Newpark Newsletter - November 2016

Newpark Newsletter

Issue number 50 November 2016 Continued on page 9

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Mr Derek Lowry As you can see from this newsletter, it has been a very productive and busy term. The class of 2016 have moved on to a wide range of courses and activities. I hope that each student will find the right way forward, whether through a university, institute of technology, college of further education, apprenticeship or the world of work. This is not always easy and some may find that what they have chosen is not what they had expected. They should consider all their options carefully and seek out plenty of advice when contemplating a change of course.

In early September, the students returned to the school for the Debs reception hosted wonderfully as usual by the PTA. It was great to see such a large attendance and to hear so many students and parents speak so positively of their experience in the school.

This year Mr Gallagher has taken on the role of First Year leader and he and his five form teachers have welcomed in 144 new students. The transition from primary to secondary is always challenging but under the guidance of Mr Gallagher they have made an excellent start. One of the keys is to become involved in the many extra-curricular activities available. This helps students to meet other First Years and students from other years who share a common interest.

Through this lasting friendships can develop.

There are also several new students who have started in Second to Sixth Year. This too can be a challenging time. I hope that you all feel settled and accepted in the school community and will enjoy your time in Newpark.

I also want to welcome the staff who have joined the school this year. Laura Morrissey is teaching English, Maria O’Donnell is teaching History and Geography, Róisín Murphy is teachng music and Sinead Whelan is replacing Lilian Whooley who is on maternity leave. Avril Rankin and Joanne Cavanagh have joined our team of Special Needs Assistants.

The Transition Year students received their Junior Certificate results on the 14th September and again performed very well. It was very heartening to see the increased number of students attempting the higher level across a wide range of subjects. It is important that students continue to strive to improve and learn from the experience.

Self-evaluation is a very necessary learning tool at a personal, team and school level. We need to develop a culture of reflection and evaluation to assess what we are doing well and what can be improved upon. Through the School Self Evaluation process, we continue to look at different aspects of the school life with a view to improving learning and teaching.

Towards the end of last year we examined the quality of feedback to students through surveys of students and teachers. From this we have developed the School Improvement Plan for 2016-17 which outlines targets to improve the quality and effectiveness of feedback.

Studies show that this is one of the most crucial elements in improving learning. Both the School 2

Self Evaluation and the School Improvement plans are available on the school website. The school is also focusing on improving the experience of students in Transition Year. We are in the second year of the improvement plan for TY. The focus on improving the numbers passing in TY was achieved. There was also a significant improvement in the level of communications with parents. Through the app and the e-bulletin we aim to continue this improvement.

This year we are involved in a pilot project with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. The focus is on the production of an eportfolio which will be a record of the work each student has done in TY. As with any pilot project, this is a learning experience for all involved, teachers, students and the NCCA. It should help develop students’ IT skills and give them an early introduction to a common feature of college assessment.

As part of previous years’ improvement plans, we continue to support literacy through the Book in the Bag scheme. All students in First to Transition Year should have a book in their bag to read for pleasure.

Parents should also encourage their daughters/sons to read for pleasure at home. Reading helps widen the vocabulary and benefits many school subjects.

As you will all be aware, the industrial relations environment in secondary schools is currently very difficult. Hopefully by the time this newsletter is published a resolution will be found to enable schools to focus on their core business of learning and teaching without interruption.

It is especially important that the issues around the new Junior Cycle Student Awards programme are resolved. The whole thrust of the new Junior Cycle will improve the level of student engagement in their own learning. The inability of school management to properly engage with the programme is a source of real frustration. When this issue is resolved, school management can engage with teachers, students and parents to devise a programme which will offer creative, innovative and challenging opportunities for all students. The sooner this can be done the better.

Finally, I want to acknowledge all the activities that went into making our Green Week such a success.

This type of focused week on a theme has an important role in raising awareness. The problem of the sustainability of our planet is a key one which affects us all. We must examine the legacy being passed on to the children in our primary and secondary school classrooms. Every individual can make a contribution to sustaining the planet for future generations. It was great to see subject departments using the opportunity to teach topics related to the environment in their classes. This is an important and effective way to encourage a more lasting impact in educational terms.

I want to thank Ms Achari, Ms O’Dwyer and the Green Schools Committee for all their hard work in putting the programme together.

Finally, I want to thank all students, teachers and parents for their contributions to a very busy and productive first half term.

Green Week 2016 Our Green Committee organised for Newpark to participate in Green Week from the 24th to the 28th of October.

We started off with a raffle on the Monday - Green Transport Day. Every student who had travelled to school in an eco-friendly way was awarded a ticket and the winner (Cian Burt 1AL) was announced over the intercom.

This was followed on the intercom by an amazing live performance from the Sixth Year music class singing A Wonderful World to raise awareness for the environment.

Throughout the day Transition Year students took part in SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland) workshops. The workshop taught us the upsetting facts regarding our energy usage and unfairness in resource distribution in this world. This woke us up to the reality of the world’s poorly distributed resources and the waste we are creating daily by doing things we don’t spare a thought on.

Working interactively in groups, we took roles as different ministers in government and discussed sources of renewable energy and their pros and cons, then presented our proposals to compete for a grant.

Reduce Energy Day followed on Tuesday. The film Racing Extinction was screened and students from all years wrote pledges. The feedback was good; many students found it moving and thought-provoking.

Volunteers planted late blooming flowers around the school for bees to raise awareness and act on part of the biodiversity initiative; this was a well received and enjoyable event.

Due to the ASTI strike, Eat No Meat Day was also incorporated into Tuesday. A raffle took place for those who didn’t have meat in their lunches – we wanted to highlight the fact that meat production leaves a big carbon footprint in the world.

On Wednesday, staff and students were encouraged to use as few sheets of paper as possible during lessons, reducing waste and taking the environment into consideration. After school, a candle holder making session was facilitated to encourage ‘upcycling’ gifts.

On Friday, to end Green Week nicely, a nonuniform, wear green day was hosted. Games were held throughout the day (including Green Kahoot and Guess the Price) and a collection managed by students was set up to help those most affected by climate change. An Eco-Unesco Workshop was also held for Second Years to promote and educate on sustainability.

Talented Transition Year bands and music students performed an impressive live pop-up concert in the music room to promote Green Week and spread awareness with songs relating to the environment.

Throughout the week, a Fact of the Day competition was managed by a Transition Year student on our Green Committee. There were exceptional entries on vast themes to win the momentous prizes.

Our first Green Week was a major success and very enjoyable for those organising and taking part.

Newpark’s collective attitude was reinvigorated after the week of events.

Teresa Xu, Transition Year

Congratulations to Thomas Morelli, winner of the Green Digital Media Competition.

Images below are from his prize winning comic strip

Upcycling Engineers

Engineering classes took on an upcycling challenge. They found new life and added value for items like bike parts, CDs, a rake and spare lego pieces.

Even the trophy was upcycled!

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Marine Biology Lecture On the Tuesday of Green Week, all fifth years doing biology got a lecture from Joan Hannon, a marine biologist. For those who don’t know, she was a teacher in Newpark until about three years ago. She had worked as a marine scientist out at sea for five years, but she never got her sea legs so she became a science teacher instead. Now she is still in touch with people who work in marine science and is still very much interested in it.

In the past, our fishing methods were simple and not damaging for fish stocks, but now with more modern fishing methods (for example trawlers that sense fish shoals with radars) we could easily take everything out of the sea. We have to restrict the amount of fish that we catch, especially considering that the demand for seafood will only increase due to population growth. By 2025, there could easily be 8.1 billion people on Earth.

In 1950, 20 million tons of fish were consumed in total worldwide, but in 2010, 130 million tons were consumed. Throughout the twentieth century we caught fish much too fast, pushing fish stocks such as cod to the brink of extinction. Ireland has fishing rights to a huge area of sea compared to other countries in the European Union. It has one of the largest sea to land ratios of any EU country, so we have a huge responsibility.

Ireland has been commended in Copenhagen for handling this role well.

The government and college departments now work with the fish industry to help it sustain the marine environment. Fishermen are willing to do this because they realise that descendants who continue their fishing business will need to be able to find enough fish. The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) aims to stop overfishing completely by 2020. It has closed entire parts of the ocean to fishermen so the endangered fish stocks there can recover. However, there are fish-pirates who still go into this water. If they are caught, they are fined, their equipment is confiscated and they are not allowed to go back out.

The CFP protects stocks by giving rules, reducing the fishing fleet, funding research and ensuring quality.

Some trawlers used to chuck loads of fish back into the sea because it was not the type they were looking for—this waste is called bycatch. If the fish was not the target species, it would’ve been just discarded and wasted. Not even other fish would’ve eaten it because it would’ve been rotten by then. I don’t think it would be a very pleasant sight to see tons of dead fish floating around in the sea. The CFP introduced Landing Obligation, which meant that the fishermen had to keep what they had caught, and were only allowed a certain amount. This made them try to make money from all the fish they end up catching.

There’s goodness in more types of fish than just tuna and salmon.

We can contribute to sustaining fish stocks in the oceans when we buy fish, by asking if they have any sustainable fish for sale. Even if they don’t have any, it might enter their mind to put some in stock. I 4

really think Joan Hannon ended the lecture well by telling us how we can help. As with many environmental issues in the world today, this problem of overfishing can be solved much more easily when every individual tries their hardest not to contribute to the problem, and works to do their bit in the right direction.

Thomas Morelli, Fifth Year

Green Transport Day

We launched Green Week by looking at the theme of going places and how we get there. Transport makes up 13% of global CO2 emissions so it is a vital area for us to tackle. In 2012, 70.4% of journeys were individual people driving cars and only 6% of cars had people carpooling. We can see that our use of public transport is very poor.

At the start of the day we surprised people by handing out raffle tickets to everyone who travelled to school using green transport. Our goal here was to immediately surprise and congratulate people who made an effort. Several teachers talked about transport in their classes. Hopefully this combined approach should help the message sink in.

All of the Transition Year Students also had workshops with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland about how we generate power as well as how third world nations can tackle climate change in an affordable way.

Dan Hatter, 4TC

Planting for Pollination On Tuesday of Green Week Transition Year students doing community action with Green Schools Newpark took a slice of time with Mr Hollwey to increase the biodiversity of Newpark.

One of the core concepts of Green Schools is biodiversity and ecology. We wanted to develop the biodiversity in Newpark. Our main goal was to plant shrubs and flowers that help bees and pollination in general.

Mr Hollwey carefully selected the flora to be used and delivered the plants to the school on Tuesday of Green Week. Just after lunch the team assembled. Mr Hollwey gave an introduction to gardening to the TY students and demonstrated how to plant these plants properly.

We targeted three different areas: the flowerbed in front of the practical workshops, the ground between the music centre and the car park and the border of school grounds north of the astroturf.

The students enjoyed the event and we hope to do it again in the future.

Look out for the new plants around the school - we hope that both people and bees will take time to appreciate our efforts!

Dan Hatter 4TC

The Cost of Tea and Toast!

During Green Week each of the Transition Year groups had a workshop on sustainable energy. They were given by An Taisce in conjunction with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

The speaker talked to us about energy, sustainability of energy and the types of sustainable energy. We talked about tea and toast in relation to the amount of energy used to create them from transportation energy to and from the shop and the production place to packaging costs. The heating of the tea and toast uses electricity which probably came from burning coal’s energy. It was a good exercise for us to realise how much energy goes into the production of goods and where it comes from, green or not.

Next we were assigned a country and had to choose what type of energy we were going to use in that country. People had to act as finance, tourism and agriculture ministers and one as a spokesperson. The group then had to present the project to a “UN board”.

The best would receive a grant. We got Alaska as our “country”. We read through all the facts and decided on wind energy as our source as Alaska has a lot of open space with room for wind farms and a near constant wind.

Other examples of countries were Denmark, Bangladesh and Mali.

All the groups gave presentations; Bangladesh was awarded the grant as they needed it the most.

Overall it was an enjoyable and different workshop, and provided us with another way of looking at green energy.

