St. Aidan’s C.B.S.,Whitehall, DublinScoil Aodháin, Fionnbhrú, Baile Átha Cliath

News UpdateNews UpdateNews UpdateSpring 2018

School Awards Ceremony Our School Awards Ceremony takes place this year on Thursday May10th at 7pm. We welcome back Mr. Owen Casey as guest of honour.Owen is a former student of the school and an outstanding tennis playerwho represented Ireland twice at the Olympics in tennis. Nominees forthis year’s awards will be announced after Easter.

8th – 16th March Seachtain na Gaeilge was infull swing in St. Aidan's. The school wasbeautifully decorated and our annual LabhairGaeilge Liom competition kicked off. Thestudents had to use their cúpla focail at everyopportunity and were rewarded with tokenswhich entered them into a raffle! 1st, 2nd and5th years took part in tráth na gceist.Roinn naGaeilge would also like congratulate the 3rdyears after they completed theirJunior Cert oralsand to wish all ofthe 6th yearstudents the bestof luck in theiroral exams in thecoming weeks too.Ádh mór abhuachaillí!

Seachtain na Gaeilge

IMMERSIONOur Immersion students presenting a cheque for €7000 to Abigal Carneyfrom the Edmund Rice Development. The money will be used to sponsorup to 30 students in Edmund Rice Sinon High School in Arusha,Tanzania.

Talent Show The Student Council recentlyorganised a talent show as afundraiser for past pupils ShaunRyan & Keith Hodson. The moneywent towards Global BrigadesDCU. Shaun & Keith are going toHonduras in May to assist with thebuilding of a water well. 1st & 2ndyear students attended the TalentShow. There were a variety of acts

such as musicians, singers, comedians, jugglersand magicians. €370 was raised on the day. Well done to theStudent Council, Ms. Zara Kennedy, Mr. Richard Gill and Mr.Shaun Ryan on a wonderfully entertaining morning, showcasingall the students’ talents.

ShmoomanjiThe TY Drama/Music class will be on stage in The Axis Theatre, Ballymun on TuesdayApril 24th at 7.30pm performing their very own original play called "Shmoomanji".Behind the scenes are their teachers Ms. L O’Flanagan and Mr. R Gill. Martin Belvoncikdesigned this lovely poster. Tickets are €10 for adults and €5 for students. They areavailable from the TYs themselves, headed up by Josh Sogbetun.

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AbbeyThe TY students in theDrama/ Music group wentin early December to visitThe Abbey in the city centre.They discovered a lot aboutwhat goes on behind thestage and got an insight intothe make-up department andjust how complicated andtime consuming it can get.

Irish Heart Foundation’sCPR 4 Schools ProgrammeLaunches in St. Aidan’sRoughly 5000 people die of sudden cardiacarrest every year and roughly 70% of thesehappen in the home. Just starting CPRdoubles the chance of survival. Our students will learn how to react if thissituation happens and will know thecorrect steps to follow in helping thatperson. Training our students will meanthat over 700 people in our area will knowwhat to do in a situation of sudden cardiacarrest.It is an extremely important and excitingproject, run in our school by Ms. NSullivan and Ms. A Askins. So far, theyhave trained Transition Year students andthey plan to extend it to the entire studentbody and the staff.

Mental Health WeekOur annual St Aidan's PositiveMental Health Week took place inearly December. During the week,several guest speakers came to talkto the students around the generaltheme of Mental Health. There wasextended tutor time reflecting ondifferent topics every day.Breakfast was available in thecanteen for the students and therewas a “Bring your own Breakfast”event on the Friday. Some studentswere very creative in theirapproach - fried eggs and rasherswere cooked in the science room!Activities at lunchtime consisted ofKaraoke, a chill out room, boardgames, sports, art and crafts andmeditation. The Sumo suits againwere terrific fun and a greatsuccess with the students. The Art Competition had theslogan “Not every wound isvisible”. A prize of €50 each forjunior and senior was up for grabs!Evan Foster in 3rd year won thejunior prize and here we can seeour Principal Mr. T Shannonpresenting Zachery Tarrayo a 6thyear the senior prize for thecompetition.The feedback from the studentsand teachers alike was verypositive. Well done to all involvedon all their efforts with organisingthe week, in particular Ms. F.Macken and The Mental HealthTeam.

Italian Foreign TripBon voyage to the 5th years and TYstudents who are bound for Italy thisEaster. The 8 teachers and 59 students willbe taking in the sights of Sorrento, Rome,Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius from the1st- 5th April. On their return we willmake sure to highlight their wonderfuladventures in the summer newsletter. Mr.J Moore and Mr. S Brown have organiseda full exciting itinerary that all thestudents will enjoy and an experience thatthey will never forget. Enjoy!

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CongratulationsSome of the Christmas card design winnersafter being presented with their prizes byour Principal Mr. T Shannon.

Physics of the CircusOn 8th February ten TY studentswent to the Helix to the Physics of theCircus lecture and demonstrationgiven by James Soper aka theJuggling Scientist. It was veryenjoyable and gave them a newinsight into science!

Junk Kouture Competition 5th year art student, Cian Newman, gotthrough to the regional final of the Bank ofIreland Junk Kouture competition with hisfantastic costume. He designed and madeit from recycled materials. Lots of love andpatience went in to the making of hiscostume and we are all very proud of him.There were 1533 entries submitted to Bankof Ireland’s Junk Kouture competition thisyear and Cian’s design was chosen by the

judges as one of only 395 designs to make it through to the regional finals.This was a great achievement for Cian as the standard is very high. Cian andMs. D Mc Quaid attended the regional final in the Helix on the 6th March.Sadly despite looking fabulous and performing wonderfully on stage he didnot make it through to the final in the 3 Arena in April.

Accenture Skills to SucceedTransition Year ProgrammeIn conjunction with Junior Achievement,Transition Year students tookpart in Accenture's Skills to Succeedprogramme. It is one of the most valuableworkshops our Transition year studentsundertake. Firstly they completed theonline academy in school, followed by theonsite workshops in our school with 12volunteers from Accenture. Thevolunteers were so encouraging andenthusiastic sharing their skills with ourstudents, including effectivecommunication, teamwork, CVpreparation and interview tips. Studentsthen had the opportunity to go to theAccenture offices at Grand Canal forinterviews. This was a valuable learningexperience for all.

Busy Social Life for TY’sTY students at the table quiz beforeChristmas and at the ceili for St. Patrick’sweekend, all enjoying meeting up with thegirls from Dominican’s. Well done to allinvolved.

Medieval WeaponsWell done to Ms Brennan's 1EastHistory class who really enjoyed aHistory Workshop on MedievalWeapons. Thanks to Mr O Neill &Mr Carty for their expertise and timein making this an unforgettableexperience.

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Sergei Runin 6th year being presented by our DeputyPrincipal Mr. O Deneher with his prize for being our latestsports star of the week.

Sports Star of the Week

Lee Gannon and Enda O'Donnell are all high achievers in thesports field, playing for the Dublin North Hurlers in the vs themighty St Kieran's Kilkenny. Lee is also the captain of theteam. Super sports stars!

Super Sports Stars

Anti-Bullying Play - SPHECyclone Rep Theatre Company visited our firstand second years and staged a very professionalproduction in our hall. There was tremendousstudent engagement throughout. This was avery enjoyable and worthwhile experience for alland we hope to make this a regular event on theMental Health/Wellbeing Calendar.

Young SVP5 North organised a charity cake sale andconcert to raise money and awareness for StVincent de Paul in the school last Friday. Theconcert featured students from Ballymun Trinity,Scoil Caitriona and St Aidan’s brass players withconductor Ron Cooney and special guest jazzmusicians Ciaran Wilde and Ray Martin. Theyraised over €200 and gave a speech about the

work of SVP in thearea. They invitedlocal residents toattend as well asall St Aidan’s firstyears.

Neil Hoey 2018 Neil Hoey in 6thyear signed forBohemians FC inJanuary and scoredon his debut!. Wewish him everysuccess on this newventure.

Badminton 2018Congratulations to theU19s badminton teamwho were crownedLeinster Division 3Champions. The teamconsisted of Kritish Gopi,Matthew Ryan, AdamSheridan and JohnThomas.Running Fast – Athletics News

Well done to our athletes ontheir magnificentperformances on Friday 26thJanuary - we have NorthLeinster and LeinsterChampions in our midst. SeanO’ Leary in 6th year came 2ndin the senior race in the AllIreland Cross CountryChampionships in Waterford.Seán will now have to choosebetween some of thefinest universities in the

world for his scholarship. Overall it was asuccessful year, with the teams winning theBrother Schools Invitation, the All Ireland CBS CC, and the North Leinster title. Theteam’s attention now turns to track.

U15 SOCCERWell done to the U15 Soccerteam on winning the NorthDublin League. They beat St.Declan's 3-1 in the final, scorerswere Gavin O'Brien, JoshuaAkingbade and Jack Power. Theteam progress to the LeinsterQuarter finals against Marist Athlone in a couple of weeks.

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