Also many thanks [...]]]> Well done to all the 1st years who participated in Scrabble as Gaeilge over the past week.  Six girls have been chosen to represent the school as the 1st year Irish scrabble team:  Nikki McAleese (1s), Caragh Wrynne (1R), Chan Mok (1R), Anna O’Connor (1H), Kate Lynch (1R) and Bea Jackson (1R)

Also many thanks to the 1st year Scrabble committee and Ms Buckley for organising the events, and also to Ms Ivory who hosted all of the events.

In J3 we celebrated Chinese New Year by making lanterns, dragons and pictures of fireworks, we also decorated a poem about how Chinese [...]]]> The J3’s enjoyed performing Giant Winter in school and to the J3 parents at assembly. We would like to thank Miss Fitzgerald for helping us with the musical part of our performance.

In J3 we celebrated Chinese New Year by making lanterns, dragons and pictures of fireworks, we also decorated a poem about how Chinese people celebrate this special festival.

Recently we have been working in family groups on an Ireland project. Each family group is researching a different topic on Ireland and presenting it to the class. Well done to the Oak and Bluebells who taught us about some of Ireland’s History – an interesting presentation!

We enjoyed having Alejandra to help us from the Senior school. Thank you!

The healthy eating week went well and at family group work each family group created a level of the food pyramid to present.

On February 1st all the teachers had a skip-a-thon to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. We enjoyed watching their excellent skipping and hoola hooping skills!

We have been reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White and are now about to read the FINAL chapter! The last few chapters and discussions about the story and characters have been very emotional!

J3 have been keeping Journals and now that it is Spring we designed a pretty Spring page. As well as it being the first day of Spring – Wednesday was also St. Brigid’s Day. J3 have been researching information to make their own good page about this caring Saint!

On the 3rd of February the J5’s organised a bake sale to raise money for UNICEF and they are also giving money towards Habitat. Thank you to the J5’s for the bake sale. They were delicious!

We have also been working on our book reviews. Everyone in J3 will be reviewing Charlotte’s Web for their January book review.

At Monday’s assembly J3 gave their [...]]]> A big thank you to all J6 girls, parents and staff who helped to make ‘Open Day ‘such a wonderful occasion last Saturday. The Junior School and College were a hive of activity with many prospective parents, who were very impressed with what they saw and heard. Well done every one!

At Monday’s assembly J3 gave their parents and the school a lovely rendition of John Foster’s poem ‘Giant Winter’. The girls and their teachers Ms. Boyd and Ms. Fitzgerald worked hard to interpret this beautiful poem into a very creative musical dramatisation. Great work girls and many thanks!

Congratulations to Rachel O’Sullivan (J1), Ella Wojnar (J3) Lauren Ashmore and Helena O’Neill (J6) who all were awarded trophies and medals for their achievements in an Irish Dancing Feis this weekend.

We thought about ‘Waste’ at Tuesday’s assembly. The girls came up with many examples how we can create waste e.g. food, paper, electricity and water. Ms. Abrahamse explained that we can also waste words.  She illustrated this point by telling a story about a class of girls who returned after the Christmas holidays to school. The teacher thanked them all for the lovely Christmas present she received from all of them. One girl said that two girls had not contributed to the present.  She called out their names aloud creating great embarrassment for the two girls. Ms. Abrahamse quoted a saying: ”Words are like water, once wasted, they cannot be gathered again”.

We congratulated Chitra Sutton (J3) who was awarded a purple belt in her karate class and 3 medals in her first Irish Dancing Feis. Well done Chitra!

Our musical treat this week was an introduction by Ms. Fitzgerald of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s life and achievements. She explained that Wolfgang at the age of 5 years composed his first piece of music and at 12 years he wrote his first opera! We listened to parts of his Clarinet Concerto, his Concerto for French horn and his Serenade ‘Eine kleine Nachtmusik’. Many thanks to Ms.Fitzgerald. We congratulated Ava Murphy, Molly and Beth Childs with their fantastic results in their piano exams.  Well done girls!

At Thursday’s assembly Ms. Abrahamse talked about the life of St.Brigid one of Ireland’s patron saints. Brigid started a monastic settlement at Cill Dara (Kildare) for nuns as well as monks.  She was well known for her wisdom , generosity and her ability to settle disputes. People from all over Ireland came to see her and asked for her assistance. The monastery became a centre of learning and as a place well known for its art and beautifully copied manuscripts. Brigid died at Kildare in c 525.

