Christmas wishes

I didn't get a chance to wish all the TY's a happy christmas yesterday before they finished up for the holidays. We were to go bowling today but it has been cancelled. We will go in the new year though:)

So happy christmas TY. Have fun, enjoy, and stay safe over the holidays.

Mrs L :)

Here's a little something to make you smile.

A Christmas breakfast

Siobhan was blogging today about the Christmas breakfast that class Emnet help for class Amina this morning.

"Today we had a Christmas breakfast hosted by class Emnet. We had if for the first class and it went into a few minutes into the other class. We had a really good time. There was lots of food and hot chocolate and marshmallows and sweets and things like that. It was a great morning. Everybody had great fun and they all got lots of food. There was music and it was a brilliant morning.

Mrs L got us started signing.........

Bag packing for Irish Cancer Society

Well done to the TY's who generously gave up their time this weekend to help bagpack for the Irish Cancer Society.

Read what Stepho has to say about it here.

TY podcasts

I just received these podcasts from Peter of Create School who came to St Wolstan's last week along with Chris and gave each TY class a podcasting workshops.
I had to make them into little movies because Blogger doesn't facilitate sound files. All images from Scoilnet ImageBank and free to use under Creative commons.
Enjoy:)

And here is Orlaigh's group podcast - Impressions of Ireland

Podcasting workshop - Ailbhe's report

Podcasting- such a good day!
On Friday we had a brilliant day. Two men called Chris and Steven came in to do a podcasting workshop with us. I have to say that it was brilliant and I really think that it should be done every year with TY's from now on. It is really worth it in my opinion. Firstly they spoke with us about how one can do a podcast. If you go into iTunes U it is really easy to do podcasting. The word podcast is an amalgamation of the words broadcast and ipod because a podcast is basically a broadcast for an ipod.

Blog of the week!

Siobhan has posted every day this past week. Well done Siobhan...you get my first Blog of the Week Award:)

Read Siobhan's blog here.
Mrs L:)

Poll: Did you enjoy work experience?

Results from the Work Experience (November 2010) poll:

Did you enjoy work experience?
Yes 96.23% (51 votes)
No 3.77% (2 votes)
Not sure 0% (0 votes)
Total Votes: 53

Thanks to everyone who voted:)

Saidhbh's Poll

Saidhbh has a poll on her blog, why not pop along and vote?

http://saidhbhtyblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/poll.html

Thoughts on Work Experience

Here's a snapshot of what the TY's are writing about their work experience last week......

Stephanie S

Now I know to work hard in school because it shows how far in life you go. 

Aoife B

Overall I had a good week, I have realised that I like interacting with children and so this will help me when I consider possible careers.

Siobhan

I think that I got on very well in work experience I got on well with all the nurses and they were very good to me they helped me a lot when it comes to thinking about what I want to do in the future.
That was a week that I will never forget and I truly did have a good time and I’m going to miss it very much.

Alison

I went off to The Village at Lyons for the week.  When I’m older I either want to do something with food like a chef or be a primary school teacher. For my second week of work experience, in March, I’m going to my primary school to see what both careers would be like. Should be fun :D

Niamh P

Well Friday was my last day of work experience. I really didn't want to leave when half three came around on the clock.  The week was so enjoyable and I did learned quite a lot about pharmacy.

Self Help Africa - Lasting Development

Lets support Self Help Africa in the Better Together Awards.
Just click the link below and select the Yellow Star to cast your vote :)

Self Help Africa - Lasting Development

Mrs L :)

Do you enjoy blogging in TY?

Recent poll returned the following votes:

Yes 64.71% (22 votes)

No 17.65% (6 votes)

Not sure 17.65% (6 votes)

Total Votes: 34

New poll - Did you enjoy work experience? Cast your vote :)

Emma and Ailbhe went to Athlone Institute of Technology for some help......

Emma writes in her blog.......

"Well I'm just back from the Athlone Institute of Technology & could not be happier! xD After being in contact with Michael for several weeks in relation to getting a prototype made for our mini-company product "Knot a Problem", today we finally got the chance to speak with him and his colleagues about our design.
The day seemed off to a bad start when we got stuck in traffic on the motor-way & had to take several diversions, due to an accident. Despite this however, we managed to arrive at 12:03, just 3 minutes late! We were introduced to Michael himself first, who told us our schedule for the day & brought us over to James who discussed our designs, proposed ways of improving it & talked about the manufacturing process. He also brought us around & showed us some of the high-tech machines they use in the Institute for prototyping. I had no idea the machinery, materials & cost for manufacture was so expensive! The moulds alone for our original design were estimated at a price of approximately
€6'000!:(  ..................."
There's so much more in Emma's post, read the rest of it here

Poverty Wall

Use the Scroll tabs to view the wall below, then Click the pink 'Post a Sticky' tab below to post your own thoughts on poverty.

Emnet Poverty Wall

I have created a Wallwisher wall for class Emnet. It is a simple webpage where we all can post our messages easily. The theme of this one wall is Poverty. I'll post the final Wall here when everyone has added a thought or comment to it.
So simply go to http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/emnetpoverty and post your message there
Happy Posting!
Mrs L

History projects

Grace is thinking about her History project......

"In History we've been assigned our Christmas Project and this is what we'll be marked on for Christmas rather than a sit down test. We have to choose a place of historical significance that we'd like to research and look at it under certain headings. Another option that we can do is a Family Tree. I'm not sure which place I will choose to do but The Famine is something that is quite interesting and would be fun to learn about."

Pilates

Emma K was blogging about Pilates today......

"So today for double PE we started pilates with Angela in the library while Amina did dancing. So far it seems pretty similar to yoga except more...strenuous :/
To start off, we were told about the muscles we would be targeting & shown how to keep our stomach sucked in for maximum benefit (:
After being shown how to breathe properly without relaxing our stomach, we did various exercises, which although was fun, was pretty hard work. I kept forgetting to breathe!"

Please don't forget to breathe Emma!
Mrs L :)

Work Experience excitement

Some of the TY's have been blogging about work experience next week. here is a selection of what they are saying.......

Ellen

"This week we are busy preparing for work experience, which is next week. I will be going to St Anne’s National School in Ardclough for the week. On Friday all of TY will have a workshop to tell us what to expect during work experience and tell us what to do if we encounter any problems. I'm really looking forward to work experience as I’m going to my old primary school, but it will be a little awkward to see my old teachers."

Aoife

"I'm going off to a dog groomers in Newcastle so that should be fun. "

Aisling

"I'm going to Naas hospital from Monday to Thursday and Tirmohan National School for Friday. Getting work experience was a challenge but I know it'll be worthwhile. It was a great learning experience for the future."

Rachel

"I'm going to the D.S.P.C.A. for my first week and working with all the animals who need new homes or need to be nursed back to health, i'm really looking forward to it."

