Newpark Newsletter - October 2015

November 2015 No 47

Xtreme First Years!

On the 22nd of October all of First Year went to Xtreme in Balbriggan for our school trip. It was a long drive but it was worth it. We got put into groups of twelve for lots of activities including zip lines, the Leap of Faith, rock climbing, Drop Zone, Crate Stacking (more challenging than it sounds!), sky-walking and archery.

We had safety equipment in case we fell and warm clothes because it was cold at the top.

We had spare clothes in case we got very dirty or wet, but we got lucky—it was very sunny.

We ate our lunch in a lovely old bus they have made into a cafĂŠ. Most of the teachers took part in the activities too. It was a really great day. We had fun working as a team and learning new skills. Many thanks to Ms Odongo and the form teachers for taking us.

Remi Ollier & Ali Coffey, First Year

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In the first newsletter of the 2015-16 school year we acknowledge the loss suffered by the school community with the sudden death of Georgia Murphy on the 21st June. Georgia in her two years in the school encapsulated so much of what Newpark is about. Not only was she an excellent student who always did her work conscientiously but she contributed so much more with her involvement in Drama in the Junior Plays and in the Comenius Dance project. Georgia’s positivity shone through in all she did. Our thoughts are with her family and friends. I also want to acknowledge the contribution of many of Georgia’s friends along with Ms Costello in organising the ‘Yellow non-uniform day’ on the last day of term. It was very successful and raised over €2000 for the Asthma Society.

I want to welcome all the new students and staff who have joined the school this year. Welcome to our new teaching staff, Siona Cameron, Mary Brigid Donnelly, Naomi Good and Daragh O’Farrell. We welcome too Fiona Keilthy who is replacing Karen Clarke who has gone on maternity leave.

Our First Years have now completed their first half term. The transition from primary to secondary is always a challenging one for many students. Many thanks to Sheena Odongo and the team of form teachers for their great work in encouraging a positive start in Newpark. The trip to Xtreme was thoroughly successful and enjoyed by all.

Our Leaving Certificate class of 2015 completed their exams in June. This group were in secondary school during a period of very substantial education cutbacks. The general environment for many families was also very difficult. Yet due to their own resilience and hard work and the efforts of the teaching staff they performed extremely well in their exams. Behind each result is a separate story of achievement sometimes against the background of very difficult circumstances.

The feedback from the students suggests that a large number are doing their chosen courses. Newpark saw an increased number of students scoring more than 500 points (even allowing for the extra 25 points for honours maths). This is a very encouraging trend.

On Thursday 10th September the 2015 year group returned to the school for the Debs reception hosted by the PTA in the General Purpose Area. This was a very successful and well attended event and it was wonderful to be holding it in our new school at last. Thank you to the PTA for sponsorship and organisation of the reception. The students moved on to enjoy a great evening in Bewleys Hotel.

The Transition Year students received their Junior Certificate results on the 9th September and again performed very well. It was very heartening to see the increased number of students attempting the higher level in both Maths and Irish with 62% and

Mr Derek Lowry

48% respectively. Hopefully we can continue to build on this trend over the coming years.

It has been heartening to see the increased number of students going to Gaeltacht. Many thanks to the PTA and the Irish Department for organising the PTA sponsored scholarships which have facilitated some keen students who would not otherwise be able to go.

This year we are focusing on two areas in terms of school improvement. Firstly we are aiming to raise the profile of Maths as a subject which has application not just on the Maths classroom but across all subjects. The use and generation of graphs is something that is part of many subjects and to help students to have a uniformity of approach each classroom has a laminated poster outlining the way in which all graphs should be presented. The acronym SALT is used for this and stands for Scale, Axes, Label and Title. Also students will be encouraged across all departments to calculate their own percentage grade in tests. In First Year each student will get an eight week course of one period a week to learn how to tackle problem solving questions which are now a bigger part of the Project Maths exams at both Junior and Leaving Certificate.

The school is also focusing on improving the experience of students in Transition Year. This arose out of our survey last year of students, parents/ guardians and staff. The full details of the areas being focused on can be found on the school website.

Another ongoing element in our school improvement plan is continued support for literacy and reading through the Book in the Bag scheme. It is very important that all students in First to Fourth Years should have a book in their bag to read for pleasure. It would be very helpful if parents could also encourage their daughters/sons to read for pleasure at home. It has added benefits to students across many school subjects in widening their vocabulary.

In early July 2013 the first part of the building project began with the construction of the temporary accommodation. Now 27 months on, Belfort House and the landscaping are almost complete. It has been a long haul to get to this stage but it has been worth it.

The new building is wonderful and it is great to now to have a campus that we can be proud of. It is important now that we continue to utilise the building in as productive way as possible. The Green Schools committee has done great work in the new school in providing bins to help to recycle much of our waste and reduce our waste bills. It is imperative for all of us to continue to respect the new environment both indoors and outdoors. The Board of Management have now set up a sub-committee which will work on organising an official opening in the New Year. We hope to make this as inclusive an event as possible.

With the school year well underway, I wish everyone a very successful and enjoyable year.

Green Schools Newpark’s Green Schools Committee would proudly like to inform you about our first and new green flag for Litter and Waste which we have been working on for two years.

We have already collected the flag and are awaiting a flag pole to display it outside. In the meantime we are preparing for our next flag, Energy.

Even with a new flag to work for, we must still be aware of our bin usage as people still put incorrect items in the recycling and general waste despite the improvement in litter management around the school.

To educate Newpark students and teachers still ignorant about the correct disposal of waste, we spent two Wednesdays during long reg. dispersing our competent committee members around the school. We went to the form rooms of all year-groups (and even the staffroom) to inform the occupants of what rubbish goes in which bins. All around the school wherever there was a bin, we stuck up posters with a guide to what is not recyclable.

The purpose of the announcements was also to encourage more students to join the Green Committee which meets every Monday in T5 at lunch time. Over the years our committee has grown, but new members (and ideally representatives from every year) would be much appreciated.

Back to Energy; we are currently targeting the amount of electricity used in the school and plan to reduce it. We have recorded the temperature of every room in the school and plan to coordinate the thermostats to ensure all rooms have equal levels of

heating. You will have probably noticed that the ground floor is currently much colder than the top floor; therefore less electricity should be wasted on overheating the upper rooms.

We hope for your continued support in the future.

Teresa Xu, Green School Committee

Teach the Teachers Third Year students Daniel Hatter and Eoghan Funge gave an impressive break-time class to a packed staffroom of teachers and SNAs. They adopted a nononsense approach as they donned rubber gloves and revealed the bin crimes of the staff-room to illustrate their talk on what should and should not go into each bin.

In the staffroom, we have bins for recycling, for general waste and for composting: none of them passed this impromptu inspection with flying colours.

