Day two of complete success! :D

So today was the second day of the West Leinster Schools Athletic competition in Santry. Even though the weather was not as good as Tuesday, we still had an enjoyable and very successful day out in Santry.
Like Tuesday, we took off to Santry on the bus at around nine o'clock. On Tuesday, we didn't get seats in the the stand but today we did. We were lucky to get these seats because at stages throughout the day there were a few light showers of rain.
The day started well, continued well and finished well. Nearly every girl that competed got points for the school and there were plenty of individual medals to be had as well. Our school, for the second year, won the overall best girls school trophy. We also won the overall minor and junior cups. We got second in the senior category. We were all delighted with these fantastic achievements.
We weren't able to stay in the complex to receive our trophies because quite a lot of us had to get a vaccination back in the school at three o'clock.
One of the p.e teachers had driven to Santry so he was able to wait and collect the trophies.
As you've probably guessed it was a great day of success, excitement and enjoyment. Thank you very much to our p.e teachers who put in so much time and effort for this great event.
Here's to claiming the trophy, and more, again next year! ;)

Niamh! :D

'As graceful as a swan' :)

Today, after our great "Easter Feaster" that we held for class Emnet, we went to see a ballet show in Belvedre College, Dublin. The Irish National Youth Ballet Company were performing at the college. One of our own TY students, Hayley Cunningham, and a third year student from our school were both performing in this show.

The show was amazing. They put on three pieces, with an interval between the second and third piece. Hayley was in two of the pieces that they performed. There were five boys in the show also. They were brilliant. It was great to see that they were enjoying it just as much as the girls were enjoying it. The ages of the show performers was varied. There were young boys and girls and then there were older boys and girls.

Hayley wasn't aware that we were coming to see her so I think she was quite surprised when she came out to us at the end of the show. She had a solo part in the show which was absolutely fabulous. She was so graceful and elegant up on the stage, along with the other performers.

Ballet wouldn't be my first preference of entertainment but I must say that I really enjoyed today's show and I was very happy that we were there to support Hayley.

After the show we got back on the bus to head home. We stopped off in McDonald's on the way home for about twenty minutes as well.

Thank you to our TY co-ordinator, Ms L and our school principal, Ms B, who accompanied us on this outing to the ballet show.

Niamh! :D

Party pay back! :P

Earlier on in the school year, just before we broke up for the Christmas holidays, class Emnet prepared a lovely breakfast for all of us in class Amina. We were very thankful for what this breakfast and so we decided to make it up to them this morning.

We did this by inviting them to our "Easter Feaster"! :)
Last Monday, we decided to host this party. We assigned different tasks to everyone. Some people baked food while others bought jellies, bars and soft drinks. We had sooo much food when we set up the table this morning in the library.
We took about ten or fifteen minutes to set up and then we sent for class Emnet to come down. They all got a plate with the food along the tables and they sat down to eat it. We had the tables set out in a way that everyone was included and was able to chat away to others that weren't beside them.
When all of Emnet were sitting happily with their food, our class went up to get some food as well so that we could join Emnet. Everyone was chatting away and munching happily. We had some music playing softly in the background.
Before we started cleaning up, we raffled off three small lindt Easter eggs to class Emnet. They were about to go back to their class to let us clean up, but before they did they presented us with a lovely "Thank You" card as a token of their appreciation for our party. 
Most of the food was eaten.. "surprise surprise!" :L However, there were a few things left over so we decided to pack the leftovers into peoples' lunchboxes as we were going to be at a ballet show later in the day so the food would have been eaten then.
We got everything cleaned up pretty quickly.. the Emnet heads weren't very messy! When everything was back in place in the library we waited for the bell to go for break time. We were all really happy with the way things went. Emnet enjoyed themselves really well.

 

Niamh! :D

Don't give up and try your very bestest! :)

Okay, so today was the first day of the West Leinster Schools Athletics competition in Santry. This is an annual event that takes place just before or just after the Easter holidays every year, depending on when Easter falls.
Our school always tends to do exceptionally well at this event. There is a great demand for athletics in our school and so we never have trouble trying to find numbers for different events. In actual fact, there is so much demand that we tend to have to take part in trials for some of the events.
In Santry, you can only take part in a maximum of two events and a relay. This rule is there to allow a variety of people to enter each race or field event.
We took off this morning on the bus at around nine o'clock. The weather was nice so it was looking to be a good day. It was a good day. Actually, it was a brilliant day. We brought home seventeen medals, a mixture of first, second and third place. Lots of the girls finished in the top six for many races and field events which means they get points for our school. The first place gets six points and the sixth place gets one point. Regardless of how many points you get for the school, every point is a contribution towards the overall trophy which St.Wolstan's proudly claimed last year.
Mount Sackville had won this trophy for the "overall best girls school" for the past nine. St Wolstan's didn't let them take it for a tenth year! We are aiming to win the trophy again this year and so far everything is going good for us. We will know on Thursday who wins the trophy.
We got back to the school this afternoon at about quarter past three. Every single one of us was absolutely exhausted after a long day in the warm sun. None of us had books or uniforms so we didn't have to go back to our last class if we didn't want to. Instead, we all went into the hall and lay on the high jump mats. Some of us even went as far as falling asleep for the forty minutes we had before school ended!
Overall, it was a fun, enjoyable and successful day out in Santry. A big thank you to all the teachers who gave up their time for training us for different events and especially to the two p.e teachers who trained us for events, accompanied us today and will accompany us on Thursday.