Ciara B

"I'm going to Scoil Mochua from Monday to Thursday as they have a day off on Friday so i'm going to a playschool in Maynooth for the day. I'm hoping to be a teacher in the future so this experience will let me see what it's like as a job and will hopefully give me motivation to study hard and get the points needed for teaching college (about 479 at the moment :S) No pressure :L"

Aoife O B

"I'm going to Carton House Hotel in Maynooth for the week. I start at 9 and finish at 4 so its the same as a school day which is not too bad!! I'l be doing something different every day, like working in a different section of the hotel everyday! When I applied for my work experience, I had to do an interview which I was really nervous for but it wasnt that bad! I'm really looking forward to it :)"

Orlaigh
"Our first internship for work experience is from the 8th-12th of November. Next week, we are having a preparation seminar during school to prepare us for our work experience. I am doing my work experience in Morgan Model Management, located in town, Herbert Place. It is management for models, photographers, stylists, hair and make-up artists and production. They also provide a full production service for photo shoots and fashion shows. I can't wait!"

Good luck to all TY's on work experience.
Mrs L :)

My first podcast

Just testing......Click the link below for my first podcast!

My first podcast

Blog Action Day 2010

I took this extract from the Blog Action Day email that was sent to St Wolstans TY......

"From river conservation to the water crisis in Africa, people couldn't stop talking about water on Blog Action Day. The final count for Blog Action Day stands at over 5,600 bloggers from 143 countries, reaching more than 40 million readers. It was a remarkable display of support for an issue that gets woefully little coverage in the mainstream media. "

By being a part of Blog Action Day 2010, TY helped focus the world's attention of the vital issue of water rights and water access. Well done to the 6 Transition Year’s who posted something on water.

Mrs L :)

Rugby in PE

Niamh C tells us about playing rugby in PE this year.....

"For P.E on Wednesdays we've been doing tag rugby with some of the coaches from the IRFU. At first I was kind of like ewww effort but it's actually pretty fun. We're just learning how to pass properly and the basic rules of the game at the moment but in a few weeks we're going to be playing mini matches. It's harder than it looks but when everyone tries and gets stuck into the game it makes it so much more fun. There are a few girls who are really good at it, myself definitely not included, so there might even be a rugby team in St.Wolstans this year..."

Niamh xo

Colour Me Beautiful

Eimear from class Amina writes about her Colour Me Beautiful workshop this week………

“Yesterday, we had a workshop with two women from Colour Me Beautiful. It was really good. We were divided into groups depending on our hair, eye and skin colouring. There was a model from each category selected to go to the top of the room where the women put collars of different colours on them. It was really obvious that some colours are not meant for certain skin tones.
I was told I am a "soft". I would never have thought of wearing some of the colours they suggested, and it was good to find out what didn't suit me. I won't be throwing out my whole wardrobe or anything, but it's good to know for when I'm buying new clothes :D”

And Laura K of Emnet says of her workshop……
“The two TY classes were introduced to two ladies from a programme called Colour Me Beautiful. (They reminded me of Trinny and Susanna).
At the start they told us what skin type we were, deep, clear, soft, light and more. Each of these groups were shown what colours were suited to them, I found this very useful :)

Emma from my group (soft) went up and the colours that suited her were very obvious, they made her skin light up and the colours that didn’t just looked weird.

We also did a style personality survey, to show us how we shop and what we like to buy, I got a mixed result which wasn't very good :S haha, Finally they went through body shapes such as pear (bigger on bottom), and hour glass (equal on top and bottom but curvy). They told us what type clothes would suit these figures too :)
Overall I found this really good.”

Les Projets Francais!

Ailbhe was blogging over the weekend about her favourite subject, French....

"French is one of my favourite subjects and I love doing the projects in French. Our first project was to do with French artists and I was paired up with Hayley who wanted to do the artist Edgar Degas and was she right to pick him or what because his paintings are so amazing and just so pretty!! I love impressionists and Degas is an impressionist. I loved doing this project because it was truly interesting to learn about the life of Edgar Degas. We had to do it as a PowerPoint presentation in front of our class and it was definitely nerve wrecking because we had to have the accent and all the information right! We presented the PowerPoint to the class and it went extremely well. I was very happy with it so in the end it all turned out for the better. Now we are waiting for the result so hopefully it will be good!

So after we finished this project we were immediately told about another PowerPoint presentation that we have to do and this project is all about French designers and guess who I got.........Coco Chanel .....practically one of the best and most influential designers. I was so so so happy when I found out that I was doing Coco Chanel! She is such an amazing designer and I absolutely love her fashion as do most people. We are in the middle of doing this project and it is turning out brilliantly so hopefully the class will enjoy the presentation as much as I enjoy doing it. I will keep you posted on how it goes....."

Blog Action posts

I'm delighted to say that 6 TY's remembered to write a post about Water for the Blog Action Day yesterday.  Well done Stephanie, Siobhan, Aisling, Leah, Bebhinn, and Michelle :)

Here are the links to their posts:

Stephanie, Siobhan, Aisling, Leah, Bebhinn, and Michelle

Mmmmm, I wonder what happened to the other 52 TY's?????

Here is a snapshot showing that we took part in the Blog Action Day website. (click on the image to enlarge it)








Of the 5,565 bloggers writing about water yesterday there were only 17 from Ireland ....and we were among them! Well done girls.

Aisling (class Emnet) posted this for Blog Action Day. It's called Water!!!

Water, omg what would we do without it?? It’s a well-known fact that without water, you'll die in three days. Water keeps us alive, but it can also be the death of us. Only 2.5% of water is fresh, the rest is saltwater, and in 60% of European cities with over 100,000 people living there, the water is being used up far quicker than it can be replenished.
Every single person needs between 20 and 50 litres of water a day to ensure their basic needs are being met, but all around the world people are being denied that. One in six people worldwide don’t have access to fresh water.
Please, please, please, help to conserve water and next time you flush the toilet, have a shower or turn on the tap, think of all those people who cannot do this!!
*for more water statistics click here


Well done Aisling, very thought provoking. See Aisling's TY blog here.
Mrs L

Bebhinn's Blog Action Day post about Water

Below is Bebhinn's post for the Blog Action Day challenge. It's called Water is very very cool ;)

"Water has a taste that you can't describe.
I love it.
My mam used to say that water is the only drink that will quench your thirst, Yeooow!
Water is see through & Liquidie ;))
I love an 'oul glass now and again (7 times a day)!"


We'll make a poet of you yet Bebhinn!! Well done:) See Bebhinn's TY blog here.
Mrs L

Taking part in Blog Action Day - Water

Here are some facts from the Self Help Africa booklet on Water.


The Bigger Picture:
The amount of water in the world has not changed but due to pollution the quantity available has reduced by 30% since 1970.

In the meantime the numbers using the worlds water has increased dramatically. In the year 2000 the figure passed 6 billion – by the year 2050 the projected figure is 9 billion.

Today, more than 10 conflicts in the world are linked to water in Turkey, India, Egypt, Israel and other countries.

In the Antarctic an ice shelf (the size of Luxembourg) called the Larsen B came adrift from the mainland. It had been there for the last 12,000 years and it disintergrated over a period of 35 days.

If ice caps continue to melt at their present rate then within 10 years 17% of the land of Bangladesh will be under water, displacing 27 million people and the area of land available to produce food to feed a growing population will be further under threat.

In the developed industrialised countries of the world 60-80% of the water is used in industry.
In developing countries only 10% is used in industry.

1,000 litres of water are used in the making of 1 car.
9 litres of water are used in the making of 1 bar of chocolate.