As the Green Committee members unflinchingly pointed out, responsible adults should know better…

It was a clear, informative, entertaining and chastening experience – the initially slightly bemused audience showed their appreciation at the end of the lesson with resounding and genuine applause. Now let’s see if we can actually improve our waste management practices.

They are watching us: we have been warned…

Ms Anna Johnston

Did you know?

This symbol does NOT mean the packaging is recyclable!

The “Green Dot” as it is called is NOT a recycling symbol It just means that the producer has taken some environmental responsibility and has contributed financially to recycling and waste recovery.

Please tell everyone you know!

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Cross Country at the Papal Cross, Phoenix Park 22nd October 2015

It was a sunny but windy day in Phoenix Park.

Twelve students from Newpark set out to take on the tough Papal Cross course.

First up were the Second Year girls in the 1100m race. We had five students running: Avalon Ryan, Sophia Guiomard, Hannah McCann, Emma Gadoni and Angel Glynn. There were a large number of girls running in this race and all our athletes ran a very good race with Avalon leading the Newpark girls home.

Next up were the Second Year boys in the 1,500m event. There were four Newpark students participating in this race: Harry O’ Neill, James Vahey, Oisín Kelly and Dexter Hodkinson. Oisín had a super run and finished in second place out of a group of over 80 students. This was a great achievement for Oisín and an improvement of four places from last year.

In the Third Year girls 1,500m event Sadbh O’

Loan was flying the flag for Newpark and came powering home in first position. We were delighted with this really strong performance from Sadbh and her well-deserved top spot.

In the final race of the day, the Senior boys 3,300m race, the Kelly brothers Rory and Lorcan were taking part. This was a tough two laps of the very exposed and windy course. Rory put in a great run coming home comfortably in 4

third positon. Lorcan had a very strong race and came in in sixth position, an excellent result for his first year at senior level.

Overall it was a great day enjoyed by both students and staff.

A huge thank you to Ms Crampton and Daniel Donnelly for joining us on the day; without them our trip would not have been possible.

Ms Lillian Whooley, Athletics Co-ordinator

Athletics Update: congratulations to Cameron Ramsay 1COB, Oisin Kelly 2RS and Sadbh O’Loan 3FK/KC on fantastic medal-winning performances in the recent Blackrock Cross Country event.

All Ireland Athletics In March 2015, I competed in the Dublin Athletics Club Championships. I entered ten events and won ten golds. My events were the 100 metre sprint, long jump, shot put, 80 meter hurdles, 250 meter hurdles, triple jump, discus, javelin and high jump.

Due to my success I qualified for the All Irelands.

At the All Ireland Club Championship I was only allowed a maximum of three events so I competed in long jump, sprints and shot put. In the long jump I came fourth by two centimetres. I was seventh in my 100 metre sprint.

Finally I had shot put. On my last throw, I threw 14.16 metres, a new All Ireland record. The previous record was 13.71 meters set in 2002. This record had stood for fourteen years. I was very pleased as I had broken a longstanding record and increased my personal best put by 53 centimetres.

Patrick Gilceava, 3rd Year

Congratulations to Patrick on a fantastic athletics season. He also qualified for the All Ireland Schools Championship in May and took fourth place with a long jump of 5m.68cm.

First Year Swimming Gala The LCA students organised a swimming gala for the First Year students on Wednesday . Approximately sixty boys and girls took part. Each one of the LCA students had individual jobs. For instance, Conor was the MC: he chose and played the music for the gala.

Michael was the lifeguard and responsible for first aid.

He had to keep an eye on the swimmers and make sure they were in no difficulty. Loic lodged time records for the swimmers. Marcus was the event photographer.

We were delighted that some of the teachers, including Mr Cookman and Mr Lowry, came to show their support. The atmosphere was good with a lot of cheering and loud music. The swimming gala was a big success with the First Years. Most of the First Years were there—either as swimmers or supporters— with perhaps the biggest turn out this annual gala has had. There was a lot of competition and it was all very close, which made for exciting races.

Four in a row for First Years

Loic Maitre and Michael Wrynn

Winners Girls: Backstroke: Rebecca Marcus Breaststroke: Aoibhinn Hanney Front Crawl: Rebecca Marcus/Aoibhinn Hanney (tied) Boys: Backstroke: Denis O'Connor Breaststroke: Ben Marnell Front Crawl: Marlon Prendergast Spollen

Photo: Loic Maitre (Organiser); Aoibhinn Hanney; Denis O'Connor; Rebecca Marco; Ben Marnell; Mr. Cookman

Leinster Hockey

Huge congratulations to the three Newpark students selected to represent Leinster at the boys U-16 Interpros in Munster this November: Ewan Ramsay, 4th Year, Luke Adams, 3rd Year & Matthew Jungmann, 3rd Year.

A number of other Newpark players were selected for the Leinster development squad this summer and narrowly missed out on the final selection for the U16s and U18s this time .

Well done to everyone involved!

Newpark past students are well represented on the Leinster coaching team too with Mark Cullen, Simon Lowry and team physiotherapist Ben Melvin. Head Coach, Michael Styles, is currently teaching in Newpark!

Newpark First Year rugby team was once again victorious in the fifth annual Aviva Cup played in the shadow of the impressive Aviva Stadium.

The tournament started with a tricky game against a big and bruising Sandford Park side, and, despite falling behind to an early try, Newpark dug in and snatched a try in the last minute to escape with the draw. With the team now hitting their stride, no sides were a match for the hard tackling and hard running boys, with St Conleth’s and Marian College being overwhelmed by Newpark.

The lads were then catapulted into the final against a pumped up Sandford side, who were looking to avenge the heartbreak of the draw in their opening game. Newpark were forewarned and forearmed. The final began at a frantic pace and the team showed resolute defence as wave upon wave of Sandford attacks crashed against the rocks of the unyielding Newpark defence. Midway through the match a Sandford ruck ball popped out the side and after a few phases Cameron Ramsay squeezed over in the corner.

Newpark were now brimming with confidence and, with time ticking away, were unlucky not to add to the try count with good hands and heads up rugby, but nonetheless ran out comfortable winners.

This is the fourth year in a row that Newpark has won the Aviva Cup, a considerable achievement.

Congratulations to all of the lads, and here’s to a successful season.

Mr Daniel Ludgate 5

Michael Carruth visits Newpark

In the 1992 Summer Olympics Ireland won their first Olympic gold medal for boxing. The winner was Michael Carruth from Dublin in the welterweight category. Not only is he famous for this win he is also famous for the celebrations afterwards. When the judge raised his arm to signify victory Carruth jumped wildly around the ring (it’s worth checking out on YouTube). For last week’s Leisure and Recreation, our Transition Year group for Games was lucky enough to have this gold medalist come in and do a boxing session with us (organised by Ms Ormond).

First he talked to us about what he’d achieved and the winning of his Olympic gold medal and went on to show us his medal which we passed around the class. The medal itself was in a presentation box— unfortunately we were not able to handle it as too many grubby hands might damage it. It looked oldfashioned but it still had its shine.

