Abbey VS Newsletter - Mon 18th Oct 2021

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Issue 6: 2020-2021

11th Oct 2021 to 16th Oct 2021

Senior Prefects 2021/22

Senior Prefects act as role models for all students in the School. Prefects adhere to the School Rules and also embrace the ethos of the school. The Abbey Vocational School is dedicated to the holistic development of students in a caring environment where tolerance and respect are nurtured and valued. Our prefects will maintain an atmosphere of friendly cooperation, peace, discipline and unity in the School. Best of luck to our new appointees!

Head Girl & Head Boy

Congratulations to our Head Girl and Head Boy & Deputy Head Girl and Deputy Head Boy, who were elected this week. The roles of Head Boy, Head Girl, Deputy Head Girl & Deputy Head Boy are responsible for representing the school at events, making public speeches and also serving as good role models for students. They will also link with fellow prefects in their duties. Best of luck to our newly elected students!

The Impact of Covid on our School Community:

Thank you for completing the recent survey in relation to the CLASS (Covid Learning and Support Scheme) programme. This will prioritise students who have been most impacted by COVID-19, including those who may not have previously come to the attention of the school as needing extra support, both academically and under the umbrella of wellbeing. We will now analyse these surveys with a view to running a number of initiatives in order to offer support to students.

Information Night for Parents of Leaving Cert Students

The parents information night will take place on Tuesday 2nd November at 7pm. Topics covered in the presentation will include CAO, UCAS, Study Abroad, HEAR, DARE, Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Further Education and Grants.

Exciting New Extension for the Abbey Vocational School

Plans for a 670m2 extension at the Abbey Vocational School have been given approval to proceed to tender by the Department of Education. The new building will include a new Canteen facility and a General Purpose area as well as one general classroom including ensuite toilets, toilet facilities for assisted users. We are delighted with this wonderful news which will enhance our school and benefit our entire school community.

Parents Association AGM

The Parents Association AGM takes place on the 10th November at 7pm. We will further update nearer the time.

Artist Kevin Callaghan

Congratulations to former AVS Student Kevin Callaghan who is set to feature on the Sky Arts series Landmark, as one of 18 UK-based artists commissioned to create a piece of public art. This is a fantastic achievement for the Barnesmore native, especially as his road to success hasn’t been without its obstacles. His passion, tenacity and absolute dedication to his art drove him forward on a career path that sees him firmly established as an esteemed ceramics artist, and now also as a sculptor.

He will be representing Scotland in the Sky Landmark series which sees 18 artists across the UK (three from each region) produce a piece of sculpture in just 14 days. The new show is fronted by Gemma Cairney, and part of its remit is to take a wider look at the purpose and power of public art as she joins Sky Arts on a mission to create the UK’s next major landmark.

Ms Cairney is joined by two expert judges – curator Clare Lilley and visual artist Hetain Patel – as well as six famous faces, all of them ready to root out the best artistic talent in the region or nation they call home. As part of the series, Sky Arts is investing £700,000 in public art in total, commissioning the 18 brand new pieces of public art around the country as well as a final national landmark worth £250,000.For Kevin Callaghan, this represents an opportunity to further develop as a sculptor and to bring his art to a wider audience. He is also embracing the spirit of celebrating the world of art in which he is deeply immersed.

The Sky Arts Landmark series and its exploration of the importance of public art comes at a time when many people have re-engaged with creativity. The enormous changes to life as we know it that came about as a result of the coronavirus led a lot of people to explore creativity, as appreciators of art or as practitioners, from online music lessons to taking up painting or creative writing. Mr Callaghan is delighted to see how so many people in society turned to art at this time.

After School Evening Study

The first term of after school study commenced on Monday 20th Sept and will continue until the 21st October. There are some places left for those wishing to avail of this supervised study session. It is a great opportunity for students to study in a quiet supervised environment.

History Department

Archaeologists at Work

Archaeology is essential to our understanding of history and this week our first year students engaged in an archaeology class in a very practical way!

Class 1G had fun in history class learning how to work as an archaeologist. They had to carefully remove the topsoil (the cookie crumbs) before finding the artefacts (chocolate chips) below.

Geography Department

On Wednesday 20th October, our Sixth Year Geography students will travel to Rossnowlagh to conduct this years’ Geographical Investigation Study. This year our students will investigate the impact of the geomorphic processes of transport and deposition on shaping the landscape in a coastal environment.

