The NCP The NCP

Editorial

AroundtheSchool:

Young Scientist

Girl's Hockey & Rugby - by Niamh Holland

Green Schools - By Isobel Connelly

Catholic Schools Week - By Oisín Conheady

Entertainment:

Library Prefect "Perfect Picks" - By Catherine

Logan, Juliette Hurley O’ Dwyer and Saoirse

Harris

Film Review - By Rachel O’Rourke

GeneralInterest:

For the Love of Camogie - By Niamh Holland

Valentine's Quiz - By Heidi Beary.

Special

Thank You to Ms. McCluskey

A very warm welcome everyone to the first edition of Newbridge College Press 2023. In this edition we continue to celebrate the passions of our pupils with honest and open insights. We explore how an interest piqued coupled with commitment and determination can lead to a place on the Kildare camogie team (well done Niamh!) and how we continue to prioritise with great energy and enthusiasm the Green Schools agenda with a great reminder on how each of us can contribute through smart use of bin designations. A huge congratulations to the second years who won the recent battery recycling competition. Well done everyone!

We are delighted to highlight the launch of the Newbridge College Drama Club which will give students a unique opportunity to explore and maybe uncover hidden talents. Who knows, we could have the next Saoirse Ronan or Paul Mescal gracing the halls of our school right now….. all roads lead to Ms. O’Connor who will be leading this brilliant new initiative and who has all the details. The breadth and depth of sporting talent at the school always feature strongly in our publication and we are delighted to include a wonder update on the recent successes of our ladies in both hockey and rugby. It is amazing to see this talent recognised at county and national levels and we are super proud of their individual and collective achievements. Also covered in this edition is a very insightful review of Matilda the Musical and some wonderful recommendations if you are looking for a book to read over midterm in our Library Perfect Picks.

We hope that you enjoy our latest edition and please don’t forget that we would love to hear from you if you’d like to share any interests, events or achievements across our Newbridge College Community!

Newbridge

College students take home awards from BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition

A Newbridge College student has won two awards in the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition held in the RDS.

Tara Mulhall achieved first place in the Senior Individual category for her project: Forecasting an individual's political leaning based off their social media profile.

Tara also won the Fr Tom Burke

Bursary Award.

Another Newbridge College pupil Emily Johnson won first prize in the Junior Individual category for her project: Optimising Wind Turbine Efficiency.

Well done to Ms. Davis, Mr. Walsh & all the students involved in the Young Scientist this Year, the College is extremely proud of you all.

Girls’ Hockey and Rugby

Girls’ sports are becoming more popular in the school because of how much more attention they are getting. As the senior cup team for hockey last year got to the final, I think it has encouraged younger girls, such as first years, to play it and see what they can achieve from it.

Rugby is becoming more popular for girls, as well. As Niamh Murphy, Heidi Lyons, Amy Rushton, and EmmaJane Wilson all got selected to be on the U18 Leinster Rugby Squad; this is a good promotion for girls’ rugby in Newbridge College.

As hockey being the most popular sport for girls in Newbridge College, it is no surprise that we have talented players representing our school. Kate Halford, Laura Halford and Sally Hannon were selected for the 2023 U16 Girls Leinster South Team and were selected to trial for the 2023 U16 Irish Girls Program. Lara Prendergast, Joy Duggan, Bebhinn Howard, Lucy Hannon, Jane Blake, Sophie Morrissey and Sally Glennon were all selected to be on the 2023 U18 Girls Leinster South Team. Lara Prendergast was selected to be on the 2023 Irish U18 Girls Program.

Congratulations to all players and the best of luck in the 2023 season!

Written by Niamh Holland.

GREEN GREEN GREEN SCHOOLS SCHOOLS SCHOOLS

Here at Green Schools, we are really trying to promote sustainability throughout our school. Well done to everyone for their wonderful work!

Just to reiterate, the BLUE BINS are for all recyclable materials (Paper, Cans, Bottles, Tinfoil, Popcorn packets, Crisp wrappers, Sweet wrappers) and the CREAM BINS are for all NON-recyclable materials (Food waste, Apple cores, Banana and Orange peels, Curry chip cartons). We have made this very clear with the SINAGE posted above each bin.

Remember - it only takes one person to ruin an entire bin!

We have just run a battery recycling competition which was very successful! Well done the second years for winning! The second years are currently continuing with our litter picking initiative and are very successful!!

Celebrating Catholic Schools Week in Newbridge College

The Prayer and Intention Trees

By Oisín Conheady

You may have noticed the beautiful trees in the social area, which were put there to celebrate Catholic Schools week here in Newbridge College.

Six trees were purchased on behalf of the school and each tree represented a specific year group, from 1st year to 6th year.

Why trees you might ask?

Well, historically trees have had a very important symbolic meaning. They are often considered to be a symbol of strength, endurance, youth, beauty, joy and magic.

The idea behind the prayer and intention trees was to give every student an opportunity to consider what their intentions might be for the week/month or even the year. Each student then wrote their intention down on a prayer and intention tag and placed it on their year groups’ tree in the social area.