Then we started the session off with a few simple stretches and moved on to the basics of boxing which was a sort of quick tutorial. After that we got into pairs and were given gloves so we could get started on a few exercises that Mr Carruth and his brother, who is also a boxer and also helping out, got us to do. For example, in our pairs we would try to hit each other’s elbows and legs and did sit ups and punched each other’s gloves. Also we lined up into two groups and Mr Carruth and his brother would hold up pads and we had to hit them. Finally, after we were tired and our muscles aching, we did a relay between two teams which was quite competitive (I’m glad to say I was on the winning team).

Overall I thought it was a great class and a good experience because it was something different and it’s not every day you get to do a boxing class with an Olympic gold medallist. I thought Mr Carruth was a nice guy: I could tell that he was still very passionate 6 about what he did. I really enjoyed the class and I

thought it was good fun. At the end our class got to get a picture with Mr Carruth, his brother and the gold medal.

I did a little research on Mr Carruth and watched the videos and found out that he had been to the Olympics four years before he won his gold medal and had lost out in the first round. He believed in himself enough to go back and win the next time. I reckon he inspired other Irish boxers to go on and do the same.

Jake Bolger, Transition Year

Newpark Boxers With the visit of Olympic gold Medal winner, Michael Carruth to Newpark Transition Year students, boxers have been stepping into the limelight. There are many excellent boxers in the school including Eoin Larkin, Adam Sheeran and Finn Larsen who all train with Monkstown boxing club.

Sara Edris in 3rd year is the Leinster and All Ireland female boxing champion in her category. She was also the Dublin Champion for 2013 and 2014.

I box for Monkstown Boxing Club and I’ve been there for three years. We train four times a week, which includes hill sprints, jogs, sparring, bag work, strength and conditioning and club shows at the weekends.

We train annually for competitions like the Schoolboys League, Dublin Championships, Leinster Championships and the All-Ireland Championships.

We host the Monkstown International Box Cup every July. Clubs travel from all over the world to take part.

We have also travelled abroad for tournaments. Each year we travel to the UK for training camps to prepare for upcoming competitions.

Each boxing weight category is split by weight (kilos) and age. So you’ll always box somebody your age and within two kilos of your weight.

Sara Edris 3 AL

La Biennale di Venezia - 5th and 6th Year art trip

A surreal experience of flooded squares, great food and overwhelming art—in a good way. One favourite was definitely the atmospheric Russian Pavilion. Cillian O’Brien

The city of Venice was magical, it was like going into another time. The age and beauty of the city far exceeded its reputation. The Biennale overall was an incredible experience, what I really found breath-taking was the Japanese Pavilion in the Giardini (photo above). It was so surreal and is something that will stay with me forever.

Cian Malin

The Biennale was amazing. A truly once in a life time experience. The German Pavilion in the Giardini is the show that I thought was really cool.

Luke Van Gelderen

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Newpark Celebrates Maths BIMDAS Bingo!

Maths Week Ireland took place recently, from 10-18 October, and Newpark students and staff got into the spirit with a great variety of activities and events throughout the week.

In what has now become an annual tradition, Ms Lawless presented staff with her famous pi cake—a carrot cake shaped and decorated as the mathematical symbol π. This is in recognition that Maths Week should be celebrated throughout the school, not just in the maths department! As every student knows, maths skills are important across many school subjects, and an essential part of everyday life.

Thanks to the support of student and staff throughout the school, Maths Week this year was a huge success, with record levels of participation.

BIMDAS Bingo BIMDAS BINGO has become a Newpark tradition for Maths Week, and is definitely one of the highlights of the Maths Week calendar. This year the event took place in Ms Steele’s room, where a group of highly excited First and Second Year students gathered at lunchtime on Monday. The students worked in teams, solving tricky maths sums to find the numbers on their bingo cards. Due to tremendous enthusiasm on the part of the participants, the competition continued until every team had a line completed on their card—some teams achieved this several times over! There was lots of fun and sweets for all participants, well done to all.

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Maths Murder Mystery The Murder Mystery took place at lunchtime on Thursday for Senior Cycle students. The Newpark mathematical sleuths were called in after Mr. Murphy, a maths teacher, was found murdered at a dinner party.

Fortunately there were several clues left at the scene of the crime.

Newpark students had to use their reasoning skills and a mathematical technique “proof by contradiction” to try to identify the murderer.

Establishing the motive was the second challenge faced by the teams of detectives. Students used their codebreaking skills to decipher a note left by Mr. Murphy.

More scandal was to emerge, however justice was done in the end after fabulous work by the Newpark teams.

Well done to all!

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 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 Daniel Hatter 3AL and Finn Larsen 3MT who jointly achieved the top result at junior level. At Senior Level the top score in the school was achieved by TY student Seamus Hurley 4TC. Congratulations to all participants!

The Daily Question Each day of Maths Week students were presented with a maths problem to solve. This event was open to all students in the school, years 1–6, and 2015 saw a record level of participation! Over 230 different students submitted an answer for at least one of the days. A winner was chosen each day in a draw from all correct responses.

Questions seemed deceptively simple at times, however students who rushed to get the answer were sometimes disappointed! Questions and answers are included in the newsletter, and more detailed explanations are posted on the maths notice board (between M13 and M15) and in maths classrooms.

With such tremendous participation there were many correct answers submitted each day, but unfortunately there could only be one winner! The lucky students this week were Robyn Bolger 1COB (Monday), Sam O’Neill 3EL (Tuesday), Boris Slyusarchuk 3DL (Wednesday), Lucy West 1DOF (Thursday), and Laura Rotaru 2DMC (Friday).

Congratulation and well done to all the winners!

Finally, an impressive 28 students correctly answered the question all five days!

Second Years: Maya Baum 2DMC, Daragh CollinsO’Regan 2DMC, Aoife Grogan 2DMC, Laura Rotaru 2DMC, Max Schmidt 2RS Third Years: Don Crowley 3EL, Calum Dolling 3DL, Michael Hall 3EL, Daniel Hatter 3AL, Dan Hogarty 3MT, Breno Keogh 3MT, Finn Larsen 3MT, David

O’Byrne 3DL, Sam Penny 3MT, Jade Pickford 3EL, Alexandra Reid 3EL, Boris Slyusarchuk 3DL, Teresa Xu 3DL Transition Year: Zeph Phillips 4TC Sixth Year: Tarik Carrigy 6PH/JCY, Aron Gordon 6CQY, Daire Hibbert 6HG, Jake Iceton 6LR, Leo Kurevlov 6PH/JCY, Robert Meagher 6LR, Cillian O’Brien 6HG, Kacper Twardowski 6PH/JCY and Josh Williams 6NG Well done to all participants!

Test Yourself!

Monday: Two cats together catch sixty mice. Rosie catches three mice for every two that Josie catches.