Within 10 years 1 billion people could be given access to clean, safe water for less than the world now spends on weapons in 90 hours.

So these facts may have given you something to think about.....
How important is water to us?
How well do we use it?
How can we protect it?

Blog Action Day - 15th October 2010

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

Get to know class Emnet

Let us introduce ourselves..........

Teenage Beauty....At what cost??

Rachel tells us something about her Young Scientist project.......

"As part of our TY Science curriculum we have to enter the BT Young Scientist Competition. We were all split into groups at the beginning of the year and given some time to decide what we wanted to do for our project. I was teamed with Hayley and so far things are going great, although we have all been warned that most groups disagree at some point!!!

We have decided to base our project on how the beauty products we use today affect our bodies both now and in the long run. We have made a survey asking students of all ages about their beauty regime, what products they use etc.

We are also going to create our own moisturiser or other beauty product that people can use as an alternative to the retailed product. This product will be 100% organic and will be made in accordance to the answers we get from the surveys.

I'm really looking forward to working on this project and can't wait until we start to experiment and make our own product. I'll keep you updated as we progress with our project. Fingers crossed we might actually get through to the competition!

xoxo Rachel "

That sounds very interesting Rachel. Good luck with the research.
Mrs L

Blog Action Day....a challenge for TY's

Here's a challenge for all the TY bloggers.

Make a post on October 15th on the topic of WATER. Watch below to find out more or visit the Blog Action Day site for more information.

I'll check your blogs over the weekend to see if you posted on Friday 15th :)


Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Drama workshops...provided by our own students!

Aoife tells us about the recent drama workshop that Ms Guilfoyle and 5 of our own TY's did with class Emnet in their English drama class.....

On Thursday the 7th of November class Emnet had a workshop with the 5 students who went to a Drama workshop on the Tuesday at Holy Faith Convent, Glasnevin. (while they were gone.. We were getting the Cervical Vaccination done =[ ).

It was really funny with the different excerises. We did a trust excerise, eg everyone in a circle and really close together with our right shoulder facing into the centre, then we all leaned back into a sitting position and we all leaned on each other. This gave us trust, if one fell down the rest followed :P..

All this was to help us with the drama we are doing in English. Our class is creating a drama (which we are going to enter into a competition :D ). One group is doing a drama about a car crash while the other group is doing one based on an abuse victim.

We are having people in from Accord next week to help us with relationships and we hope that after the mid-term the Headspace drama group will come into us to help us with our drama :)..
Well I'm off..
Tyl :D
Aoife..x

See some photos of  the workshop from 'the other Aoife's' blog here :)

Mini Company websites

A few Mini Companies have set up their own blogs / websites this year so I have created a page on this blog so they can showcase their products. The Mini Company page will link to each Mini Company website.

I'm delighted they are bringing this new aspect of promoting their company into their enterprises. Afterall, doesn't every business today have a website? If they don't, they are passing up an opportunity to reach their potential customers!
Enjoy
Mrs L

Formula 1 In Schools

Stephanie blogged over the weekend about F1 .....

F1 in schools is a competition where students in each technology class have to get themselves into groups and we have to manufacture compressed air-powered racing cars.
Student teams will compete against each other in a National Championship to determine the best-engineered and fastest car in Ireland.
My team consists of 6 people, Me, Lauren, Grace, Chloe, Aoife and Niamh. We were all given specific tasks to do such as manufacturing engineer. Our team name is Turbo Speed.
Here is a link to the F1 in Schools site.

Good luck to Team Turbo Speed!
Mrs L

A Village in Africa blog

Follow journalist Ciara Kenny as she spends a month in Africa for Self Help Africa and updates her blog each day.

TY's might find this useful for Religion or their Geography project. I know a few TY's were planning on volunteering while on their virtual round the world trip!

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/avillageinafrica/

Some thoughts on the Millennium Development Goals

As we stand idly by
How can we watch them cry
while their water goes dry
and ours flows by.

Do we care why
HIV AIDS and other diseases
we're warm at home while the other half freezes.

by: Ciara Laura Grace Aoife

How can we give the little girl
the cold shoulder
when aids and hunger have taken
away those who should hold her.

Why do we ignore those sick
and dying
when we have the equipment
to keep them living.

By: Aoife b Rachel Rachel l Elaine Jessica


If we stand idly by
and watch as those kids die
One chance, one goal to make it right
so much to do, so little time.

We must use our time well
to help them build a wishing well
to lead them in the right direction
to help them find their way.

By: Katie Fiona Laura Zoe


How can we complain, when it's all our fault
How can they be blamed, when they have done no wrong.
It's us who cut the trees, who burnt the coal,
It was not them who decided to leave a big hole

How can we take no action
It will not give us any satisfaction
to stand and watch
as humanity hurts.

By: Sarah Niamh Rosette Sandra

Geography world trip

Michelle posted an update on her Geography project this week....

"At the start of the year, we were assigned a Geography project. I had to pick two countries from the first world to present my project on. I chose Spain!! As I researched this country I found out that there was more to it then the gorgeous weather and golden beaches. I found out that in Castrillo de Murcia they hold a Baby Jumping Festival!! That's right, and it is a real festival!!!

Every year newborn babies are dressed in swaddling clothes and put on a mattress while grown men dressed in a devils outfit jumps over them. The idea is a scary one for all the babies parents concerned but many people flock to the event to watch this exhilarating event. The idea of the festival is that when the men (dressed as devils) jump over the babies they rid them of any wrong doings that they may do in their future life! Heres a picture ->"

Michelle

Fasinating stuff Michelle!

Mrs L

Home Economic projects

Stephanie S posted this on her blog today....

"In Home-Ec, we were assigned a project. The right side of the the room had to research John Rocha and the left had to research Louise Kennedy. Both of these are fashion designers, situated in Ireland.


Here is the link to John Rochas Site, click here, and Louise Kennedy here."

Steph S

These sound like very interesting projects.
Mrs L

Mini Company

Siobhan posted this on her blog today......

"On Saturday our mini company group all gathered together to work on our mini company. We had a very productive day as we made a lot of progress on our mini company. We sent e-mails to people that we would like to advertise with us, we designed a website, we made a facebook account and we also designed business cards and headed paper for our company. While the purpose of the day was to work on our mini company project we also had a lot of fun with each other and it all felt very businesslike with all six of us sitting around a table with laptops. We all felt like we were in the boardroom on the Apprentice. :)


On Monday we had a visit from the Oral O Carroll from the County Kildare Enterprise Board. She came to our school to talk to each group individually about our mini company project. This was great because she was really helpful and gave us lots of good advice and helpful hints and tips on how we could make our mini company better. Our mini company is starting to take shape as we begin to get the money from our advertisers and sponsors so that we will be able to afford to print the magazine. Mini company is great fun but it is also a lot of hard work too.

Lots of work still to be done but enjoying it all. "

Siobhán :)

Looks like Siobhan and her group are working hard on the magazine. Good luck to Green Hero!

Here is the link to Green Hero Facebook page. Why not check them out and 'like' them?

Digi-I-Music

Watch the video from the Student Enterprise National Finals last year where Digi-I-Music won the national award of Young Entrepreneurs 2010.