Morton Stadium Santry

Niamh! :D

Picture Source: interviewloi.blogspot.com

Through Glendalough we trek! :D

On Tuesday, April 5th, we had our Ty retreat down in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow. It was yet another great day out with my class. This was a new experience of retreat for all of us. For our first three retreats, we were indoors and we did quite a lot of talking with the retreat instructor. We also stayed pretty local for our first three retreats.
For our Ty retreat we went down to Glendalough for the day. We walked the whole way around the two lakes, taking in quite a lot of information about St Kevin, along the way. We had a lovely guide with us who was very very friendly and patient.
We were allowed to talk to each other for some parts of the walk but for other parts we had to stay silent so we could think about our lives and reflect on anything that we wanted to. There was one part of the walk that was tough enough. We had to walk up hill.. for a good while! We were walking up to the start of the big waterfall. It was worth the trek up though because the natural-ness of everything was magnificent.
When we made our way back downhill and everyone was together, we sat for lunch in a picnic area. There, we talked about different things with our friends while enjoying our lunch after the long walk around.
After our lunches, we took off again to finish the circle of the two lakes. We were really lucky with the weather. At some stages it was even too warm and we had to take our jumpers off! The scenery around Glendalough is absolutely fabulous. I would recommend for anyone to travel to Glendalough because it's just beautiful.
When we had completed the full circle of the two lakes, had taken in everything we were told about St Kevin and had stopped to look at the remains of the monastery, it was time to head home again because we had to be back for the end of the school day.
As tiring and all as the day had been, walking in the warm, heavy air, it was an extremely enjoyable, calming and refreshing experience that I personally got lots of benefit out of.
Thank you to our religion teacher Ms K B and the school chaplain Mr K for accompanying us on our Ty retreat.

Niamh! :D

Jabba Jabba Jembe! :)

On Thursday, March 31st, we had an absolutely brilliant percussion workshop for the whole day. A man called David came in to give us the percussion workshop. He has his own company called "Jabba Jabba Jembe".. yes, it is African!

David told us a lot about his trip to Africa and how he brought his music teachers back with him to Ireland to live with him for a while. He brought back numerous African percussion instruments. The dominant one is the jembe. It's like a bongo.. but it is not a bongo and he made that very clear to us!

When he arrived at the school, we saw that he had brought his dog with him! His dog looked like what he described as, "a stretched jack russell"!!! The dog was so cute and is named "Challey". It is an African name. Challey was running outside for a while before we started the workshop. We all had to help David to bring in the jembes and other instruments. Challey was put in back in the van for a while so he wouldn't run off on David.

When all the covers had been taking off the jembes and everyone had some kind of instrument in front of them, we got stuck into the percussion workshop. We were only into it about five minutes and I already knew it was going to one hell of a fun day! We got to learn lots of different African beats and rhythms. It almost felt like we were actually in Africa!

After a while, he showed us a few videos on youtube of how the different instruments are made and used over in Africa. When we were finished watching the videos, we swapped around instruments and we learned a different percussion routine just before lunch.

After lunch, we did some more work on our routine, before we had it all learned and Ms L recorded a video of us playing away!

This workshop was such a good experience and it has made me want to go to Africa for a musical point of view. We had great feedback from David and he told our music teacher, Ms G, that we all great rhythm!

Niamh! :D









Challey!



I think I'll stick to Irish Dancing!

On Friday, March 25th, for our Irish class after lunch our teacher Mr S decided to show us a bit of the old style Irish dancing, Sean Nos dancing. Sean nos dancing is a more casual style to the traditional Irish dancing. The moves are a lot more free flowing. Mr S put a video from youtube up on the board so we could hear the Irish music and follow the sean nos steps. The dancing was a great bit of craic, especially given it was second last class on Friday afternoon. Even though the sean nos dancing was fun to learn and very enjoyable, I found it hard to grasp because I do Irish dancing myself and it is a lot stricter from a carriage holding point of view. For sean nos dancing you are given the freedom of using your hands and dancing on the flat of your feet, whereas for Irish dancing, you have to keep your arms straight down by your sides, your feet must be crossed and you have to dance up on your toes. As much and all as I did enjoy the bit of sean nos dancing that we learned, I think I'll stick to Irish dancing! :) Niamh! :D