Swim a mile with a smile

Each year all TY's and LCVP students from St. Wolstan's participate in the annual Ian Daly Swim a Mile With a Smile challenge. The annual event was set up by Laura and Brian Daly after the death of their son, Ian in 2003. Ian died of a rare form of cancer and all funds raised from the event go towards Our Lady's hospital, Crumlin and Barretstown Camps. 

On the 19th of April we travel to The National Aquatics Center to take part in the event. In total the TYs and LCVP students clocked up a total of 24 miles. Most of the miles counted were completed in times of 4 or 5 people, there was also some people who completed the full mile themselves including Ruth Kelliher, Ciara Foran, Roisin Nolan, Ciara Hodson, Katie Sheehan, Aoibhinn Daly, Chanice Corcoran and Abbie Keegan and myself. 

Afterwards we had enough time to go to Blanchardstown shopping center for Mc Donalds and a quick shop! Everyone really enjoyed the day out and wished we could go swimming more often for PE! :) 

Gaisce Planning

It is coming to the last leg of the year and our Gaisce is beginning to finish up. Throughout the year anyone participating in Gaisce had to do 13 week of community involment, 13 weeks of personal skill, 13 weeks physical recreation and an added 13 weeks to an area of your choice.

To finish up the Gaisce award, we will have to complete a 26 mile hike. At the moment we are all very busy preparing for the hike which will take place on the 26th and 27th of April. This week everyone had to get into groups of 5 or more and organize all of our food for the weekend and what we are going to pack for the hike.

We will be staying in 3 separate houses at the Kippure Adventure Center in Wicklow. Everyone is really looking forward to getting away with most of the TY's but not really looking forward to the actual 26 mile hike! ha :)

St Wolstan's Annual Music Night

On thursday evening St. Wolstan’s held its annual Music night to showcase all of the work done by the  music department. This year all TY have one class of music each week. So far this year we have learnt around 8 new chords on the guitar, three songs on the piano and have sung an endless list of songs throughout the year.

On music night each TY class preformed a medley of songs for the audience. Class Síocháin preformed our version of Hoy hey by the Luminers, The hall of fame by The Script and I follow rivers by Lyki Li. We had all sorts of musical instruments in our performance including the guitar, piano, ucalaly, bongos, tambourine and most importantly the triangle! We really enjoyed our performance and felt it went really well. It was defiantly worth all our hard work and weeks of preparation.

Class Cinealtas also delived a brilliant version of an Ed Sheeran medley, and class Cairdeas gave a very lively performance of their version of Hello.

Most of the TY's including myself also sang with the choir on the night. We preformed our competition piece from the Wesley School coir competition, Caresse Sur L'ocean. It was great to show all of the parents and staff what we had been working on all year after school.

I really enjoyed the night overall and also had a great time "backstage" with everyone! :)

Green Schools - 4th green flag

This week St. Wolstan's raised it's fourth green flag for transport! Last year the green committee were busy trying to encourage people o walk and cycle to school instead of driving. Well it looks like all of their hard work paid off! ;) The flag was presented by Sandra Flahavan and Gerry Doran from An Taisce. 

Afterwards, we had a big pizza party with all of the green committee  our caretakers paddy and Robert and of coarse our Green schools co-ordinator Mr. K and our principle Mrs. Barry and Ms. Smith. 

Mini pilgrimage, Bowling, Food ... :)

As it is the season of spring the time St Bridget  Mr. K organised for all TY's to go on a sort of mini pilgrimage to the famous sites of St. Bridget. 

To start off the day we watched a video in the heritage center in the main square in Kildare town. We learnt about St. Bridget's life and how she came to set up some of the presentation sister schools here in Ireland. We also learnt about the meaning of the St. Bridget cross and how it is made. 

Afterwards we crossed over to the far side of the square to visit the cathedral, her chamber of fire and the round tower. 

It is said if you walk round the round tower backwards 7 times you will dream of your future husband that night. Of coarse we all gave it a go anyway! 

Once we had finished up here we all hopped on the bus and drove to the famous St. Bridget's well. We prayed at each wishing stone and took part in the scarred walk around the well. 

At around lunchtime we went to White water in Newbridge on our way home to stop for food!! There was a mad dash for Genzenge as per usual, and once we were finished we all got on the bus and headed off to Kbowl. 

Everyone really enjoyed the day even though it was absolutely freezing for most of it. It was a great way to end Term 2 of Transition Year. ( Can't believe I just said that! TY is flying by!) 

VICTORY!

Today the St. Wolstan's senior hockey team won their final of the Leinster League against King's Hospital!!!

Although I didn't get to see the entire game it was certainly an intense match to watch, TY's made it back just on time to see the penalties. There is no need to say that there was great defending by our goalie Rowan! After four penalties from each team, St. Wolstan's became the champions of the Lensiter league! 