Student Enterprise Awards

Blogging with videos

I'm posting this video of TY 2009/2010 at Lollipop Day in Dublin February 2010, just to show how video can be posted to a blog. Hopefully TY 2010/2011 will post some videos to their blogs this coming year. Maybe they will post videos of some of the activiyies they take part in, or post some of their class presentations, or even post videos relating to the subjects or projects they are doing this year.

Watch out for our conga line at :22secs! Enjoy

Mrs L

TY blogs

This year I hope TY will blog in place of their Folder of Excellence so I have asked them to blog using Blogger ( www.blogger.com) Blogging can be a good, often reflective, habit to get into. Hopefully the blogs will develop into websites as we add pages to each blog as the year progresses.

I have put up a page of links to class Amina's blogs here and class Emnet here. Check out what they are doing in TY this year.

(The link will open in a new window and each blog will do the same.)

Mrs L

Carlingford photos

See the latest photos from Carlingford on the St Wolstans website here.

Looks like TY had fun!
Mrs L

First month of TY finished!

Grace posted this on her TY blog and I've copied it here. She seems to be enjoying her TY experience.
Mrs L

First month of TY nearly finished; & so far it has been really fun, I’ve laughed so much throughout it, :)

On Monday the 20th of September we all went to Naas to the Moat theatre and discussed setting up our businesses in Mini Company, my group has a few good ideas for it but nothing is set yet.

In Science we are still questioning our one-page proposal for the Young Scientist competition. It’s hard work.

All last week was Friendship week and in Religion we had to make an outline of our hand and pass it around the room so everyone could write a positive comment on you, I got back a lot of nice things, thankfully, haha. Also on Friday we had our annual Fun Run. Transition Year’s colour was yellow and we were all wearing yellow t-shirts. We made up a dance, and we won!
Even though it’s Transition Year, it’s still very tiring.
Grace D

Mini company workshop

Ruth posted this on her TY blog.


Last Monday the whole year went to a mini company workshop in the Moat Theatre Naas. There were five other schools there. The point of this workshop was to learn about brain-storming, and creating a company. The lady also taught us about the different jobs that a business must have, and the roles of those jobs. She told us about planning the business and she told us information that would be useful later in the competition.

We got a small break at 10:45 for fifteen minutes. After the break we watched some videos about how to brain-storm and what the competition will be like. Then we were told to come up with fifty ideas in our groups. A group from each school had to go to the top and tell the audience their ideas.

Overall the workshop was a huge sucess, we learnt alot and it got us thinking serionsly about our own idea. We arrived back at the school for lunch time.
Ruth

Peter Mc Verry Trust

On Saturday the 25th of September, 15 Transition Years students including myself, headed off to the local Tescos to raise money for the brillaint Peter Mc Verry Trust who take in those who are homeless and those on drugs and help get them clean from drugs.

Overall we had a great day and made LOADS of money for this worth while trust. We hope to do more fundraising for them in the future.
Steph S :)

Thanks to all the TY's who volunteered their time on Saturday. Bagpacking can be quite tiring. Well done everyone. Thanks to Karen and Stephanie for organising the day.

Find out more about the Peter Mc Verry Trust here.
Mrs L

Fun Walk... :)

Siobhan has posted the following on her blog.....

On Friday last we had our annual fun walk to end friendship week. This was a great day despite being freezing cold. As TY’s we were the colour yellow and we all wore yellow t-shirts .this year for the fun walk each class in each year had to make a dance to show to the judges before we left for the walk. Every class had to pick a song that had something to do with the theme of friendship. Our class Amina pick the song “Reach for the Stars” by S club 7. We used our PE classes to make a dance to show to the judges in the hopes that we could win between the two classes in TY.
Our tutor Ms O C helped us a huge amount and put a lot of time and effort into our dance with use. She also let use include her in our dance which turned out to be a huge success... Ms O C also spent a lot of time and effort to make herself a star costume to wear when we were doing our dance. :)
When we had finished doing our dance for the judges all the TY's headed off to where we would be directing the traffic and making sure that all the students got across the road safely. There were four students to each cross road along with a teacher. It was a great day even though that being place at one of the last cross roads meant that we had to sit in the cold and wait for everybody to be on the way back before we could go back to the school with all the other students.
Everybody enjoyed themselves during the fun walk and we all hope that maybe next year we will be able to dress up for the fun walk.
Siobhán. :)

Mini Company and Fun Walk

This week we went to a mini compant workshop in NAAS . It was really interesting and there was a lot of other schools there. We got lots of ideas from the workshop so it was really helpful.
It's friendship week in our school this week and the fun walk is on Friday. TY dress in yellow and class Amina are doing a dance to S Club 7 Reach for the Stars, with our tutor Ms O C.

Next week I am giving some of the girls in my class a guitar lesson which I am excited about.
Thats all for now..ttyl x
Posted by RóisínG

JC Results

Wednesday 15th September 2010 - D-day. The day we had all been waiting for, yet dreading at the same time. All was good until we got called down to the hall, now there was definitely no going back. We were put into our old classe groups which was weird. We lined up in alphabetical order waiting to be handed our envelopes. I got mine and I was shaking like a leaf. I physically couldn't open them. So Ali opened mine, I opened hers and we told each other what we got, good idea wah? :) I was delighted with my results, I got the mark I wanted in Maths :) so we all ran outside, called our parents and congratulated each other. Dare I mention there were a few tears ; tears of happiness though :D

That night we all headed out to Time http://www.timevenue.com/ It was amazing. Everyone looked gorgeous and the music was great. I didn't get asleep 'til half 12 and we had school the next day! I got up at half 7 anyway and dragged myself into school. :/
Overall, it was good. A big anti-climax though after all that build up. Now its all over. Aurevoir,
Orlaigh xox

Latest news from Carlingford

Ms O Callaghan sent me a text this morning to say that everyone seemed to have a good day yesterday and she expected a few very tired students at breakfast this morning!
The weather has picked up in Celbridge and I hope it does the same in Carlingford.

TY's return tonight at 7pm and are in school tomorrow for their Junior Cert results. Good luck to them all :)
Mrs L

Carlingford bonding trip

Good luck to classes Amina and Emnet on their TY bonding trip to Carlingford Adventure Centre, Co Louth. I just looked up the weather forecast and guess what?.... rain on Monday, rain on Monday night, rain on Tuesday morning, rain on Tuesday night :( Oh dear.

Hopefully the girls will be having so much fun they won't notice the rain!

Check out the Adventure Centre website here.

Mrs L

Amina's Social Development day

Today was Amina's social development day as a class and we were encouraged to let down our barriers and learn more about ourselves and those around us! Other aims of the day were to learn what part we play in a team, how to plan and focus on goals and achieve them and best of all how to boost our confidence! It was great fun and really did do all those things!

I personally have a choleric or as our our 'teacher' put it I'm a red, hot, director with a hint of blue, cool, logical cat! I think this was cool because I could never really put a...label so too speak, on my personality but now I can!! I can now also understand other's personalities and how to approach them as we all like to be treated differently!

Overall today was a good day and I really enjoyed myself and learned so much!
Talk Soon,
Roisin. P.

