Mini-Company

Mini Company has been one of the most rewarding experiences out of all of TY! Although it was certainly one of the more stressful activities Ty of 2012/2013 had to deal with , I was delighted to have taken part in the project and honoured to have gotten so far in the competition. 
As I mentioned before, since the beginning of the year, we have been having 'Mini-company' classes with Ms. P.
Business and the idea of setting up my own 'Mini Company' or enterprise is a totally new idea to me, not having taken Business Studies last year!! 
I was in a group called 'William's Words' with Caitlin, Aisling G, Ruth, Shannon and Juliette. It was a long and tiring process on the whole, but we got there in the end: The product we had dreamed up in September was finally a legitimate booklet: printed and bound professionally, on sale to students in our schools and even stocked in local bookshops!!

Drama, McDonalds and Joe Dolan: Our big adventure to Mullingar!

The past few weeks of religion class have been a blur, they were just so busy! After the extensive research we did on the individual Millennium Development goals before Christmas, we decided to create dramas inspired by them!

(...... So, What are Millennium Development Goals???)

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were officially established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015. The goals are:

1. Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,
2. Achieving universal primary education,
3. Promoting gender equality and empowering women,
4. Reducing child mortality rates,
5. Improving maternal health,
6. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases,
7. Ensuring environmental sustainability, and
8. Developing a global partnership for development 

ANYWAY as a class we were inspired by some of the stories we heard relating to these goals, and the related issues of human rights and dignity. Having separated into two groups, we wrote, directed and starred in our own productions of original masterpieces! 

One group chose to work with the issue of the effects of war, and the terrifying and lasting consequences on everybody it touches.

The group I was a member of chose to deal with the issue of homelessness. The objective of the play was to challenge people's views of homelessness and attempt to dispel the prejudices surrounding this disastrous outcome. 

After weeks of writing, rehearsing, rewriting, totally changing our dramas, we were finally ready for the big day! Class Síocháin was bused down early that morning to the Mullingar Arts Centre. 

Before our time came to perform, we got something to eat in the town, as if we needed any more food after our snacking on the bus! As a class, we trouped down to McDonalds for chicken and chips :) 

When we got to go side stage, It was so amazing to actually be there! Looking at the stage, it felt as if all of our hard work and energy focused on perfecting these plays was about to finally pay off. The stage was huge, and the lights were almost blinding! We could barely contain our nervousness!
Despite our fears and worries, each group performed their play extremely well, and a great time was had by everybody! :)

The Ballet :)

On the 16th of December, we went up to Dun Laoighre, to see the National Youth Ballet company perform two mini ballets, 'The Nutcracker' and the beautiful 'Christmas tale'. Having seen the show I think I'll take up ballet as my New Year's Resolution!!! ....(probably not going to happen!) The troupe was composed of young people from all over Ireland, including some girls from St. Wolstan's, who all performed brilliantly :) 
The performers were like professionals-everything, each and every movement in every dance was flawless, and they made it all look so easy!
Have a look for yourself!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV2uPR2oECU

Gaisce

Gaisce - The President's Award is Ireland's National Challenge Award for young people, the country's most prestigious and respected individual Award programme. It is a challenge from the President of Ireland to the young people of Ireland.

Gaisce works on the basis of a personal challenge set by the young person. You will set your own challenge and agree it with a President's Award Leader (PAL). You won't be competing with other participants, as each challenge is completely individual… so the only person you will compete with is yourself

The above is an outline of what many of us, hopefully will be completing throughout TY. Basically the challenge to complete the Bronze award is as follows:

• You must complete 13 weeks of a physical activity of your choice
• You must complete 13 weeks of an activity involving community involvement.
• 13 weeks of learning a new skill.
• You must do an additional 13 weeks of any chosen activity.
• We have to do an adventure Mountain hike too!!

It sounds like a lot of work- no doubt it will be! But we are all ready for the challenge and looking forward to the hike!

Time to Face the music: The musical goings on In St. Wolstans at the Minute.....

