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Coláiste Bríde Presentation Secondary School
Newsletter, September/October 2015
Guidance & Counselling Update CAO Parents Information Talk Tuesday, 20 October at 7:30 The Guidance Counsellors would like to invite parents of 5th and 6th Year students to an information talk in the school about applying to Colleges of Further Education (PLC Colleges) and the application process for Third Level through the CAO system. This talk is of utmost importance to parents of 6th Year students as they begin the application process in November 2015. The talk is designed to familiarise parents with the process and to enable them to support their daughters in their final year in second level. We look forward to seeing you. Higher Options Thursday 17th Sept 2015 Approximately 100 6th Year students from Coláiste Bríde travelled to the Higher Options Conference in the RDS. Talks included topics such as the options on offer in Irish and UK third level education, the CAO and UCAS admissions systems, alternative routes to third level through Further Education (Post Leaving Certificate Colleges –‘PLCs’), how to choose a career and how to cope with college life. Second Year Parents’ Talk John Lonergan met with 2nd Year Parents on 22nd September in Coláiste Bríde and spoke with them about parenting as their daughters go through the teenage years. He shared some anecdotes and insights into what to expect and how to cope and support them through second level.
Dear Parents / Guardians
The 2015/16 academic year has truly settled into rhythm and routine, filled with learning activities,
social bonding and information evenings for parents. All 1st year and new parents to the school are
particularly welcome and we trust that your daughter will enjoy and benefit from her journey in our
school community. Over the summer Mr Ryan was appointed Acting Principal in Presentation Wexford
and I know that parents, students and staff believe that our loss is their gain and his
promotion is testament to the great team of teachers here in our school and we wish
him every success.
I wish to acknowledge the excellent Leaving Certificate results, with 585 points being
awarded to our highest achiever. A large proportion of our girls were very successful
in achieving places through the CAO for higher level education and many others are pursuing courses at
further education. Congratulations to the girls and their families. Added to this was great success at
Junior Cycle, where one of our girls was identified as among the top students in Ireland for Maths and
Science—a great achievement. We continue to inspire and encourage our girls to work
at their best ability, to strive for success and make a difference in society. I wish to
commend everyone involved in College for Every Student (CFES) where over the
summer we were awarded School of Distinction status for our work in the
Programme. “Tús maith, leath na hOibre”, now lean ar Aghaidh
Students leaving school premises early
…..
All parents are reminded to familiarise
themselves with all of the school rules in
your daughter’s journal or on the website.
Please pay particular attention to the rules
for students leaving school early for any
reason.
1. Write a note in your daughters jour-
nal for her to show her tutor / class
teacher
2. Call the office / reception to confirm
that you have given your daughter a
note to leave early
The Rainbows Programme will begin again at the beginning of October . Rainbows is a peer support programme to assist children and adolescents who are grieving a death, separation or other painful transition
in the family. If you would like your daughter to take part in the Rainbows Programme please con-tact Sr Anne Nevin or Ms Bríd Patten through the school reception at (01) 459 1158.
As First Year Year Head I would like to welcome all of our new students to Coláiste Bríde. The new group of First years are settling in and coping well with the big transition to Secondary School. It is a daunting time but there are many people including tutors, teachers, the guidance team, mentors and office staff to help them settle in to their new school. We had a great day on Thursday 1st October at our First Year Bonding Day. Students got to know other girls from across all groups and took part in fun activities such as boxercise, crochet, meditation, a forensic science experiment, magnet making and a drama workshop
with our talented tutors. The students are to be commended on their behaviour, appearance and attendance and we would like this to continue. Good attendance and a positive attitude to school are vital to their success. We look forward to another celebration on Thursday 8th October when we will enjoy the Cheerios Childline Breakfast together in the canteen. The one euro donation will go directly to Childline. I hope that your daughter is enjoying their experience with us in Coláiste Bríde. I wish them a happy and successful year.
Sallyann White (Year Head).
Welcome to all of our new First Year Students!
South Dublin Sports Partnership Coláiste Bríde are delighted to be working with South Dublin Sports Partnership to promote participation in sport at a local level. Transition year groups are involved in coaching Tag Rugby, Cricket, Volleyball and Gaelic Football as part of their PE programme. Volunteers Including Amy Kenealy (Irish Cricket player) come in to coach the girls how to play and then the students complete a coaching course in that sport. It is a great oppor-tunity for the students to get involved in sport.