First week 2010/2011

TY's started back to school on Tuesday this week. There have been no problems so far. No-one wanted to change class to be with their friends. No-one has said they are not going on the bonding trip to Carlingford Adventure Centre. Projects have been discussed, groups formed and work has begun.

Most importantly, teachers have told me that both classes are lovely:)

Here's hoping everyone, that's students and teachers, has a good year.
Mrs L

Blogging in TY

Today TY class Amina set up some blogs of their own. Blogger.com is blocked on the school network so until it is unblocked for us we used Quota time to create accounts. Quota time allows limited access to sites ans is allocated on a daily allowance. I think we used todays amount for the whole school in one class!!! Oops:)

TY's will be blogging this year instead of creating a Journal of Excellence. It is something new in TY so hopefully it will be a success.
Mrs L

Millennium Development Goals

Today in RE we started by looking at the MDG's. Watch this video for more information.

A new year

TY 20010/2011 has begun and I want to wish everyone a successful year.

TY's have a day of Personal Development with Mr Austin Dunne to look forward to next week and then on 13th & 14th September they are off to Carlingford Adventure Centre. Watch this space for photographs!

Mrs L :)

Hip- Hop for TY Night

For our TY night, we wanted to do something special, and we decided that a group dance would be perfect. We started to do some moves in our PE classes with Ms. O’Callaghan, but none of us are choreographers, and nothing that we did looked particularly good. We knew we needed help, so Mr. Lawlor organised for a dance instructor, from the dance school “Just Dance”, to come in and teach us. We had our first class with Sharon in early April, the first of three. The warm ups were really fun, and the stretches were pretty intense. We got straight into a dance, which was quite challenging at first, some of us were afraid it would be too hard. But she said we were all well capable so we trusted her because she was the expert. We learned to scuff, spin, pose and do lifts as we did the dance. Every class we worked on what we had, and Sharon would add on a little more. By week three we loved what we had, and Sharon said she would come in one last time to make sure we all had it exactly right. We perfected our dance, as well as the tricky finishing stunts. Now all that’s left is the final show! I can’t wait.

Alex- Desta

Update

The Dance on the night went brilliant. There were some little messes up, but no major catastrophes. We all enjoyed ourselves from the minute we went out, and I think the parents did too. The music was great, and we all looked like real dancers with our matching outfits; black bottoms, white shoes and red or blue paint splattered tops. A huge thanks to Sharon again, for choreographing both dances, and to Mr. Lawlor for organising it.

French trip

Today TY french classes took a trip into Dublin to see a french film. We walked to IFC in Temple Bar as that was where we were to see the film. The film was subtitled so it we didn't get too lost in the language!
Then after the film we walked through Trinity College and were brought to a French Caffé in the French Association Dublin. We ate there and then got to look around town for a while.
It was a really good day and we learned loads. The movie was great and the food even better!
It was a way better then I expected.

Now the year is getting busy! Preparing for TY night (which is on the night of my birthday yay =]). I am working on costumes and the Home Economics display along with helping out the Bank display and our History play, so we all have loads to do. But I'm certain it will be a good night :)
~Meg x

Key-Z P- Z at The Entrepreneur Show

I just got this fabulously long report from Caroline about Key-z P-z at the Entrepreneur Show in the RDS. Enjoy:).......

Key-Z P-Z, has really been having a great time lately with different competitions and finals going on every second week! The competitions are great, but The Entrepreneur Show really was the most incredible mini-company experience of all. The Entrepreneur Show is an annual event in the RDS Simmonscourt:

“The show will present in excess of 80 inspirational speakers and industry experts, sharing their business knowledge in the form of inspirational talks and panel discussions, with the purpose of inspiring and exploring new and better ways of doing business.
There will also be an array of exhibitors presenting their products, services and new business opportunities to help you in your business development.
This show will appeal to anyone in business or thinking of starting a new one, as this is a unique opportunity to avail of so much inspiration and knowledge, all under one roof.” The Entrepreneur Show Mission 2010.

As Managing Director of the mini-company, I sent a detailed email to the organiser of the event on Friday 16th April enquiring about the price of a stand there. It was due to take place the next weekend, so we weren’t really very optimistic about getting a stand, and we also thought it was probably going to cost a few thousand euros but we gave it a shot anyway.

The email we got back on Monday morning was more than we could ever have asked for! Darren O ‘ Toole, the organiser of the event, had offered us a complimentary stand for two days and a chance to present to the Dragon’s Den live on stage!

After accepting Darren’s offer with delight, he sent us another email with dates, times, the position of our stall and other information that we would need for our pitch to the Dragons, confirming that this wasn’t a dream!

For the next week we did nothing but focus on the Entrepreneur Show and get everything organised! Everyday we had long meetings at my house because we had so much to organise from finances, forecasts, packaging, the poster, advertising, the pitch to the Dragons, the stall and much more!

Creative Signs’ agreed to sponsor us the poster for only €50 and 200 free professionally printed leaflets.

Friday morning when we arrived at the RDS and signed in, we went to set up the stand and then had a look around. We found the auditorium we would be presenting on and we panicked. It was HUGE, and they already had the chairs set up on stage for the Dragons too. There were only 3 of us – myself, Pamela and Sinéad Keogh that were pitching on stage so we spent the rest of the morning learning our pitch by heart trying to keep the nerves away!

The pitch went amazing and the Dragon’s praised us on our enthusiasm, innovation, confidence and ability in pitching. This all seemed a bit strange to us because we were still shaking!

After we got off stage, we got talking to Mr. Gavin Duffy, and he gave us his personal contact details because he offered to help us mass produce the Key-Z P-Z’s, and distribute them across the country!

We also got talking to the other Dragons who were all extremely positive and supportive, and not only this but when we went back to the stand, it was covered in business cards from people wanting to help us out!


I really could write for hours about this, but I’ll finish off and say that it was an amazing experience for all of us, and we still can’t believe it!

Everyone from Key-Z P-Z wants to say a huge thanks to Darren O’ Toole, Creative Signs, PLS Locksmiths and of course Ms. Leonard, Ms. Smith and Ms. Barry who really supported us and gave us permission to attend this event during school hours.

Caroline Corr (:

Build A Bank National Finals

29th April was a day Savvy Savers bank team have been waiting on for the last few months. It was the big competition and the end of the line. The National Finals!
We arrived in Croke Park at 10am with our posters and our Savvy Savers high visibility jackets and hard hats, and ready to sell our bank but when we got up to the conference area it was way better than we had expected!

Along the corridor there were tables with lovely foods like croissants and fruit and juice. Then we were brought up to the chillout zone. There were huge games of Operation and Jenga, Chess and Connect Four. There was air hockey and table tennis and cushions were all over the floor. It was really cool!


After an hour or so of "chilling" and after every team had arrived we made our way to the competition area where we were given 45 minutes to set up our table and get prepared for the judging. The other banks were amazing and the standard was unbelievably high!
When the judges came around and asked us questions we thought we did good and we were happy! Happy that the hard bit of the day was over aswell! Then the fun really began!

