TY Newsletter Issue No. 2

TY NEWSLETTER Young Social Innovators On the 11th of October, the Young Social Innovators team from Transitions Year received two different presentations one from Homelink and one from Age Action Ireland. The theme of this years project is raising awareness, helping and making a difference for the lonely and elderly. Therefore, the name of the team this year is ‘Tir na Nóg’.

The first talk was from Homelink.

Homelink, provides a phone call service, a maintenance service as well as host social events. Even though the service has only been operating since May 2008, they have over 850 members. This is a super organisation that work everyday to support the elderly.

Later that day, Donal Dunham from Age Action spoke to the YSI team. He explained that Age Action is a support group for the elderly that are lonely, at home and perhaps isolated. It is a much bigger organisation than Homelink in that it has over 3000 volunteers and about 30 staff members. It provides care and repair services which are greatly beneficial to the elderly in their homes. Age Action is funded by the Government but the main funding for Age Action is from fundraising. They also charge €20 per annum as a membership fee.

Age Action is a terrific organisation that protects the rights of the elderly and keeps them active and acknowledged in today's world. Both presentations were of great help to the YSI team and really outlined what direction we should follow with our own project. On behalf of the YSI team I would like to greatly thank Ms NíFheinneadh and Ms Buckley for organising the guest speakers.

Wellbeing Week As part of Wellbeing Week students in the school attended the following talks:

Wayne Denner On 30th of October Wayne Denner from Digital Ninja came into the school to deliver a very important and noteworthy speech about our online reputation. Wayne based his talk around how to use our social media to our advantage and maximise each of our individual talents in today's digital world. The talk gave our 4th year group a better understanding of how we can use social networking sites to help them become more employable.

As he said, 90% of employers admit to checking social media accounts when hiring an employee. This is why is it vital to give a positive representation of yourself online. Overall, the talk very was interesting and beneficial to the whole year group. We will now always be aware when posted online and remember : Stop. Think. Post

Bodywhys - Fiona Flynn On the 5th October, the school had a talk with Fiona Flynn from Bodywhys spoke to the year group as part of ‘Wellbeing Week’. The talk had the general topic of body shaming and self image. Fiona went into great detail about how important it is to have a high self esteem and to be happy with the way you look. She explained that in today's world it is recognised as ‘the perfect body’ when a girl has a skinny flawless body and boys, big muscular flawless bodies. This is not the case though, she explained that everyone has their own unique body shape, and that these so called ‘perfect bodies’ do not exist.

She later proved to us how magazines and media can edit a photo by airbrushing and filtering. These effects can completely change the original photo of the person. This then obviously changes the perception of the person so it looks like they have the ‘perfect body’.

She explained to the group in detail about eating disorders. Everyone in the room left with a greater understanding of eating disorders. We were shown a video of a true story in animated quality of a girl, who suffered from anorexia. It was frightening to see how quickly the disorder took over her life and made her so unhappy.

Bodywhys is the national voluntary organisation supporting people affected by eating disorders.

IT is Not Just For Geeks On the 4th of October Peter Lawney and Marie Moynihan from Dell came into talk to our year group. They spoke about all aspects of IT and different careers it provides. Before this talk many of us had never thought of doing IT as a career. The speakers also informed us all that you do not necessarily have to be computer savvy to enjoy a job at IT. There are many different jobs in companies such as Dell and Google such as design and marketing. ​After hearing this talk we are now more open minded about careers in IT. We are really glad that we got an opportunity to get a deeper understanding of IT and understand that it is “not just for geeks.”

Bag Packing with SVP On Friday the 14th some students had the fantastic opportunity to help fundraise for Saint Vincent De Paul. The students were split into three groups and given allocate slots to bag pack in Cornelscourt Dunnes Store. Each student had to wear a high vis vest with Saint Vincent De Paul printed on it so people could easily see who we were fundraising for. Throughout the day all of the students were extremely busy and worked really well.

We raised three thousand and seven hundred euro, nearly a thousand euro more than last years TY students, a new record!

Motivational Talk On Thursday, the 7th of October, the 4th, 5th and 6th year students had the opportunity to listen to Gerry Duffy's talk on self motivation.

Duffy had given this same talk to the employees of Google and Facebook. He began with pointing out that no one had sat in the front row. He said "it takes effort to sit in the front row." This got everyone thinking as he continued. He told them how when he was a teenager he wasn't motivated with school or college. However, when he became older he became more self motivated with family, work and endurance sports; Gerry completed the ironman challenge and 32 marathons in 32 days!

He asked the students sitting before him to swap seat to the other side of the room, and then again with your neighbour. This was a metaphor to show that to achieve your potential you must always get out of your comfort zone. "Your success can be determined by the how uncomfortable you plan to get." Gerry told the group that in order to achieve you must first look at what is stopping you. As he said "what you do everyday is far more important than what you do once." We need the willingness to participate, and if something unexpected occurs it will then go to show what we are made of. He finished his talk with one last piece of advice; that if you really want something, draw or print out an image of it and keep it somewhere you will see it to help aid your self motivation.