The investigation allows our students to experience the practical application of the core geographical skill including: selection and use appropriate methods of gathering and collection of information, analysis and interpretation of results, and drawing valid conclusions. Our students will again this year experience use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) through the ArcGIS for Schools platform.

Wellbeing

Big Brother Big Sister Programme

All our leaving cert prefects took part in the big brother big sister mentoring programme this Friday. The aim of the Big Brother Big Sister programme is rooted in the most fundamental human relationships: a caring interaction between two people, one older than the other. Out of this interaction young people develop in ways that will make them more likely to succeed in the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

The prefects will use the skills learned here to support and guide the young students here in the Abbey Vocational School throughout the year.

Mental Health Awareness Week

Mental Health Awareness Week is a firm fixture in the AVS Calendar as staff and students highlight, discuss and embrace mental health. Positive affirmations, motivational talks, sharing of kindness as the AVS Community join together to celebrate the ethos of the Abbey Vocational School. The Abbey Vocational School is dedicated to the holistic development of students in a caring environment where tolerance and respect are nurtured and valued.

Pictured are the amazing pieces of work by students for Mental Health Week.

Ongoing School Wellbeing Plan

Please see below our continually evolving wellbeing plan. Throughout the year more events and incentives will be added to our list.

Month	Day	Event
October	1st - 31st	Mobile Phone overuse awareness month
November	4th	Bullying Prevention Session
November	4th	International Day against Violence and Bullying at School including Cyberbullying
November	15th - 19th	Respect Week
November	8th and 19th	1st yr internet safety
November	22nd	Think languages
November	22nd - 26th	College Awareness Week
December	10th and 11th	TY Fundraiser ( a donation will be donated to asthma society Ireland)
December	21st	Xmas Fair
December	22nd	Xmas Concert
January	1st - 31st	Wellness Month
February	8th, 9th and 11th	Musical
February	7th - 11th	Safer Internet Week
March	1st - 17th	Seachtain na Gaeilge 2021
March	21st	World Down Syndrome
March	21st	Daffodil Day
April	1st	World Autism Awareness
April	22nd	World Earth Day
April	25th - 29th	Active School Week
April	30th	National Workplace Wellbeing

First year plans as part of Transition programme

As part of the transition process from Primary to Post Primary as well as our mentoring programme we also run many support programmes for the students in first year. The following are planned for the coming weeks:

Fun active and Sports Workshops

These workshops with Ms Kelly, our Mentor leader and teacher involved in the transition programme will offer a fun session to all of the students in first year. Students will also undertake a fun style active event with the PE Department where they will get a further opportunity to get to know their new classmates.

First Year Mentoring Programme

Our 25 Peer Mentors started their lunchtime sessions with each 1st Year class every Tuesday. 1st Years have the opportunity to participate in a range of activities such as fun Kahoot quizzes, chill out music sessions and a well-being walk around the school. This is an excellent opportunity for 1st Year students to get to know each other in a relaxed setting as well as being able to ask their mentors any questions they may have.

Anti Bullying Webinar

All first year students will receive two webinars on bullying prevention on the 4th November. The key focus of both thirty-minute webinars is to focus on what students can do to help prevent bullying. Below is a review of what is included in each webinar.

Webinar 1 includes:

a discussion on what Bullying is and the 8 bullying sub-types (with a focus on Cyberbullying as it has been on the rise during the Covid 19 pandemic),
animations which feature the common types of bullying students experience and how they can feel about it,
a review of activities that can help prevent bullying in the short and long term,
a Bullying Prevention Brainstorm activity where students are asked to suggest and vote on actions to help prevent bullying in their school.

Webinar 2 includes:

the roles students can play as Bystanders in the Bullying Circle,
resilience building activities that focus on the creation of effective habits to realise personal goals and prevent bullying,
animations look at how bystanders can help bullied and isolated students,
and finishes with a review of student suggestions to prevent bullying in light of the lesson’s learning.

Positive Points: First Term Leaders

The positive points initiative is continuing this year. It is acknowledged that a positive environment in school helps students to flourish. The positive points help create a healthy class rivalry. Pupils can be awarded points by their class teachers for things such as sustained effort in class, cooperation in group work, contribution to class discussions, contribution to extra curricular activities helping others and for being polite and mannerly.