First we were brought on a tour of Croke Park for about an hour. Then we came back and played more games for a bit and then we were brought into the dinning room...... A-MA-ZING!!!!
The whole room was lit up in blue and purple and red lights, there was a big stage up the top and we all had our own table! Aidan Power from RTE was presenting the show. We got a 3 course meal. We had the best vegetable soup EVER for starter, chicken with mushroom sauce for main and brownies with cream for desert. The food was only gorgeous!!!!! Then the day continued with entertainment from a group of drummers and we were presented with certificates!

Then it was the big time...the time to announce the winners!
We were at table one!..The group who came 3rd were at table 3...the group who came 2nd were at table 2, then we were getting excited and they called out "The Winner is......St.......Marys"… the winner was at table 11.
We weren’t disappointed that we didn’t win. Obviously we would have loved to but the bank that won were so good and they deserved it. We were just so happy to have even gotten that far and to have had such an amazing day!
We would like to thank AIB, Ms.McMahon and the rest of school community for all their support over the last few months.
So here’s a big thanks from Savvy Savers.

Meg
xoxoxo

Good luck Savvy Savers

Good luck goes out to Savvy Savers who today represent St Wolstan's and Leinster (and further afield I think) at the National AIB Build a Bank competition in Croke Park.

Waiting on news.......

Ian Daly Swim a Mile Challenge

Ellie says...
Last week, was our first formal introduction to the "Ian Daly Swim A Mile" when the founder of the event and the father of Ian - Brian Daly came in to school to talk to us about taking part and explain to us where our money will go and how it will help.
This talk was very moving, and I think everyone found it quite emotional. It gave us a great insight into how we are helping by taking part in the swim, and great motivation to do the best we can and raise as much money as we can also.


26/4/10
We all left the school after registration and hopped on the bus. We were at the National Aquatic Centre, Blanchardstown, in no time and everyone got ready to go swimming. We had an hour in the pool to beat last years TY's who swam 25 miles.. and guess what? we did :) We managed to get 27 miles altogether with around 13 of us swimming a mile by ourselves.

It took me 45 minutes to swim the mile but I was so happy once it was done! Everyone took part in some way, like some girls were counting the rounds and taking pictures while the others swam.

After the staff of the NAC opened the slides so we had all that to ourselves. After that, we all went to Blanchardstown shopping centre, got some food, did a bit of looking around and made our way back to school.


Overall it was a brilliant day and a great experiance. Well done everyone, it was for such a good cause :) Thank you to Mr Lawlor for organising it and Ms O Callaghan for coming with us.

Eileen

Thanks Ellie and Eileen, photos to follow I hope?
Mrs L

Class Desta's Retreat

On Thursday 22nd of April class Desta went on their retreat to Glendalough with Sr.Susan. We got the bus from school and it took us an hour to get there. When we got there we met our guide Fr. Micheal and started our retreat. We walked around a sort of maze on the ground and then afterwards Sr.Susan told us that about 500 TYs had walked it before us which I thought was pretty cool.

After this we saw St. Kevins well and went up to see the foundations of his house. Which was up a very steep and tiring hill I might add :) Then it was off to lunch and we had a great time in the lovely sunshine with Katie and Pamela doing cartwheels on the grass :)

After lunch we went to see Mary's church and then went to see St. Kevin's cross. We got to make a wish at the cross and give it a big hug. The day was great and really peaceful we were also blessed with a really sunny day. Thanks to Sr. Susan and Fr. Micheal for the day.

I was relaxed and felt very peaceful after it :)

Emma
xxx

Ellie says of her retreat;
"Our retreat was very much about having time to reflect on our thoughts. We were given time to sit above the water alone, to think and be quiet. Everyone found this time particularly enjoyable and relaxing. Overall the day was good, we had good weather and even more time to bond with eachother and have a fun day out.

The Girls taking part in the Gaisce hike in May, will find themselves back in Glendalough again very soon, for the "Adventure Activity" Part of the award."

Thanks Emma and Ellie

Ian Daly Swim a Mile

TY are off on Monday next to swim their miles for the Ian Daly Swim a Mile with a Smile campaign.

Laura and Brian Daly were recently interviewed on The Morning Show on TV3 about their son Ian and about setting up the annual Swim a Mile event.

Watch the interview here. Laura and Brian are on the first 15 minutes of the programme.

Good luck TY's, remember last year TY's swam 25 miles!! Can you beat that?

Mrs L

Eileen's update

Eileen tells me that this week both TY classes had their retreat at Glendalough.
They are also doing fencing and rugby at the moment, which Eileen really enjoyed. They are doing the Swim a Mile on Monday 26th April aswell.... so that should be a good day out. Eileen also says "Oh and a few of us out of class Desta are doing T.Y hoodies as part of mini company for everyone and they're being presented to us on T.Y night. Thats it really.."

Thanks Eileen for the update, maybe someone will snd me a report about your retreat?

Find more information on the Ian Daly Swim a Mile with a Smile here.

Eileen Maher and Mrs L

Hip Hop

Dance Classes
All the TY's have been given the opportunity to take part in Hip-hop dance classes as part of our TY programme. So far both classes have had our first day of dance and enjoyed it so much. Our Dance teacher Sharon is so much fun and really kind and helpful. Everyone is given the chance to take part and do the best they can. During class, we started to learn steps to a basic hip hop style dance. Everyone has such a laugh and the energy in the class is so upbeat and fun. At the end of our year we hope to able to perform a dance for TY night and so having classes is a great way to get us practiced and ready.
Ellie xox

Fencing in TY

Fencing classes
Last Tuesday and Wednesday the 13th and 14th of April Both TY classes Selam and Desta started Fencing. We have taken part in two classes each so far and both classes are really enjoying it a lot. We have learned some of the basic skills and techniques needed to have a fencing match. We learned things like the correct stance, how to move forward and backward and how to hit and block an opponent.
Today in Selams second class, we had Fencing matches with teams of 6 people competing against each other- the friendly rivalry between all of us was so much fun and everyone enjoyed it.
Fencing is a new skill to almost everyone in TY and we have all enjoyed learning so far, it’s been a great way to do something different other than class time and we look forward to are next class :)

Ellie xx

Leaders On Our Level

On March 9th, our year group went to Croke park along with other TY’s from different schools. We were given a talk from various people who told us about their experiences with starting businesses and working in the business world. At the end of each talk we were free to ask questions. Everyone who did ask questions were given prizes. The interesting questions were given phones and concert tickets.

Caroline K :]

Lá Glas

On Tuesday the 16th of March, each year dressed in green according to the theme code for Lá Glas. TY's theme was green food and our year was represented well at the parade and chéili at lunch time.

Susan Mc Cormack, Hannah Walsh, Eimear Mc Carthy, Emma Murphy, Meg Kelly and Louise Bailey-Smith all paraded around the courtyard dressed as different green foods such as Green Giant Sweet Corn, Black Eyed Pea, Apples etc. and they each recieved an easter egg for participating.

After the parading we then had a giant chéili with people from all years joining in and dancing around the courtyard to Irish songs and tunes such as the Dreolin. It really got us all in the spirit of St. Patricks day and all TYs really enjoyed the day XD.

