The NCP Issue 3 Volume 20
A note from the editors We are delighted to be bringing you the latest version of the NCP. As always, we want to thank all our students who have submitted an article or contributed to this edition. The best part of our job is reading through everyone's wonderful pieces and seeing the amazing talent of the students at Newbridge College. We love to encourage young and talented students to showcase their potential and ability in writing. The school has overcome many challenges and achieved a lot in the past couple of weeks between the recent senior cup win, the new recycling campaign and other sport and academic achievements. None of this would be possible without the support of the school and its staff so we would love to say a big thank you to all. -Sophia Deasy, Sophie Byrne and Aoibhín Dunleavy
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T H E
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CONTENTS PAGE: E S T H E R
K N O C K S
O U T
G R E E N Y O U N G T H E
N E W B R I D G E N E W B R I D G E
C O M P E T I T I O N …
S C H O O L S
S C I E N T I S T
H I S T O R Y S A F E R
T H E
O F
2 0 2 2
V A L E N T I N E ' S
I N T E R N E T C O L L E G E C O L L E G E
D A Y
D A Y S W I M
H O C K E Y
T E A M T E A M
Congratulations to Eoghan Hearne on winning the Excalubur Cup last weekend and becoming the all Ireland U14 Champion in Fencing
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Esther knocks out the competition… Congratulations to Esther Ní Luain (Transition Year) on becoming Under 18 National Irish Champion on Friday 4th of February 2022. She is the youngest contestant to win this award. Esther dominated all through and the fight was stopped midway through the last round. Esther reached the finals after winning her last bout with a comprehensive win of 5-0. Esther now qualifies for selection for the National team to represent Ireland in the European youth championship this April in Sofia. Well done.
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Green Schools Newbridge College is hoping to tackle recycling in the College commencing on the Monday after the midterm. This is what will be happening: There will be approximately 30 new blue recycling bins placed around the school prior to the Monday that we return after the mid-term. The current cream bins will now be for general waste only. · The green bins in classrooms, which are generally used for paper can now also be used for all recycling materials (cans, bottles etc.) The grey bins in your classroom will continue to be used for general waste (facemasks, wipes, food etc.) There was also a used battery collection competition in which the first years won.
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There are also be collecting coloured round bottle tops from the plastic bottles in order to create a recycling art mural. Collection points are available around the school. Later in the year, when the weather warms up we will encourage a cycle/walk to work/school day. Obviously where feasible. Based on the success of this we hope to encourage both students and staff to cycle to school for often (Currently only 0.22% of the school population cycle to school!!!).
-The Green schools committee
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Young Scientist 2022 I was surprised when my project was accepted into the Young Scientist Competition and had the opportunity to represent the school. I had heard about it in primary and saw posters around the school, so I was excited about getting involved. My project was titled Acid Rain / Superabsorbent Polymer Beads (I know, a mouthful!!) but what I was looking for was the impact of Acid Rain on plant growth and whether stronger concentrations of it affected the plants more. I enjoyed the interview stage of the competition (and the fact that I missed class because of it!) as I had seen my whole project come together around that stage. And as an ice breaker for me and the judges interviewing me, I had the fact that my dog, Alfie, ate the plants I was growing in petri dishes! I would really recommend getting involved in it next year if you are interested in science, maths, or technology. It was a great experience and I’m definitely going to participate in.
BTYSTE 2023!
Written by Rian Hearne
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The History of Valentine's Day. What is Valentine’s Day? As you probably know, Valentine’s Day is an annual festival to celebrate love and friendship - by sending fragrant flowers, pleasing gifts and lovely cards to family, friends, and partners. It is celebrated all over the world on February 14. But how did all this start? Let me tell you the history of Valentine’s Day. There were many saints named Valentine, so we do not exactly know which one this festival is named after. But experts think the festival was named after Saint Valentines of Rome. During his time, Rome was ruled by Claudius II. Claudius thought that men would be better soldiers if they have no wives and families. Because of this, he banned marriage for any men who were a suitable age to be a soldier. .
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Saint Valentine didn't agree with this, so he decided to continue to marry young couples in secret, but he eventually got caught and out to death. During his days in jail, before he died, it is said that the couples he helped perform their marriages sent him flowers and cards to show their gratitude. Soon after that, Saint Valentine fell in love with a girl. Before the day he died, on February 14, he passed that girl a note and signed it with a ’From Your Valentine’. That's the history of Saint Valentines and I hope you enjoy it.