There were smiles all round when medals and trophies were given out! :)

Lá Glás

As part of Seachtain na Gaeilge and the run up to St. patrick's Day, the prefects organised Lá Glás to raise money for charity. Each year was given a theme or character to dress up as and each student brought in €2 for dressing up.

1st Years: Army

2nd Years: Farmers

3rd Year: Irish Sports

TYs: Leprechauns + Fairies

5th Years: Green characters

6th Years: All things Irish

There were a wide range of events throughout the day including a ceili, parade, fashion show and Irish music. Although the weather wasn't fantastic the entire school community were in great spirits and had a great time! Here are a few pictures from the day:

Trad Group 

Sports stars

All things Irish

Irish dancing show

TY Retreat

This week there were no scheduled classes for Wednesday as all our work experience placements had finished up. So instead Ms. L and Mr. K brought us on a retreat to the Tallaght retreat center, "Dominican Retreat Center" for the day.

When we arrived we were given a short talk on what the day was all about and what topics would be covered in each group. We were then asked to break up into groups of 12 with people we trusted. Each group then assigned a sort of concealer who would be with us for the day in a private room.

To be completely honest I didn't really know what to expect of the day. However, I throatily enjoyed it. We spoke about both happy and sad events in our lives, and I released that there is a story behind every person. I also enjoyed the free tea and biscuits provided by the staff :) Thanks to Mr. K and Ms. L for organizing the day out for us as well. 

If you wish to find out more about the "Dominican Retreat Center" check out their website here.

Rápido y Furioso's success!!

Last Friday my F1 team, Rapido y Furioso and Team Petrolic, traveled to Griffith Collage Dublin to compete in the F1 in School Challenge regional final. 

Our two team succeed in securing a place a place the regional final back in November of 2012. All TY's studying technology this year got into groups of fives and wrote a five page plan of what they would do if they succeed into the next round. Two teams were then selected from our school which were team Rapido y Furioso and Team Petrolic. Since November we have designed out car on Solid works, and got it made in Cork IT. We also secured sponsorship with Institute of Technology Blanchardstown - ITB. Their generous contribution funded our uniforms, embroidery on our uniforms, printing of posters and transportation. 

Rapido y Furioso and Team Petrolic

Last Friday was the regional final of the F1 in schools competition. On the day we were judged on our stand, our portfolio, our 5 minute verbal presentation in front of the judges and the average speed of our car. 

Our stand and display

Racing time!

For those of you who are wondering what the car is actually like, it is only about 15cm in length and our car weights about 72g. The body of the car is made entirely out of balsa wood which is a special light-weight wood. To race the car, there is a 30mm long hole in the back of the car. A small gas canister fits into this slot and then connects up to a gas pump which shots off the car when the starter button is pressed. 

Rapido y Furioso car ready to race! 

Overall the day was a fantastic success, with both St. Wolstan's team qualifying to the next round, The National Finals!! Our team, Rapido y Furioso also won a prize for best use of computer-Aided- Design. The entire team is over the moon and can't wait for the National finals on the 30th April! :) 

Accepting our award

Teams trough to national finals

Intel Workshop

Today all TY's traveled to Trinity College of a workshop and lecture on Intel and about studying science coarse for the leaving Cert. 

We started of the day with a sort of speed dating section in groups of four's with an Intel worker. They gave us an introduction into what thy do in Intel and what they studied for the Leaving Cert and at Third level. They asked us what we were planning on studying for the Leaving cert and what sort of career we would like to go into in the future. They also gave us some advise on what are the best coarse to study at third level. 

Afterwards everyone got a small lunch bag with sandwiches and popcorn and a drink before moving onto the last part of the workshop.

Once we had finished eating we made our way to the auditorium for a talk with 2 Intel representatives on what Intel actually is all about ad the future of technology and science for males and females. 

Here is a video on what it is like inside the Intel fab:

We also learnt about the typical working day of an Intel worker and what it entails. We also learnt about the new and up coming move "Girl Rising", which is about girls in third world countries fighting for their right to an education. 

Here is the trailer for the movie the Girl Rising: 

Bye,Bye Work Exp. #2

Well, today was our last day of our second work experience placement. I was in the chemistry lab in Maynooth for the past 8 weeks. I really enjoyed my time there and learnt a great deal about Science and Chemistry in particular! ( obviously ;) ) 

This work experience has shown me how much I want to do Chemistry for my Leaving Cert. I found this placement very helpful as there were ongoing leaving cert revision coarse which I got to sit in on. 

During my placement I had the opportunity to attend a lecture on the possible jobs that are available to students who study chemistry at third level. I found this really useful as I have no idea of what coarse I would like to study in the future.  

