SAB

In religion class this year, we are participating in programme called Schools Across Borders which basically allows us to communicate with people our age from different countries. There are 6 schools in Ireland participating in SAB mostly in the Dublin area, all in TY/5th year. Teenagers from countries such as Palestine, Burma, France, Romania, are involved in SAB. Yesterday all of us went to Citywest to attend a talk about SAB, hosted by Darrren Irvine, the director. All of the Irish schools involved were there and it allowed us to interact with each other. First off we registered at the entrance and then after everyone arrived, Darren gave us an into talk explaining about the programme. Then all the schools presented their powerpoints that they prepared in class. We were the only school that had more than 1 class involved in SAB. Our powerpoint was on gender inequality while the other classes in our year talked about other issues. Darren was very impressed by the amount of effort the students put into the projects.

Then it was time for Ice Breakers, where we were put into groups in ratio to the number of students in our school. All of the schools were mixed together so we all got to get to know each other. After 15 minutes we got the chance to watch a play by Quadrangle Productions about Burma. It was very interesting and very humorous. Afterwards, we had dinner which was chicken goujons and chips and it was soo tasty. Then we got the chance to listen to some NGO's talk about what they do. We participated in some group activities, such a s drawing on a graffiti wall, learning how to blog, and lots more. At 3pm it was time to go back to school, but we all had a really great time. 

Science Week

Last monday, we visited Tallaght IT for science week. We went with the science teachers and all TY's The talk was held by a professor James Soper, also known as the juggling scientist.  He showed us all some really interesting experiments using helium, coke, water etc. The talk was really interactive as he would pick a student to participate in each experiment. I also liked the fact that the experiments were very simple and easy to understand. The talk lasted an hour and we all had a great day.

Its raining yellow, Hallelujah!

On the 11th of October, the prefects of St. Wolstans hosted the annual fun walk. The fun walk is all about promoting friendship, so each class from every year, prepared a song and dance about friendship. Each year group were different colours. The colours were as follows:
1st Years: Pink
2nd Years: Purple
3rd Years: Green
TY's: Yellow
5th Years: Blue
6th Years: Black and white
My class decided our theme would be minions, so we all dressed up in minion costumes and put yellow facepaint all over our faces and arms. My vision is still suffering from all the yellow that day! Our dance was to wannabe by the Spice Girls, and we changed the lyrics to "If you wanna be my FRIEND, you gotta get with my friends." Kinda makes sense.We had a really fun time hence the name of the event, the FUN walk. Anyway, we didn't win. From our year, Cornaro won. They had a variety of songs and their theme was ducks. I tried bribing a few of the judges, but obviously it didn't work.Ah well, there's always next year! After all the years had performed, Some of the TYs walked on to be the guides for the walk, so basically we told everyone where to go. It was a good laugh. Afterwards we went back to the school for a refreshment and a quick dance, and then it was time to go! It was a great day, one of the highlights of each year! :)

Remembering Pádraig Pearse

Selfie with a stuffed squirrel

Today, all TY's visited the Padraig Pearse museum in Rathfarnham because we were learning about Pearse in Irish. It was a lot of fun. First of all we got a tour of the museum itself. It was very interesting but there was a lot of information to take in. Each room was beautifully decorated.  I took a lot of pictures which I will upload soon. Next we had a little lunch break in the courtyard. The weather wasn't great but we didn't really mind. We then went on a nature walk, and were given a talk on the different species of trees in the garden. There was about 10 different trees in the garden that we were told about. There was also a fountain and a walkway with lavender either side of it. My favourite tree was definitely the strawberry tree. I loved it's vibrant red colour. We also got to see stuffed animals in the nature room which was really cool, I got a selfie with the squirrel. After our walk we had lunch, out in the courtyard again, and most of us got hot chocolate which was scrummy! Then we all went into the field to make a video, just for a laugh, so here they are! It was so such fun :) After that, it was time to go home! 

Wacky Workshop Wednesdays

So, our workshops have finished, well, for now anyway. We have done 3 Wednesdays of workshops so far. Here was our timetable for the workshops :

4th September: Confidence building with Austin- learning to face your fears and believe in yourself.

Positive Parties with Denise- looking at the positive side of things

Massage Workshop with Gilíosa- shoulder/back massage

18th September: Positive Parties - laughter yoga

Massage workshop- head massage

Etiquette and Deportment with BK Inniú

25th Sept: Work Experience Workshop with Mrs H and Mr C

Positive Parties- How to act during work experience and being positive

Etiquette and Deportment- BK Inniú

I reaaaalllly liked all of the workshops, there wasn't one that I didn't enjoy. They were all so much fun.

