Blessington Community College

POLITICIANS WALKABOUT

On Thursday, February 7, the college was host to a group of local politicians accompanied by Mr Micheál Martin, leader of Fianna Fáil. Mr Martin and his entourage engaged with staff members and students for about two hours. They visited a number of classes where Mr Martin was quizzed by enthusiastic students on topics ranging from the nurses’ strike to climate change. All of the group showed a keen interest in the teaching and learning taking place. Mr Martin outlined some of Fianna Fáil’s educational policies to the students, including the belief that History and Geography must remain core subjects in our curriculum. We were happy to host the group and welcome any further visits from our public representatives.

GREENWAY SPONSORED WALK

On Wednesday, February 6, while Leaving Cert students toiled at their English mock exam, in excess of half the student body took part in a sponsored walk to the Blessington Greenway. Accompanied by staff members, they walked approximately 10 kilometres on a cold, but beautifully sunny, day beside the lake. The price paid for the fundraising effort was muscular as well as financial as participants’ muscles ached. Over €1,200 was raised for school funds. The BCC community thank everyone who participated or donated.

MOCK EXAMS

It’s that time of year again and our pale and tired third and sixth years are cogitating and ruminating on questions, and formulating answers in their Mock Exams. Stress levels in households are high and we remind everyone that this busy time of assessment that lies ahead of our exam students is merely a part of their overall education, albeit an important part. As part of our Wellbeing programme, we attempt to coach students in effective study techniques as well as mindfulness and meditation to alleviate stress. We wish our exam students lots of luck and balance in their approach. content, recording the details (taking an image/time etc) and then informing someone in authority. He spoke about cycber-bullying, its characteristics and the impacts on young people’s mental health.

For parents, he emphasised the importance of supervising internet use, using parental control and filter software, limiting time online, checking internet history, and checking children’s devices intermittently. He discussed being alert to avoidance behaviour, mood change and signs of fear as indicators of problems.

It was worthwhile to draw attention to Internet Safety as it is an ongoing concern for the school and parents and, hopefully, those present will reflect on what they heard.

DEBATING SUCCESS

On Friday evening, February 1, we received confirmation that we are through to the next round of the Concern Debating Competition. While we knew we had enough points for the next stage we thought we might have a playoff before reaching the final 16. The good news is, though, we placed sixth in the country on the league table out of 140 schools. The next round of the competition will be during the week of February 25 and our team of Lhamo Fitzsimons, Michael Wright, Emma Carter and Rebecca Parke are incredibly excited.

GERMAN TRIP

Many thanks to the German department for their organisation of the trip to Germany this week. The group departed for Germany on Monday, February 11, and we look forward to hearing about their experiences upon their return. This is a wonderful opportunity for the students to experience the language and culture of Germany outside the classroom and we wish them a safe and enjoyable trip.

DÚSHLÁN

TY students participated in Dúshlán from midday on February 5 to February 2 p.m. on February 7. We were in groups of three and our challenge was to complete 30 tasks in Irish within 50 hours. We found the challenges very mixed, from easy ones to much more difficult ones. All the challenges were fun and encouraged us to use as much Irish as we had.

We completed challenges such as teaching someone who does not study Irish some basic phrases, counting to 30 using three different languages, translating a popular song to Irish and making a Spotify playlist with 10 Irish songs in it. We had to provide evidence of each of the tasks we completed using social media, eg Téacs, Grianghraf, Físeán agus tvuít (tweet). Also as part of Dúshlán, one of our team members, Gary Dowling, was asked to speak on local radio station, East Coast FM, where he spoke in Irish about Dúshlán. Participating in Dúshlán really helped to improve our conversational skills in Irish and working as a group, while having a lot of fun. We all thoroughly enjoyed participating.

TY WORK EXPERIENCE

provides the students with a fantastic opportunity to savour the world of work and provides them with valuable insights which may assist them when making important subject and career choices in the future. Thank you, also, to those accommodating and facilitating Work Experience in the community.

LCA TASK INTERVIEW

The LCA students’ Art work was set beautifully last Thursday, February 7, and they approached their first Task interview with an excited confidence tinged, of course, with a slight nervousness. The students are to be commended for their beautiful artwork and their diligent preparation for the interview. We would like to wish them the very best of luck in Session two of their course.

SONG SCHOOL

Song School took place for all TY students last week on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Budding musicians, music writers, lyricists and singers worked together to both create and perform an original piece. At the end of each day the students showcased their work for their classmates. Justin Cullen and Dave Sheehan from Create School were very impressed with the talented students they encountered and complimented all three groups on their enthusiasm and participation.

CARLOW IT PRESENTATION

On Friday, January 11, Alison Moore from Carlow IT gave a presentation to the sixth year students about the courses, sporting facilities, scholarships, graduate and employment opportunities that are available for students, once they graduate from Carlow IT.

Not only did Alison speak to the students about the course content of courses that have existed in Carlow IT for many years, but she also highlighted to them information about new courses that are being launched by the college. For the budding Aerospace Engineers and Aircraft Systems Engineers that were sitting in the audience, Alison informed these students about the college’s direct link with Ryanair.