Oisín O’Sullivan, Transition Year

Reading the Futures For Green Week English classes from first to sixth year were invited to create glimpses (positive and negative) of our future world.

All of their verbal and visual responses were displayed in a colourful exhibition spanning all three storeys of the school.

The NOMAD Football Cage On Friday, 28th of October, three members from the Nomad Cage Football, under the Youth for Christ Ireland (YFC) came to Newpark to talk about the environment during Green Week and how God wants us to be better stewards and take care of nature more for the future.

The Cage is the main attraction, allowing young people to play a 2-on-2 football game called Pana-knockout, a game based on skill, control and communication. The cage can be erected anywhere with a flat surface, a school playground or in a sports hall. Strict Health and Safety procedures are adhered to when using the soccer cage, which is manned by the Nomad team and clear rules were outlined before each session begins. All classes were able to try this exciting game getting some advice in the process.

During the cage and coaching sessions, the Nomad Ireland team (comprised of members Simon, Recco and Liam) delivered their My Life programme looking at the following three areas of life: our priorities, our values and our goals. Using a mixture of life coaching and storytelling techniques the Nomad Team engaged every person in each class in a discussion that will help them better understand life and the Christian faith. Their example was based on passing the football and an egg. They said that with a football, you didn’t need to be careful when passing it, but the egg was fragile and might break if you weren’t careful. The same could be said about our environment and what we’re doing to it that may destroy it or prevent its destruction.

They also cover topics like; bullying and inclusion, health and wellbeing and dealing with prejudice through their “Life-boat” workshop.

During the 2-minute sessions, we saw a lot of magic being performed in that Cage, including rabonas, nutmegs, step-overs and other skill moves to confuse and pass through the opposition. Even more so, some spectacular goals were scored despite the small size of the goals! “I highly recommend this different approach for curricular support, extracurricular activities or retreat days”, said Ms Rowan on their official website.

For more information, you can visit nomad.yfc.ie and follow their Instagram for more daily updates @cagesoccerirl!

Shawn Lorenzo, 2CBR 5

The All Ireland Schoolboy Championships

From the start of this season the Senior Boys’ hockey team prepared enormously for the All Ireland Schoolboy Championships. From the very beginning it was clear that preparation was one of the key factors that Simon Lowry, our coach, was going to implement into our game. Pre-season training got underway in late August and gave us an idea of the kind of dedication and commitment needed to succeed. We sacrificed our Wednesdays for training as well, if we didn’t have any matches that week.

In early October, we played in the All Ireland qualifiers and won both our games (4-0 versus Sandford and 3-0 versus Columbus).

We were extremely excited for what was to come especially because we had come so close last year to qualifying.

However, the real challenge was ahead of us.

In the run up to the tournament we got the news that we were in a group with Campbell College from Belfast, Ashton from Cork and Wallace from Lisburn. We had never played against any of them before so we didn’t know what to expect, except that they would be tough games.

Simon made up a timetable for us to stick to throughout the three-day tournament with an emphasis on doing everything as a team. Even though the competition was being held in Dublin and we could have just showed up to the games and gone home afterwards, Simon felt we deserved a proper All Ireland experience. Each day was planned with the team in mind, something we are all very grateful for because it really made the whole experience extremely enjoyable.

Our first match was on Wednesday 26th October at Newpark against Ashton. Earlier that morning we had a delicious team breakfast in the Meagher household followed by our team talk and warm up. I don’t think we were ever more ready to win a game, but unfortunately it proved to be an incredibly frustrating one. We created so many chances throughout the whole match and dominated it 6

from the first whistle (Ben Mayberry, our goalkeeper never had to touch the ball) but we were just unable to put anything in the net. 0–0 was the end result disappointing but not the end of the world because we still had a very good chance of getting through to the semi finals.

After the match, we all walked up to Leisureplex in Stillorgan and played some pool which was fun. Then we met up with Simon and ate dinner in Mao, after which we came back to Newpark, watched our game and went over its positives and negatives.

After that we just relaxed, played some Fifa and went home at about 9:30 pm to get a good night’s rest for an early start.

Thursday proved to be a very decisive day for us. After drawing in our last game, we had to win both of our next matches which were to be played on the same day. Our game versus Campbell kicked off at 10:45 am. We got off to a good start, but once again our forwards (myself included) were just unable to put any goals away. With only minutes left, Campbell scored the only goal of the game and there was no comeback. 1–0 was the end result: to say we were disappointed is an understatement.

We had another game to play, so we picked ourselves up and accepted our defeat, but we didn’t want to end this tournament with no wins. We put everything into our next game versus Wallace, the favourites in our group. With our best performance of the competition, Luke Adams managed to nab a goal in the second half and secure the win. We didn’t get past the group stages but it was very important to us that we ended on a high note. Winning against the team that eventually went through to the semi finals tells a lot about the level of hockey we are capable of playing.

That evening we met up at the Talbot Hotel for the All Ireland dinner with the other sixteen teams competing from around Ireland. The dress code was formal, Simon told us. We thought: we’re Newpark,

we have to bring it up a level. Four of us showed up wearing braces, with Andrew Meagher stealing the show with a green jacket, top hat and a piano tie to top it all off. The rest wore various quirky attire, including

I’d like to thank the players for their commitment, hard work and dedication to the team and I look forward to continuing to build on what we have achieved so far.

I would also like to thank the parents for their help and support and in particular the Meagher family for hosting breakfast for eighteen in their house each morning - something that the lads and I both really enjoyed and appreciate.

Simon Lowry, coach

Boys’ Hockey

an eclectic collection of ties. It was a very fun evening to say the least.

The next day we played our final match, a friendly play off against Royal and Prior/Raphoe. This was probably one of the most fun games we’ve ever played. With both teams wrecked from the previous two days, we all just had a bit of craic with laughs all around. We won that game 2–1.

On behalf of the whole hockey team I would like to give a huge thank you to all the supporters who came to watch our games; it was greatly appreciated.

I’d also like to thank Jonny Codd for the huge amount of dedication he put into our training sessions, Jonny McCormack for his expertise in first aid, Mark Cullen for his various ‘physio’ jobs (like hosing the pitch), and Mr Breaden and Mr Cookman for organising the matches at Newpark. Also a huge thank you to the Meagher household for somehow hosting a delicious breakfast for the whole team three days in a row and, of course, thank you to Simon Lowry for putting in so many hours and so much effort into this team.

Without Simon our level of hockey wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is now; we couldn’t have asked for a better coach.

Congratulations to Simon Lowry and the Boys Senior team on their excellent performance in the All Irelands Schoolboy Tournament in October. This is a very prestigious tournament which Newpark last won in 1996/97. It was great to see Newpark back in this competition.

Huge congratulations to Ewan Ramsay and Luke Adams who played for Ireland in Belgium during the summer. Both players have been selected again for this year’s U18 Leinster team.

Tom Brophy, Sixth Year

A Word from the Coach The All Ireland’s was a new experience for this group of players, with none of our current squad having ever participated in the competition before. Despite this, the lads competed hard in the group stage and put in three excellent performances, unfortunately learning a tough lesson that if you don’t convert chances into goals, you don’t get the results you deserve.

Conceding just one goal in three games, along with securing a 1-0 victory over Wallace who are regarded as the second best team in Ulster, highlights how this team deserves to be playing at the highest level of Irish School’s hockey.

David Murphy and Evan Rankin have been selected to play for Leinster U16. Both teams will play in the Interpro tournament in Belfast this November.

Boys Hockey Training schedule Senior Boys:- Monday and Friday 5-6pm Junior Boys-: Monday and Friday 5-6pm Minor Boys-: Tuesdays 5-6 and Fridays 4-5 1st Year Boys: Tuesday and Friday 4-5pm

Coach: Simon Lowry Coach: Mark Cullen Coach: Johnny McCormack Coaches: Kevin Mellot and Daire Hibbert

All details about hockey training and matches are on the Newpark app and website. All boys’ teams compete in the Leinster leagues and cups.

Carl Breaden, Newpark Hockey

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Girls’ Hockey This year Newpark has six girls’ hockey teams.

Ms Cameron and Ms McCarthy coach the first years on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first year league has yet to start but the teams have done very well in their 8-aside friendlies so far. Anna Richardson coaches the minors on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The team are currently in first place in their section of the Minor 1 league having been promoted after an exciting win in the final last year.

Ms Raynor and Ms Delaney coach the junior team on Mondays and Thursdays. They are also in first place in their section of the Junior 1 league at the moment.

The seniors are expertly coached by Jonathan Cole and Newpark alumni Lorena HalpinDoyle, also on Mondays and Thursdays. They are fifth in the Senior 1 league at the time of writing.

All of this success is greatly helped by the TY community action students who have chosen to give their time to help support hockey in Newpark. We couldn’t do it without them!

Ms Siona Cameron

Sporting Welsh Visitors

On the morning of Saturday 22nd of October, Newpark played four hockey and rugby matches against Christ College, a day and boarding school who had travelled all the way from Wales.

Well done to the minor girls who won their hockey match 2-1 and the junior girls who lost 4-0 both teams played great!

Both under 14s and junior boys won their rugby matches.

After the matches all eight teams (hosts and visitors) went to the GPA for a reception with lots of nice food. Students from the two schools got on very well and overall it was a very good day!

Iona Philips, 2nd Year

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World Class Sailing

To say that my summer was a busy one would be an understatement. I competed in regional, national and international sailing events, experiencing an awful lot of our country, and parts of Europe in doing so. From Schull in West Cork, to Dun Laoghaire, to Kiel in northern Germany…

To put it into a bit of perspective, I sail in the ‘Laser’ class. This has been an Olympic class for many years, and was the source of an Irish silver medal in the Rio Olympics for Annalise Murphy, who is a coach of mine.

With an Irish ranking of 3rd in the Laser 4.7 class (Under 18s), I got to represent Ireland at the 2016 Laser 4.7 Youth World Championships. This was definitely one of the highlights of my life so far. It took place at the 1972 Olympic venue in Kiel. During the event, thanks to sailing against the world’s best, and my coach, I developed a lot both tactically, and physically! I ended up top 100 out of 270, the second best Irish boy out of eight.

The best part of the trip for me was sharing an invaluable experience with some really good friends on the team. We spent a lot of time with competitors from all around the world, in an atmosphere off the water which was full of the most fun I have ever had.

As for on the water, fun was to be had … but in not such a relaxed way!

Toby Hudson Fowler, Transition Year

Newpark Rugby 2016

Park, East Glendalough and Marian College and after three rounds remain unbeaten.

The McMullen Cup begins for them on Wednesday 16th of November against Sandford Park in Newpark: they would welcome all the support they can get.

Mr Andrew Adams

Great Start for First Year Rugby

The rugby season has had its usually busy start. The first year team has recruited 21 players to date and they have had an excellent start to the rugby experience in Newpark. They retained the Aviva Cup—an inter schools’ competition- beating a strong Sandford Park side in the final.

It is always a fast learning curve for new players as the move from the 10-a-side game to 15s comes very quickly. However, that said, the team this year has made a very solid start beating a strong St Andrew’s team in only their second game of the 15-aside format under the guidance of Mr O’Farrell and Tim Clifford.

Any boy wishing to start playing rugby is still very welcome to come join in on a Monday and Thursday after school.

The second years have had a difficult start to the season as the number of boys playing dropped resulting in a number of their games being cancelled.

However, Saturday 22nd October saw a number of these same players return to play in an excellent win over Christ College from Wales. Hopefully now this means the team is back on track and along with the touring experience gained on the rugby trip to France (see below), they can kick on and have a great season.

The Juniors have had an excellent start to their league winning three games from three and are heading for a play-off semi-final. Again this year, the bulk of the team travelled to Soustons in southwest France to train and play a few games against schools from other countries—always an enriching experience.

This was endorsed on home turf when Newpark hosted Christ College at both rugby and hockey at second and third year levels. Many thanks to the PTA who provided a reception with lots of goodies which allowed all players to meet and chat afterwards—this event really enhanced a very positive experience for all students/parents/teachers involved.

Hopefully this relationship between Christ College and Newpark and can continue to grow into the future.

Finally, the Senior team have had a difficult start to the season which has meant that they had to withdraw from their league competition because the numbers playing have dropped so severely. They have instead competed in a 10’s competition with Sandford

First Year rugby has got off to a great start. We have a very talented squad of twenty-one players. Our very first match was in the Aviva Cup where we played tena-side. At that stage we only had seventeen players so two second years had to play with us to form two teams. We did really well but unfortunately my team only made it to the semi-finals. The other team made the final against Sandford Park.

In the final Newpark were winning and then when Ben Phelan was making a run, two Sandford lads who tried to tackle him clashed heads and were both knocked out. The game ended because of this but we still won 10-0 so Newpark retained the Aviva cup for the fifth year in a row.

We started playing full pitch around the end of September. Another big match for us was when we played our local rivals, St Andrew’s. The teams were evenly matched but in the end we pulled ahead by a few tries to win the game.

It has been a very good start to the season. Mr O’Farrell and Timmy are very good coaches and we would like to thank them for giving their time to teach us rugby.

Leo Faulkner, First Year

Rugby Teams on Tour 31 rugby players from Second and Third year took a trip to Soustons in the south of France for four days of rugby and team building just before mid-term.

We stayed in a sports campus which specialises in rowing and rugby.

Two other schools were staying there with us: Temple Carrig from Greystones and a school from Paris.

Continued on next page

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Basketball

Rugby Trip to Soustons Continued from page 9

During the trip the Newpark teams played three rugby matches as well as having a lot of fun. There were non -rugby activities like a High Wire course on the campus and surfing and body boarding nearby as the camp was only a ten-minute drive from the sea.

On the last day we went to Jerome’s—a restaurant in Biarritz run by a previous captain of the French rugby team.

It was fun spending time with the team and the activities were great. Thanks to Mr Quigley, Mr McCarthy and James Macklin for bringing us on the trip.

Cameron Ramsay & Ben Marnell, Second Year

The basketball season started in early September.

It is fantastic to see so many students participating in basketball. New players are still welcome any day.

Matches have started for Under 19 and 16 boys and girls. Newpark will participate in both the South Dublin League and the Basketball Ireland League this year, which will result in a lot more games. Support is really appreciated at the games. 1st and 2nd year games will start after Christmas.

Results The under 16 and 19 boys played St. Michaels on Monday 17th of October. Hard luck to the under 16s who narrowly lost and well done to the senior team on their win.

Under 16 girls had a great win over Holy Child Killiney winning 33 – 26.

Under 19 and 16s girls have played a lot of games so far this year, including Sion Hill, Rathdown,

R o c k f o r d Man or and Holy Child Killiney.

W e l l done to all the players and c o a c h e s involved with all teams.

A special thank you to the coaches who give up their free time to coach a team during the year. I wish you all huge success this year.

Ms Costello Basketball training times: Monday: Boys (2nd Year upwards) Tuesday: 2nd year girls and Under 16 girls Wednesday: 1st year boys and girls Thursday: Under 19 girls Friday:

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Boys (2nd Year upwards)

Coach: Dean Rowe Coach: Ms Costello Coach: Ms O’ Farrell Coach: Ms Steele Ms Delaney Coach: Dean Rowe

Swimming The school enters an annual gala hosted and funded by schools affiliated to the CCSSCA. Training is available for students with lane swimming from 8-8.30am in the mornings.

In addition, there is a FREE swim for Newpark students every Wednesday afternoon. We are really fortunate to have a pool and encourage more students to use the facility.

Up-to-date information on the above activities on training and competitions will be available on school app and on the noticeboards beside classG3.

Health and Fitness Ambassadors

First Year Swimming Gala On the 5th of October, the 5th year LCA students invited all First Year students to participate in the annual Swimming Gala. Every year, Mr Kelly and the LCA class organise a First Year gala as part of the LCA’s Active Leisure module.

First year boys and girls compete with each other and race in heats that include Front Crawl, Breast Stroke and the Back Stroke.

The winners from each heat were then pooled together to compete against each other in a grand final. The atmosphere was electric as all other first years attended and screamed in excitement for their class mates. It was the first major event the first years had attended as a year group in Newpark.

It was a cold crisp September morning at the Irishtown Stadium. Our taxi driver deposited Patrick Gilceava, Sadbh O Loan, Robyn Bolger, Cameron Ramsay, Oisín Kelly and Avalon Ryan at the front entrance. We were excited as we had some idea that we were going to promote health and fitness with a sponsor, Irish Life Health.

We didn’t know what we had to do or who we were going meet. Luckily Ms Ormond had reminded us about the cross country mile and the beep test which we complete in school every year. We had previously researched the school results and had some facts to talk about. A reporter asked us some questions about our level of fitness. Oisín Kelly has written an article about the beep test that is included in the newsletter.

Two ambassadors for Irish Life Health, Thomas Barr and Aisling Thompson, met with us and

One first year, Ben Phelan, was seen to have an amazing talent and it is said that he swims for a very good swimming club. He could be one to watch in the future Olympics!!!

Thank you to all of the first year students who got involved in our gala and to all teachers who attended and helped out on the day. Congratulations to all the winners.

5th Year LCA

Latest Cross Country Results Well done to the following students who competed in the Blackrock College Cross Country competition on Wednesday 16th of November.

Minors: Zoe Whelan, Sophie MvEvoy (21st place), Jarvis Hodkinson, Maeve Farragher (20th place), James Berney, Suff Edris (30th place), Lucy Geoghegan, Luca Knight (3rd place), Robyn Bolger (7th place), and Cameron Ramsey (2nd place).

Juniors: Hugh Larsen came 8th, and in the Intermediate category Oisín Kelly came 2nd.

we were photographed a lot. For one shot we ran towards photographers which is actually quite difficult to do with a constant smile on your face!

After the clicking of cameras, we were led to a room where we enjoyed delicious smoothies and fruit.

It was a great morning and an honour to meet with two of our country’s top athletes. Thomas Barr came fourth in the 400m hurdles in the 2016 Rio Olympics and Aisling Thompson is captain of the winning Cork camogie team.

Robyn Bolger & Cameron Ramsay 2nd Year, Ms Ormond

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Athletics Athletics training starts after the hockey season is finished—usually after St Patrick’s weekend. Training takes place after school on the astro-turf pitch.

There are two main competitions during the schools’ athletic season:  The East Leinsters from which students can progress to the Leinsters. Ultimately this can lead to the All Irelands schools’ event. Last year we were delighted to have a Newpark student representing Leinster in the Senior Boys’ high jump event in the All Irelands.  The CCSSCA (Community and Comprehensive Schools) athletics competition, better known as Santry, takes place on the second Thursday in May. This year it will be on the 11th May.

Cross Country Each year the school enters students into the Community and comprehensive schools’ sports and cultural association (CCSSCA) held in Phoenix Park.

We also enter the East Leinster cross country races and to date Newpark students have reached Leinster level.

Training takes place on Tuesday mornings at 7.30am.

Students meet with a member of staff at the front gate of the school.

Leinster Schools Championship Well done to the students who took part in the 2016 Leinster Schools Championship on Wednesday, the 19th of October in Athlone.

Two Newpark students competed in the combined events competition, Patrick Gilceava and Maeve Farragher. Events open to them were 60m hurdles, shot, long jump, 800m, high jump for girls and 200m for boys.

Patrick Gilceava was 14th out of 28 competitors and Maeve was 14th out of 60 competitors – congratulations to both.

CCSSA Cross Country On the 20th of October Newpark athletes took part in the Comprehensive Schools Cross Country event.

Seven people competed for the school ranging from first year to third year. These were Daan O’Loughlin Hendricks (1st year), Maeve Farragher (1st year), Leo Faulkner (1st year), Robyn Bolger (2nd year), Mark Fahy (3rd year), Oisín Kelly (3rd year) and Doug O’Sullivan (3rd year).

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Cross Country team: Doug Sullivan, Mark Fahy, Oisín Kelly, Leo Faulkner, Dan O'Loughlin, Maeve Farragher, Robyn Bolger and Ms Cameron

We met down in the GPA after reg and were given our singlets. Our photo was taken and we left for the Phoenix Park. On the way to the park we were looking for the Papal Cross when we happened to stumble across a herd of deer; there must have been at least a few hundred. It was amazing, there were stags fighting really close to the car!

After driving around the Park we finally found the Papal Cross. We all walked the course together and warmed up. The first year girls were first to race and Maeve Farragher came fifth. Next Daan and Leo ran in the first year boy’s race but unfortunately both Leo and Daan were injured. Robyn ran in the second year girl’s race and came fifth. Oisín, Doug and Mark did really well in the third year boy’s race. Oisín came first which was great and Mark came fifth.

Overall it was a fantastic day and we would like to thank Ms Cameron and Ms Ormond and the parents who provided lifts.

Leo Faulkner 1st year

The Beep Test The Beep Test was devised in 1983 in Canada. It is a fitness test that measures aerobic capacity and it is used by police, fire brigades and military forces to track fitness. For those who don't know, the Beep Test is a running test where the participant runs 20m back and forth in time with beeps, which steadily get faster.

We, in Newpark, have been doing the Beep Test for the past few years as part of the school’s Fitness Challenge, which is currently sponsored by Irish Life. We have had massive success in doing this challenge.

A total of 404 students participated last year.

Last year, 80% of first year boys achieved a score above the national average; an amazing achievement. Over 2/3 of every single year group improved or stayed the same throughout the year.

65% of third years improved from their first Beep Test in first year to their second in third year.

These facts show how the Beep Test not only helped Newpark stay fit, but helped us become one of the fittest schools in the country. We have become recognised as a school that has a good reputation for health and fitness. Everyone can be very proud to be part of this school and long may we keep up this reputation.

Green Schools Committee The green schools committee meets every Thursday in G1 at lunchtime.

Whilst junior classes elect representatives, all interested students are welcome. It is for anyone who cares about life of all kinds on this planet, and sustainability for everyone into the future.

Bring your lunch and be prepared to get involved in trips, campaigns, conferences and so much more.

Drama A huge group of first and second years have been coming to junior drama after school. The day changes so that everyone gets the chance to participate when they can.

All are welcome.

Upcoming dates Tuesday 22/11 4-5pm Wednesday 30/11 1.30 - 2.30pm Auditions will be held in December for the junior plays. The junior plays are a collection of short plays directed by fifth years with first and second year actors.

Auditions for the One Act Drama Festival play will also be held soon. Actors from Fifth Year and Transition Year are invited to audition.

Check the drama notice board (outside M4) or see Ms Devis for further details.

Lego Club Lego Club is open every Wednesday at small break in T15. All are welcome!

Lego Club offers a fun and relaxed time to make, invent and play with Lego alongside fellow Lego lovers. Feel free to pop along to see what it’s all about!

Jewellery Making Jewellery making and beading workshops take place every Friday lunchtime in G8. Come along and try it out or see Ms Grant for more details.

Junior Debating Two students, Eduardo Nestor and Constant ine I ordanov will represent Newpark in the 2nd heat of UCD Junior Schools debating competition early next year. Good Luck!!

Debating takes place in M6 on Tuesday at lunch, anyone with an interest in topical issues come along.

Model United Nations MUN is debating on how to solve world issues.

We attended a conference in late October in London. Hundreds of students from around the world gathered to discuss issues such as The Rights of Refugees and Plastics in the Ocean.

We need more students to get involved and take over from the current Sixth Years. See Ms Odongo for more details.

Visual Visual: a chance to explore and create— comic books, film making, photography, s t o p - g o a n i m a t io n a n d m o r e .

Wednesdays 1.15-2.30 in T16.

Come along and try it out.

Christian Union Newpark has a Christian Union Group that meets every Friday at lunchtime in T11. CU is led by two Sixth Year Students - Imalia and Nicole - who organise games, crafts, speakers, outings and various events and activities throughout the year.

Our Annual Christian Union Weekend Away to Ovoca Manor with St Andrew’s CU took place on the 11th13th November.

All are welcome to pop in to T11 on Fridays and join us.

Chess Club The Chess Club meets obsessively on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays in M2 at lunchtime. This is a chance to play chess with students from all years and even take on the might of mentors Mr Holmes and Mr Power.

Each year the prestigious title of Newpark Grandmaster of Chess is announced at the Summer Assembly.

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Parents Representatives for Board of Management The Board of Management is seeking nominations for a male and a female Parent/Guardian Representativ on the Board of Management. The new member must be available to attend monthly Board of Management meetings (5pm on the 2nd Wednesday of each month) and be willing to serve for a period of three years.

Further details on the responsibilities of the Board of Management are available on website at http:// www.newparkschool.ie/board-of-management or from Derek Lowry via office@newparkschool.ie.

A Shout-Out for the First Years To all First Years, I hope it has been an enjoyable start to your new adventure in secondary school. I am pleased to hear so many students have taken up extracurricular activities. I would like to congratulate the rugby team who won the annual Aviva Cup. The winning team beat Sandford Park in the final by 2 tries to 0. Well done to all the guys who took part in the games.

I was delighted to hear about the great participation in the swimming Gala also, where Isobel Reid and Ben Phelan swept the boards in Freestyle, Back Stroke and Breaststroke. The winning relay team was Maeve Farragher; Isobel Reid; Maya Sullivan and

Baby Boom!!!

LCA Parents for a Day Ever thought that having a baby would be easy? We found out recently that it is not as easy as it looks!

As part of an assignment for the LCA Childcare module, all 5th year LCA students were challenged to care for a robotic baby that had real life features. They cry, need to be fed and changed and simply look for attention whenever they feel like it.

The cost of these babies is around €1,500...a very expensive simulator!

The challenge was to care for the babies for 24 hours. Having this responsibility is very stressful, time consuming and you do not have a lot of time to yourself. This particular challenge was one of the most difficult tasks we have ever taken part in. It may have seemed funny to all other students who saw us in the hallway but try to get some sleep when YOUR baby wakes up at 1 AM and then again at 4AM to be fed.....you won’t be laughing then!

One of the most difficult times while looking after the baby was during class time. Trying to concentrate on our lessons while having to attend to the baby was very frustrating—even some of the teachers were getting distracted (especially when they wanted to play with them too!)

There was also an unfortunate incident during our task—students from other classes would try to interfere with the dolls and as a result one of them got severely damaged. School officials say that this nearly caused the termination of the project from the school for good.

Overall we learned that having a baby is extremely hard work and takes dedication.

It definitely taught us that looking after a baby is extremely difficult. Some of us managed the task quite well but for others, the lack of sleep was a nightmare!!

5th Year LCA

Emily Hall. It was great for all the competitors to be supported by their form groups at the event. I encourage you all to get involved in one of the clubs or sports the school has to offer.

As we continue into the rest of the first term, I would like to pass on this advice. Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer and you have a responsibility to yourself to find out what that is.

Every day is a new start, so come to school every morning with the goal to do your best and be your best.

You are all amazing and capable of great things. This is your year, this is your time to shine!

Mr Hugh Gallagher, First Year Leader

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Model United Nations delegation take London by storm

Delegate Emily Hogarty reports back from London For the past month, a group of ten of us have been preparing for the Royal Russell International Model United Nations (MUN) conference in Croydon.

We were assigned the delegations of India and United Arab Emirates, which meant we had to research the two countries’ policies and each debate a certain topic.

After weeks of research and preparation we all had our resolutions written and topics prepared.

I was on the delegation for India and I had the topic of transgender rights to debate.

This was a very controversial topic for my delegation; gay marriage is illegal in India and gay people are often stripped of their rights, yet transgender people have legal rights This was highly interesting to debate and I enjoyed the challenge. The hardest part of the MUN for me was distinguishing between my personal views and those of the country that I was representing. For example, India is in favour of the death penalty so I was obliged to vote against a resolution that tried to abolish it.

Each day, we separated into our different committees and debated resolution after resolution for hours. Although this sounds like a lot, it was honestly one of the most challenging, yet fulfilling experiences. If our

resolutions were passed, they had the chance of being brought to General Assembly (GA), where all of the committees gather together to debate the topics.

Luckily for me, I was a co-submitter on the resolution on transgender rights which made it to GA to be debated and was passed with a majority vote for the resolution. As a submitter I got up and spoke for the resolution and I must say that it was extremely nerve wracking. No matter how much of an accomplished speaker you are, this is a speech you make in front of a prestigious crowd who want to correct your errors and essentially catch you out!

Ruán Ó Conluain and Finn McGearailt won distinguished delegate awards in their committees. Both made many speeches in committee and GA and debated to high standards throughout the entire conference. All ten of us did extremely well in the conference: I couldn’t be prouder of us all!

Spending time with such talented and intelligent people with a common interest in politics was perfect for our last ever school trip in Newpark. We made new friends, learned an abundance of new information and truly opened our eyes to what’s going on in the world around us. Although we may not get the chance to take part in another MUN conference again, we hope that younger years take an interest and can carry on representing our school in many more MUN conferences to come.

Thank you fellow delegates, stay fruitful.

Emily Hogarty, 6th Year

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Newpark Celebrates Maths Week The 10th annual Maths Week Ireland took place recently, from 15-23 October.

Maths Week Ireland is an all island celebration of Mathematics and the biggest event of its kind in the world. The purpose of Maths Week is to promote positive attitudes towards maths. This is achieved by participation in

fun, interesting and challenging maths activities.

The week kicked off with a cake decorated with mathematical symbols presented to staff at the Monday morning meeting. Many teachers had special activites in class during the week. For example, Ms. Steele’s TY class created a maths trail for first year students, and Ms Lawless’s LCA class made a large collage of newspaper and magazine clippings showing how maths is used in everyday life. In addition there were a wide range of school-wide events throughout the week.

Table Quiz and BIMDAS Bingo Two lunchtime events were held during Maths Week.

For senior cycle students it was a table quiz, held at lunchtime on Tuesday. Teams competed over five rounds answering questions about maths. Their years

of maths at Newpark were very evident here, and the standard was extremely high. In the end, a number of competitors were let down by their spelling (hypotenuse, Pythagoras, rhombus, parallel!) and coming out on top was a sixth year team of Milo DeFreine 6VC, Fionn O’Sullivan 6DM and Charlie Proctor-Quigley 6VC. For first years BIMDAS bingo was held at lunchtime on Friday.

BIMDAS bingo is a Newpark tradition, and is

always a very exciting event. Students work in teams, solving tricky maths sums to find the numbers on their bingo cards. A great deal of skill is involved, and also a bit of luck—after all the effort working out a sum you really want it to be on your card in the right place!

Competition was very intense, but first to achieve bingo were Ria Phillips 1EL and Dara Rankin 1LMY. Second place went to Jack Duffy 1EL, Erika Gallagher 1AL Giovanni Gaidoni 1AL and Matthew Hogarty 1LMY. A close third was India Bennett 1AL, Sorcha Collins-O’Regan 1LMY, Lauren Moore 1LMY, and Isabelle Reed 1AL. Congratulations and well done to all!

The Daily Question To get into the spirit of the week, each day students were presented with a maths question during registration. The winner was determined in a draw from the correct entries taken at the end of the day.

There was excellent participation again this year, with nearly 200 students submitting at least one entry.

Unfortunately, there could only be one winner each day!

The winning mathematicians this year were Monday Karim Tamu 5NG, Tuesday Ava Paul 3LA, Wednesday Daniel Hatter 4TC, Thursday Emily Hall 1AL and Friday Hannah Treacy 6DM. Special prizes were also given to the four students who answered the question correctly all five days: Saskia Faull 5RL, Emily Hall 1AL, Michael Hall 4MDY and Rory Lyons 6EG. Well done to all participants!

Maths Answers Clare’s number was 8. Gerry was able to work this out using the following logic: whole numbers between 6 and 10 inclusive means the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

The teacher gave Clare and Jonathan two consecutive numbers, which means two numbers in a row. If Jonathan had 6, he would know immediately that Clare must have 7. Similarly, if his number was 10 he would know that Clare had the number 9. Since he didn’t know what number Clare had, he must have 7, 8 or 9.

If Clare had 7 or 9, then she would know that Jonathan’s number must be 8. If Clare had 6, she would know Jonathan’s number was 7, and if she had 10 she would know his number was 9. But she didn’t know Jonathan’s number, so her number must have been 8!

Answer to logic problem: Monday: 48 floors, Tuesday: 4:20, Wednesday: 33 seconds, Thursday: 20 cubes, Friday: 90 palindromes.

Answers to Daily Question:

For anyone that missed them, here are the questions for each day: Monday: On a trip to New York, Joe visits the Empire State Building. He went up on the lift several floors, then went down 17 floors, then went up 56 floors, then down 85 floors and ended up on the second floor. How many floors did he go up originally?

Tuesday: My watch gains four minutes every hour. I put it right when I get up at 7am. What time does my watch show when school ends at 3:45?

Wednesday: When the cathedral clock strikes three, it takes 6 seconds between the first and the last strokes. How many seconds does it take to strike 12?

Thursday: A 3cm by 3cm by 3cm cube is painted all over its outside, and then cut into 27 smaller cubes.

How many of these smaller cubes have paint on more than one side?”

Friday: A number like 5665 or 2112 is called a palindrome, because it reads the same backwards as forwards. How many four-digit palindromes are there?

Answers can be found at the end of the newsletter.

Full explanations to the questions are posted on the maths noticeboard between M13 and M15.

Logic Problem For anyone inspired by maths week, here is another problem you can try!

A teacher picked two consecutive whole numbers between 6 and 10 inclusive, and gave one number to Jonathan and one number to Clare. Jonathan looks at his number and says to Clare, “I do not know your number.” Clare considers this statement, looks at her number, and then says to Jonathan, “I do not know your number.”

Gerry, who was observing this conversation then says, “I know what your number is Clare!”

What was Clare’s number? How did Gerry know?

PRISM Maths Competition PRISM is a national competition for secondary school students which takes place each year during maths week.

Prism is short for Problem Solving for Irish Second Level Mathematicians. The questions are extremely challenging and demand a high level of understanding of the mathematical concepts learned in the classroom and the creative application of these ideas.

A small number of of students from years 3 to 6 sat the exam. The Newpark students performed extremely well, with results comparing very favourably with those achieved across the country. All participants should be very proud of their achievement!

Special congratulations go to the top Prism contestant at Newpark, Jemima Turner 6KK. Congratulations to all participants!

A Time for Prayer Newpark has a prayer group that meets once a month to prayer for the school: our students, parents, staff and other school related issues. This prayer meeting is on the first Monday of each school month from 8.50am till 9.30am in the Meditation Room in the Red Brick Building. People pop in and out as it suits them during those times.

The dates for the prayer meetings for this academic year are as follows: Mondays 7th Nov, 5th Dec, 9th Jan, 6th Feb, 6th March, 3rd April, 8th May. Newpark has also had a prayer ministry running for the past few years where parents, staff and students pray for every student and staff member every week asking God to bless each one.

The lists of class groups have been distributed by our chaplain, Ms Harris but if anyone else would like to help in this prayer ministry and receive a class group please email the Chaplain at suzanne.harris@newparkschool.ie and a list will be sent out to you.

Thank you to all who pray with us.

Ms Suzanne Harris, Newpark Chaplain

The Little Things

Compiled by Sophia Finucane, Sixth Year

Without meaning to, we all conjure up our own ideas about culture and different ethnic backgrounds. We have the excuse that when we search a country or religion on the internet, we’re presented with a flag, a popular tourist location and some statistics. But culture is not a statistic.

I know myself that when I say I’m half Cypriot people think of the Ryanair flash sale. I don’t blame them. How are they to know that the true culture of my country lies in keeping couches in the plastic they were bought in or the classic image of one’s grandmother collecting vegetables from the side of the motorway?

My point is, Newpark has a diverse community.

Everyone has stories that often go unheard. This article hopefully highlights at least a handful.

Coby Baker, 6th Year What makes my culture unique to me? Being a Jew to me—and to most Jews—is more of an identity thing, rather than a religion.