Before Christmas is always a time of business in the music department! What with the carol service coming up, the annual inter-schools Choir Competition just around the corner and the famous 'Music-Night' not far off, there is a lot to get through. As we TYs have much more time and opportunity this year without the stress of exams, to be taking part in extra-curricular activities like orchestra, choir and trad group, many of us have a huge involvement with the music department. Here's just a taster of what's going on:


Choir: 

• The choir arrange a programme every year for the annual carol service, including time honoured carols and hymns such as'Silent Night', 'Ding Dong Merrily on High' and 'Joy to the World' to name but a few. Solos often include the beautiful 'O, Holy Night'.
• There's loads of excitement at the moment, because for many of us, it will be our first time taking part in the Inter-schools choir Competition!! Under the watchful eye of Ms. O'R and Ms. M, the choir will perform the beautiful 'Caresse sur l'Ocean' from the film 'Les Choristes'. This piece is so lovely and we are all really excited about singing it- however, there is a catch!! It's in French!! This has been a bit of a struggle for me and some other girls, as we learn Spanish, (which is totally different!) but with the help of some of the older (french-speaking!) girls it has become easier. It's actually really fun learning the song in a new language!!
• Here's a clip of the piece being performed by some of the cast from the film in 2005/2006:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEs1wtsw_IA

Trad Group

• Ms. S and Mr. K are the two teachers this year in charge of the Trad group. For the carol service they arranged medleys of traditional pieces. These tunes range from jigs and fast reels, to slow Irish airs, all of which are beautiful. They include 'Harvest Home', Maggie in the Wood' and pieces like that. Though I am not exactly sure what their repetoire is, I think they played those two before but I could be wrong!!

Orchestra

• This year, Ms. M has taken charge of the Orchestra as conductor! We practice every Friday at lunch time, however call extra practices coming up to events like the carol service. Having recruited new members it's getting bigger- There are a wide enough range of instruments this year, with the sections growing each rehersal it seems! Currently, we have flutes, violins, a viola (I think) clarinets, alternating piano players, a triangle player (triangalist?) and a flourishing percussion section, with bird whistles, woodblock, tambourine, spoons etc. For the Carol service we have a big programme this year, ranging from traditional religious carols such as 'Away in a Manger', 'While Shepards Watched their Flocks' and 'The First Noel', to more upbeat, fun numbers like 'Jingle Bells' and 'We Wish you a Merry Christmas'. We finished up with the lovely 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', which went down well. It was a nice way to prepare us members for the holidays and Christmas season!!
• We aren't sure just yet what is next on the agenda pieces-wise but we are all certainly looking forward to the new year!!

Junk Kouture Finale!

The beginning of December brought with it the biggest deadline of the year so far: the entry for the school's 'Junk Kouture' Fashion show, to be held in the hall. The few days before the Monday the outfits were supposed to be in were stressful to say the very least: things were going missing, the shoes weren't right, the skirt wouldn't be finished, we even heard of one group's skirt moulding :( but after all the hard work and stress, we made it! The fashion show was a fantastic success in my opinion: it was attended by all the TYs and a class of 3rd and 5th years.
 All the girl's showed their outfits, modelled by one of the group members, and accompanied with a description of the materials and process. All of the outfits were really amazing, and some would not look out of place on the catwalk!
It was a nice finish to what had taken so much effort since day one, and it was great to see what everybody else had been doing with their idea. The standard was incredibly high and the competition tough! All of the groups to go on to the next round had spectacular presentations, and deserve every bit of success. Good luck girls with the next round!

The Name's Bond.......

Much to our surprise, all the lucky T.Y.s got to see the new Bond film, Skyfall........it was amazing!! We left early that Thursday morning, due to be taking part in a mini-company workshop organised by the Kildare Enterprise board. However when we got there, after a short wait we found out the organiser was unable to make it to the venue, the Odeon cinema in Naas, because she was sick. We were all very concerned for poor Orla :(

However, though, another representative arrived from the Enterprise board to assure us that our journey had not been in vain, after all we were in a cinema!! She went on to tell the hundreds of tys assembled that, courtesy of the odeon cinema and the enterprise board, we would, in fact, be watching the latest bond film, Skyfall, starring (best of all) Daniel Craig! As you can imagine, we were all pretty excited! The film was amazing, and I think the 'Bond' series gained at least a few followers....
After this, it can't be said that TY is boring :)




The soundtrack to our bus journey back...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeumyOzKqgI

The week that's been.....