Musical Workshop This week, Transition Year students somewhat apprehensively entered the Halla Nua to participate in a musical workshop. Alongside Ms. Olohan and dance instructor Aisling, we were to be tested on our singing, dancing and performance abilities ahead of our upcoming TY musical in February. The idea of the workshop was for Ms. Olohan to see the talents of all students, and where our strengths as a whole year group lie. From this, she would then select the musical that we will be putting together in the upcoming year.

Though for many us preparation appeared somewhat premature, it is difficult for us to understand just how much effort goes into this stunning production. The earlier we start, the better! In our form groups, we learned dance routines to songs from “Sister Act” sang simple scales and even songs from last year’s musical, “Grease”. Overall, the workshop was a great success.

St. Gerard's Day 2016 Always a highlight in the school calendar, St. Gerard's Day this year was as enjoyable as ever. From the quiz to the walk to evening mass, the entire school was joined in celebration for a day of fun and reflection. What many students treasure about St. Gerard's Day is the way in which it unites us all, from first years experiencing the first of many St. Gerard's Days to sixth year students living through their last. It was undoubtedly a fantastic day for the student body, staff and parents alike. St. Gerard's day began as always on Wednesday 12th October with the eternally fun and engaging quiz. Year groups are mixed up as they are put into teams for a large table quiz involving us all, with questions, games and competitions.

This year there was a hugely popular new addition to the quiz timetable brought to us by Deputy Head Boy Killian Beashel and Head Boy Gavin Dowd. In this game of Cluedo, students were left in stitches upon seeing the teachers featured in a murder mystery video (Ms. Finane sadly being the victim). Hopefully this engaging game of Cluedo shall become a permanent feature of future Gerard's Day quizzes!

After this, excited students all piled onto buses to be transported to the Sugarloaf for our annual walk up its slopes. The crisp autumn air was perfect for such an outing, and we all returned red faced, tired and happy to accept a hot chocolate and brownie in the canteen. It was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

That evening, the whole school community gathered in the sports hall for the traditional Gerard's Day mass. It was a lovely liturgy, accompanied as always by our talented school choir. Afterwards parents retreated to the dining hall for tea and coffee, while

students remained for the Zambia outreach programme video and the highly anticipated photo reel from last year, compiled by Mr. Kelly. Once this was over, everybody arrived home feeling glad to have enjoyed yet another superb St. Gerard's Day.

Kairos On the 6th, 7th, 13th and 14th of October each form class had the opportunity to travel to Maynooth to Kairos where they could record and star in their very own shows. Everyone boarded the buses full of excitement and anticipation for what the day had in store. Each class had prepared roles and show ideas in previous English classes with help of their English teachers.

When the TY's arrived at Kairos they were introduced to Gerard Duffy who would be working alongside them. He explained the ground rules the students were brought into another room where each were giving their roles; producer, director, actors, cameramen and so on. Each show consisted of various interviews, new reports and weather forecasts.

After the preparations were done and the backstage people had been shown how to work to different cameras and visual graphics it was time to begin rehearsals. It was an very interesting experience for the TY students, we got the opportunity to see how making a T.V show really works and what it takes to do things as small as switching the cameras or giving people their cues.

Overall it was a great opportunity and trip for all TY students!

Theatre Trip

4C and a few lucky members of other forms (one of them being me!) got the wonderful chance to see the work of arguably one of Ireland's greatest living playwrights, Frank McGuinness, in the Abbey theatre in Dublin. This play showcased the other side of 1916, the often overlooked contributions of Unionists in the bloody and brutal Battle of the Somme during the First World War. This horrific wartime tragedy is depicted in McGuinness’ masterpiece, “Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme”.

It tells the story of eight ordinary men, all just as brave and full of conviction as their Easter Rising counterparts. This gave us a new outlook on our sometimes distant neighbours across the border.

With many of us not knowing what to expect from this play, especially given in its wordy title, everybody sat still in anticipation for what lay ahead. We were not disappointed, as the skilful storytelling and sublime acting of all on stage made this a truly memorable evening for all.

I was touched by the passion of these men, often viewed as the enemies in Ireland's story. I genuinely felt my views change as I sat watching these ordinary people fight and die for their beliefs. This was a truly unforgettable play which I really, really enjoyed watching.

However, we were not finished yet. On Thursday, lead actor Donal Gallery, who played a young Kenneth Pyper, kindly agreed to come into school for a Q&A session with all that attended. We loved learning more about the work that went on behind the scenes, and felt that our knowledge of the theatre world improved immeasurably as a result.

Everybody chipped in, and Donal was fantastic to talk to, giving a real insight into this modern classic. It was lovely to see so many people having enjoying the century old tradition of theatre-going, and everybody hopes that there will be more opportunities to do so in future.