How many mice does Josie catch?

Tuesday: A piece of paper 16 cm by 32 cm is cut in half. One of these pieces is cut in half again, and the process is repeated until a piece 1 cm by 2 cm is eventually obtained. How many cuts are needed altogether?

Wednesday: Nine bus stops are equally spaced along a bus route. The distance from the first to the third is 600 metres. How far is it from the first to the last?

Thursday: A school has 657 students. There are 384 students in TY or above, and 376 students in TY or below. How many students are in TY? Friday: How many different four-digit numbers can be made using the digits 2, 0, 1, 5? Each digit can only be used once!

Answers on next page

Ms Ellen Lawless

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Trinity Walton Club develops STEM Skills The Trinity Walton club is a STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) club, set in Trinity College Dublin. Sixty Third Year students come in every Saturday from 2-5pm to partake in activities around these four aspects. The four STEM aspects are separated into three streams each an hour long, science (mostly physics), technology and engineering, and maths.

There are about twenty people in each group; each activity is done one group at a time and then rotated. The activities are very hands-on and inclusive; it’s a different learning environment from school. Our tutors are PhDs/grad students, who are really nice: if you don’t know or understand something they will talk to you one on one until you get it.

This is my second year in the Walton club; last year it ran for thirty weeks but this year it will run for just ten weeks as it’s our junior cert year. It’s great fun; the people around are all really nice, everyone works hard and the classes are really enjoyable and interesting.

During the year we did some pretty cool activities. One of my most memorable was meeting Commander Chris Hadfield (of the international space station!!!) - in the Long Room where the book of Kells is. We talked to him and got to ask questions and get autographs!

In the first two terms we worked on expanding our knowledge of STEM. We built and programmed sumo-wrestler-like robots, and got to put them on

Cathedral Service

Home at Last!

On Thursday September a special church service was held in St Patrick’s Cathedral to mark the start of the Academic Year.

The service was for all the Protestant schools in the country and there were twenty different schools represented.

Some of the Christian Union members attended the service to represent Newpark; we had lunch in McDonalds beforehand and ice creams afterwards. It was a good laugh with plenty of chat on the Dart and a lot of walking!!

Ms Suzanne Harris Congratulations to David Bowles - a past pupil of Newpark – who was ordained a priest in the Church of Ireland on Friday 25th September in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork. He will be working in the parish of Douglas in Cork.

With the builders gone from the campus, the prefects have finally gained access to their room. Many thanks to prefects this year (and indeed for the last two years) who worked with staff to keep things running in challenging circumstances.

Maths Problem Answers The Daily Question – Solutions Monday: 24 mice Tuesday: 8 cuts Wednesday: 2400 metres Thursday: 103 students Friday: 18 numbers

24th

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show at a stand in the BT Young Scientist exhibition.

In the last term we were asked to think of any problem in the world and try to solve it based on all we had learnt so far in STEM. We worked on these ideas in groups; projects included glasses that could be worn by visually impaired people using distance sensors to assist with a guide dogs/stick, and an automatic page turner for musicians.

My group’s project was a wristband to help remind people when to take their medication, using LEDs, vibration and sound.

Bank of Ireland innovation asked my group to present our idea to 250+ international people at a Science festival in the Bord Gáis theatre, which was both exciting and scary!

At the end of June, the sixty students showcased their group projects in the public theatre in Trinity. There was a graduation ceremony where different people spoke to us, such as Damien English, TD, Minister of research and innovation; Trinity’s Dean of Engineering; Head Professor of Physics; Marian Woods (daughter of Ernest Walton who the club is named after—he won the first Nobel prize for science).

There were summer camps on over the summer which I had great fun helping out with.

Breno Keogh and I are back for a second year and Dali Gallagher has also joined us. We’d like to say a big thank you to the PTA who kindly pay half of our term’s fees. I know it’s going to be another great year!

Oisín O’Sullivan 3KC

Georgia Murphy On the 21st of June 2015 Newpark school community received the devastating news of the untimely death of Georgia Murphy 2MT. Georgia was an outstanding student with great enthusiasm, energy and commitment for all she tackled.

She travelled to Germany with the Comenius Dance Project and was a much loved member of the Newpark team hosting the German, Turkish and Italian dancers in Dublin.

Having witnessed Georgia’s performance in the junior plays it was obvious she was destined for great things.

Our fundraiser on the 23rd of October was a fabulous day in remembrance of Georgia. Thank you to everyone who supported it.

Georgia was taken from us far too soon; we miss her terribly. We will fondly remember her and never forget her bright big smile. Our thoughts are with her family and her huge circle of friends.

Rest in Peace sweet Georgia xx

On the 23rd of October a Newpark fundraiser took place in aid of the Asthma Society in memory of Georgia.

A group of Georgia’s friends came together to organise the event with our Year Leader Ms Costello and Mr Twamley. We decided on a non-uniform day and asked students and staff to wear yellow and bring in any donation possible. We spread posters around the school and put details in the announcements.

We designed stickers and got 1000 printed– everyone that donated got one. We also put together a big commemorative poster with photos of Georgia and her friends. On the day we had the poster in the GPA for everyone to see.

At the end of the day we came together to count up our total collection. The day was a huge success; we raised €2023.53!

Thanks to everyone who donated, wore yellow or helped to make the day happen.

Aoife Malin and Maja O’Lonargain, Third Year

Ms Siobhan Costello, Year Leader

Rememberings from friends Creative, charismatic, chatty, full of life, musical, artistic, brave, eccentric, beautiful, inclusive, ...the way her face would light up... optimistic, exciting, amazing, Fantabulous Georgia 11

TY ART PROJECT

THE TY

The idea around this art project was to recreate portraits by famous artists such as: Chuck Close, Van Gogh, Roy Lichtenstein, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Frida Kahlo,Chris Ofili, Robert Ballagh and George Grosz. We kept to each artist’s sense of style and tone, such as what types of colours each of them

used for their portraits and their style of painting, like whether it was filled with expression or very realistic.

We were first given names of our chosen artist and put into groups of people who got their respective artist.

Then someone from each group would volunteer to be the model for their group’s portrait.

Each group also kept to their artist’s style by getting their models to pose at a certain angle in order to replicate the visual style of each art ist ’s original portrait.

Each model was photographed and the photo was projected onto the whiteboard so that each group could sketch the outline of each model.

Aft er the sketching was complete, each group painted their portraits in the style of their respective 12

artist. The resulting portraits were very different with some being quite expressive such as Van Gogh and others being quite technical like Chuck Close.

The project was very enjoyable for the art students because it allowed each group to combine their skills and implement teamwork to make some very excellent portraits of their models. The portraits kept very closely with the chosen artist which might not have happened if they were painted by a single individual instead of a group project. We had a lot of fun with this project and were able to socialise as a group of friends and t eamm at e s rather than just a simple g r o u p .

That made this project even more worthwhile to each individual student.

