The Parents Association of Coláiste Bhaile Chláir have organised A Night at the Dogs on Saturday May 9th in Galway Greyhound Stadium. It is hoped to raise funds for additional sporting facilities to accompany the new school building and for additional equipment to use as part of the schools STEM programme.
Tickets are €10 per adult. Children up to 16 years go free. Tickets must be purchased in advance as they cannot be bought at the door on the night. Email [email protected] if you wish to attend and leave your name and number of tickets required and we will post out. There will be an open draw for all tickets bought with a 1st prize of €200 and 4 draws of €100 each.
PDST—Young Economist
by Louise Mahoney
On Wednesday the 18th of March, 28 first year students from Coláiste Bhaile Chláir attended the PDST Young Economist of the Year Final 2014–15. The final was held in Maynooth University. During the day there were different talks such presentations on Behaviour Economics by Dr Pete Lunn, ESRI and the winners from the previous year explaining the benefits of participating in the Young Economist of the Year (YEOTY).
Louise Mahoney, Coláiste Bhaile Chláir
This national competition consisted of a junior (1st, 2nd and 3rd year) competition & Senior (5th & 6th year) competition. Each entrant had to create a presentation which could be a PowerPoint, Video, Mind map or Prezi. The presentation of the prizes could not have come sooner for some. The Junior prizes where presented first. There was a 1st, 2nd, 3rd Place and Highly Recommended winner for each PowerPoint, Video, Mind Map and Prezi. Then an Overall winner!
Coláiste Bhaile Chláir were well represented in each category with Irene Ciobanu, Matthew Mohr, Simon Coyle, Eanna Kelly coming 1st, Rachel Flaherty, Katie Finnerty, Emily Wall, Alex Rafferty, Abigail Walsh, Mark Hughes coming 2nd, Anna O’Leary, Lucy Murray, Liam Molloy, Ethan Kaya, Killian Goaley coming 3rd and Matilda Wing, Rachel Scarry, Sarah McHale, Kaitlin Kearney, Nicola King, Andrea Glenane, Aoife McGrath, Rachael Hughes, Sinead Donovan, Christopher Sokunbi-Walton, Teigan O’Rourke, Rebecca Reilly highly Recommended.
I was the overall winner of The 2015 Young Economist of the Year and received a trophy and an iPad mini. My presentation was about how outside influences can affect our income, expenditure and household budgets. I thought a great way to explain this theory is to use a strong example. I used the crisis on Tory Island during the first few weeks in January 2015. Due to adverse weather conditions the Island was completely cut off from the Mainland. The Island ran out of vital supplies. This then led to having an impact of income, expenditure and household budgets.
This was Coláiste Bhaile Chláir’s first year entering this competition which turned out very successful considering we were competing against 1st, 2nd and 3rd years Nationwide.
Economists of the Future from Coláiste Bhaile Chláir!
Liathróid Láimhe—Handball
Ten students from Coláiste Bhaile Chláir competed in the B Handball schools competition held in Pearse Stadium on March 19th. They had a very successful day. Míle buíochas to Frances Curran Michéal Breathnachs for organising the event.
Spanish Exchange Students—Interview with Andrés Sanchez
by Liam Molloy
On the 18th of March 2015 Coláiste Bhaile Chláir welcomed 28 Spanish students. I carried out an interview with Andrés Sanchez, one of the exchange students. He said our school is very different as they don’t wear a uniform in his school in Spain. His school is also very big as they have five buildings.
In his school they are bilingual as there is an option to study some subjects in English. They are also allowed to leave the school grounds during break. Andrés said he preferred his school as there are only six classes while we have nine however Andrés said he likes the netbooks as they use pencil and paper.
Andres said his favourite subject are PE Math and English. Andres attends IES Torreon Del Alcazar. Andrés is from Ciudad Real which translate to the Royal City, it is two hours from Madrid. Andrés said he really enjoyed his time in Coláiste Bhaile Chláir.
Visit from Mr Ciarán Morris, Ability West
On Friday the 20th March Ciarán Morris spoke to some first year students in Coláiste Bhaile Chláir. The aim of his visit was to raise awareness about people with disability. He works for Ability West they provide services and supports to over 520 individuals with intellectual disability throughout Galway City and County. They provide quality supports and services to children and adults.
Each person is supported and valued within an environment which promotes their overall autonomy, health and wellbeing and enables them to reach their potential. Mr Morris focused on the similarities between people rather than the differences. He showed examples of how people with disabilities could still go on to achieve many things. He taught us some basic sign language and helped us understand what a valuable service Ability West provides.
#Upforschool Petition
You can show your support for all children to go to school without danger or discrimination—by signing the #UpForSchool Petition, this is a global petition to eliminate barriers to education & learning. “We don’t need your sympathy. We need your signature”—#UpForSchool.
Help create a message no government, politician or leader can ignore and demand that every child can go to school safely. Nothing changes without pressure. Sign the #UpForSchool Petition. Act Now.