I also got the chance to sit in on a real chemistry lecture. Although it was quite difficult to understand, I found I very interesting to see what a lecture was actually like. 

I sent most of my time in the lab for the duration of the 8 weeks. I learnt loads of new skills, techniques and  experiments. 

From this work placement I have learnt that I would really like to pursuer a career in the area of Science and maybe even in Chemistry. 

The Spider Awards

Today, Ms. L, 3 fifth years, 2 TY's and I caught an early mini bus to the RDS for the Eircom Junior Spider Awards. There was huge excitement between us all. I won't lie, we did get a bit lost but when we finally got into the RDS we began setting up our display stand. Each website or blog had to have its own display poster representing what their website was about. My blog "Katie's Thought's" was nominated for a Junior Spider Award, therefore I had to design and make a poster to represent the content of my blog.   My poster was a big mind-map of all of the events and memories of TY so far and how they all interlinked with one-another. 

Spin 1038!

There was a great buzz in the display room, with the Spin 1038 DJ's and Spinnies running loads of mini competitions and giving away free prizes! There were also a good few primary school children running around and giving out free sweets, what more could you ask for?! :) 

After about 3 hours of looking at displays and everything, Spin packed up and we all had a free lunch! Happy out! :) Once we were all finished everyone made their way into the Concert Hall for the Awards Ceremony.

For the first part of the Ceremony there was a show and a demonstration from the Comedian Jack Wise, who was hilarious getting both students and teachers up on stage! We tried to get Ms. L up but we weren't quick enough! :( 

After the show they moved on to the actually Awards Ceremony presented by Aidan Power. We found out more about the Spider Awards and their sponsors. Unfortunately my blog didn't win out of my category but it was amazing to be shortlisted in the first place! :) Ms. L's blog on their project on St. Bridget from last year won best project in the senior section! So well done to all involved and especially to Ms. L! Some of the winners had amazing websites and ideas. My favorite website was The Geek of Comedy by Lee-Loi Chieng! make sure you check it out! 

Today was absolutely fantastic, and was a great experience for me! We all walked away with a goody bag as well! Hopefully I might be back in the never future! 

Wesley School Choir Competition

Today was the day St. Wolstan's choir had been preparing for since the beginning of the school year. Today we were taking part in the Wesley school choir competition at Wesley collage Dublin. we were competing in the all girls school choir category along with 11 other choirs. The St. Wolstan's choir is open to all students in the school and currently ave 55 very committed members.

At around 3 we arrived at Wesley collage and we shown to our practice  room. We had a small rehearsal but was quite difficult as there was no piano to play the accompaniment, but we made do! :)

At around half 4 our competition was due to start and we were first up. We waited back stage until we were called. Our performance went really well and Fiona was brilliant on the piano. After our performance we went to the back of the hall to watch the remaining performances  Some schools were just outstanding and were note perfect. 

Once all the performances were over the results were announced straight away. Unfortunately we weren't placed, however we were recommended, which means we came 4th overall which was fantastic. We received an overall score of 82% which was just a few percent off the winners! Everyone was in great spirits on the way home sing loudly! Thanks to Ms. O'R and Ms. M for all there hard work and dedication to the choir for the year, and bring us to the competition. 

Sci-fest Presentations

Today was another busy day for all TY's. All transition year groups and some 2nd year groups had to present their Sci-fest projects and ideas to the judges. This round is known at Si-fest at schools and is the first round of the national Sci-fest competition. 

Our poster

From 9:00 to 9:45 all students set up their stands and posters for judging. Altogether there was about 32 projects displayed in the hall. Then, around 10 o'clock some of the judges began to arrive. Each of the four judges went around individually and interviewed the students and asked them more about their projects. 

My groups project was An investigation the methods of extending the shelf -life of milk. We carried out three main tests;

1. Which milk container keeps the milk freshest for the longest
2. To compare what type of milk stays freshest for the longest; full fat, low fat and fortified
3. To investigate at what temperature condition milk stays freshest for the longest.

Our report

Most of the judges thought our project was a very clever and straight-forward idea. The liked how we had very accurate results from using the data logger and Ph probes and we interested to see what we would do next if were to progress further in the competition. If you wish to find out more about ou sci-fest project visit here.

Today some of the TY's students also had to go to the Wesley school choir competition, therefore we weren't back on time for the results. However,  Ruth and I got word from other TY students, that our project was placed 1st overall which was a big surprise for us both!! We are really please and can't wait for the second round of the competition; Sci-fest at Collage. 9 Other groups also got through which is great news for St. Wolstan's! Today was a very busy day but it all paid off!

If you wish to find out more about the competition and interested in entering it next year, click here for more information.

here are some other posters and projects from the day: