Ice Skating.

On the last Friday in school, we went on a trip out to Blanchardstown shopping center, sounds weird I know,  we left at 9:05 while everyone else was doing their exams and got on the bus.  Once we got to blanch we had hours to look around and to get some food to eat, but silly me forgot to bring money so i just had to borrow some of Orla.  Orla and I got McDonald's and it was very yummy, we walked around the shops for a while but it was kinda sad walking around looking at all the stuff I couldn't buy, so we ended up back in McDonald's.

While we were there Orla was meant to be meeting up with someone who was going to sell her Justin Bieber tickets, this person was meant to be reliable but ended up not even having tickets and so Orla was kind of sad but she got over it when we went ice-skating.

When we walked across to the ice-skating tent everyone was already excited and everyone was taking out their extra pairs of socks and putting them on.  It didn't take long for us to get on the ice but of course before we did we had to take lots of cute pictures. Ice-skating is not as easy as it looks which made us all look like fools when we fell, I promised myself I wouldn't be the first person to fall and I was happy I kept that promise. 

Afterwards, when we were going home loads of people were drenched from falling on the ice and of course I was one of them.  My dad also forgot about me so i had to walk home in the freezing cold drenched to the bone, but luckily he had the fire on so when i got home i could warm up with a cup of tea and in my pj's, I was so exhausted I fell asleep for a couple of hours but that was probably from all the exercise when i was walking around blanch. 

Amber Flag Day!

On Friday the 4th of December it was Amber Flag Day.  We held Amber Flag Day to promote positive mental health, so all the TY's came in at 9:05 and we were dressed in as much amber (Orange) as possible.  I was a bit confused about what we had to do for the whole day but we found something to do.  There was many amber posters put up around the school beautifully done by students in TY. 

First we all went in to the library and the chairs were set up in a circle so we all sat down and just talked among ourselves and then Ms.Mooney and Ms.KB made their speeches and told us what we were doing for the day.  Then we went outside to take a group picture and selfies with all the cool amber faces and boards that we made.  When we went back inside we had to launch the website so we set up the chairs and the web committee (including myself) sat at the front so we could make our presentation.

Bridie from the Liffey Champion came in to take our picture and to listen to us launching our wonderful religion website.  Each person said a little bit about the website and what we did as part of the web group.  Then we got our pictures taken with Ms.Mooney, Ms.KB, Ms.Barry and Ms.Smyth.

Ms.Barry and Ms.Smyth both said speeches about how we were the best TY group ever (The usual) and it had been very good morning.  After break we returned to the library to make positive posters to stick up around the reception area, just telling people what to do if they ever feel sad or down.  and then we went to stick them up and we had lots of laughs and fun.  After this we just sat in the library and talked for a bit until everyone was ready and finished what they were doing.

Once everyone was finished we let the buskers practice for lunch time,  Cynthia, Clarissa, Róisín, Jade and the rest of the class joining in all sang songs that people were going to be singing at lunch time.  Every time the girls finished we clapped and rejoiced and then filled the silence with a Christmas song, led by Aoife, Orla and myself.  There was a really happy atmosphere in the class and everyone was just laughing and smiling.  

Lunch time was getting closer and closer and we started to set up for the bake sale, one of the main events of the day.  Orla, Anna, Emma and I set up our table, we took all the food kindly donated by Tesco.  Our table was by far the best table tbh.  Everyone loved our doughnuts and our other cakes, we had millions of mini doughnuts from Tesco and they all sold.  Apparently they were really nice but I dont like doughnuts so I didn't have any.

Our table was such a success we were sold out before many people could even see our wonderful layout.  After we sold out I went for a walk around the school to watch the busking in the courtyard and the face painting in the library.  Everything seemed to be going wonderfully and the mood of the school was just so much happier, even I myself was happy and it was noticeable.  After lunch we cleaned up. counted money and helped first years make Christmas cards.

In my opinion it was one of the best days in TY so far, everyone was in a good mood all happy and everyone included each other in everything.  I cannot thank Ms.Mooney and Ms.KB enough for such a good day and all the effort they put into making it such a good day for such a good cause.

