11 December 2020
Monday, 7 December – Think Languages Day – report by Sophie Ennis (TY student)
The hard work of one of our TY committees paid off on Monday, 7 December. The Think Languages team, with the help of Ms. Zimmermann, Ms. Goff and Ms. O’Keeffe, joined over seventy other schools around the country to host an event for students to celebrate the importance of language learning.
The TY students started their day with an iconic French breakfast of pain au chocolat and croissants while enjoying music from around the world, including songs from Korea, Japan, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and many other countries.
From there, the students went to classrooms where they watched the opening ceremony hosted by Languages Connect with guests such as comedian Des Bishop and our very own Minister for Education, Ms. Norma Foley.
Christmas also, of course, made an appearance during the day when the girls watched some Christmas adverts from many countries.
The girls could then choose between many different workshops including the following:
- A call with our German exchange school, St. Ursula’s in Villingen
- A German biscuit baking demonstration
- A pizza making demonstration
- Japanese calligraphy
- Latin
- Salsa dancing
- Tai chi
- Irish sign language
- Taekwondo
- Arabic
- Belly dancing
- Russian
- French
- A talk with an EU interpreter
- College courses with languages
- A call with Irish influencer and author Úna Minh Kavanagh
- A talk with some of the asylum-seekers in the Direct Provision Centre in Rosslare
The girls ended their day with a kahoot quiz on language and culture.
Overall, the feedback is hugely positive and created a ‘buzz’ around the school that we haven’t had since before the pandemic.
A huge congratulations and thank you to all the teachers, parents, contributors and students involved in organising such a fantastic day for us!
Retreat for 2nd year students
Members of Scripture Union, based in Avoca, Co. Wicklow, are conducting in-school day-long retreats for all 2nd year students this week. This important event on our calendar is organised by the school’s Religion Department.
Scripture Union writes:
“We come to you! We offer a full school day Retreat. This gives young people a chance to take time out from the normal school week. We explore all things life and faith with a huge slice of fun. Our program includes games, bible stories, discussions, talks, meditation, reflections, drama, personal stories, film, music and the ever popular quiz. We fit into your school timetable. We also base our day around a theme and unpack this throughout the day”.
Christmas Decorations and Carol Service
We wish to thank all of Santa’s helpers who did such a fantastic job in decorating the school for Christmas – TY and 6th year students, John Paul Award students and Brendan Rossiter. We also thank Mr. Laffan and the FM staff for their help in erecting the 20 ft. Christmas tree in the GP Area.
The decorations provided a lovely seasonal backdrop when recording our Carol Service that will be shown to all students and staff on the afternoon of Monday, 21 December. It will also be available on our website over the Christmas period.