Teachers like to catch their students “being good”.

The classes with the highest points score in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year on Monday 18th will be rewarded with a class period to watch an appropriate video that the class decides.

AVS Reduce Screen time- Week One

Pictured are Ms Diver and some of our first year students with their AVS phone sleeping bag.

Week One: Week one of our challenge has commenced! All students signed up have started to track their phone use and we hope to see a big reduction next week. Students have received a presentation on the importance of reducing their screen time and they will be shown many tips on how they can do this. All students taking part have received an AVS phone sleeping big which they can use when they go home from school to put their phone in and leave it there until the next morning.

We are running this initiative to try and encourage all our students to use the time to reconnect with their family and friends, inviting them over to talk instead of using their phones to communicate with them and to encourage them to avoid posting on social media.

There will be a prize for the students that can reduce their screen time the most. If you have not received your AVS sleeping already don’t forget to collect one from Ms Rooney’s office.

Wellbeing Poster Competition 2021

This week is the final week of the Abbey Vocational School Wellbeing Poster Competition 2021 invites students to design a poster around our school theme of RESPECT and BE KIND. Students can use their creativity, talent and vision to create a poster which embodies the values of RESPECT, highlights the importance of BE KIND and encourages students to think of others and support each other. There will be a prize for the winning posters. All entries must be left into Ms Rooney's office or to the main office on or before the 22nd Oct 2021.

Wellbeing Theme for the year for 2021/2022 - Respect - Here in the AVS we believe and encourage everyone to Respect everyone and everything around us. Respect means that you accept somebody for who they are, even when they're different from you or you don't agree with their beliefs

Wellbeing Slogan for the year for 2021/2022 Be Kind - our mission is to inspire our students and staff to create a kinder world both inside and outside our school community.

Non-Sport Lunchtime Clubs

Our non sport lunchtime clubs have commenced. Check out the different club’s below:

Science Club

Our Science Club continues every week in the Laboratory room 33 on Wednesday’s at lunchtime, new members welcome! The Science Club is the place for students who are interested in science to learn about all scopes of science from medicine to chemistry to physics to the environment. We discuss how to use this conceptual basis for applications in the real world.

BT Young Scientist

This week we continue to profile another three BTYS project submissions. These projects will also compete in the regional Scifest final in LYIT in May.

STUDENT: Grace Masterson

CATEGORY: Intermediate/Technology

PROJECT-TITLE: A personal mobile device holder for medical environments.

APPROACH: My sister works in the second largest children's hospital in the UK as a radiographer. In her department the children they treat are encouraged to use tablets while the treatment (ie. chemo/contrast for kidneys) is in progress. This means that sometimes the healthcare assistant has to hold the device for the child while the scan is taking place and so then they are not able to fulfill their role of assisting the radiographer.

I want to design a personal mobile device holder that will do this job using long, flexible arms that can be manipulated and will not interfere with the treatment process or obstruct patient access by medical staff in emergencies or equipment in hospital settings. I have extensively researched currently available personal device holders and have found that these are usually not sufficiently flexible to hold the device and obstruct access to the patient. Many of them are also floor-standing which again is not ideal in a hospital setting and this has been confirmed by the radiographers that I have spoken to about my project. I have decided to make my device with a wire core and a flexible polymer coating. I am currently investigating different metal wires and metal wire diameters to ensure that the skeleton of my device is sufficiently flexible but strong enough to hold up the tablet. Once I have optimised the attachment of the arms of my device to the adjustable tablet holder, then I will coat the skeleton in the flexible polymer. Additionally, I want to test the material for the ability to be easily sanitised for use in a sterile environment.

STUDENTS: Micheál Deely and CJ Burke

CATEGORY: Junior Technology

PROJECT TITLE: A dyslexia light with a difference

APPROACH: After speaking to an optometrist who specialises in colorimetry testing about the benefit he has seen of coloured lighting in helping the children with dyslexia to improve their reading and writing fluency, we decided to build a portable, robust and user friendly lamp with a multi-colour function to assist children reading text of different colours on different backgrounds. To develop our light, we will get advice from a family friend who is a mechanic and he will help assist us in building the lamp if needed. When we are satisfied with our lamp prototype, we will test our lamp with a focus group to see if it is fit for purpose and to see if it is more useful than single coloured lamps on different reading and writing backgrounds. If we see any snags in our design at that point we will modify our lamp design to resolve these issues and make it a better aid to help children with dyslexia to read and write more fluently.