Mini Company

For my mini company I am in a group with Linda, Claire and Megan.  We are doing snowmen made out of jars, It sounds weirder than it is.  We bought jars and we are stacking three on top of each other, the bottom jar contains sweets varying from bon bons, maltesers, apple drops, candycanes and lots more.  The second jar contains hot chocolate or sugars sticks, there are three different types of hot chocolate; cadbury's, maltesers and galaxy.  The top jar contains marshmallows either mini white and pink ones or yellow and pink flower shaped ones.

To remember the french people who died in the recent bombings and shootings, we have made a french themed set of jars and the money we earn from it will go to  a charity called French Secours Populaire.  Which provides aid during emergencies in the county. Below is a chart of how the moneys money is being distributed.

Distribution of public generosity

A + A A -

• 56%: Social Missions in France (€ 12.2 million)
• 12%: Social missions abroad (€ 2.6 million)
• 15%: fundraising expenses (€ 3.2 million)
• 16.8%: Operating cost (€ 3.6 million)
• 0.2%: Gross fixed assets (€ 0.05 million)

I believe that it must be very hard for all the people in france at such a tough time so i think it nice to help as much as we can.

Fun Walk

On Friday the second of october our whole school dressed up in 7 different colours:

• 1st years: pink
• 2nd years: purple 
• 3rd years: green
• transition years: yellow
• 5th years: blue
• 6th years: Black and white

Everyone came in at 9:05 with crazy brightly coloured clothes in so many different colours and they were all being very secretive about their dances and songs they would be preforming later.  We had our first two classes which for my class was a double science so I was happy.  After break we had Irish which we just spent doing face paint and  then a tutor class which i spent learning the dance because I was out but I learnt it in time and our class did very well.

Sadly we didn't win but it was a good day altogether.  After the 5th years had preformed some ty's had to leave to stand at the roads and tell people where to go I was one of them, I was with sarah and our spot was in the middle of st.Rapheals.

For my classes fun walk we decided to dress up as sunflowers and thunder clouds and our tutor dressed up as a mexican sun.  It was a great day and we had lots of fun.

Kilkenny Art Trip

On the 24th of September our whole year went on a trip to Kilkenny on an art trip, the two teachers who came with us were Mrs.Brogan and Mrs.Carpenter.  We went on one large coach and another small coach.  We were split into groups for our buses and there wasn't many on my bus so the bus was nice and quiet for the long trip down to kilkenny.  we left the school at 9:05 we didn't even go into school we just got our itineraries and got on our bus.  When we got there we were already late and so we were in a very big hurry to the cinema, we got to the cinema and we were allowed to buy popcorn and sweets before we went in.  The cinema was really warm but it was kind of nice compared to the cold outside.  The movie we got a special screening of was called 'The Song Of The Sea'.  It was such a good movie and it had an amazing story line, I love all the characters Irish accents and the drawings and animations were so cute and very well drawn.  My favorite character was either Cú the dog or Saoirse the innocent little sister who also ends up being a Selkie.

straight after our cinema trip we walked back up to the castle, almost getting run over by a few cars here and there,  In the castle there was a a workshop/showroom thing where we got to learn all about how it was made and all the components that are used to make up the movie.  we got to see things such as first sketches and final drafts.  We were also told all about how people got the ideas for the characters and how much work was put into each second of the movie.  It takes 12 drawings to make one second of the movie.  The final room we went to had a real life set up of one of the characters from the movie it was so cool and interesting to see and the character was very funny so I found it funny too. 

After our groups little tour around the castle we got to have lunch some of us went to the little cafe and got tea and a snack, we were allowed to roam around the castle so we went down to the market and Eilis bought a chocolate cake pop. We took lots of pictures and talked to lots and lots of tourists who loved our 'catholic school' uniform.  We got loads of funny photos and group pictures in front of the castle.  There was so many pretty things to take pictures of such as the beautiful gardens.