In summary, Alison emphasized to the students that there is literally something for everyone in Carlow IT, including Business, Law, Engineering, Sport and Coaching, Media, Computers, Science, Agriculture, Tourism, and Early Childhood studies. Students are advised to check out the different courses by reviewing the Carlow IT website at itcarlow.ie.

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Wednesday, January 31, saw both the first and second year Girls’ Basketball teams play their opening matches of the season. Against tough competition from EGS, the second years began strongly and defended well throughout the game with skillful offensive plays but EGS proved too strong on the day.

Next up the first year team played in their very first match. In what turned out to be a lively encounter, CCM won the first quarter but EGS edged ahead to take the game. The first years then played against St Mary’s at home on Monday. With improved confidence and skill, CCM comfortably took the lead and finished the game 20-0.

Both teams move forward to their next encounter where they face St Mary’s away.

LIONS CLUB TABLE QUIZ

Thank you to the Wicklow and District Lions Club, who are hosting a table quiz in aid of Coláiste Chill Mhantáin. The quiz takes place on Wednesday, February 13, at 8.30 p.m. in Fitzpatrick’s Bar. Tables of four cost €40 each and all are welcome to attend.

Transition Year Arts students from CCA entered six amazing dresses into this year’s Bank of Ireland Junk Kouture fashion design competition, with two of the dresses being selected for this year’s regional final.

Junk Kouture is an all-island competition for secondary school students, focusing on fashion design, engineering and environmental sustainability.

The competition requires entrants to use everyday junk materials to create works of wearable art, with the finalist designs being modelled on the catwalk in a prestigious fashion show, which takes place in the Helix, DCU every year.

The Coláiste Chraobh Abhann students involved in this year’s competition are Stevie Stokes, Hannah McConnell, Lara Harrison, Hannah Burton, Kayla Devlin, Alex Brady, Casey Finnerty, Lucy Phipps-Rooney, Ruth Ireland, Ruth Nolan, Nicole Dutton, Nicole Greene, Isabel Rice and Jessica Kennedy.

Lucy and Ruth Ireland’s winning design is titled ‘Pulp Fashion’ and is made from recycled Argos catalogues, while Jessica, Isabel, and Hanna Burton’s dress is called ‘I Can’t be Bought’ and uses Centra receipts as their main material. Both these designs are now through to the regional finals.

Well done to all the CCA students involved, and especially to Ms Tarrant for all her creative guidance and expertise she leant the students as they created their wonderful designs. The Regional Finals will take place on March 4, in the Helix.

BOYS FOOTBALL FINAL

The return leg of the annual CCA/Lycée Thomas Corneille took place last week with students and teachers from France visiting their host families in CCA, where they enjoyed some sightseeing trips, cultural education activities and rekindled friendships.

Our French visitors took a tour of Dublin and visited all the famous sights, including Trinity College and the Leprechaun Museum.

On the Sunday, there was a coastal walk from Greystones to Bray, while during the week, the students accompanied their host students to school, where they enjoyed numerous activities, including a hurling demonstration, baking, metalwork demonstrations, music and Irish dancing.

Thanks to the French Department and all the staff who helped make their stay a welcoming and enjoyable one.

The CCA Badminton teams have had some fantastic results in the last few weeks. The under-14A Boys are straight through to the semi-finals after topping their section. They will play Lycée Francais at Whitehall Road (Terenure Badminton Centre) sometime in the last week of this mid-term.

Under-14B Boys are in the 1/4 finals after topping their section. They will play St Mary’s Rathmines next week.

Under-14A Girls are through to the 1/4 finals and will play Mount Sackville. under-14B Girls are through to the 1/4 finals and will play St Raphaela’s, Stillorgan.

The students involved in the under-14 teams are: under-14A Boys – Theo Mariyasingara, Bogdan Rusu, Deacon Greene, Aidan Cullen-Weiss

Under-14B Boys – Ryan Curran, Cayden Elliott, Seán Kruger, Aharon Smith. under-14A Girls – Charlotte Nagle, Nadia Kaminska, Julian Norman, Angel Roy. under-14B Girls – Megija Upmale, Anastansia Razniak, Rachel Lacey, Ella Macaulay, Sarah Smith. Well done to all the players and to Mr Steele for his continued enthusiasm and encouragement.

‘HAIRSPRAY’/’OF MICE AND MEN’

Don’t forget to book your tickets for CCAs production of Hairspray which takes place in Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray from March 6 to March 8. Tickets are available through the school or by contacting the theatre. mermaidartscentre.ie.

Tickets are also available for the production of the CCA Players’ Of Mice and Men which will be staged for three nights in the Castle Inn Theatre, Newcastle from Wednesday to Friday, March 20, to March 23. To book tickets please contact Seán at seanosuilleabhain@kwetb.com.

Tickets are available from the school or the Castle Inn Pub and cost a very reasonable €5.