STUDENTS: Jane Faulkner, Jayne Glenn and Amy McGroary

CATEGORY: Intermediate Social and Behavioural Biological and Ecological

PROJECT TITLE: The most effective method of reducing anxiety in secondary school students post covid

APPROACH: Following our return to school after the second lockdown, we became more aware of the level of anxiety related issues among our school peers. A lot of our friends were anxious about coming back into a crowded school community and consequently really struggled academically. In a survey conducted online by the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union, the National Parents’ Council Post-Primary and the Institute of Guidance Counsellors three-quarters of respondents indicated the pandemic had an impact on their mental health. Almost half said the impact was mild (45 per cent), with a significant proportion (23 per cent) indicating there were moderate impacts on mental health. A smaller proportion (7 per cent) reported a severe impact. Several studies show that exercise intervention results in superior anxiety outcomes compared to those of the control groups. Our school runs a programme of lunch time activities and we wish to investigate which school activities are most effective in reducing anxiety levels. We aim to approach students in each activity group to see if they are interested in taking part in the survey and hope to re-survey at least twice before Christmas to see if the activities are impacting anxiety levels.

Spanish Club

La cultura es una parte importante de cada idioma. En el club español, no solo practicamos el idioma, sino que exploramos la cultura de España y otros países de habla hispana. La próxima semana celebraremos el Día de los Muertos, que es una fiesta importante que se celebra en México. La creencia es que las almas de los seres queridos fallecidos visitan el mundo de los vivos. Es por esto que aquellos que lo celebran colocan un altar en casa con las fotos de aquellas personas que recuerdan, acompañadas de comida, velas y flores de cempasúchil.

ICT/Coding Club

Our AVS Coding Club is starting this week in room 47 on Mondays at lunchtime, please join us! Coding is what makes it possible for us to create computer software, apps and websites. Your browser, your OS, the apps on your phone, and this website – they’re all made with code. Coding, in the simplest of terms, is telling a computer what you want it to do, which involves typing in step-by-step commands for the computer to follow.

Chess Club

The AVS chess club will run on Wednesdays during lunchtime in Room 33. We look forward to meeting all our current players and those new students who want to learn how to play Chess.

Debating Club

Our Debating Club runs every Tuesday in room 33! The debate club gives our students a fun way of developing their oracy skills.The club also helps students to become more informed about political and global affairs.

Book Club

Join us every Friday in the Garden for our AVS Book Club! Our book discussion club is a group of students who meet to discuss a book or books that they have read and express their opinions, likes, dislikes, etc. We would be delighted to welcome new members as we delve into the world of our favourite authors!

Canteen

All orders for the canteen must now be done through www.getfresh.ie. Click on the AVS school crest picture at the bottom of the page and this will take you to the menu that you can order from. The cashless card will then be used to identify the student and you pay by your regular debit/credit card at the moment. Do not top up the cashless card at the moment. The cards are on sale from the chef in the canteen in school.

Halloween

Fancy Dress Friday

The leaving cert prefects invite all our students and staff to get into the Halloween spirit and dress up next Friday for school. There will be a prize for the best costume and many spooks and surprises throughout the day.

Student Voice

The first project for the Student Council is The Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal, an annual campaign, where thousands of people across Ireland donate shoe-boxes filled with gifts for children affected by poverty in Africa or Eastern Europe. It is an opportunity to share a little joy and excitement with children who live in circumstances where these can often be in short supply.

Please see notices around the school for suitable items to put into your shoebox and start putting one together now.

We will be collecting the shoeboxes during the 1st week of November, that is the week we return to school after midterm.

What can I put in my box? The 4 ‘W’s

Write

Pens or pencils, crayons, paper or copy books, colouring books, markers, sharpeners and erasers.

Wash

Soap (wrapped), hairbrush, comb, toothbrush, toothpaste and facecloths.

Wear

Socks, underwear, flip flops, hat, scarf and gloves.

Wow

Cuddly toy, skipping rope, a yo-yo, sweets (that do not go out of date for at least 6 months), small musical instruments, a photo of you and your family, toy car, doll, ball and stickers.

What not to include?