National Wellread Award In an effort to promote literacy and a reading culture in the school Coláiste Bríde is competing for the National Wellread Award this year. As part of the scheme all the school community staff/parents/students who have an interest in read-ing are invited to review any book they read at any point and found interesting. Review forms can be found at reception or for students in the school library which opens every Monday and Wednesday at 1:25 in G10
The Transition Year students have been
extremely busy these last few weeks,
between getting soaking wet at Baltinglass
and showcasing their creativity for the
Bridge 21 Programme at Trinity College.
The activities at Baltinglass included canoe-
ing rock-climbing, zip-lining, and archery.
From this, it is clear that our TYs have had
a blast-off start to the year, and are excited
to see what next awaits!
Megan Plummer
Hi my name is Aoife Dunne and I’m a TY student
here at Coláiste Bríde. On the day of our Junior Cert
results the whole of TY, along with out tutors were
brought on a trip to Baltinglass in Co. Wicklow. We
left bright and early at 7a.m and luckily for us the
weather was great! When we got there we were put
into our class groups and my class, TYC, got to do
Kayaking first. Some girls didn’t take part but the
ones who did got stuck in and had a great time, and
only a few girls ruined their fake tan!! We also got
to do archery, rock climbing, zip lining and
orienteering. It was honestly the most fun I’d had in
ages. I felt that going on the trip was a great
experience and really helped to calm my nerves about
getting my results, as I’d say most girls would agree. t
gave me a chance to get to know my new class and to
make some new friends. It was definitely a day to
remember and will probably be one of my highlights
of TY!
NEWS
Coláiste Bríde, Presentation Secondary
School in Clondalkin has been awarded the British Council’s International School
Award in recognition of its work to bring the world into the classroom. The Inter-national School Award is recognition for
schools that do outstanding work in interna-tional education, such as through links with
partner schools overseas. Schools are award-ed the Intermediate Certificate for developing their international work. The British Council
believes that fostering an international dimen-sion in the
curriculum is essential so that young people gain the cultural understanding and skills they need to live and work as global citizens.
European Day of Languages
Friday September 25th marked European Day of
Languages and the occasion was celebrated all over
Europe ... and on social media! This day is a great
way to celebrate young people learning European
languages and it aims to highlight the importance of
language learning to promote cultural and linguistic
diversity and understanding in Europe. At least half
of the world's population is bilingual and this day
aims to remind us that learning a second language
improves all language skills as well as cerebral re-
flexes and thinking processes!
Here in Coláiste Bríde French, Italian, Spanish and
Polish are the European languages taught in the
school and we want our girls to be proud of their
learning!
Students submitted beautiful posters for the Poster
Competition and on Friday most students & teachers
dressed up in different ways to represent the country
of the language they learn! Berets, Breton stripes,
curly moustaches, mime artists, pizza outfits and
pasta shell jewellery are some of the paraphernalia
that made the cut! Croissants of course were the or-
der of the day and TY student Hollie Dunne ap-
pealed to local bakers for donations for our event.
Well done & merci beaucoup Hollie. The day was a
great success and we look forward to next year al-
ready! Ho la la!
Inspiring Science at Summer Camp
In July students from five local primary schools
(Scoil Mhuire, Scoil Ide, Our Lady Queen of Apostles
Clonburris, Scoil Aine, and Sacred Heart
National School Sruleen) attended the summer
camp in Coláiste Bride. 14 students from 4th, 5th
and 6th class attended the workshops. On the first
day students made sun-dials and used them to tell
the time. They also learned how to locate the car-
dinal points (North, South, East and West),
locate the constellations and search for planets us-
ing the iphone app SkyView. The makers of the
SkyView app tweeted us to say that they were
‘ecstatic’ we were using their app for education
purposes. On the second day the students ex-
plored the Solar System using the free astronomy
software Stellarium. They explored the sky at night
on their birth dates, looked for shooting stars, the
moon, the milky way, they explored time travel,
watched the recent solar eclipse in March 2015,
saw the night sky for their birth dates, examined
the surface of the moon and searched for other
planets in the solar system. What a busy time these
young local astronomers had! The Inspiring Science
team hope that we see these bud-
ding astronomers in our Science
classes in Coláiste Bríde soon.