Paula :]

Talk From The Irish Heart Foundation

Last Week, all the TY's came together in the Demo room to get an information and an awareness talk from a representative from The Irish Heart Foundation. It was a very educational forty minutes, during which we were informed about the work of the organisation and told good tips to keep our hearts healthy. We also found out about different heart problems and ways to help them. It was very interesting to learn all this especially after we all got to take part in the CPR programme, which was also liked to The Irish Heart Foundation.

It was very interesting and shocking to find out that approximately 10,000 people die from coronary heart diseases and stroke each year and that 36% of all deaths in Ireland are related to circulatory diseases.

Ellie :) x

'Get Up And Go Competition'

On the 15th of March, Transition Years went off to a mini company 'Get Up and Go Competition'. It was a great day with rewards for everyone. Each group was interviewed for different category's; Finance, Marketing, Presentation and the different aspects of the Business Report. Of each group two people were at the stall at any time. We were all given free lunch by the sponsors ESB.
Science Attack received a prize for Most Innovative and Key -Z P -Z received a prize for Marketing and Presentation.
KEY-Z-P-Z also got through to the national finals!
We all had a fantastic time so a big Thank You to Mrs. McMahon and Mrs. Plunkett for accompanying us on the trip. :)

Christine D

Team Bladhm successful in F1 competition

Team Bladhm successfully went through to the National F1 for Schools competition today.

Team Swift put up a great show as well but unfortunately didn't make it. Well done to both teams.

Team Bladhm will be gearing up for the National final on 29th April at Griffith College Dublin.

Big shout out to Mr Guinan for all his help. First year in this competition and through to finals, wohoo!

Check out the competition at http://www.f1inschools.ie/public/index.html

Hannah's work experience

For my work experience I went to Walsh's Pharmacy in Celbridge. My initial expectations of the week weren't very high as it is your typical chemist, but after five days of working there I take it all back. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I learned about medicine, medical schemes, what tablets do what and how to give prescriptions. I was completely thrown into the full swing of the business. Distributing prescriptions, taking stock, invoices and organising window displays. What made it even better was that the staff I worked with were extremely welcoming and hospitable to my presence, which is always a huge benefit when you're new to a work place. They were a tightly knit team and the business runs very well, I was very privileged to be part of this team.

As always work experience is a great opportunity to come out of your comfort zone and expand your horizons!

Hannah

Nearing The End Of The Book Project

Since the end of last October, some TY students have been involved with the book project to produce the book "The Optimism Of Youth". This book aims to promote the second millennium development goal- Worldwide Primary Education For all.
The people who got involved have been working constantly with Mrs Leahy, Mrs Kavanagh-Bracken and a small number of fifth year students to gather contributions for the book from people of all walks of life.
Today we had one of our final meetings as the book is being wrapped up this week and sent to the editor and graphic designer for their work to start on publishing it. It has been an exciting project to work on and something I think everyone will be proud they got involved with.
We will keep you posted on the very final stages and of course the final product. Check out also the book's blog (Towards 2015 blog) for more updates, information and a taste of what is to come.

Ellie :)
xox

Leaders on Our Level

On the 9th of March our Transition Year students were invited to 'Leaders on our Level' which is run by TY students in Terenure College. It is a talk given by well known entrepreneurs and people who have overcome great challenges in their lives.

Overall, there were 7 speakers. They were from businesses such as Microsoft, R’evolutionary and Telecom. There was a lady there who got the taste for business in Transition Year and has become very successful. Mark Pollock was there also and gave a very inspirational talk. He lost his sight 12 years ago, and has since taken part in the Gobi March, and has taken on a 43 day trek in Antarctica to the South Pole.

Father Peter Mc Verry talked to us also and told us about the people he works with and their lives. The final speakers were from Northern Ireland and told us about their lives as part of the PSNI police force and the UVF.

Some people who asked questions were given prizes, such as phones and concert tickets. At the breaks there were drinks provided and chocolate. It was a great day out, and the Terenure students did a great job organising it all.

Ali


Ellie says " The Leaders On our level day out was so good! Incredibly inspirational and my favourite speaker of all was Mark Pollock - his story was amazing and so inspiring."

Hannah emailed me and I think that she has a very interesting point here...."We had many famous entrepreneurs with us, for example, Denis o'brien founder of o2, a blind polar and desert marathon runner and M.D of Microsoft Ireland and Northern Ireland. They each gave there views on how to achieve success and how the get the most out of your opportunities. Each speaker had different ways of developing aspects of leadership, but they mentioned about standing out of the crowd and letting your idea be recognised. It was a truly eye opening of a day."

Thanks Ali, Hannah and Ellie, sounds like a very interesting day.....and a great opportunity to interact with some of Irelands leadership gurus! Thanks to Mr Corcoran who manages to get us tickets and organise the trip every year.

See what Terenure College have to say here
http://www.terenurecollege.ie/leadersonourlevel.0.html

here's Mark Pollock's website http://www.markpollock.com/
Mrs L

Savvy Savers are Regional Winners!!!

Wednesday 3rd March was the the regional fianl for the AIB Build A Bank Challenge, and of course the day we had been preparing for for so long.
The compition took place in the Kilashee House hotel. When we arrived there were other schools waiting in the lobby area, and everyone was putting their final touches to their display for the judges.

The nerves of all six of us began to set in as we waited around to be given the go ahead to start setting up. We were given some light breakfast and then sent in to set up our display and prepare for our ten minutes with the judges.

There were 14 school in the competition in total, and we were at stand number 13. The judges came around to look at the display first of all, and then to talk with each team for 10 minutes. We did really well we thought, we were all able to communcate well as a team, and the judges were impressed with our display and our ability to communicate. A big talking point was having John Murray From the Business on RTE at our launch and of course the fact that we were on the radio show on Saturday Morning.

When it came to the presentation of the awards and winning school bank team we were all very nervous. We were unsure as to how well we had done and aware that the competition from other schools was very high. The three other catagory prizes were called first and then the big one. When we heard that our schoolname St Wolstan's Celbridge was called out as the National Qualifiers and the overall Best School Bank we were so happy, the girls and I could'nt believe it. Next stop for us is the Natrionals In Croke Park this May. Lots more hard work to be done before then.

We would all like to say a special thanks to Ms Mc Mahon for all her help, support and patience, Mrs Leahy for everything, you have been great, and Michelle our AIB Bank Rep for all her guidance.
From me, I would like to thank all the girls on the team, you are all so great and a pleasure to work with, well done

Check out our blog or Facbook for all the updates from Savvy Savers and we will keep you posted! :) xox

Ellie
Bank Manager.

***Congratulations to Savvy Savers, all your hard work paid off.****
Mrs L

Drama competition

Class Desta were recently involved in the Transition Year Drama Competition, and the class was thrilled to get into the semi-finals, with our dramas, "Seventeen" and "Us and Them". The following Thursday, we were back in the Mullingar performing the plays again.
We wern't as nervous that time and got the chance to enjoy ourselves on-stage.

We were told to sit tight, and wait for the results, which were sadly, not good. We didn't make it to the finals in Cork, but the whole experience was well worth all the hours rehearsing and leanring our lines. The whole class thoroughly enjoyed the whole competition.
A big thank you to Ms. Guilfoyle for co-ordinating it all, and for putting up with us messing up our lines!