If you include objects from the below list, they will be removed. Read it carefully to ensure you make the best box you can.

Liquids/shampoo
Chocolate or food that isn’t sweets
Sharp objects eg. scissors
Scary items e.g. masks
Breakables, mirrors, mugs etc
Medicines
Books with lots of words
Large clothing items

Music

Iconic News titles in Donegal are running Donegal’s Next Superstar competition through the Donegal Democrat, the DonegalLive.ie website and our sister publications, the Donegal Post and Inish Times.

The prize package is worth well over €1,000 for the winner so they are on the lookout for some hidden talents in the county. Whether you can sing, dance, tell a joke, read poetry, dance or juggle, they want to hear from them.

The deadline for entries is this Sunday, October 17 but entering could not be easier using a dedicated Whatsapp number.

All the details on how to enter, prize pack and terms and conditions are in link below:

https://www.donegallive.ie/news/superstars/674942/deadline-extended-to-enter-donegal-s-next-superstar-talent-search.html

Guidance

UCAS

26th January 2022: Deadline for all other courses

CAO

5th November 2021: CAO opens for registration
1st February 2022: CAO closes for applications
1st March 2022 : Closing date for online completion of HEAR/DARE forms 15th March 2022: Latest date for submitting HEAR/DARE supporting documents to the CAO office
5th May 2022: Online for facility for Change Of Mind becomes available
1st July 2022 : Change Of Mind Facility closes

Please click HERE for further details.

Parents Information Night

The parents information night will take place on Tuesday 2nd November at 7pm.
Topics covered in the presentation will include CAO, UCAS, Study Abroad, HEAR, DARE, Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Further Education and Grants.

Appointments

Leaving Cert 1:1 appointments are ongoing.
Please see your Guidance Counsellor to book an appointment.

Website

Please keep an eye on our guidance website. Go to www.AVSDonegal.com and click on the Guidance logo.

Teaching & Learning

A look at ‘Feedback’ from your Teacher.

Feedback to our students relies on clearly defined goals (including learning intentions and success criteria) and on learning tasks or activities to track a student’s progress towards those goals. The information gathered through these activities provides the basis for feedback to a student.

Teaching and learning activities, including formative and summative assessments, provide opportunities for teachers to gather evidence about our students’ progress. This helps us to give feedback to our students about how they are learning and what they need to do next to move forward. Various studies on feedback typically show that the pace of student learning is accelerated by at least 50% because of feedback.

Feedback then is information:

for the student and teacher about the student’s performance
about a student’s performance relative to learning intentions or success criteria.
based on evidence of learning.
from the teacher, the student themselves or their peers through peer assessment activities.

Feedback from a Student Perspective.

Effective feedback is designed to achieve improvement in your learning, continuously driving your current performance towards a learning goal.

What then should you do with feedback once you have received it from your teacher following an assignment, essay, or task? It is always good to look clearly at what the feedback is saying. What are the teacher’s comments telling you specifically? What steps do you see that you can take to improve your work? John Hattie and Helen Timperley (2007), offer three key questions for students to think about:

Where am I going? ... (in my learning)
How am I going? ... (in my learning)
Where to next? ... (in my learning)

The following are seven suggested steps you might apply after receiving feedback comments from your teacher on any assignment, whether it be an essay, a project, a CBA, or a piece of homework:

Write down all the suggestions you received from your teacher on how to improve your assignment.
Look at these comments side by side with your overall assignment.
Put numbers by the suggested changes in your list to show the order of importance in which you will address them.
Rewrite or redo your work according to this order of priority/importance.
Read your first draft and then your new draft. See how you feel about the changes.
Make further changes you may feel are needed.

If your teacher gives you verbal feedback, it is always good practice to write it down and then apply it to future assignments and tasks.

Good feedback will produce two key outcomes:

As teachers, we will adapt our teaching strategies to help you make progress in areas identified as needing attention.
As a student, you will change what you do to address the learning intentions or success criteria more effectively.

One final point, never take feedback on your work personally. It is not about you, but rather about the quality of your work. Teachers will always try to provide feedback points as a guide so that you can continuously improve.

For more information about Formative Feedback, please see HERE

Transition Year 2021/22

TY Diary for the week 11/10/21- 17/10/21

The Theatre Set and Costume Design workshop which gives students an insight into the backstage management of a theatre production. This will help prepare students for working on the Abbey Vocational School School Musical.