Jamil Bhaloo Carthney

GAZETTE NOW IS GONE Craft Class is all about collective art projects. We chose the name NOW IS GONE to represent our work and we have a website.

With our first project we took inspiration from the string pieces by the Irish artist Mark Garry; he uses space and colour to create projects to resemble shapes seen in nature such as rainbows and the sky.

We did something similar but with coloured willow reeds stuck into boards and cut to resemble shapes, landscape, nature or just wildly sticking about.

This was our first project therefore obviously we were all very enthusiastic to complete it.

We are now working on more individual group projects that we came up with through brainstorming.

We hope to exhibit some of these works at the new school celebration in 2016. Watch this space. www.nowisgone.wordpress.com

JOHN LONERGAN LECTURE

On Tuesday the 6th of October, John Lonergan visited Newpark to give a lecture about Mountjoy and the law. Many of us thought this was the best lecture of Transition Year so far.

John Lonergan was the governor of Mountjoy Prison for 24 years.

In his lecture he spoke about how the prison system has changed for the better.

When he started work in the prison, people as young as sixteen used to be sent there and he worked a lot with young people in Mountjoy during the 70s and 80s. He said that during the late 90s and early 2000s the prison changed drastically and prisoners began to be treated better. These days you have to be over eighteen to go to prison; this is a legal requirement stated in The Children’s Rights Act of 2001.

John Lonergan seems like a very humane person who believes that prisoners should be treated as people and the fact that their freedom is suspended is punishment enough. He talked about the difference between serious and minor offences. Killing and raping are serious offences, stealing is a minor offence and robbing a car is a big offence. John felt strongly that killing is the worst crime to commit. Back in the 80s you would have gotten a life sentence, depending on the judge you had and if he was fair or not.

Although John said that murder is the worst crime, apparently in prison society, ratting on someone is unforgivable.

This surprised many of us.

John was a decent speaker and we hope for him to return to speak to next year’s Transition Year.

Devin McDonald

Second Opinion The Children’s Act is very progressive but there still needs to be more to facilitate it. Sadly there is a shortage of social workers available to work with teen offenders so many end up in detention centres such as St. Patrick’s. This may sound better than going to prison the statistics are frightening: three quarters of people who are sent to St. Patrick’s go on to serve time in Mountjoy when they are old enough to be tried as an adult. This is sad: the Children’s Act should be helping children who get off to the wrong start in life to turn it around but it seems that the lack of social workers means that the exact opposite is happening.

Polly Paul

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Transition Year Arts Week—Rhythm

Light drawings

Following last year’s TY review we decided to revamp Arts Week. We decided to link the days together with the common theme of Rhythm, and explore that theme through drumming, visual art, dance, performance, creative writing, and photography. 4CB were the test pilots for the programme, and responded with great enthusiasm and creativity. They brought their experiences together on the last day to produce three documents: two physical books and one video.

Still from video about creative writing

Still from video about creative writing 14

Calligraphy

Poetry Aloud 2015

Speakapella!

Beats to its Own Drum

of October.

This year, thirteen students from 1st-4th Y e a r represented Newpark at the Poetry A l o u d competition in the National Library of Ireland on Monday 19th

It’s all about William Butler Yeats this time round, as we celebrate 150 years since the birth of this extraordinary Irish poet; each student must recite a prescribed poem according to their category. The Juniors have learned “The Fiddler of Dooney” and the Intermediate students have learned “”No Second Troy”. They also had to choose their own second poem to say and all students have been working hard to perfect their performances since the beginning of September.

Well done on their excellent performances to Ellen Connolly, Robert Nugent, Marcus Toole and Liadin Murray of First Year; Emily Keogh, Jolie Thomas, Maya Baum, Mia Knowles and Hanna Novak of Second Year; Louis Toole, Anna Cheesmore and Eoghan Funge of Third Year and Ella Slate of Transition Year.

Congratulations to Louis Toole who is now through to the Semi-Finals

Newpark’s Speakapella is a new initiative that blends spoken word poetry, acapella singing and body percussion. In its first year at Newpark, we hope that the group will be a collaborative project between teachers and students, where ideas can be explored and developed to craft original, insightful and innovative pieces to be performed at different school events.

Beats, poetry and music are created to be heard and we are looking for enthusiastic students who would love to get involved in this group; the first of its kind in Ireland! You don’t have to be a “jack of all trades”; you can join if you only want to sing, you can take part if the poetry intrigues you or if you’re excited about the idea of collaboration.

Check out the work of World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker at www.harrybaker.co (there is no “m”!) and “Body Percussion” by The Percussion Show on YouTube to get an idea of what we’ll be doing!

Come along and see what it’s all about in G6 every Thursday at lunchtime or speak to Ms O’Keeffe or Ms Keating for more information!

Ms Amy Keating & Ms Hayley O’ Keeffe

“What can be explained is not poetry.” ― W.B. Yeats Ms Amy Keating

There were students from four schools at Poetry Aloud.

For the first round, my age group had to learn “The Fiddler of Dooney” by William Butler Yeats. It is interesting to see and hear how different people recite the same poem.

For the second round there are loads of different poems to choose from. Ms Keating has three books of poems we .can use. It takes time to find the right one though. I chose “The Blacksmiths” by Anon.

I don’t know why I did, because it’s really complicated and it’s such a tongue twister. But I really like it. This round is a lot more nerve-wracking but it is also more interesting. There are so many beautiful poems in this world.

Ms Keating keeps saying “The poem you choose will be with you and be your poem forever.”

Hanna Novak, Second Year

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Music from the Heart of Newpark

Fish in the Sky

What a wonderful space the GPA (General Purpose Area) is turning out to be. During the day it hums with chat, banter and laughing but it really came alive last Wednesday night in the form of the Senior Concert. The gig started during the afternoon with musicians doing their sound checks and just having fun with lots of cool jazz sounds. It was clear by three o’clock that the evening’s line-up would not disappoint; in fact I’m not sure if the Newpark Music department knows the tune to ‘disappointing’.

A crowd of 200 seemed a little lost in the space, but it was that space that created a relaxed atmosphere that would never been possible in the Hunter Theatre.

The opening bars compelled people at the back to stand to match sound with picture. It was wonderful to see the ‘big’ instruments of scale and sound such as the double bass and the trumpet fill the space with such ease. These instruments were challenged by the big voices of the night which again brought people to their feet. It was all the more impressive that some of the pieces were the artists’ own compositions.

Not only were these students fantastic musicians and vocalists but you couldn’t but be struck by the fact that they’re just downright nice people with the support that they showed one another and the congratulatory hugs on finishing their segment. The hour and a half performance passed with surprising speed and culminated with Fish in the Sky blowing the lid off the whole affair.

Passing through the Red Brick to hear the sounds of the Music room floating down the stairs was always an oasis in a busy day. With the Music room now firmly placed at the very centre of the school, the new building will never be without a happy rhythm.