Fr. Anthony has collected all the intentions and he is currently praying for them in mass. The long-term plan will be to plant the trees on the school grounds, so that we can enjoy them for many years to come.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

By J.K Rowling

Harry Potter is an orphan boy who lives with his aunt, uncle and cousin. Harry has a miserable life as his relatives treat him very badly, but one day, that all changes as letters start to appear for Harry. Harry’s aunt and uncle hide the letters, but on Harry’s 11th birthday a giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news. Harry is a wizard and has been offered a spot at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Changeling

By Helen Falconer

Aoife, an Irish teenager knows something is wrong when she spots a small child alone out on the heather. Little does she realise, that she is about to find out about a deeper, darker world right under her nose. Not only that, but her whole life is a lie….

Mary queen of Scots

Mary queen of Scots is one of the most romantic and tragic figures in history. But was her tragedy a product of bad luck, bad advice or ambition? If you want to learn about Mary and her family there are books titled “Mary queen of Scots “ and “The six wives of Henry viii”.

Mansfield Park

By Jane Austen

at the 19th century, this novel is about a character called Fanny Price. When Fanny goes to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, her life faces many changes. The size of their house, the extent of their land and the quality of their food are all extremely different to what she was used to. But there are also more important and perhaps less pleasant changes to face.

Written by Jane Austin

Matilda the musical

“Matilda the musical” is a new film based on the west end show “Matilda” based on Roald Dahls novel of the same name, if you are not familiar with Matilda already, it is a story about a girl who lives with her parents who are not very appreciative of her unique genius, she is sent to a school called Crunchem Hall where she meets cruel principal Mrs.Trunchbull.

As Matilda continues to show her incredible knowledge she grows a strong bond with her amiable teacher Ms.Honey. Matilda then utilises her newly developed telekinetic abilities to take down Mrs.Trunchbull and her unhinged activities such as swinging children around by their hair, putting them in a wooden chamber called “Chokey” and many other atrocities.

Many people would be disappointed to find that “Matilda the musical” is very different from its counterpart film titled “Matilda” by Danny DeVito but, these two films are very contrasting, with “Matilda the musical” obviously being a musical with an incredible score by Tim minchin, and “Matilda” not, if you go into watching “Matilda the musical” with the mindset that “this is going to be horrible and nothing will compare to the original”, you most likely won’t enjoy it, you really have to appreciate the fact it is a musical with breath taking dance scores,acting performances and songs derived from the stage adaption. I myself have seen the musical on the west end and can confidently say that this film does an incredible job of taking the true theatrical feel to the big screen which in the past has been proven hard to do with films such as “Cats” or “Dear Evan Hansen”. This is achieved with the screen play being done by the same man Dennis Kelly along with choreographer Ellen Kane, this film never loses its authenticity to its origin of Roald Dahl with bursting colours that are very appealing to the eye, along with costume design which really brings the presence of Dahl onto the big screen. It stars Alissa Weir from Dublin who with out doubt does an outstanding job of portraying Matilda, Emma Thompson had an amazing transformation to play Mrs.Trunchbull with the use of prosthetics she does a wonderful job bringing Trunchbull to life. I would definitely give this film 9/10 for the pacing could be better due to sometimes seeming as if the songs drag on but, as a fan of the musical I really never found any issues with that aspect. I definitely recommend this film as a family film for people of all ages to enjoy.

My passion for Camogie

By Niamh Holland

I started playing camogie when I was four years old with Moorefield GAA Club. At first, I didn’t quite enjoy it because I just wanted to stay at home and do whatever I wanted. However, after some encouragement from my parents, I started to become more interested in it and started practicing it at home with my dad and brother. As I was practicing more, I started to notice how good I was becoming at camogie. I was actually really enjoying training and matches now. After all those years of practice, I made it on to the Under-14 Kildare development team. Now, I am currently on the Under-15 Kildare county team.

I love camogie because of the skill it takes to play it. It would take at least a year to master it as a sport. You need to be able to jab lift, roll lift, try to hit the sliotar, then, try to hit the sliotar on the run, solo run and be able to tackle.

Hurling and camogie are the fastest land games in the world so, you would have to be quite fast and fit to play it.

I admire players and post-players like Anna Geary, Aisling Thompson and Rena Buckley. I look up to them because of their skill, motivation and dedication.

I never found camogie an easy sport to play. In fact, I like how it is quite difficult to master. I like the way it is a challenge and how it tests me. However, make no mistake about it, I do have many offdays and I get frustrated when things don’t go right for me.

One thing that I have learned though, is that practice makes perfect, (even if it is years of practice). Camogie is a challenging and skilful sport to master, but one that I am passionate about and enjoy playing.

If there is something you would like to see in upcoming issues of the NCP, or simply want a platform for your voice to be heard, why not come along to our next meeting, send us a message on Teams, speak with myself or call into Mr. Doyle in FL 1. Have a great mid-term