Surfing along the glorious coastline of Donegal at Rossnowlagh Beach is an amazing experience our TY’s will cherish!

Halloween

This week the amazing talent of our TY Students was in evidence as students decorated the school with Halloween Posters!

‘The Listeners’ by Walter De La Mare, captures the spooky thrills of Halloween!

Surfing @ Rossnowlagh

“This week we travelled to Rossnowlagh Beach for a surf lesson with Finn Mc Cools Surf School. We left the school at 11:30am and arrived at Rossnowlagh at 12pm. They gave us a quick rundown of what we were doing and then we got our wet-suits and went and got changed.

The weather wasn't great, it was very windy and it was raining on and off but that didn’t deter us! We quickly got in the water after doing a few practice pop-ups. We were in the water for two hours, it went by so fast, it only felt like half an hour. It was so much fun, the waves were good size and everyone had a good time.

We sat outside and ate our lunch after we got dressed again and then the first half of the class got the first bus back and we got the second one. We stopped at the shop on the way home for a hot drink and snack. Overall it was an amazing day out!”. By Maeve McCauley

“My class and I went to Rossnowlagh beach to go surfing this week. When we first went there we had to get changed into wetsuits. We then had to partner up with someone else and you had to carry down two surfboards between the two.

The instructors then demonstrated what we had to do once we got into the water. Everyone then headed down to the water and began to surf. The water was really rough, however it was still possible to stand up.” By Emma Bustard.

Transition Year Drama Workshop

Pictured are TYB students who enjoyed the Drama Workshop this week. Transition year affords pupils the opportunity to try out different skill sets that they would not normally get a chance to do during the other school years. The TY Theatre Workshop focuses on developing the individual, and in teaching the skills of working as a team, encouraging and helping each other. The benefits of Theatre Workshops are:

Improved self confidence. Firstly, musical theatre workshops push students out of their comfort zone.
Problem solving skills. In drama, students are required to communicate the who, what, where, when and why of a scene.
Teamwork and trust.
Social Awareness.
Fun.

ActionAid ActionTalks National Speech Writing Competition

As part of our Literacy Module Transition Year Students are taking part in the ActionAid Action Talks National Speech Writing Competition. This is a great opportunity for students to work on their writing skills, and develop their speech writing talents!

The role of ActionAid is to empower local women to take control over their own lives, support them with education and training, for example: literacy, numeracy, work skills, leadership skills, and how to achieve their rights to healthcare, work and education.

Each TY Student can pick one of the following topics:

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of unpaid work in the home (e.g., childminding, caretaking, household functioning), with women often bearing the brunt of this work. How can we redistribute unpaid work in a way that is fair for everyone?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, incidences of gender-based violence rose, both in Ireland and internationally. What can Ireland do?

Unfair access to vaccines has meant that those living in the poorest countries will suffer the worst effects of the pandemic. The inequalities exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of global solidarity and international aid. Discuss.

Work Experience

During Transition Year, the students will gain some valuable insights into the world of work through our work placement programme. The work placements take place over two separate one week slots. Each student is expected to find his or her own placements with an employer in a suitable area of work. This should be done in consultation with their parents and the Career Guidance team. Every effort should be made to find work placements which are relevant to any plans for a future career. Students are encouraged to start planning for their work placements and have an idea of where they might like to apply. The dates for the TY Work Experience are 13th-17th of December 2021 and 14th-18th of February 2022.

Workshops

The Transition Year Programme is diverse, inclusive and engaging. TY Students take part in workshops, talks and courses ranging from public speaking to Fintech.

Transition Year Trips

Students will take part in a number of trips throughout the year where it is possible under the current guidelines.

ePortfolio

An eportfolio is an electronic portfolio, which the students will use to keep a record of all their work from the year. They will design their own web page containing all their work and then summit it to their tutor at the end of the year.

Assessment

Students will be assessed on an ongoing basis throughout the year by their class teachers. Assessments in line with best practice will be blended and may consist of project work, practical assessments or class tests. Students will receive a report from their subject teachers as part of their Christmas assessment. The final TY assessment will include an interview and a presentation of each student’s ePortfolio. Students will receive details of expectations and success criteria for this assessment in due course.