The next show is awaited with eager anticipation and I’m sure there’ll be more jaw dropping moments at the range of talent in the school. I’ll be left thinking: ‘Really?… Seriously…? I should have kept up my piano accordion lessons—who knows where it could have led?’

Ms Mary Kennedy

Music Centre Christmas Concert

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Featuring Newpark Schlinks Students 9th December @ Guardian Angels Church: doors open at 6.45 Donations at the door in aid of Laura Lynn Foundation and Crumlin Hospital

Congratulations to our Sixth Year band, FISH IN THE SKY, who won the Battle of the Bands in Dun Laoghaire against very stiff competition. The band is Cillian O’Brien bass guitar, Thomas Croke guitar, Joseph Hanrahan drums, Sean O’Grady on vocals and saxophone and Dara O’Reilly guitar.

When the judges heard the band was from Newpark they weren’t surprised; they commented that Newpark produces great musicians. The band did the school proud and there was a large turn out of students and parents to cheer them on. As part of the win they played at the Dun Laoghaire Festival at the end of September to yet another big crowd, all of whom enjoyed a brilliant event.

International Prize Winner

Congratulations to Matthew Breen from Sixth Year, who won first place in the fifth Northern Ireland International Organ competition, which took place in Armagh.

The judging panel included some of the most highly respected names in organ music: Erwan Le Prado, from Caen conservatoire was joined by Professor David Graham from the Royal College of Music and David Hill, chief conductor of the BBC singers.

Ms Ethel Glancy

Music Labs Music labs are a platform provided to all interested students and staff to come together to play, perform, lead and learn from one another. Four labs are available: Ukelele, Creative, Ensemble and Vocal labs.

Ukelele Lab takes place every Monday lunchtime. This semester’s Ukelele Lab was led by Coby Baker and Lughaidh O’Brien. A whole mix of players take part from the beginner to the advanced.

Coby led us in learning all our chords and patiently took us through various strumming patterns.

Homework was even set amidst the trials of trying to keep Ms O’Keefe out of trouble while Ms G managed to get DT from Lughaidh. Lughaidh is now teaching us new riffs and melodic ideas. Great fun is had by all; come join us.

Vocal Lab is the only lab that is teacher led. A huge word of thanks to Mr Barrett who worked with us exploring many different songs and singing African tunes in three parts. The Vocal Lab also meet every Monday lunchtime and are heavily involved in learning and practicing for performances at upcoming events – the Christmas Craft fair on December 12th and the Carol service on December 21st.

Creative Lab meet every two–three weeks.

Students who are composing their own music get the opportunity to share their sound spaces and discuss their songs and instrumental pieces. Students are now preparing for the Talent Clash, which will take place next semester. Submit your own original track to compete: the prize is recording time in a Dublin recording studio.

Ms Ethel Glancy

PA System Workshop On Friday September 18th, Seamus from XMusic, came in to give us a talk on our new PA system.

As beginners, when you look at a mixing desk, it can be intimidating.

Aside from all the controls, there’s the terminology to get your head around too. So... we learned the basics to start, like what the different components of the equipment are, i.e., Speakers, Monitors, Mixing Desk, Microphones, Cables and, Mic and Speaker stands. An important point Seamus kept repeating is that everything must be turned off before plugging anything into the PA, otherwise the speakers can blow! Connect first, turn on after!

We got two stage monitors, which Seamus demonstrated how to connect via the AUX channels.

This basically means that a monitor can be placed close to the drummer and by adjusting the aux buttons the drummer can hear just the vocals or the guitar or whatever part s/he needs to hear to keep on track.

The gain button is used to control the input volume.

One interesting point! Did you know that the actual zero marking on a PA desk actually stands for Ultimate Gain which you would rarely need to go beyond!?

Seamus also showed us how to use the parameter to get different effects (efx) for each input.

We were advised to always try to use a little reverb on the vocals or delay effects but to remember that whatever EFX we choose would then apply to all inputs.

He also recommended not having the parameter higher than five. We learned about PANNING. Basically in the early days of recorded music, everything was recorded in mono. Essentially what this meant was that the finished recording, a single channel of sound, which contained every instrument and performance, would come through one speaker! Then musicians started to use two speakers, left and right. So a pan control adjusts the level of a particular sound being played through the left and right speakers, allowing the desk user to ‘place’ it within a stereo panorama (hence the name). If you have a home recording set-up, have a play around with the pan positions. They provide a great way of creating natural sounding ‘space’ within a mix!

Another really good tip that when sound checking you get a sense of the sound levels but to expect that volume to rise about 20% during the actual performance. The bands then got a chance to set up and put the desk to the test, which was a lot of fun.

This workshop was very informative but there was a lot to take on in one session. This is a brilliant resource for music students and one we hope to get lots of use out of.

Ella Slate and Pam Paus, Transition Year Music

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Drama news

This year Newpark Drama is immersed in Shakespeare as we rehearse and prepare for our production of Twelfth Night in December. At the start of September more than eighty students from throughout the school auditioned and blew us away with their talent, enthusiasm, good humour and sheer confidence with the Shakespearean language. Since then, 22 actors (drawn from every year in the school) have been rehearsing madly at lunchtimes, after school and for long hours at weekends.

Fifth Year art students are preparing design briefs for the set and artwork; Mr Connell and his team are constructing the stage extension; Ms O’Keeffe is working with visiting composer Eleanor Dawson writing the music; Elaine Cullen is leading the band of minstrels; Avril Crampton and Esme Galloway are heading the costume team.

With their lines learned (no mean feat in some cases), the actors are ready to incorporate the original music and songs, dance choreography with the wonderful Molly McAlister, fight choreography with visiting professional Stav Dvorkin. You can really see the drama experience of the older students shining through: the Sixth Year actors are impressive theatre practitioners at this point and wonderful leaders within the group. A wide range of past students have offered their support, time and expertise as we move into the final stages.

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How many Shakespearian actors can you fit in a wardrobe?

This is a crazy play of shipwreck and implausible disguises, it laughs at love and self-importance, and creates comedy through a range of colourful characters and outrageous circumstances. Come and enjoy the antics of this fantastic cast!

One Act Play Auditions will be held on Wednesday the 9th of December at 1.30 pm for Newpark’s entry to the St. Andrew’s One Act Festival in February.

The wonderful David Magee is coming back to direct. The play will be absurd and fun. All Fourth and Fifth Years are welcome to audition.

Junior Plays Every year in Newpark, Fifth Year students have the chance to try their hand at directing. They choose (or write or devise with their cast) short plays for First and Second Years actors. As always, we have plenty of Fifth Years clamouring to direct this year so that means there will be parts for loads of First and Second Years.

Auditions will take place on the 16th and 17th of December 2015: all First and Second Years welcome. The plays will be cast before the Christmas holidays and performed in April 2016.

