROOM
We welcomed visitors of a different kind to the classroom recently; visitors of the four legged, eight legged, and no-legged kind! 3rd year and 5th year Agricultural Science students embraced the practical side of the subject when they met with a pet lamb and a halter trained calf! Paddy and Eoghan O’Donnell brought students through animal care and showed students how best to handle these animals. Many thanks to 3rd year Eoghan O’Donnell and his dad Paddy for this great learning experience.
TY students also enjoyed an exciting visit from the National Reptile Zoo. Here, they met a variety of reptiles and arachnids such as snakes, turtles, lizards and spiders. They got the opportunity to handle these animals.
Students learned animal identification and how they have adapted an evolved to survive in today’s climate. They also learned concepts in conservation and reptilian habitats and ecology. Many thanks to the National Reptile Zoo for this terrific workshop.
3rd year Ag. Science students are also taking part in the ‘Grow2CEO’ Programme, which aims to enhance food literacy. Students will grow food, cook up a business idea and then launch it. The seeds have been planted
‘HAMLET’ VISIT
6th year students were on the road last week as they travelled to The Everyman Palace in Cork to take in a production of ‘Hamlet’, their single text for their Leaving
Cert English exam. Produced by Cyclone Repository, students were treated to a modern interpretation of the Shakespeare classic complete with dialogue via FaceTime and a YouTube Vlog featuring Shane Casey who played Billy Murphy in ‘The Young Offenders’. This production focused on the key moments from the play and called for audience input on numerous occasions. All this will be of benefit to students as they continue preparing for their exams.