Performing Arts

Transition Years students are undertaking a module in Performing Arts as part of the TY curriculum. They are currently participating in a 3 week rotation amongst the 6 teachers who are delivering different aspects of the course including music, theatre studies, dance, event management, costuming and set design.

This module allows students to develop their creativity and prepares them with the necessary tools and skills needed in preparation for the school musical.

SPORT

Extra-Curricular Sports Teams

Girls GAA

It is great that we can start to welcome back our extra curricular sports teams. The first group back was our girls Gaa teams. They will be training for the next couple of months on Tuesday from 4pm - 5pm on the school football and all weather pitch. When training please bring football gear, boots, runners and a bottle of water. The U16 and U20 games will start after the mid term break and the U14 games will start after christmas. Anyone that would like to join can give your name to Ms Rooney or Ms Sweeney. We welcome all new players.

Other team sports

Other team sports will start over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out on our newsletter for all updates.

Athletics Training

Training is starting back on Thursdays from 6.45pm - 8pm in the school gym. This training is for all club and school students training for cross country and track & field. Please see Mrs Gallagher (PE Dept) if you have any questions.

Cross Country Training

Our Cross Country training is on every Thursday at lunchtime on the track for all students. This training is open to all students who want to improve their fitness and will cater to all fitness levels ranging from walking level up to running level. Students must wear runners for the training and can meet on the track at the beginning of lunch. Training will last 20/30 minutes every day.

TY Coaching

A large number of transition years have volunteered to coach athletics on Thursday evenings. They will gain valuable experience coaching primary school age children for the year. They will also be responsible for organising various athletic events throughout the year. The benefits of coaching are immense as it will prepare students for eventual roles as players, coaches, and administrators in the future and ensure students gain lifelong skills that are transferable to many aspects of academic and social situations both inside and outside the school.

Lunchtime Physical Activities

Please see below the plan for lunchtime activities for this term.

Lunchtime Physical Activities
P Mc Devitt	Monday	Court	1st Year Soccer - Boys & Girls
J Daly	Monday	All weather pitch	2nd year soccer - Boys
K Munnelly	Monday	Sportshall	Fitness Circuit - All Senior Students
L Kelly	Monday	Library	Dance Club - All Students
I Mahony	Tuesday	Sportshall	2nd year games - Girls
G Gorman	Tuesday	All weather	3rd year soccer - Boys
S Maguire	Tuesday	Balcony	Rowing - All Students
P Rooney	Tuesday	Library	Table Tennis - All Senior Students
E O’Mahony	Wednesday	Sportshall	1st Year games - Boys & Girls
S Mc Fadden	Wednesday	All weather	1st year soccer - Boys & Girls
S Maguire	Wednesday	Balcony	Rowing - All Students
K Munnelly	Wednesday	Library	Sports Yoga - All Senior Students
S Maguire	Thursday	Balcony	Rowing - All Students
C Hegarty	Thursday	All Weather	3rd year soccer - Boys
P Rooney	Thursday	Sportshall	Unihoc - Junior girls
K Munnelly	Thursday	Library	Senior Students - Yoga
C Herron	Friday	Sportshall	3rd year games - Boys & Girls
P O Donnell	Friday	All weather	2nd year soccer - Boys & Girls
K Munnelly	Friday	Library	Pilates - All Senior Students
S Maguire	Friday	Balcony	Rowing - All Students

Health and Safety

Covid-19 Protocols

In order to ensure the safety of all the school community we would ask everyone to please adhere to the following protocols:

If feeling unwell, do not come to school.
It is imperative that students wear a cloth face covering when a physical distance of 2m from staff or students cannot be maintained. Masks MUST be worn correctly, ie. cover nose and mouth. Put this on before coming into the school grounds please. It is necessary to wear your mask in the school grounds also where you cannot maintain a distance of 2m from others.
Cloth face coverings act as a barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from travelling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the face covering coughs, sneezes, talks or raises their voice. Cloth face coverings are therefore intended to prevent transmission of the virus from the wearer (who may not know that they are infected) to those with whom they come into close contact.
Students should go straight to their assigned base room, if before 9:00, otherwise go straight to class
Students should not congregate in groups
All students should follow the usual hygiene protocols in classrooms
- use hand sanitiser
- wipe desks and chairs with the wipes provided
- do not move the desks from their set position
Wash your hands correctly and often

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PLAN