- Alex, Desta

Well done anyway to class Desta. I'm sure you were just piped at the post for a place in the finals:)
Mrs L

Meg's Work Experience :) Day 2

2 days down 2 days to go :) So far its great! I'm doing my second work experience in Urban Outfitters, a clothing store in Temple Bar!
Yesterday morning was my first morning and I felt so grown up taking the bus into town and walking through town to work!!
Had to get up early though :( I got in at 9am and I was introduced to my supervisor, Anne, and the other girls there that are doing work experience. The first thing we had to do was go to the staff briefing, then we helped out most of the day in the changing rooms and with backstock.
But today was really good and really busy! At the staff briefing in the morning I was split up from the other girls and I was put in Home Wear. The girl who was in charge there is so nice! I helped her put tags on things and then she asked me to go down to the stock room and put all the back stock of the home wear on shelves! Believe it or not that was great fun! Then I went upstairs back to Home Wear and got to make up a whole display myself with mugs! They are all novelty mugs so I made it really cool! It looks great!
I got an hour for lunch and I met Ellie for a sandwich, best EVER :o

After lunch I was put in charge of one of the floors for a bit then I helped Jamie in the dressing rooms getting all the clothes out!
So, I'm enjoying my work experience and I'm having a great time, the people are so nice and the job is great!
On another note....BANK REGIONALS TOMORROW :O
Wish us luck, we'll keep you posted.
XOXO
~Meg

http://www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk/page/home

Ellie's work experience Day 1

Ellie sent me an email about Day 1 of her work experience, sounds like she's having a great time.
She says,

"Having such fun! :)

Working in Louise Kennedy and loving it already. My first day was so great, giving me a great insight into the fashion industry even at this early stage. Working on 'Look books' for stores and new lines of clothing and having a really good time.

Looking forward to what the rest of the week will bring.

Ellie xox"

See http://www.louisekennedy.com/home.html for more information about Louise Kennedy but don't forget to come back to our blog.

Work Experience No 2

TY are on their second work experience this week. I have just been given the list of placements and see that we have TY's travelling away to work with the fashion designers Louise Kennedy and John Rocha, solicitor Gerald Keane, the Research Centre and Physics Dept TCD, the Defence Forces at the Curragh, Arnotts Dept store, Brown Bag Films, the GAA Museum at Croke Park, Chapter One restaurant, DIT, FAI National Sports Campus, Temple Street Children's Hospital and Mount Carmel Hospital. These TY's will have an early start each morning!

More locally we have TY's working in NUI Maynooth, Chemists, Beauticians and Hairdressers, Primary Schools and Creches, Restaurants, Veterinary clinics, and retail.

Good luck to you all.
Mrs L

Lollipop Day

Just a taster....until someone sends me a report!!





The lovely Brian Ormond and Meg and Ali

Our Conga made it to YouTube!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbzPCWzSMXQ

Finally got these emails.

Meg says,
"Lollipop Lollipop O Lolli Lolli pop" was all that could be heard around St.Stephens Green shopping center and of course the occasional "Love you Brian!!"
We started the day of in school getting our caps and official t-shirts to wear then we went into town and met the organisers and we got our boxes of lollipops and badges. Then we all lined the streets of Dublin in aid of Oesophageal Cancer fund to sell lollipops. I was on Baggot Street with Ellie and Nicolle and at the start we didn't have a lot of people around but as the day went on we sold loads of lollipops and a lot a badges as well.
At 12.30 we all headed down to St. Stephens Green shopping center for the launch where we all got to sign a wall and a choir from another school were singing songs! But of course once there’s music our girls can’t stay still for very long, we all joined in singing and dancing conga lines and Mrs. Leahy was the one to get the party going :)
Brian Ormond, a presenter from RTE, was presenting the whole event so we got pictures with him and autographs."

Ellie says,
"We were separated into groups of 2 or 3 and assigned a street to collect on. We got lots of generous people and a few not so generous. However by the end of the day we had collected lots of money for such a good cause and had great fun in the process.
Watching Mrs Leahy dance around in St Stephen’s green shopping centre was one of the highlights to the day. Girls got pictures with Brian Ormond who was there to officially launch Lollipop Day. We all had a really great day overall, and felt so happy to be able to help."

Katie says,
It was so good! Dancing in St. Stephens Green shopping center and almost getting lost going to our destinations!!! It was brilliant!!!
Thanks so much Ms Leahy and Ms O Callaghan for coming with us!!!

Mrs Leahy would like to thank Emma Murphy, Katie Ryan, and Paula Cunniffe who, over the last 3 weeks, did all the organising for the day. Well done girls.

Savvy Savers on RTE

This week, John Murray of The Business on RTE Radio 1, launched the Savvy Savers Bank. Later John interviewed the girls and they might....just might...be on the radio this Saturday morning, Feb 27th.

Catch Johns show here, hopefully he'll use the girls interview.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thebusiness/index.html

Update: The girls did very well and you can catch their interview on John's link above...fast forward to about 32 minutes.

Here's what John says about the interview
"BEHAVED LIKE A BUNCH OF GROWN UPS IN THE SWEET SHOP !
Their mummies and daddies wrecked the economy, invested nearly two thirds of our new found wealth in houses rather than job production and have saddled us with about 80 billion of bad debts.. So what does the new generation think of all this.? Will they be more sensible than their elders? We asked these questions of the Transition Year class in St Wolstans in Celbridge Co Kildare."

Beatbox!

On Wednesday 24th February all TY’s had a Beatbox session with Klaus.

Sinead says, “First we started with some simple snap/clap rhythms, it was hilarious. After that he got out some tuned percussion instruments called Boomwackars, they were great fun. They were like poles each one a different colour and a different note. To get a sound off them you hit them off you lap. We did the song that used to be on the Carphone Warehouse ad. It took a while to get everyone doing different things at the same time but it worked out in the end and it sounded really good.

After lunch we learned the song Jammin’ by Bob Marley using the Boomwackars, it sounded really good and two girls sang along with Klaus.

Then did some work with untuned percussion instruments i.e. drums, tambourines, ago-go (bells).

We worked on a samba-regee piece using different drums and other instruments, it took ages to learn and we practices for ages. We had a great day altogether.”

Emma says,
“It wasn't beat boxing but a percussion workshop with our man Klaus. We did body percussion , drums and also used the cool sound instrument called the' Boomwacker '. Klaus was cool and he was very good at teaching us what to do. We got used to the Boomwacker and then we put it all together and played a song called Popcorn. We also got to play all different types of drums and play a carnival type song at the end of the day. I'm sure the girls in the office outside the music room were going mad with all the drumming and shouting but we all had great craic and really enjoyed ourselves.”


Ellie says, “– we had such fun it was great! And of course the sound improved as the day went on and we all got a little better.
We got to try different instruments such as boom-whackers, African drums, base drums and tambourines. We were split up into different sections and we each had a piece of the beat to play, we all had to work together to make the music!
There was lots of fun and laughter and we all really enjoyed it – apart from the sore hands afterwards!
Thanks so much to Ms O’ Reilly for organising it :)”

Check out Megs video of the workshop. She says the songs are our actual ones from the workshop :) we recorded them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLviHJzmK7E
~Meg