Time flies when your having fun :) as this week ends, the midterm begins!! This part of the term has absolutely FLOWN BY because we've just been so busy, this week being no exeption :) since monday we've had heated debates about almost anything in english, finished our film studies module, made posters, posters, powerpoints, and a few more posters, settled mini-company arrangements for the midterm, carried on with junk kouture; work experienec seems to be getting better and better over in p. healthcare,( you can read about the craic in peamount in my wk exp blog) also we entered the 'F1 in schools' competition under the watchful eye of mr. w, with our fantastic team 'RAPIDO Y FURIOSO!!' ...........Vamos A ganar:)...............The week comes to a close with the annual Halloween dress up day, we're all zombies for the day :0 You only live twice!! hope we all have a good break-it's well deserved! :) xx

Junk Kouture

Junk Kouture...what a load of rubbish  :).................(dya get it??)
Myself, orlaith and katie have been workin like mad on our creation.....which will be AMAZING!!! (we hope)
Our theme is 'Medusa'- she was a figure of greek mythology, who had snakes growing from her head, and the power to turn others to stone. As she was a symbol of power, we want to represent this in our use of waste electrical items in making the dress. I don't want to give too much away though about the design of the dress......
So far i've sourced all the materials like  a toaster, a computer, printers, cd players, speakers, webcams wires and a few cds from neighbours, friends and local hardware and computer shops. With some help fromthe girls, i have broken up and disassembled all of these- hard work! Katie has gotten all of the 1oo cds we need. Together we've made the hard paper maiche bodice, painted it black and fit it on to orlaith, our lovely model. I've made the body of our 'snake' out of tights, and stuffing for it also. I've also spent alot of time paring back wires! So it's long hard work, but we're coming closer to achieving our goal, of being ready to enter our outfit into the Junk Kouture Competition 2012!!
Ciara x xox x

Workshops!!

Because we don't have classes on wednesdays, (we'll have work experience) we filled one with workshops!! they were all great, we learnt a surprisingly huge amount :0 We firstly had Ms. Hughes talking to us about the shtuff we gotta know for work experience (etiquette,how to behave,what to wear....). That was followed by Austin giving us his presentation on his area: 'Life Without Limits' It was actually amazing!! ONe main excercise was splitting us up into our personality types: it was so cool to see! Turns out i'm a 'calm mediator', who works well in teams, is generous with time for others and likes to work for the good of the commmunity! Begod! :) we then got into this whopper class discussion which was a really charged debate- we asked austin if he could come back to our class to do another class on that topic! The best part of the day though was the POSITIVE PARTY with denise!! She taught us about perception of ourselves and others, how to make a good impression in the workplace and just the importance of positivity in life! the day was so amazing, and i'm so glad i was given this opportunity to hear these inspirational things!!

Funwalk 2012!!!! :)

Heeeeeey-yaaaaaa, heeey-yaaaa...........................
Class Síocháin made their mark at the funwalk with a bitta Outkast...... :) The bant was had :)
The fun walk marks the end of Anti-Bullying week in school, and is now an annually celebrated event in the school- not to mention one of the highlights of the year!!!
Maths for the past few weeks had been dediceted to FunWalk business: Poor Ms. O'b, she had her work cut out for her!! Our class chose the theme of 'Lego' and 'buiding friendships' for our fun walk display-we performed our(sort of random) dance dressed up as ginormous yellow lego blocks!!! We got a chance to see almost all of the classes perform( there were dancing pigs, Justin Bieber, gangnam style and Mr. O'C as mad as ever!!) before we had to leave to indicate the route the school was to follow on our 40min ramble around celbridge. Aisling and i were stationed at the top of one tiny road in a housing estate-although we only saw about 5 cars pass, we convinced ourselves we were 'Actively Saving Lives'!!! I think by the end of the day the girls were all sick of our renditions of the safe cross code....hehe :)The whole day was so much fun and it was a great experience for all involved! It was great to see that so many of the songs reflected the importance of friendship and being anti- bullying!! Definitly a day to remember :) Ciara xx

CARLINGFORD!!!

