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