Carlingford: Falling into Freezing Waters

Kayaking...Sounds like great craic! Well it's not as fun in the freezing cold. When I say freezing, I'm not even being dramatic, it was so so cold. We walked to beside the sea where all the kayaks were, about a 10 minute walk from the centre. We had to bring a towel, spare socks and runners, and to wear our swimsuit under our clothes. When we arrived we were put into our wetsuits which we were SOAKING from the previous group. We went into the changing rooms and squealed and sqwalled (that sounds like a saying but I'm not sure so don't quote me in it) as we put on our wetsuits. We came out and then put on our life jackets and helmets. The instructors made us do a few warm-ups because we were really cold. One game was passing the oars to each other ( sounds boring but it was great fun) and another was running on the spot basically. Although it was called a warm-up it did not warm me up exactly.
But anyway, we set off. all of us each got into our kayaks along with our oars. The fun part was we were going to a trampoline that floated in the middle of the water. It was about 200m from the shore I would say. After we reached the dock where the trampoline was, we tied up our boats and got on the dock. Of course, I was last to reach the dock because I'm slow. I had to stand in the kayaks to get to the dock and I could feel myself wobbling as the kayaks were bobbing up and down in the water. Just as I was nearly there, I fell straight into the sea. Straight. In. Embarrassing to say the least. Was I surprised? No. Were people surprised? No. Was anyone surprised? No. Of course it would've been me. Clumsy is an understatement. Anyway we all jumped in and swam to the trampoline, it was really fun, but it was difficult to get on, I had to be pulled up by my life-jacket by one of the instructors. But once I was on, it was really good fun. We were running around it and jumping up high, trying not to fall off. Of course the instructors tried to push us off, but I grabbed onto a rope right before he was going to push me off. I was stuck on the side but Melissa helped me up! Cheers Melissa :)
After we all had a go on the trampoline, we got back into our kayaks and went down to a mini waterfall in a cave/tunnel thing. (by the way you can see what the trampoline was like by watching a video here.) One instructor was in a speedboat helping the slow people by holding their boat and speeding off. But I didn't get help even though I was close to last. Anyway, the waterfall was really refreshing because you got to put your head underneath it. Then it was time to go back to the centre so we kayaked back. We were about halfway there and The guy on the speedboat came over to me because would you believe I was last again :) I said that it was ok, I would kayak back myself, but he just grabbed my boat and sped off. It was actually rather fun, but just as I was waving at Aideen, my boat flipped, and I went straight in to the water again. AGAIN. The man came back for me and told me to hold on to the rope at the back of his boat while he held me kayak. I thought I was holding the rope to get into his boat but no. I was holding on, and he sped off again. WHILE I WAS HOLDING A ROPE. Just picture how stupid I looked as I held onto a rope at the back of a speedboat. I also had to hold my oar, so I was holding the rope with one hand. It was an interesting experience...but we all arrived back safe and sound. We went back to the adventure centre for the last time, and got our bags which we had already packed earlier on, and walked to our bus and went home. We didn't have much time to do anything, we just went straight home. I was really sad leaving Carlingford because it was the best trip I've ever been on. I loved it so so so much, it was absolutely amazing. The only thing I didn't like was the fact we had to go home!
We arrived back in Celbridge an hour and a half later to Esso where are parents were waiting. I had such a fabulous time and it's just sad that we'll never be able to go back as a school :'( It was definitely the highlight of TY so far!

Carlingford: Stuck in an inflatable ball, rolling down hills

Day 2

After having a really good sleep, at 7am my room was awoken by Katie and Jessie ( I think...I was still half asleep when they came in) who told us we had to get up for breakfast at 8. All of us got ready and headed down to the centre for some brekkie. It was still raining but it was grand! You could have cereal or toast and tea/coffee/juice etc. It was nice but everyone was exhausted from the busy day we had the day before. 

We set out after breakfast for our next activity which was in the field we were in on Monday. The first thing we did was a thing called "Communication Breakdown" and basically it was a 3D maze in a cabin and it was completely dark. You had to crawl around, and try to get through to the other side. It's kind of hard to explain so here is the explanation if what it is from the website: "The Communication Breakdown is a 3D human sized maze completely in the dark.

It is spread over 3 levels.It is designed to test communication skills while being deprived of one of your senses – namely sight.As the name suggest, your group need to have excellent communication skills to find your way out of this maze." 
Sounds hard doesn't it? That's because it is! We were in the maze for at least half an hour. And we didn't complete it....:( but it was really fun anyway, and Shauna was a great leader! Our next activity was archery. It was really good but it wasn't my favourite part of the day. On the first few go's, I wasn't hitting the shots too well let's say, but we played a game where we were in a group of 6 of people and we each had to hit a different colour. So to put it bluntly, the worst person shot the outer colour, the next worst shot the colour inside of that etc etc so the best person went for the bullseye. I was pretty bad so we all agreed I would go first, to hit the outer colour (the easiest) but I ended up shooting really well which was not the aim of the game! We lost anyway but sure what can you do! Our last activity and the best activity of the day was BODY ZORBING!!!! AHHhhhhhhhh! It was sooo exciting. After we went through the rules and the likes, we each got into a ball, with our legs sticking out so we could run around! I think we all had a tiny bit of trouble getting into the zorbing ball!  Especially you Ciara M.We had so much fun, we played games where we just bashed into each other, like sumo wrestling! I kept forgetting how much space the ball took up so I kept hitting off people by an accident! We were allowed to just roll down the hill and just do flips in the ball, I loved it! It was hilarious whenever someone got stuck upside down, eg Rebecca W. I laughed. A lot. Zorbing was our last activity before we had to go back to the centre so I was pretty sad....:(  It was still raining so The centre got a minibus for us, but it only seated 12, and there was 30 of us....so 12 people went and then the bus came back and then 12 more were brought back to the centre and I don't know how but 4 of us were left, me Kyra, Shauna and Caoimhe and of course Mr. K. While we waited, we played a game in the rain, it was fun. Finally our bus came, and we went back to the centre. We had our lunch, which was chips and chicken wings. After, we were going out to kayak!! Yay! That was quite eventful so I'll do a separate blogpost on that....See you soon!