Judaism is one of those religions that’s so full of rich culture and especially traditions. I wouldn’t call myself religious at all, but I’d call myself traditional and it’s the little traditions that make it special. Whether it be family coming together on a Friday night to light the Shabbat candles, or when everyone comes together to light a ‘Yahrzeit’ candle (which lasts for a long time) in memory of someone who has died. The common thing with all traditions is the coming together of family, friends and other Jews—that’s what makes it special.

I know for a fact that if I were stuck anywhere 18

in the world, I could reach out to the Jewish community and I’d have a bed in a matter of minutes.

The Jewish culture is unique to me because I (and most of the Jews I know) feel really connected to the religion, not in an ‘I believe in God’ way, but in an almost spiritual way. For me, not eating pork products and the things like that are what make it for me—they make me just a little different. Judaism really feels like an identity and I’m grateful for it!

Selma Reby, 2nd Year What makes my culture special to me is that it reminds me of my family. I have many memories of celebrating holidays with them. Holidays like Christmas remind me of when was a young child. In Sweden, Christmas is celebrated on the 24th of December as opposed to the 25th. I still celebrate it on the 24th because it’s a tradition for me. I think it’s important to have something traditional about your culture that you do and love, because then you will always be reminded of where you are from.

I really love my culture and I think the little things and the memories are what I love about it the most. I like the fact that, even though I live in another country, I can still find small things that remind me of Sweden. There are so many other Swedish people in Ireland that I can still celebrate some things, like traditional Swedish days that aren’t celebrated here, with other Swedish people.

Another thing that makes my culture really special to me is the people. I think that the people are what makes a culture a culture. Without the people, no

one would remember the traditions of that culture and it would fade away.

Yosef Phelan, 5th year While trying to write this piece, I had a hard time trying to define my ‘culture’. My dad is from Jerusalem and my mum is from Ireland, so to say we like to pick and choose between different cultural traits is an understatement.

We don’t eat pork, but we’re not very religious so I’m not really sure why (it’s just kind of gross?).

We celebrate Christmas, along with Eid. We celebrate Easter—sort of… minus the religious aspect. (Just in it for the chocolate).

I think the fact that my parents’ cultures are total opposites has given me and my siblings a more accepting and broader view of different people’s backgrounds and cultures. And I like the way we can mix and match between the two.

Aimée Richards-Smyrk, 3rd Year Going to India is a whole new experience. The traffic is one of the first things you notice: it’s manic, nobody uses indicators - which is an experience that scars you for life! Petrol stations are small and weird and have no shop the way we’d have Texaco or Topaz. When you do go to a shop, security is very high and you have to show your receipt before you leave.

The climate is insanely hot, so that you need to stay inside for a lot of the day and always wear a hat to avoid sunburn.

In the apartment where we stayed on my first visit to India, there was a zip-wire attached from the top to the ground for kids. You just don’t get that kind of thing over here, it’s unheard of!

India has a very colourful culture, colours are absolutely everywhere on the streets. Even cinema is different. There’s an intermission, comfy fold out seats, you can order Indian food to eat while watching the movie and you sing the Indian national anthem before the movie starts, which is obviously very different to Western cinema!

While it’s crazy and very different, without a doubt my favourite thing about India is these little things which make up its lively culture.

Karim Tamu, 5th Year I spent four years of my life in Sierra Leone and I can honestly say that they were the best four years of my life in terms of who I am now.

I became more open. More understanding and accepting of different backgrounds and cultures. I lived in a villa but right outside were happy neighbours living in shacks with second hand clothes and that image alone can depict the change I went to from living in an Irish suburb.

I’ve learned to not take things for granted; I would wake up every morning hoping for electricity and rarely ever getting it, but people were content with just being around. The times I spent in that tropical, only kind-of corrupt land were amazing— from beautiful beaches to amazing sunsets and people of all backgrounds.

I’d be a lot more ignorant had I not lived there and I'm always looking for reasons to go back and visit. It’s my home.

Sophia Finucane, 6th Year When I started working on this feature, I didn’t really know if people would agree with my belief that it’s the little things that make up a ‘cultural identity’.

However, the very fact that I learnt something new from each piece proved it. Reading them made me want to laugh out loud and almost tear up at the same time. Each of the writers has a completely different background, but there are such clear resemblances for me, not only to Cypriots, but to the Irish too. There are also vast differences.

All the writers express that distinct feeling you get when you see a little, specific thing that your ‘group’ does and you know that it makes you unique somehow. I’m not going to pretend that this article solved some big world issue, but I truly enjoyed learning things I wouldn’t necessarily have known through the people that I go to school with. This wasn’t devised to separate these people out because of their culture, but instead to encourage us all to share what makes up so much of our identity and so many of our funny stories. I hope it achieved that somehow ... and I can’t thank these people enough for sharing.

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Highly Commended TY FILM Wins Best Concept

As part of our film class in Transition Year students were asked to create a film in groups that would be shown on graduation night.

My group’s film, ‘Everything Above’, started with an idea of creatures inhabiting a school. As this

idea grew into quite an interesting story myself, Thomas Morelli, Aoife Muttigin, Emma Nalty, Sabriel Sbvoda, Baily Baily, Mark Plunkett and Will Slate set to work to create and tell this story through film.

Firstly, Mr Byrne, the film class teacher, taught our class about the basic film techniques of how to use a camera, the different roles in film making,

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how to devise, script and shoot a film, and how to edit.

These basic skills set the ground work for everyone’s project.

As the year went on it took some time to figure out what direction we wanted our film to go in.

As the time got shorter and shorter our movie’s storyline had to be significantly shortened if we wanted it to be ready for graduation.

All of a sudden graduation was upon us. Two or three classes before graduation we started filming and Aoife, Emma, Will, Thomas and I came in every day to finish the final shots and editing.

This September that shortfilm was shortlisted along with other movies from around the country for the Noise Flicks film festival where we went on to win Best Concept and came highly commended in cinematography. It was a great feeling after the hard work our group put in and on behalf of our group I would like to thank Mr.Byrne who was the driving force behind the project. It was truly an amazing experience to be part of it. You can view our short-film, along with other fantastic projects on vimeo-newpark movies.

Finn Rankin 5th Year

Trip to Lough Boora for TY Film and Craft

On the 30th of September the Transition Year craft and film classes got to take a trip to visit Alan Meredith’s studio.

Alan Meredith is the man who designed and built the sculptures in the front of the school. He built these sculptures in hope that we would build around them and turn them into our own creations. We got the opportunity to visit his studio in County Laois to see where he works and the process he goes threw to create a sculpture.

We took an hour and a half bus trip to the studio in County Laois. On arrival we got to work immediately. The craft class worked on creating sculptures to change sections of the studio with materials such as brightly coloured strings and various tubes and shapes of cardboard.

The film class was split into five different groups with each group having their own job. We were to gather footage for a documentary of the school trip and the work that the craft class was doing.

After an hour or two the craft class presented their work to the rest of the people there. They displayed how it works to change the space and what role it has in making the area different to what it was before. We were given snacks by Alan before we got onto the bus for our next destination.

We then took an hour long bus ride from the studio to County Offaly to visit a sculpture park. We had just sat down to eat our lunch when it began to

hail violently on us forcing us to take refuge under the safety of an outdoor café’s shelter. Thankfully the hail subsided and we were able to continue our venture into the park. We were sent out in three groups to find a sculpture and to somehow mimic it with our bodies or incorporate ourselves into the sculpture and take a picture of it.

Most people ended up at the same sculpture of a pyramid made from different sized blocks of wood. We all sat on it at different heights and took a picture with it. There were many interesting and amazingly designed sculptures around the park which were very inspiring. They helped the craft class get inspiration for their work on the sculptures in the front of the school. It also gave the film class more experience filming outside of the school grounds.

We got back to the school at five o clock— unfortunately we did not have enough time to visit the last stop that had been planned. All the same it was a very good day out and I’m glad I had the opportunity to come along. Many thanks to Mr Byrne and Mr Kirwan for organizing the trip.

Tori Clynes, Transition Year

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Hamlet With a Twist

The theme of the winter season of the Newpark Theatre Company is Tom Stoppard’s near-obsession with Shakespeare, in particular the play Hamlet.

Newpark Drama presented two of Stoppard’s most famous plays, both based on the classic Shakespearean tragedy: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and 15Minute Hamlet.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead shows two figures struggling to find identity and purpose in a world that makes little sense. It takes all the background characters of Hamlet and explains or shows how they view and are affected by the events of the original Shakespearean play.

The Newpark Theatre Company cast and crew worked hard with directors Gracie and Saoirse since the summer to enact this crazy play. This is the sixth play presented by the NTC which is made up of past and present students, teachers and friends of Newpark.

15-Minute Hamlet condenses the original Hamlet, including all the best-known scenes, into fifteen minutes! The six cast members rehearsed intensively twice a week to keep the fast-paced nature of the play. The summarised, comedic twist on Shakespeare’s Hamlet is truly appealing to all audiences, even if you’re not a fan of Shakespeare.

Both plays were performed on the 9th, 10th and 11th of November in the Hunter Theatre.

Sophia Finucane 6th Year

Tom Stoppard and Shakespeare combine at Newpark

By Derek West

When Cathy Devis started teaching at Newpark in the early Noughties, drama turned in a new and exciting direction. For the previous forty years play-making had been dominated by the powerful Teacher-Directors, adults with varying degrees of experience with acting, design, direction and production. It was a long line, stretching back to Eleanor Matthews, a dotty but brilliant English 22

teacher, and notable thereafter through John Harris, the reviewer, Mike Wilcock and Claire Corcoran.

We were dedicated, inventive, authoritarian puppeteers – we knew best, we chose the plays, cast the parts, called the shots and the students, with some honourable exceptions, were willing to be taught and told when to enter and where to move on the stage.

Cathy has taken a great lead with theatre in the school by democratising it and she has created a powerful edifice where you not only have actors who’ve built up experience over the years, but a growing cohort of people, young and old, willing to take on Direction, thus spreading that load, building tradition and a store of expertise.

This was brought home to me by the double Stoppard bill, which combined the assured talents of students, past and present, and staff members. Given that Shakespeare looms over both plays, it was a delight to hear so much clear enunciation and meaningful phrasing. Both casts were physically lithe, moving in a kind of loose-limbed but purposeful manner, a far cry from the self-conscious stiffness of yore [‘But what am I to do with my hands, Sir?’] Costuming, set and props were kept to a minimum, without apology – the audience had to be proactive in filling in the detail for itself. Amy Keating directed the speed-driven ‘Hamlet’ with appropriate and hilarious pace. Saoirse O’Coineen drew two marathon performances from Cian O’Ceallacháin [Rosencrantz] and Cian Malin

[Guildenstern]. They were word-perfect and they provided nuanced and detailed readings of both characters. Mark Ball was an impressive Player, holding the audience with a charismatic stance and stare. As Alfred, the reluctant player of female parts, Louis Toole had a comic presence worthy of a Chaplin or Robert E. Downey. Lorcan Kelly, as Hamlet, was concentratedly intense; Fionn Russell milked the much-reduced role of Polonius for all its pedantic eccentricity.

Photographs by Fionn O’Sullivan

The troupe of players tumbled with choreographed precision (especially when the pirates boarded their vessel) and projected vocally with mighty exuberance. Stoppard diminished the impact of women in these plays, but Emily Hogarty, Lucy

Richards Smyrk, Liadh Blake, Sophia Finucane and Odette Millet-O’Beirne made sure that we didn’t forget them.

It’s great that there was such collaboration and cross-fertilisation between the generations of the theatre folk of the school. They played like a skilled ensemble. There is so much to build up here. I would like to see them expand the repertoire—to look at the contemporary canon of young British and Irish writers, as well as exploring the challenge of more sombre, tragic works. There’s scope, too, for a more focused look at set and costume design. I think, under the watchful eye of Cathy Devis and her colleagues, they have the potential to take a significant lead in making school drama really count for something. This latest work demonstrated that the foundations are well and truly in place.