Ms.Abrahamse completed the celebration of Brigid’s life at Friday’s assembly with the legend of ‘Brigid and the Wolf’, which relates her sense of fair play and generosity of spirit. We welcomed 2 T.P. students from the Froebel College on their observation day and said goodbye to the T.Y. students who have completed their work experience.

Many thanks to all the girls who participated in the sponsored swim on Tuesday and Thursday for ‘Habitat for Humanity’. Thanks also to the J.S. teachers who held a sponsored ‘skip’ a Wednesday’s lunch time for the same cause.

The birthday girls this week were: Jessica Smyth , Mrs. McInerney and Zoe Kelly. Many happy returns of your special day!

Parents please note that next Tuesday class for R.C. students is cancelled.

Our Minor team came 4th overall and our Junior term came 5th.  Also, congratulations to our six Spanish students (Cristina, Lucia, Elena, Ana, Lauia and Claudia) who competed in [...]]]> Congratulations to 1st year student Ruby Barlow on winning the Minor East Leinster cross country championship in Avondale House on Thursday, January 26th.  Well done Ruby!

Our Minor team came 4th overall and our Junior term came 5th.  Also, congratulations to our six Spanish students (Cristina, Lucia, Elena, Ana, Lauia and Claudia) who competed in unfamiliar conditions, in rain, galeforce winds and hail.

Well done to Louise McPhillips in 4th year who came 4th in her cross country race and qualifies for the Leinster inter pros race.

A big congratulations to our senior soccer term who won their cup semi-final 1-0 Vs Rathcoole. The match was played last Wednesday 25th in Peamount United Grounds.

It was played in windy conditions with Alex scoring in the 1st minute with a lovely composed finish by Caroline Healy aided by the wind, which gave Alex a 1-0 lead on Rathcoole at half time.

Playing against the strong winds in the 2nd half, Alex played counter attacking football, defending well and creating goal scoring opportunities. The game finished 1-0 to Alex. Best wishes to the girls in the final, which be held after the mocks.

Also congratulations to our Junior soccer team who won their Leinster Cup Junior semi-final against Loreto Navan on Friday, January 27th in Leixlip United Grounds.

Alex started the games slowly, falling a goal behind to an early strike from Loreto Navan. We gradually worked our way into the game but were still behind at half time.

We started the second half brightly dominating possession, culminating with a wonderful team goal from Emily Shannon who passed it to Aisling Nugent who played a lovely pass into Hannah Mc Dermott, who finished clinically.

Alex continued to pile on the pressure and with 5 minutes of play left, Caroline Healy unleashed a wondrous strike from 30 yards into the top corner of the goal.

The game finished 2-1 to Alex. Best of luck to the girls in the final, which will be held after the mocks.

Hannah Boyan 

This week in J6 we finished our novel, “Kensuke’s Kingdom” by Michael Morpurgo. We started a new project about aspects of the novel such as Nagasaki, Michael Morpurgo’s life, Japanese culture, survival tips, sea creatures and orang-utans. We have also started a new novel called ‘A man, a boy and a Fox’ by Matthew [...]]]>

This week in J6 we finished our novel, “Kensuke’s Kingdom” by Michael Morpurgo. We started a new project about aspects of the novel such as Nagasaki, Michael Morpurgo’s life, Japanese culture, survival tips, sea creatures and orang-utans. We have also started a new novel called ‘A man, a boy and a Fox’ by Matthew Sweeney. This book tells about a boy called Gerard who becomes friends with a homeless man and his pet fox.

This summer Ms Byrnes (J2 teacher) and Ms Evans (P.E teacher) are going to help a charity called Habitat for Humanity. This charity helps families in Africa to build a home. We are participating in a sponsored swim to raise money for this project. We have to swim as many lengths as we can in twenty minutes. The teachers did a sponsored skip while wearing a funny nose or beard. Well done to everyone who took part in the fundraising.

Written by the Liffey and Salmon family groups in J1

A Scratch game by Emma Ashmore (2nd Year). Use the left/right/up/down keys to move the mouse, avoid the cat and catch the cheese!

Scratch is a visual programming language.  Below is a screen shot of part of the code used to create this game.