Written by By Jia Yan Lin
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A huge thank you to all our walkers and runners. Your efforts raised a total of €3680.00 for Women’s Aid! Well done to you all! We hope you keep running and walking and most of all having fun while you do so! Special thanks to Ms. Mulvey and Ms. Kelly for organising the wonderfully successful event. 🖤🤍 Congratulations to Julia Moore and Finnian King who have been selected to go to Israel to participate in the Student Voice OECD - 'The Future of Education and Skills' Conference. Their work will be included in the next OECD Education Report which focuses on curricula – both redesigning and implementing curricula to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Congratulations to Finnian and Julia on this incredible achievement.
Safer Internet Day Safer Internet Day aims to not only create a safer internet but also a better internet, where everyone is empowered to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively. For Safer Internet Day, Ms Kathryn Scully has TYs trained to have a workshop for first and second years, so they learn the benefits and risks of using the Internet. Preparations: So, Nadia Abdalla and I got trained to be Safer Internet Day Ambassadors by a team in Webwise. Webwise is the Irish Internet Safety Awareness Centre which is co-funded by the Department of Education. We started our training by attending zoom meetings. We had five zoom meetings in order to complete our training. In these zoom meetings we first learned about what Safer Internet Day is and we discussed how we were going to prepare and plan our workshop for Safer Internet Day. Once we were trained and had all our activities planned out, we needed to create a committee so we could train them and tell them exactly what activities they had to participate in. We created a committee consisting of fourteen members and five people on crowd control. At lunchtime, we had our committee meetings in Ms Scully’s classroom and there we went through what each groups activity/ job would be on the day of the workshop. Once we had the venue (the theatre), the times for each of the first- and second-year classes to arrive at and the materials for the activities for the workshop, we were ready for this day to begin.
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For the first years, we wanted to give them the basic insight on “Online Wellbeing” and “how to be safe online” as they weren’t taught about it Primary School due to COVID-19. The activities included: Profile Quiz Video Upstander/Bystander walking debate Digital stress For the second years we went into a lot more depth and talked about a lot more important topics they need to be aware of when using the Internet. The activities were: Data Footprint Video Digital Stress 08/02/2022: When the day arrived, we set up each of the stations for the activities in the Theatre by placing chairs in a circle, making sure we had chrome books, we had worksheets for groups who needed it, the lists of classes and wristbands we gave to each student. At 8:50, classes started to arrive and after around five minutes we alternated student groups so they could get to as many stations as possible. We had two first year classes in each forty minutes of the morning period until break. After break, the second years arrived. We had the same system as the first years except we had three second year classes for one forty-minute period. Our workshop concluded at Lunch. The day turned out great and we were all exhausted by the end. Looking back on our preparations, I think we should have a been a bit more prepared and not have let a few things so last minute. I want to thank Ms Scully for letting me participate in Safer Internet Day as I learned a lot and really enjoyed the experience. I also want to thank everyone in the committee for helping in the workshop. The day wouldn’t have happened without all of you ( Mary Liston, Maeve Lavelle, Tia Donovan, Jenny Farrelly, Ciara Ryan, Sarah Power, Skye Harkin, Maddie Langan, Lucy Hannon, Conor Flynn, Sophie Morrissey, Ruairi Munnelly, Calum Murphy, Dara Cosgrave, Éanna Sherlock and Todd Lawlor) . To all the first and second years, thanks so much for attending the workshop and we all hope you enjoyed it and learned something. 😊 by Leah Duane
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Newbridge College Swimming Team 2022 Congratulations and well done to the Newbridge College Swim Team who put in a tremendous performance in the Leinster Schools Swimming Championships in the National Aquatic Centre on Sunday (6th Feb) coming away with 2 team medals for the school. The girls won a Silver medal in the 200IM Relay with the team of Kallie Walsh TY (Backstroke), Roisin Duffy TY (Breaststroke), Julia Moore 6th Year (Butterfly) and Alyson Mahon TY (Freestyle). A Bronze medal was achieved in the 200 Freestyle relay for the team of Alyson Mahon (TY) Lily Crawford (3rd Year), Julia Moore (6th Year) and Kallie Walsh (TY). Competition among Leinster schools was tough so they did well to get two podium finishes. The other swim team members Tom Spollen (3rd Year) and Caroline Redmond (1st Year) put in fantastic performances in individual events. All swimmers proudly represented the College with some achieving Personal Bests and Qualification times for National Competitions. The Relay Team will now go on to represent Newbridge College at the all-Ireland Relay Competition which will take place in the NAC next month and a special thanks to their Team Manager Vivienne Mahon for organising the event. Well done and congratulations to all.
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Congrats to the Newbridge Hokey Team for making it to the finals in UCD!
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Thanks to Gerry gpfoto.ie for putting this together for our Senior Girls. #you’llnevercrossthebridge (video214.com)
'You are strong enough to handle your challenges, Wise enough to find a solution to your problems, And capable enough to do whatever needs to be done....' - Lori Deschene