Derek West’s many roles in Newpark include those of English and drama teacher, theatre director/producer/critic and principal 1990-2006 23

TY visit Fighting Words Towards the end of September 4AK went to Fighting Words, a writing centre in town set up by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love.

We left school early and got the dart to Connolly and walked the rest of the way there. I was looking forward to doing the workshop as my brother had enjoyed attending their Write Club when he was in TY. We started the workshop with two people being given a scenario to act out, which we would type down. I thought this was a smart idea to get us started, as it felt like we created the story, only without the stress of thinking of an idea from scratch. We set the scene and created the characters, before editing the dialogue piece into something more coherent and story like.

We then split up into groups where we could either write our own stories or continue on with the story we were doing beforehand. It was interesting to see where people took their stories, even people following pretty much the same story line ended up with their own individual variations. At the end we got to read the stories, all of which were enjoyable, unique and intriguing.

As we are all in new form-groups for Transition Year, I thought it was a good way for everyone to get to know each other. I really enjoyed the workshop and it was great that we had the opportunity to visit Fighting Words.

Oisín O’Sullivan 4AK

Get Published in the Irish Times Fighting Words will publish a magazine of new writing with the Irish Times next year and invites submissions from Secondary School Students. We are looking for short pieces of fiction on any theme. Only one prose submission per author is allowed, poets may submit two poems.

Only a limited number of pieces will be published. These will be selected from all the work submitted. While the magazine will be predominantly short fiction, we also welcome for consideration monologues, scripts, poems and extracts from longer pieces.

Copies of the magazine will go out with the Irish Times in late Spring 2017. There will be no fee paid for work included in the supplement, but the newspaper has a very wide circulation, so it is a great publishing opportunity.

Submission details  Word Count: maximum 1, 500 words

    24

Format: Times New Roman, font size 12, double spaced.

Attach to the email as a Word Document.

Include your name, age, contact details, parent name and phone number, word count.

Submit work by email to fiction@fightingwords.ie by Thursday 8th December at 5.00pm.

Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Centenary Celebration

Tuesday the 13th of September marked the 100th anniversary of Roald Dahl’s birth. For the week, English classes in Newpark were full of Roald Dahl themed quizzes, games and competitions. You could generate your own Roald Dahl Name, dream up dreams for your very own dream jar, invent an original chocolate bar or fling worms and bits of food at Mr Twits’ beard! Some classes took part in Roald Dahl readings in the library where Ms Martin had displayed a lot of his books. It was exciting to talk about our favourite characters and stories; Dahl is an author that continues to surprise and entertain his readers, no matter your age!

First Year students took part in a competition where they had to design their own Road Dahl Bookmark. To say the standard was high is an understatement. Students could choose to include some of their favourite quotes or images of their favourite characters. Mr. Gallagher had a really tough time choosing the winners and was extremely impressed with the effort and time that had been put into designing the bookmarks. The winners took home book tokens and (more!) book marks!

1st Place – Rachel Baum 2nd Place – Gabrielle Corballis 3rd Place – Helen Hatter Highly Commended – Tabitha Smith & Luca Reuland

Why not revisit your favourite Roald Dahl book over Christmas! You won’t be disappointed!

Whether you like Roald Dahl or John Steinbeck, Charlottte Bronté or Roddy Doyle, J.K. Rowling or William Shakespeare, one of the most amazing accomplishments of the human race is the ability to write a book and transport readers to a different time and place. Everyone’s imagination is different so everyone will get something different from a great book. So get reading! Fantastic adventures await !

The Frightsome Fleshlumpeater (AKA – Ms Amy Keating)

“Don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand.

Sit back and allow the words to wash around you like music”

Roald Dahl

Re-imagining the Fairytale The Princess and the Pea It was that kind of rain, the rain that comes at you sideways rather than straight down, and when it hit you it was hard and sharp against even the leatheriest of skin. The wind had an icy edge to it that whipped and coiled like a viper around your ankles and worked itself into your bones. One unfortunate young girl happened to be caught in the middle of exactly this, battling her way through it to find some place warm and safe. In the distance she could vaguely make out a thin glint of warm light and set off to see what it was.

The Queen sank back into her plush armchair and allowed herself to be bathed in the warmth of the roaring fire blazing before her when there came a rapid knock from the thick oak front door. She sighed and went to open the door. She unbolted the locks and pulled back the door only to be shocked to find a shaking girl who was sopping wet with blue lips. She opened her mouth and a small timid voice said, “Please let me come in until this storm passes? Please?” The Queen who was still too shocked for words just waved her hand in a welcoming motion, then said, “Jane, dry off this girl and warm her up, then bring her to the guest bedroom.”

“Now,” said the Queen, “this is where you shall be sleeping tonight.” The girl (now wearing dry clothes) raised her head upwards following the towering pile of mattresses before her and glanced at the Queen with a worried look on her face.

“Up there?” she asked.

“Of course,” exclaimed the Queen, “Now up you go and get some rest.”

The girl cautiously crept up the ladder and onto the bed.

All night, the girl tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable but she simply couldn’t for there was a lump somewhere amongst the tower of mattresses.

Suddenly the air began rushing towards the girl and she barely had time to scream as she hit the ground and a sharp pain spiked all over her body. The last thing she knew before she blacked out was harsh bright lights and hands all over her.

It had been a hectic day at the hospital as they had several new patients, each case as challenging as the next. Dr Grimm paced the meeting room awaiting the day’s reports. Suddenly Dr Anderson burst into the room with a clipboard held firmly between his hands.

“Well?” Dr Grimm asked staring intently at Dr Anderson.

“We have discovered that the girl admitted last night has broken her arm, leg and left ankle and that she fractured several of her ribs.”

“Anything else?” Dr Grimm enquired.

“You know the girl who contracted Salmonella?” said Dr Anderson.

“The one who kissed a frog?” asked Dr Grimm.

“Yes, well she has developed a dangerously high temperature and the vomiting is more frequent,” Dr Anderson replied.

“OK, bring her to the Intensive Care Unit.”

Dr Anderson scribbled some notes down on his clipboard and then continued his report.

“Miss Alice Liddle isn’t making much progress; she still claims to have fallen down a rabbit hole, and is ranting on about a ‘Wonderland’. Dr Carroll thinks she may be suffering from brain damage so she is being placed in the psychiatric unit for further observation.”

Dr Grimm took this news in and though for a moment. “What about that Aurora girl?”

“Ah, yes,” replied Dr Anderson, “She has been diagnosed with narcolepsy.”

Dr Grimm thanked Dr Anderson and exited the room. He made his way down the familiar hallways to the girl’s bed. He said, “Miss, I’m afraid that we have some bad news.”

She raised her head and looked at him, her face full of fear and anticipation.

“You’ve broken the majority of your bones on the left side of your body and fractured several of your ribs.”

She looked down, her face emotionless.

Dr Grimm tried to ignore this and continued on, “So this means you will have to be hospitalised for the next few months to make sure you heal properly.”

And with that Dr Grimm got up and left without another word.

For the first few days she just lay there, staring at the ceiling. Then she began to talk to people and slowly she started to feel better and less alone. Soon, she knew everyone in the ward and nothing was dull and the air was filled with colour and stories. But eventually they began to leave, one by one, until only she remained and just like that she was alone again. Their stories never left her though, the kind ones and the sad ones, the angry ones and the happy ones; they always stayed with her.

So she began to write; she wrote stories, stories about a girl who fell down a rabbit hole, about a woman in an eternal sleep. Stories about a girl who kissed a frog, about someone who found love at midnight. She used their words and then she used her own.

She wrote a story about a girl who was caught in a storm and found refuge in a castle.

Maeve Farragher 1KC

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Nonsense poems make sense!

The stable-snortlers sang, As the malbpils stood.

With Pigears a thinking, Like only wise men could.

The air was pritt, And out the tombox cast.

Buildings were shambrating, Result of the people massed.

The tables were cut, And the grass was set.

While cookat had been slaving, Hanging the feast up in the net.

At last the celebration was ready, Soon flobberwobblers came to eat.

And after, the fantrig started, As everyone rose to their feet.

Matthew Jungmann, 4AMC

New Writing: My First Crush

Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll (1832 – 1898), is a nonsense poem written by Carroll in his 1871 novel, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice found there, a sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

A nonsense poem is a poem that features words that have no meaning, but because of the whimsical, rhythmic tone to the verse, we can well imagine the story that the poet is trying to tell us. Read Jabberwocky here and see if you get any ideas!

Ms. Keating’s TY English class have written their own versions of Jabberwocky and below are some examples…

(Illustration by John Tenniel) The little boy so flumbered with pride, Thought of his future house so big and wide, “It will be taller than the highest mountain peak, And stronger than a wrestler’s qualiteek.”

“I’ll build it out of brookfull bricks And it won’t fall when the storm kicks, It will have too many rooms to count And even the fleamish will fall and shabount.”

“It will bedover the biggest castles And the children will be jealous and dazzled For when I sit on my crookfull throne I’ll have no mercy and the rest will grone” 26

Dan Hogarty, 4SFH

My first crush was a boy named Toby. He had hair as black as coal and sky blue eyes. He was full of life and I was quiet. He loved football and I loved reading. The one thing we had in common is we both had a brain tumour.

We shared a room in St. Virginia’s Hospital for the summer. The walls had no pictures. The TV in our room only worked sometimes so we had to become the best of friends. The hospital was more boring than school. I always complained about the food. It reminded me of my uncle’s food it was too hot and too cold at the same time. Toby ate everything. He used to eat my dinner and his dinner and still be hungry. When his friends and family came in they used to sneak all kinds of food in to the hospital. We used to have midnight feasts when the nurses thought we were sleeping.

The day the nurses came to shave my head for the operation Toby held my hand and cried with me.

My brown curls fell to the ground like tears. He told me that it will grow back even prettier than before. My heart beat faster like a train when he was around.

The day of the surgery finally arrived and we said our goodbyes. I was wheeled away by people in masks and blue gowns. When I came back Toby’s bed next to mine was empty. I could hear his mom sobbing in the hallway and his dad asking the doctor what happened.

The doctor said it was a brain bleed and nothing could be done. I never felt so lonely in my life. At the funeral his mum told me how much he loved me, I wish I told him I loved him too.

My first crush was a boy named Toby. We both had a brain tumour, I lived, he died.

Zara Drumm 3ED

“Poetry Aloud” not just allowed, it’s encouraged!

Green Week Paper Fashion

When late poet Seamus Heaney won the David Cohen Prize for L i f e t i m e Achievement in L it e ra t u re , he nominated the ‘Poetry Aloud’ competition, based in the National Library of Ireland, for the accompanying Clarissa Luard Award, and he remarked, “I truly believe Poetry Aloud deserves all the support it can get, because it promotes literature, and, in particular, poetry, widely, intimately and to inestimable effect. But fundamentally, I choose it because it brings poetry into the memory and affections of the young in a way that will make it a lifelong possession and value.”

The ‘Poetry Aloud’ competition runs each year from October to December in the National Library of Ireland, sponsored by Poetry Ireland. Even though it is a competition, each participant makes the poetry their own; it is wonderful to hear the set poems recited in different accents and dialects and to listen to the poems chosen individually by each candidate.

This year, Newpark’s competitors have been working hard to perfect their deliveries and will take to the stage in the National Library on Monday 24th October. We always note the original and enthusiastic interpretations made by Newpark students and I’m sure this year will be no different. We wish them the best of luck!

Ms Amy Keating

27

What it Takes to Save a Life

In the summer of 2014, Aaron O'Kelly in 6th year saved a man’s life while out surfing with his friends in Tullan Strand, Bundoran in Donegal. I met up with him recently and he gave me the full story of the incredible incident.

Aaron is an avid surfer, so this day wouldn’t have been far from the usual, but at this particular moment he had been out in the water for about three hours. He was patiently waiting for the next wave to catch when out of the corner of his eye he noticed a bunch of people standing over by the cliff looking down, taking pictures and shouting. After a while of searching for what they were looking at, Aaron saw it.

A man, probably in his thirties, was in a highly distressed state in the water by the cliffs. His surf board kept flipping over and he looked to be drowning.