SciFest
11 Coláiste Bhaile Chláir projects will be on display in GMIT on May 14th as the students demonstrate their growing skill for scientific investigation. One particular emphasis this year will be on Mission to Mars projects where students have chosen to examine many different aspects of a manned Mission from Earth to Mars for colonisation.
Some of this year’s projects include a great project by 2nd Years Patryk Kazimierczak, Cathal Brady and Christian Cotter who investigate how many kilograms of seed potatoes will the astronauts need to bring with them to Mars to ensure nutrition in the long run and Alaidh Fox and Deirdre Hughes’s new innovative mobility sensor stick for the blind.
Students are working at lunch and after school to ensure they are ready and excitement is building for the event.
Inver Think Tank
Second Year STEM students Patryk Kazimierczak, Jessica Connell, Maddie Duffy, Patrick Donovan and Ben Hugman won the overall Best School award for their contribution to Inver Think Tank project in association with Foróige and Techspace. They were faced with the challenge of identifying a problem that the local community could face in the year 2020 and use technology to solve that problem.
They chose to tackle the very worthy issue of poor mental health with their new invention the Virtual Reality Therapy device, a headset which allows the user to escape an unhappy reality and enjoy images of their favourite objects/scenes to relax and improve mood. They did a fantastic job of presenting their project to the group in Foróige Cafe on March 27th where they also listened to a brilliant presentation by the other winner Galway Autism Partnership. The whole class came to support them and were delighted to be treated to pizza for their efforts—wins all round!
TeenTech Event
On Friday 17th of April, 20 first year Coláiste Bhaile Chláir students attended the National TeenTech event in NUIG, the first of its kind in Ireland. The event was designed to engage STEM literate students in activity and stimulate creative problem solving. The event was run in conjunction with the Galway Science and Technology Festival and was a great day out. Students spent the day figuring out how they could contribute to make life better in the year 2050 and will have the chance to explore three exhibits as follows:
- Innovation Zone: students will work as a team to design and market an app.
- Insight Exhibition: multiple stands and exhibits with mini challenges.
- Challenge Zone: Hands on inter-school challenges run by local STEM industries.
Cookery Competition as Gaeilge
by Ciara Fox
Coláiste Bhaile Chláir’s first years had a cookery competition organised by their Home Economics teachers Ms Dolan and Ms Duggan. Every form had to compete against their classmates in a group of two or three to bake an apple crumble. There was about six or seven groups in every form, but the judges had to pick only one group.
The judges are looking for specific qualities in the crumble and in the people carrying out the task. They looked at:
- Presentation of crumble
- Correctly cooked
- Tastes good
- Hygiene and safety
- Cleaning up
- Work ethic
From each form the students that got through were:
- 1A Libby O’Brien, Matthew Mokin and Abigail Walsh
- 1B Louise Mahoney and Niamh Heffernan
- 1C Eoghan Duggan, Gearoid Hennessy and Nathan Burke
- 1D Oisin Tobin, Mary Duggan and Niamh McGrath
- 1E Edward Britton, Gary Fox and Hannah Lund
- 1F Ciara Fox and Rachel McDonogh
- 1G Aisling Murphy, Shane Bermingham and Lisa Kelly
- 1H Saoirse Moran, Aoibhinn O’Connor and Darren Donoghue
- 1I Finegas O’Brien
The finals were held at 12pm on the 26th of March, and all the groups had 80 minutes to make their crumble. Ms Dolan was supervising, and keeping track of their cleaning. When every crumble was ready, the judges came in to taste the crumbles. When they were done, they discussed what they thought. In the end, the winners were 1D, which were Mary Duggan, Niamh McGrath and Oisin Tobin. In second was 1A, which was Abigail Walsh, Matttew Mokin and Libby O’Brien. In third was 1H, which was Saoirse Moran, Aoibhinn O’Connor and Darren Donoghue. All the participants did really well, and should be very proud for getting to the final.
1st Year Soccer
The U14s soccer team lost out in the quarter-final of the FAI Connaught Cup to Presentation College Headford on a 4–2 scoreline before the Easter break. They performed very well throughout the year and progressed to the knockout phases on top of their group but things just didn’t go their way on the day. Credit is due to the whole panel for a very good effort throughout the year. If the group stick together and continue to develop their game, they will hopefully go on to even greater things in the future. Well done.
Back Row: Niall Tarmey, Liam McDonagh, Enda Collins, Shane Bermingham, Ciaran Keane, Mark Melody, Kristan Flaherty, Adam Heneghan, Michael Newell, Colm Moran.
Front Row: Jamie Forde, Adam Kearney, Christopher Kelly, Eoin Gavin, Nathan Grainger, Tommy Callinan, Dillon Keogh, Josh Buckley, Shane Heneghan, Connor Swan, Rory Moran.
Missing from photo: Darragh Berthez and Allyn McKenna Patterson.
Camogie
First year A camogie final on the 30th April in Killimordaly pitch at 12pm. Go neirí libh.