This will be the tenth year of the Junior Plays in Newpark: a very significant birthday to celebrate!

Questioning European Climate Leadership

Newpark Theatre Company A slightly different version of Hamlet inspired by Bertold Brecht, written and directed by past student Colm Higgins. Watch this space for further details.

Past pupils Lots of our brilliant past pupils have been enriching the cultural life of Ireland in the last few months.

Congratulations to Cian O’Ceallacháin and Jessie Doyle (both Class of 2009) who wrote, directed and performed an Orwellian play, Tingo which was extremely well received at Smock Alley Theatre this month. It demonstrated amazing creativity and intelligence.

Another past pupil Sian Murray has been winning awards left right and centre with her engaging and thought-provoking play, Aunty Ben. This is Ireland’s first LGBT play for children. It is a heart-warming story about a nine-year old girl and her favourite uncle, who is a drag queen. It is currently touring (25th November in RUA RED Tallaght at 6.30pm See https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ aunty-ben for more details Cathy Devis & Anna Johnston

This month saw the launch of Dr Diarmuid Torney’s new book, European Climate Leadership in Question: Policies towards China and India. Diarmuid, who is a past pupil of Newpark (class of ’99) holds a PhD in International Relations from Oxford University and is now MA Programmes Co-Director and Lecturer in International Relations in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University.

His book, which is published by the highly regarded MIT Press, was launched by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Alex White, T.D. at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.

Those in attendance included dignitaries, academics, friends and family, several of whom were past pupils and teachers of Newpark.

In his speech, Diarmuid recalled, “going all the way back to my Leaving Cert. days, my Leaving Cert. history teacher, James Ryan (who is here this evening) was one of the first to spark my interest in contemporary history and politics”; a sentiment obviously shared by others present who applauded James Ryan.

Speaking at the launch, Minister White said, “The book is a really major contribution to the scholarship of climate change policy and also of the European Union—how the EU makes policy and how it progresses policy”. Minister White added that he would recommend the book to his fellow EU energy ministers when they meet later this month. Minister White also recognised the special emphasis placed by Diarmuid on the inspiration and encouragement of his secondary school teachers.

In the acknowledgements of his book, Diarmuid writes, “I have been challenged and inspired by many excellent teachers and mentors throughout my life, including Orna Lavin and James Ryan at Newpark Comprehensive School….” We congratulate Diarmuid on his success and look forward to following his accomplishments into the future.

Julia Fox, Class of 1999

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French Trip to Albi

NM

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Ms Farlow and Ms Kelly led twenty keen Second Years on a French exchange trip to Albi in the Midi Pyrénées. They were hosted by students from Collège Augustin Malroux.

The trip was a feast for the senses; images included here are from the medieval village of Cordes, the wonderful castle at Carcassonne, pink umbrellas in Blaye les Mines.

Many thanks to Nathan Moore for the photos.

More to follow in the next newsletter!

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Eco Conference On Friday the 9th of October, two representatives of the Newpark Green School committee (Daniel Hatter 3AL and

James Wilbee-Benito 1CBR) attended a conference in the old town hall in Dún Laoghaire. A wide range of topics was discussed, from the distance that food travels to get to your plate to cutting down on resources used by schools.

First we did an exercise where we made a recipe for our ideal meal and an average teenage lunch.

After composing the menu we calculated the distance the food had travelled to get to our plates. We calculated that on average a meal has travelled once around the world to get to you! Many foods that could be sourced locally are imported from nations like China due to low labour costs. A solution to this problem was discussed, that being buying food with the Bord Bia quality mark. That means foods grown in Ireland, but there is an unfortunate loop-hole. The mark means that the food was grown or reared in Ireland, but it can be processed abroad. For example prawns caught in Dublin Bay are shelled in South East Asia and then flown back to Ireland. That’s an 18,000km round trip for those prawns before we get to eat them!

After a short break we were given a series of interesting presentations in the council meeting chamber. The speakers were Kate Egan, Presentation Ecology and Veronica Ryan of Cultivate.

The first presentation was on the Eco-Unesco Young Environmentalist Awards. These annual awards celebrate what young people do for our environment.

We looked at past winners and discussed how to enter and what to enter. It gave us lots of ideas about what our school could do.

Secondly we were given a talk about Fab Labs and how people are using them to be considerate of materials used while making objects. Fab Lab stands for Fabrication Laboratory. It’s where people can go to make stuff using advanced machinery. The talk focused on how people go to repair or remake old or damaged objects into new ones. There are now Fab Labs in Derry, Belfast, Limerick, Cloughjordan and

Dublin … and more than 200 around the world. You can find out more at http://wecreate.ie/ Finally a talk was given about biomimicry.

Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies.

We looked at examples of biomimicry in action and how it affects our everyday lives.

After a short hiatus the whole conference played a game based on world trade and the exploitation of resources. It was very complex and confusing but still extremely entertaining. Somehow our team (Cambodia) ended up in a war with team USA! We learnt a lot about world trade and how rich states get to exploit poorer ones. It also helped us learn why developing nations could be forced by their economic situation to use processes that are bad for the environment.

Finally we had a discussion and brainstorm about what individuals and schools could do to help our environment. We got a lot of brilliant ideas including many that we could bring back to Newpark.

There were also discussions about our next Green Flag (Energy) and what we could do for ours.

It was a very productive (and fun) day and we got plenty of great ideas and information, much of which we intend to use in Newpark.

Daniel Hatter, 3AL

World Food Day Ms Dempsey would like to thank all parents, staff and students who very generously donated to Ndiini School Food Programme on World Food Day, 16th October. A special thanks goes to Ms O’Dwyer’s Third Year CSPE class who held a bake sale in aid of the charity. Over €1,000 has been raised in Newpark this year to date!

Ndiini School Food Programme is a registered Irish charity (CHY No 20136) that seeks to provide primary school students in Kenya with daily school lunches. The lunches are designed to meet the nutritional needs of children. By providing nutritious, costeffective and sustainable school lunches to primary school students, we hope to improve attendance rates and overall educational performance.

As a result of our school lunch programme, attendance at Ndiini Primary School is close to 100%. Often, our lunches are the only meal some students eat all day.

If you would like to know more about the work of the charity, please visit www.nsfood.org or email info@nsfood.org Many thanks again.

Ms Margaret Dempsey

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The Visit: film review M .

N i g h t Shyamalan is one of the most talkedabout Hollywood directors of our time, for better or worse - admittedly, in recent years, it’s mainly been for worse.

I’m sure you’ll have at least heard of one of his ten films, with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs being among his most commonlywatched and critically lauded.

Some of you may also know his lesser-praised films, such as 2013’s After Earth or 2010’s Worst Picture winner at the 31st Golden Raspberry Awards, The Last Airbender.