With no one else in the water or around the vicinity, Aaron knew straight away that he had to help this man: “I knew I'd be able to do it, I knew that beach really well”. Aaron managed to catch a wave and surf over to him in full Baywatch fashion, but this quickly became a very serious matter.

Aaron told the man to grab onto the leash which connects him to his board, but “he didn’t know what the leash was so he just grabbed onto both my legs.” With the riptide and relatively high waves which kept flipping them over and pushing them back towards the cliffs, both Aaron and the man were in a very serious predicament: “The waves knocked us down three or four times and every time a wave came, the back of his board would bash into me, it was an absolute disaster.” The man was also in a terrible state, “Every time a wave came and flipped him over he’d freak out.”

Finally, after ten minutes of trying to paddle out of the riptide, Aaron got him to safety in waist28

deep water by the beach. That’s when the RNLI came and picked both of them up in their rescue boats.

The man was vomiting up all the sea water he had swallowed while the RNLI tended to him. He was later hospitalised. “I never really got a chance to talk to him, but his brother was there on the beach and he was just thanking me. I learned then that this was his first time surfing. His brother had surfed before so he just probably brought him along and said here’s a surf board, off you go.”

In Tullan Strand there’s a very dangerous riptide just by the cliffs.

“Surfers use it regularly and then they paddle out of it, it’s an intense rip.” If an inexperienced surfer gets caught in this, it can prove to be fatal. Just this August a soldier went missing off the coast of Tullan Strand while he was swimming with his fellow soldiers around the same area of this incident, just by the cliffs. Fortunately Aaron’s story had a happy ending.

After the incident, the RNLI posted an article about what happened and it described them saving two men in Tullan Strand but it had no mention of Aaron helping the man. However “there was a man with a big camera taking pictures on the cliff.” Aaron got a hold of the pictures and sent them in to the RNLI. Aaron didn’t hear much about what happened again for a long

while until about a year ago when he was contacted about being nominated for the Bravery Award for Sea Rescue. Only recently he was told that he had won the award and was to be presented it in October.

We could all say that if we were put in a pressurised situation with someone else’s life on the line we would act quickly and swiftly to save a life, but how do we know without being put in the situation?

Two years ago Aaron proved he could, and now a man has him to thank for his life Tom Brophy 6th Year

29

Life beyond Newpark For this article I thought it would be interesting to write about recent past students and how they are getting on beyond Newpark.

I contacted and interviewed some past students through Facebook and asked them for their advice to current sixth years.

Lucy Richards Smyrk, 6th Year

Ciara Grogan Studying General Science in Trinity College Dublin I wanted medicine but missed out on the points so I’m using science as a back route. I always enjoyed science subjects and I liked the sound of the course in Trinity because you get to build the course for yourself by picking different modules.

So far it’s good! This semester I’m doing chemistry, biology and maths methods. The maths is ridiculously easy right now (junior cert level-slope of lines and functions). Chemistry is so good and extremely interesting at the moment!

So far the hardest thing is definitely meeting people; my lectures have 350+ people so you make a friend one day and don’t see them again properly for another while.

The Leaving Cert was incredibly stressful and the year in general was the most intense year of my life. At the end of the day though, it’s only 2/3 weeks of exams and once you get your course no one cares what you got!

Throughout sixth year, don’t give up your hobbies; playing hockey really kept me sane, so whether it’s sport or music or whatever don’t give it up. Get a study plan and stick to it, there will be times around April where you feel like it’s all pointless but just keep going because at that point you’ve done all the hard work and are so nearly done!

Tim Buggy Studying Journalism in Dublin Institute of Technology I always wanted to do journalism when I was growing up. I’ve also always had a thing for writing so I felt like all these things would suit journalism. I picked the course from looking at DIT’s website and doing research on the course content.

To be honest I have very mixed feelings about it so far. I’ve kind of realised that journalism may not be for me. There are some aspects that I find interesting but I have very little motivation to really go in and learn. I didn’t go into this college knowing this course was definitely going to be for me. I also think I’m not really ready for college or formal education just yet. The summer was short and I felt like I never really got a decent break and I may want to take a gap year instead.

The course itself isn’t that hard so far. The timetable is full of free time. But I still find it hard to even show up sometimes because I'm not really feeling any motivation for college in general.

The Leaving was an exhausting experience. I would never wish it on anyone to do it again because it 30

was such a mentally draining thing. I think the hype behind it is the worst thing and constantly hearing about the exams and expectations. The actual exams weren’t even that bad, it seems so silly afterwards because when they’re done it’s kind of anticlimactic.

Remember that there’s always a back door route to what you really want to do. Staying in the house can drive you mad but definitely consider the option of taking a gap year after the LC. You may come to realise that you’re not quite ready for college just yet and a gap year can be an excellent learning experience in its own way.

Cian Malin Studying Drama and History of Art in Trinity College Last spring during the CAO process, I found it near impossible to work out what I wanted to do the most after school; I couldn’t choose between drama, art and music. I agonised over my CAO choices until the last minute, wondering if I had made the right decision.

However, I knew that I would enjoy whatever I chose, and was delighted with my decision in the end.

So far it has been intense, but I’m really enjoying it.

It is hard adjusting to a completely different way of learning from the Leaving Cert. The course syllabuses are loosely set, unlike in secondary school, so you can deviate and read up about wider areas of interest, which makes studying much more enriching and rewarding.

The Leaving Cert. exams aren’t scary in real life; what’s really nerve-wracking about them is the build-up and apprehension beforehand.

Carefully think through your decision about what you want to do after school; don’t be influenced by expectations or opinions of others, because at the end of the day it is entirely up to you. If you’re undecided, taking time out can be useful.

Katie Lowry Offered Journalism in Dublin City University but deferred her place and is taking a gap year.

I got my first choice which is journalism in DCU and I am very excited to start it next September.

I felt that I had been in education since the age of four and just wanted a break for a year. I wanted a year to do something new and exciting which is why I have chosen to work a ski season.

In December I am moving over to France for five months to work in the French/Swiss Alps! I am beyond excited; it is something I’ve always dreamed of doing and I can’t wait to go. I am currently just working in a café and coaching hockey until I leave for France. I am loving life and am really glad I have taken the year out; it’s definitely the best decision for me.

I found the Leaving Cert. exams OK overall , they just dragged on too long! I was very nervous for the first one but once I got into the swing of things it was all fine, not something I’d ever want to do again, but they’re doable. I found Sixth Year very hectic

with study, school hockey and Avoca hockey but I don’t regret keeping up all my sport as it was what kept me sane!

My advice to the current Sixth Years would be to stay calm, believe in yourself and remember that the Leaving Cert. isn’t the be all and end all. There are many other options out there if it doesn't go the way you planned. I would say do your homework well, study hard when you allocate time to study and then do something enjoyable!

Politics and Society This year, the present fifth years were treated to a truly astonishing occurrence; a brand new subject!

Now I, being the type of person who was struggling through fourth year to make my subject choices, decided to take advantage of this new opportunity.

May I say, I am ever so glad I chose Politics and Society as my Option C choice. Not only is it an interesting, thought-provoking class full of mystery and intrigue, but it is also taught with gusto and a genuine interest from Mr Holmes which makes it all the more enjoyable.

So, to you younger readers, I must highly recommend this class. We get to debate topics, which is always pleasurable, have riveting discussions on theories such as the “State of Nature” and “The Social Contract” and learn about some of the most interesting thinkers in historical memory.

Before I started Politics and Society, the name John Locke meant absolutely nothing to me. Had you asked me who Thomas Hobbes was, I would have been truly stumped. Now, however, I could quote them all day. Well, not literally, but you get what I mean. In fact, I would go as far as saying that, coupled with English and History, this may be my favourite class now. It’s truly amazing, I can’t stress that enough.

So, my young acquaintances, I say to you go out there and try Politics and Society. It may not be for everyone, but it will definitely be for those of you who like to be challenged and who don’t mind standing up for what you believe in. You may even be inspired to speak out about what you believe in, no matter how sleep-deprived you are. You may begin contemplating the meaning of life whilst simultaneously writing your essays on the way power is exercised in schools and how Newpark is an example of a Hobbesian State of Nature. You may even begin to truly appreciate the English language and all its subtle nuances. On top of all that, Mr Holmes could be your teacher which just makes the debates all the more fun.

I sound like I’m trying to recruit you into the army or something, don’t I? Well, do take my word for it, I’m not. I just don’t want any of you future fifth years to miss out on this fascinating course. Take a chance with Politics and Society, you may just find that fabled missing piece of the puzzle that is your life.

Or, you know, you might just like the course. Either way, it’s worth it.

Ben May, Fifth Year

By Ruby Shaw

By Harriet Yakub

By Harriet Yakub

By Leah Blake 31

Gaeilge24 Dé Máirt 15 Samhain 2016 Lá amháin –Gaeilge Gan Stad

Newpark students are challenging themselves to “Speak Irish for a day” on Tuesday 15th November.

Newpark is delighted to be taking part in the Gaeilge24 event, in association with Conradh na Gaeilge, 300 schools and more than 30, 000 students nationwide.

Our aim is to encourage students, teachers, parents and families to use as much Irish as they can for 24 hours, at school, in the home, in local shops, and businesses, on the bus, and on the Dart. It’s a chance to take Irish outside of the classroom and prove to yourself that “yes, you can!” Students will be asking for sponsorship to cover the cost of t-shirts etc.

The day will be all about positivity, fun, and enjoyment. Our whole school community will be involved and everyone will be encouraged to use their cúpla focal on the 15/11/16.

Caith an t-léine, labhair Gaeilge linn agus bíodh lá iontach againn.

Beidh daltaí na Páirce Nua ag tabhairt faoin dúshlán Gaeilge24 ar an Máirt 15 de mhí na Samhna. Táimid ag súil go mór le páirt a ghlacadh san imeacht seo i gcomhar le Conradh na Gaeilge, 300 scoileanna eile 32 agus breis is 30,000 daltaí scoile, fud fad na tíre.

Is í aidhm an dúshláin seo ná daoine óga, múinteoirí, tuismitheoirí, agus teaghlaigh a spreagadh chun labhairt as Gaeilge ar feadh 24 uair a’ chloig, sa bhaile, ar scoil, le siopaí agus gnólachtaí, ar an mbus agus ar an Dart.

Tugann sé deis iontach dúinn an Ghaeilge a thabhairt amach ón rang agus a rá, mar a dúirt Barak Obama agus é ar cuairt in Éirinn:“Is féidir linn”.

Tá cártaí urraíochta ar fáil ó na múinteoirí G a e i l g e .

Chlúdódh an €10 costas na dtléinte.

Lá taithneamhach, dearfach, lán le spraoi a bheidh ann, agus beidh pobal na scoile, ina iomlán, ag glacadh páirte agus ag baint triail as a gcúpla focal ar an 15/11/16.

More on this event to follow in the next newsletter

Weathering 6th Year How much of a good exam grade is down to the teacher? How much is down to the student?

Sixth year isn’t like the others, apparently the time for creativity and thinking for oneself is past.

Students are tired and hungry, wanting the clearest and most effective way through what in any other situation could be viewed as torture. Rote-learning seems like something you’d find to be against the Geneva Convention or the UDHR, and it probably should be.

In previous years, students would moan (as they should) when handed something and told to ‘learn it off—but with such daunting exams, these things are lapped up with an eager acceptance, most just want the thinking done for them, happy enough to settle for memorising their way to an A. Half of south Dublin leaving certers run off to grind schools every year crying ‘Save me!’ The very nature of a grinds school underlines an inadequacy, but on whose behalf? Yes, the work required for each subject is different for every student, and there’s nothing wrong with extra learning (which should be encouraged), but the fact that people see grinds to be the solution, or

the fact that we’re led to believe that grinds are the only solution, is disheartening. It’s painful to watch people fork out a grand (and the rest) for a temporary solution to a permanent problem. When viewed in the light of getting around exams to maximise points, it’s understandable, yet no less dispiriting.