I can only begin to describe in words the craic we had up in Carlingford, co. Louth as part of our 'Bonding Trip' which I can say EXCEEDED our already massive expectations!! We set off at the ungodly hour of 7( IN THE MORNING) to journey north on the bus, for what was to be an adventure of a lifetime!
Having stocked up well on Oreos, blue bonbons and various other brands of junk, we were truly set and ready to go. Suitcases stuffed to the brims with everything from suncream and swimsuits to raingear and woolly jumpers, we were ready for whatever the trip could possibly throw at us!
The excitement certainly began to mount on the bus-the journey seemed twice as long as it really was, because everybody was so full of anticipation. When we arrived, and after the initial scuffle for the rooms and safety instructions, we embarked on our first activity- Lasertag in the forest! Fully clad in army suits and helmets and marching through the calm streets of Carlingford carrying a massive gun was, to say the least, a strange experience :) :) Andy, our first instructor took us through the rules, and then war began!! (You'd be surprised how much we all enjoyed trying to assasinate one another)  :) Although we were split into teams, the Wolstan's TY girls were united by a common goal-to take down Mr.K!! Our efforts paid off!
After some well deserved chips, we started our next activity, which was kayaking. I was in a tandem boat with Katie, which at  first was a bit like the ship with 2 captains! THe water based activities were wacky and wonderful, and involved playin 'Hokey Pokey' in the icy sea, and being dunked into a freezing freshwater waterfall!!! I have never, and I mean never been as cold in my life!!
Our night activity was the underground tunnel and the 'Nightline'- blindfolded, you must walk throug the forest in the pitch blackness in a human chain,relying on your other senses, with the charming instructors occasionally jumping on us or pouring water down our backs!!! After all that, a hot shower and chinese was well earned :)
The next day brought an early start and more fun. We went on the high ropes with Paddy, then zorbing (which was rhe best craic EVER!!) with Chris......oh, chris :( ( the majority of the year are now desperatly in love with him) Team building excercises ende the day for us, and let me tell you we were all thouroughly depressed having to leave! :(
Carlingford was such an amazing experience, I loved it and made many new friendships within my yeargroup! We would go back anytime.....any chance of another one, Ms. L??
Until next time :) Ciaraa :)




I I follow, I'll follow you deep sea baby, I'll follow you...............Just in case anyone forgot!!! xxxx

Catch up time!!

Hi guys!! Sadly it's been a while since my last post but i'll start all the catch up now, I promise! :) Well it's been a busy few weeks for all of us in T.Y.( no surprises there) and between going to 'Positive Parties' workshops and galavanting around county Kildare for Mini-company we've been on the go non-stop. On top of all the out of school activities, (and the massive excitement of work experience!) things within the school have kicked off for the year in a big way: in choir we're preparing for the opening of the school year mass and the Wesley College choir competition, orchestra is back up and running, trad group, greenschools committee, sports, debating society etc. have all started up again IT'S MAD!! It's amazing to have the opportunity to do all these things and try out different activities- just this time without the Junior Cert hanging over us!Everbody is enjoying the experience so far:)

Starting my T.Y. blog!!

Whooo, Big moment! First post in my amazing new (first ever) blog!! Just having a mess around on it to see if I can actually work the thing :) :) Here's hoping the blog will go as well as we all want the year to:) We aren't in school a week and already in our lovely class, there is a small mountain of projects to get workin on- Junk Kouture, Young Scientist, Mini Company... the list goes on!! It's going to be busy but hopefully we're all going to love the experience of T.Y. :) :)
We all have alot to look forward to: Carling ford, workshops, not to mention RESULTS!!!!!!! Can't wait to get them out of the way, just get them over with..... :) This year I know will be great: I'll post regularly and let you know what's going on!!
Adios!! Ciara xxxx