2015 marks 20 years of Science Week; a national,
annual event that celebrates the fascinating
worlds of science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM).
This year's theme is Science Week 2.0: Design Your
Future and is an opportunity to explore and
experience the wonder of science.
There will be a number of events happening in
Coláiste Bríde this year. We are all excited about
the arrival of Dee Kelleghan (@skysketcher). Dee
is an artist astronomer educator. She invents,
designs and enacts creative workshops to help
students understand our solar system.
Be inspired and get involved! Follow all things
Science in Coláiste Bríde on twitter at @ISE_CB.
Science Week
November 8th—15th 2015
Oct 20th CAO Information Talk for Parents of 5th & 6th year students
Oct 26th—30th Mid-term Break
Nov 3rd 4.15-6.45pm 6th Year Parent / Teacher Meeting
Nov 9th 7pm Registration Night for Incoming First Years 2016/17
Nov 16th—Fri 27th LCA Work Experience
Nov 17th 4.15-6.45pm 3rd Year Parent / Teacher Meeting
Dates for your Diary
LCVP trip to
Trinity College Dublin
Our 5th year students enjoyed a great morning in Trinity
College last Tuesday September 29th. After meeting at the
famous gates at 9 o clock the group made their way to the
College of Nursing and Midwifery for a talk by Dr Ronan
Smith. Dr Smith is heavily involved in the College For Every
Student (CFES) programme. This programme aims to increase
student participation at 3rd level from families where 3rd level
was traditionally viewed as a remote possibility. Dr. Smith
spoke of the Trinity Access Programme (TAP.), involving 20
secondary schools in Dublin including Coláiste Bríde. This is
an access course that prepares students to go on and study for
a degree in Trinity College. Students who successfully
complete the course receive a Certificate in Foundation
Studies from Trinity College. Students who get a grade of at
least 50% can compete for places on degree courses in Trinity.
The course is free. https://www.tcd.ie/Trinity_Access/
Dr. Smith also spoke of the HEAR (Higher Education Access
Route) which is a scheme for school leavers from socio-
economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Eligible students
compete for a number of reduced points places in various
courses. In 2014, 186 students accepted places in Trinity
through HEAR. https://www.tcd.ie/Trinity_Access/
prospective/higher.php
Our students then got a guided tour of the college from a
Coláiste Bríde past pupil - Jennifer O Dwyer Donohue. The
students learned that Trinity has almost 17000 students, made
up of 118 nationalities. It has a very lively social life with 120
societies and 48 sports clubs. Our students certainly enjoyed
their visit and more importantly are now seriously considering
Trinity as their future college of choice.
LCA Induction Day
As part of the Induction and
bonding day for LCA
students, 28 students set off
for Causey Farm. We started
the morning by baking
bread. Great fun was had
catching eggs and the students baked up a storm! Ac-
tivities such as milking a cow (a bucket list goal of one
of the students that was achieved!), catching chickens
(almost a new record set!) and feeding the horses kept
us busy all morning. The highlight of the trip had to be
the bog. The students were slow to jump into the bog
at first but once one student got in they all started!
Mucky and hungry we ended the
afternoon by enjoying the bread that we baked that
morning. Well done to all those who embraced the
experience and gave their all on the day! We had a
great time with you!
Ms D McArdle, Ms Costello and Caroline
Enrolment for First Year 2016/17
now taking place
Administration fees 2015-16
Many thanks to all of those who have paid their administration fees for 2015/16. Students who have yet to pay for this year may submit payment to the office. Please keep in mind that only students who have paid this administration fee will be covered by the schools 24 hour personal accident insurance for the school year.
All junior students are invited to put their
thinking hats on and write a spooky short
story (1 page) or poem based around Hal-
loween… the scarier the better!!
There will be prizes for the most nail bit-
ing entries from each year… plus the win-
ning entries will be entered into a South
Dublin Libraries competition to win Lei-
sureplex vouchers…. So start writing.
Entries can be given to your English teach-
er or put in the entry box in reception by
Fri 16th Oct.