Unfortunately for now teachers and students are stuck with bending over for the SEC, spending months preparing for a handful of stand-alone exams which dictate almost entirely the students following few years. Accepting and moving on from that injustice, in order to ‘do well’ most of us resort to the tried and tested method of ‘slugging it out’ for the year. Going by results the general rule is that the students who put the effort in do well, and the ones who don’t, don’t.

And, unsurprisingly, this whole school thing is really just a matter of work.

But here’s the question, how much work must come from the student?

How much work must come from the teacher?

What makes a good student?

What makes a good teacher?

Every student has their own way of learning, every teacher their own method of teaching, and every subject is tackled differently, but there are a few common themes that result in, well, a good result.

It goes without saying that if the teacher is putting the ‘right’ work in, then there’s no excuse on the student’s behalf for not doing their bit (in the same way a teacher can’t play the trump card of “I’m not the one sitting the exams for you in June” or the classic “I’m not doing this for the good of my health” - both of which just aren’t good enough).

Yes, the actual learning and refining and revising must be done by us, but the environment in which we learn, the way we are taught to learn, and the way in which we’re encouraged to engage with the material is entirely down to the teacher. Students need to be guided, given a clear picture of what’s to be expected in each class, to know their way around the exam sooner rather than later, and have the material presented in the most accessible and stimulating manner. That’s what’s meant by the ‘right’ work, for the amount of work a student must put in to compensate for a lack in any of the above is yet another burden added to a task that would be difficult enough even with the best teachers in the country.

Students are a picky bunch. Sorry about that, but we’ve a right to be. The teacher that does put in the right kind of work instills in the student a confidence far greater than the confidence gleaned through miserable hours of rote-learning and self teaching.

Yes, a teacher can never do the work, but they can make mastering it easier.

So in short, while every student, teacher, and subject is different, the work must come from both.

Slack from either party just results in more work for the other—it’s all a matter of balance.

Fionn O’Sullivan, 6th Year

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The Prefect Room Saga

Emergency Lessons

Gone But Never Forgotten (31/8/16 - 29/9/16) The Prefect Room - where to begin? In many ways a social mecca for Newpark’s Sixth Years, this sprawling expanse of musty carpet and stale food is loved by many, loathed by a few. However, recently, those who do not identify as prefects have been forced to leave for good. The fond memories we have always associated with it will not continue. But how will the nonprefects, such as myself, ever let go the sensational conversation that left us gripped to the last word?

(Those intellectual dialogues about who left the excess cheddar in the sandwich toaster...) How will we go on without the putrid aromas that sweat from the garish purple walls?

The answer, my friend, is that we will not.

Grieving the loss of our sweet room has come as quite a challenge to the best of us. The biggest question for us is what we will do with ourselves now, as we roam the grounds hoping for a warm shelter in sight. Where do we go from here? Alas, we refugees must search for a new home lest we end up in the gutter, or - worse still- the GPA. In my hunger to discover the opinion of the average every-day Sixth Year, I took to the hallways in search of an answer to whether the prefect room saga is just. I received a plethora of different responses from people who all wish to remain anonymous. Many nonprefects were in a state of blind anger saying things like “They think it’s their God given right to a toaster and some milk” and “Sure before we know it, they'll be looking for the pension”. In tandem to that quote, a prefect told me that “They should be glad we’re not asking for a salary” and “We deserve every square metre of that room considering the nature of our job. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy!”

Whatever your view, we can all agree that the prefect room is a shack to be cherished. But will it remain the same without roughly 80% of the year* contributing to its everyday filth? You decide. [*According to recent surveys, this segment of Sixth Years is seen to be 2.7% more prone to hooliganistic tendencies than the average prefect.]

Eva Comerford, 6th Year

Readers may be relievd to hear that the evicted Sixth Years have found refuge provided by Ms Harris in the form of a lunchroom in the redbrick building

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On Friday the 21st of October, Ms Mackey and our CSPE class held our Action Project, after many suggestions and ideas. We had decided to raise awareness about the Syrian refugee crisis—a prominent issue that we felt was having a major impact on the global population. So we contacted UNICEF to see if they had any toolkits for projects like these.

Needless to say they did and they suggested that we take their refugee tent for the day and use their toolkit ‘Emergency Lessons’ to educate young people on the problems refugee children face.

The day came around really quickly. Viv Parry from UNICEF came in at 9 o’clock that morning and helped us pitch the tent. This was followed by a quick briefing about the aims of the project. She outlined the fact that only 2% of humanitarian aid is invested into education—which is paramount to the development of a nation—and how on average, a refugee spends 17 years of their life displaced. We were all pretty shocked with these statistics.

After Viv left we took the information she gave us and tried to educate as many people as possible on these issues by having classes down to the tent . We also had a bake sale to raise much needed funds for UNICEF. Overall, the day was a huge success and we raised €502.40—a credit to all the generous staff and students. To find out more about the ‘Emergency Lessons’ campaign visit www.emergencylessons.ie Nathan Moore, 3GC

Cloughjordan Eco-Village

Cloughjordan, Co. Limerick houses Ireland’s first and currently only Eco-Village in Ireland. In September ten Transition Year students from Newpark and another ten from Ballinteer were given the opportunity to visit Cloughjordan to learn and invent ways of tackling litter and graffiti.

Upon arriving we were warmly welcomed by Veronica, a local and an environmentalist who has supported the Eco-village since 1999 in its first concept stages. Clough is an Eco-Village. This means the village is self-sufficient and can rely on itself.

It is also a registered educational charity recognised internationally as a destination for learning about sustainable living, and is directly connected to the preexisting town of Cloughjordan. Currently fifty high performance green homes built over the last seven years house over 100 residents . Around the village there are also roughly 18,000 heritage apple trees available to pick and seventy breeds of trees in the woodland area created to mimic a traditional Irish forest. A woodchip burner using waste wood from a nearby sawmill in Ballinsale provides enough energy for everyone in the village and businesses; food is grown by farmers which provides the residents with fresh produce.

On our first night we watched an environmental documentary, ‘Plastic Paradise, Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ following Angela Sun on a personal journey to uncover the phenomenon of the Great Pacific garbage patch. Along the way she meets scientists, researchers, influencers, and volunteers who unveil the consequences of our rapid plastic consumption and learns the problem is more insidious than we could have ever imagined. At this stage we were more aware than ever of the negative impact of man’s waste on our planet. We were determined now to do something about it.

Day two brought us to the WeCreate Fab Lab (Fabrication Laboratory), one of 400 worldwide workshops with 3D printing- The Future of Manufacturing. There we did a session on the computer process of 3D printing, LASER Cutting and Digital Fabrication. We learnt about the Computer Numerical control (CNC) used to control the laser cuter and other machinery and Little Bits- Inventing with Electronics, where we worked with electronics to create a prototype of interactive bins with specially trained staff to apply enquiry and problem solving.

Following the workshops we worked in groups to

develop and plan ideas to tackle litter, waste and graffiti, using the skills we just learned. Mentors rotated among groups to assist in our project developments.

That night we watched ‘Garbage Warriors’ a documentary following architect Mike Reynolds and his environmentally conscious “Earthship” homes. The film follows his struggle with the New Mexico government to change building code laws.

Reynolds is a campaigner for sustainable living. He constructs structures almost entirely from discarded materials, including tires, bottles and cans. His houses are of the utmost self-reliance on top of being essentially 100% recycled and have been embraced in third-world countries hit by natural disaster.

On our last day we reflected on what we had learned and prepared a presentation on our ideas for tackling litter, waste and graffiti. We also put together posters, prototypes of inventions, products of 3D printing and laser cut wood inventions for this presentation.

We shared our ideas together through presentation and exchanged questions. The ideas launched included algae oxygenators, used gum orientated voting bins, interactive bins and other gum disposal related projects.

I think I speak for everyone who took part in the trip in saying that we all learned an incredible amount. We learned not only about environmental issues but also about sustainable living and skills in electronics, as well as 3D printing and laser cutting processes. We became more aware of our rapid consumption of plastics and the shocking truth of the corrupt and inefficient methods of disposal. We all thoroughly enjoyed the trip and are grateful for the opportunity.

One Newpark group in particular wishes to bring their project concept and skills learned from the trip to the Young-Environmentalists Award and the Young-Scientists Awards. The project hopes to underline the properties of Algae and the wish to harness its oxygen producing, water purifying, bio mass and colour changing properties for commercial use for the public health, starting with the school to test the effectiveness of portable algae oxygenators.

Watch this space.

Teresa Xu, Tansition Year 35

PTA News

Autumn has definitely arrived—half term seems to have heralded a major change, both in the weather and of course, the long dark nights. But despite the temptation to light a big fire and hibernate in front of it until springtime, the PTA has been very busy over the past few months and will be even busier over the next few!

The annual Debs Wine reception was held on Sept 10th in the GPA. It was such a pleasure to see this group of young people, dressed in their finery and surrounded by family and friends. The PTA is delighted to host this event which celebrates the students’ time in Newpark, and marks a transition into young adulthood and the beginning of the next big adventure of their lives. Thanks to all the PTA members and current 6th year parents who helped organise and run the event.

The AGM followed on September 28th and was well attended by an interested and enthusiastic group of parents, many of whom put their names forward to join the PTA committee. It is really heartening to see the number of people willing to get involved and bodes well for the PTA this coming year. A big thank you to the all the people who have left the committee this year. Thank you for your hard work and commitment, and best wishes for the future.

The officers of the PTA were elected from the new committee at the first monthly meeting in October: Chairperson: Joint Treasurer: Joint Secretary:

Becky Johnston Sinéad Hanna & Jonathan Chawke Phoebe Crowe & Sheelagh Parker

On October 19th we hosted our 1st Year Parent’s social evening. Due to an unfortunate clash with a TY parents meeting, the venue had to be changed to one of the classrooms (which necessitated some running up and down stairs by parents trying to attend both events!) but it was a great success and we are looking forward to the 2nd/3rd year social evening on 23rd November.

On Saturday 22nd October the school hosted a visiting Welsh school—sixty 2nd and 3rd year students from Christ College, Brecon, who came to play Rugby

and Hockey against the Newpark 2nd and 3rd years.

The PTA organised a team of parents to provide lunch for the visiting teams and the Newpark students, which allowed all the students to meet and interact after the matches. The food provided was amazing (both in quality and quantity) and the Welsh coaches and teachers were “blown away” by the hospitality and welcome given by Newpark. Not only were they all fed to bursting, but we sent them off with bags full of goodies to sustain them during their trip to Dublin Zoo! Thanks to all the parents and students involved in helping, and the PTA members who coordinated the event. The rugby and hockey coaches are very hopeful that this link with Christ College will continue and lead to further trips in the future.

And now to the next few weeks - on 9th November we are very lucky to have Professor Aidan Moran giving a talk on Study Skills to 6th year and 3rd year students /parents. Due to the limited number of places available we decided to prioritise the exam year students but we look forward to repeating this talk, possibly on an annual basis.

On November 23rd we will have our 2nd/3rd year parents evening—a purely social event which gives you a chance to meet some of the other parents in your child’s year, have a chat and socialise.

Finally, December 10th, the Newpark Christmas Fair! This event gives you the chance to do some Christmas shopping, socialise, and support the school all at the same time! Mark the date in your diary!!

Becky Johnston, PTA Chair

Newpark Newsletter Team Students and staff with an interest in journalism, writing, photography, art, layout or graphic design are invited to join the new newsletter team.

Meetings take place at Monday lunchtime in T13 (Mr Kirwan’s art-room).

Many thanks to our new journalists for their work on this issue: Oisín O’Sullivan, Tori Clynes, Tom Brophy, Lucy Smyrk Richards, Eva Comerford, Sophia Finucane, Fionn O’Sullivan and Daniel Hatter.

Contact Mr Kirwan, Mr Lamprecht or Ms Johnston for more details or email newsletter@newparkschool.ie

Newsletter produced by Kevin Kirwan, Anna Johnston, Aaron Lamprecht and Fionn O’Sullivan Thanks to the newsletter team and all our contributors Please email contributions for the next issue to newsletter@newparkschool.ie

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