Naturally, my friend and I were quite excited to be among the first people to see his new project, horror-comedy, The Visit, and partake in a Q&A with the man himself afterwards at an event being filmed by RTÉ! Our excitement was lessened by finding out that

we would be given questions to ask, but the whole idea of even seeing Shyamalan in person could create butterflies all on its own.

Once we walked through the door of the Lighthouse Cinema that day, we were immediately bombarded by posters for Shyamalan’s new foundfootage horror/comedy/thriller. Yet it wasn’t simply discovering a new film by a major director that created such an air of genuine suspense and intrigue around the beautifully-decorated cinema. The true reason was the unpredictability of what would happen once the lights were dimmed. Shyamalan had made the film on a comparatively smaller budget than many of his prior films, and had done so in an uncharacteristically secretive manner. He was left to his own devices,

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without studio executives looking over his shoulders. Would this be his big comeback or another Razzie contender? Why was one of the first screenings being held in Dublin?

Why was Shyamalan so keen to keep his project a secret?

The movie begins with an intriguing premise, followed by a series of equally intriguing events.

It follows siblings Rebecca (played by newcomer Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (rising star, Ed Oxenbould), who think it’s time they met their grandparents. Their mother, Paula (Kathryn Hahn), had run away from home aged nineteen and hadn’t spoken to her parents since. She reluctantly agrees to send her children away on a train to meet their grandparents at their rural home. Our two plucky young heroes discover that their grandparents aren’t your standard elderly couple, and engage in numerous strange activities (running around the house at night scratching walls, beating up strangers, that sort of thing).

In this movie, Shyamalan takes the audience on a crazy journey and just doesn’t let go. You could feel the unease as the film progressed from one uncomfortable situation to another.

Shyamalan manipulates his audience subtly. He never draws attention to his elderly couple’s wacky endeavours, and builds suspense solely on atmosphere, up until the last ten minutes or so, where all hell (and simultaneously, the film’s most entertaining moments) breaks loose.

For those last ten minutes, you could practically feel the nervous sweat dripping off the audiences’ faces. To cope with the unease, the audience uses one of humans’ most common reflexes: laughter; laughter to block out the screams.

Appropriately this film doesn’t take itself too seriously. This isn’t a found-footage version of The Shining; it’s more on par with something like I Know What You Did Last Summer, only The Visit is actually good! Go and see it with a group of friends see it and shove popcorn into your mouths to prevent screaming.

The film is not perfect. One of Shyamalan’s weaker choices was to use the found-footage format for this material.

It adds nothing to the overall experience, and ultimately slows down the progress; not to mention that Stanley Kubrick couldn’t have made a film of such crystal-clear quality at the age of our protagonists. Still, whatever problems you can find with the film are made up for with its sheer entertainment value. If you are squeamish, be prepared to squeam.

Rating: 4/5 Finn Keating McMahon, Third Year

Deutschmobil visits German Classes

Xtreme Measures 135 excited First Years (and thirteen trepidatious staff) survived a day of adrenaline filled activities at Xtreme.

The students were brave and courageous and pushed the boundaries of their comfort zones.

On Thursday 8th October the German Department were delighted to welcome Katharina and Janina from the Goethe Institute to Newpark with the Deutschmobil. They did two workshops with the two

1st Year German classes who had lots of fun. They brought many little gifts to the students—German badges, keyrings, bracelets, pencils, notebooks and flags. Many thanks once again to the Goethe Institute.

For more information see www. germanconnects.ie.

First Year Avril Liebing-Power writes: “We went to German Class to see the Deutschmobil. We learned how to say and spell fifteen animals and what those animals say.

When we said the names correctly, we got a badge with a German word on it. We also did a fun word search. At the end we got small presents… We had to try to speak German. Overall it was so much fun. Es war sehr gut.”

Ms Deirdre Mackey

Most importantly they encouraged and supported each other to succeed: shouts and cheers of encouragement were the theme song of the day. The fantastic staff at Xtreme ensured that every participant tried as many activities as possible and everyone survived!

First

Debating Debating has got off to a great start this year with two teams entered in the UCD Junior School Debating Competition. Team one is Jolie Thomas (2HOK) and Ellen Connolly (1MBD), Team two is Daniel Hatter (3AL) and Louis Roche (3AL).

Both teams have come up against some tough competition and have debated some very interesting motions such as; This House Would Remove Religious Symbols from Schools and This House Would Continue the Search for Extra-terrestrial Life. Both teams are making their way through each round successfully and preparing for their next debate after the Halloween Break.

Ms Deirdre McCarron

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A word from the PTA November already; it’s hard to believe that the first term is more than half-over, but the PTA committee, like everyone else in the school, has settled back into routine and already has several events notched up.

We started off on a high note with a Debs Reception on September 10th for last year’s Sixth Years and their parents and siblings. It was great to be able to hold this event in the school –due to the building work it has had to be ‘off-site’ for the past two years – and the sun smiled on us all and allowed us to utilise not only the GPA but also the outdoor open space.

Such a joy to see all the students in their finery, and lots of proud parents too! The show was stolen by the arrival of one couple in the most enormous (and magnificently clean!) tractor.

Only in Newpark!!! The Reception this year was organized and run by incoming Sixth Year parents—a tradition we hope to continue next year, so thanks to everyone who helped out and Fifth Year parents we’ll need volunteers at the end of the year!!

Following feedback from our survey last term we had a talk on Study Skills scheduled for early October—due to serious illness both the speaker and the date had to be changed at very short notice. We are very grateful to Rory Mulvey of Student Enrichment Services who stepped in at the last minute and on October 13th gave a fascinating and very informative talk on “How to help your child achieve academic success”. Lots of food for thought! We hope that maybe later in the year it will be possible to arrange workshops for the students.

The PTA AGM was held on 23rd September and although there was not a huge turnout, those who did attend were very enthusiastic about the work of the PTA. The committee gained several new members who are already involved in activities such as organizing this year’s Christmas Raffle, helping out with

Lost Property and of course a huge amount of work is being put into the upcoming Christmas Fair on Saturday December 12th. We are very excited about this event—it’s a great way of combining the chore of Christmas shopping with the pleasure of meeting and socializing with your friends, and supporting Newpark at the same time! Please put the date in your diary now and come along on the day.

We are aware that there are still parents

and past pupils who haven’t yet managed to see the new school. We plan to have a number of open days (dates to be confirmed) in order to remedy this and are also working with the BoM and staff planning an official opening of the school in the New Year.

We finally wrapped up the Buy a Brick campaign at the end of October. We raised €32,825—a little short of our initial target of 35,000 but the money will go a long way towards providing some of the vital items needed for the school which are not funded by the Dept. of Education, for example the furniture in the GPA, outdoor seating for the students and traffic management measures around the school.

Thanks again to all who supported this campaign!

Becky Johnston, PTA Chair

Newsletter team: Anna Johnston, Kevin Kirwan & TY Gazette group Thanks to all our contributors.

Please email contributions for the next issue to newsletter@newparkschool.ie

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