8/10/2019 Parents Newsletter December 2014

1/3

NUMERACY AND LITERACY INITIATIVES AT

ST.FINIANSCOMMUNITY COLLEGESt Finian's ran a very successful

Maths Week before October

Midterm Break in conjunction

with the National Maths Week

which ran in a large number of

schools throughout the country.During the week activities

included daily Maths problems

for both junior students and

senior students to solve, a

poster competition with the

theme 'Maths in Daily Life' for

all Junior Cycle students and a

First year Maths competition

which was held on the

Wednesday before Midterm.

Winners included Laura

Quinn, Sarah O Reilly, Walid

Mustafa, Roshen Varughese

(6th Year), Rian McDermott(3rd year), Aaron Kelly,

Megan McDonnell, Aksela

Putnina, Horens Mhitarjans,

Feyisayo Omoniyi (2nd year)

and Saoirse Kelly, Declan

Ganiev, Killian Gregan,

Louise McKee, Ross

Hampson, Jessica Tran (1st

Year)

5 minutes daily catch up literacy

programmeThe initiative involves a teacher meeting a student every day for 5

minutes over a three month period.

Teachers are meeting students before registration in the morning, at

break and lunch time or after school to work on a particular set of

words delivering a literacy programme called Snip.

The programme which is delivered in sessions, contains a list of high

frequency words taken from the national literacy strategy. Exposure

to and interaction with the words everyday ensures progress. The

programme has been a huge success in the school.

Parents NewsletterSt. Finians Community College December 2014

Paired Reading

Programme

5th and 1st

Years Pair up to

Read!

5th year students are reading

with a selection of first year

students twice weekly.

Students choose a book from

the reading room and either

share the reading or read

simultaneously.

5th year mentors engage theirstudents in discussion about

the characters, the plot and

encourage the student to

predict what will happen

next. Short book reviews are

completed at the end of each

book.

The initiative is running for

10 weeks and at the end both

the tutor and tutee will

receive a certificate of

participation. Both junior and

senior students are

thoroughly enjoying the

opportunity to read together.

8/10/2019 Parents Newsletter December 2014

2/3

Coding comes to St. Finian'sStudents learn how to write computer code

Computer technology has become a part of our daily lives. From

scanning items at the supermarket to booking a flight on a website, from

posting pictures on Facebook to using our mobile phone, we are

constantly 'interacting' with computers in one way or another.

At some point, someone had to create the computer programs that allow

us to do all these things. This is where computer programming or

'coding' comes in. Coding involves writing a set of instructions to tell a

computer what to do in different situations.

Since October, every Thursday after school, junior students at St.

Finian's have been learning how to write code, starting with a visual

programming language called Scratch (scratch.mit.edu). In recent weeks,

students have participated in the Hour of Code

(http://hourofcode.com/ie),a global initiative to get more people coding.

Learning to code opens up a world of possibilities for students,

especially in Ireland where so many computer companies are based:

Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and many others...

Classes will resume in the New Year and new students are always

welcome. (Mr. Walshe, Spanish & ICT)

Saint Vincent De

Paul

This year, the Saint Vincent

De Paul have been busy

hosting various events suchas Grandparents Evening

along with our Christmas

Food Appeal.

The Grandparents evening

was hosted by the First year

students with help from 3rd

and 5th year music students.

A big thank you to Sandra

and Ms. Magee for their help.

We also have our Christmas

food appeal where students

have kindly donated food

and it will be given to the

local Swords Saint Vincent de

Paul.

Our New Friends

We have linked up with a

school in India this year. The

first year students have been

sending letters to the students

in India and making new

friends.

We hope to develop a really

strong link over the year with

the school and even try to

visit in the next few years.

8/10/2019 Parents Newsletter December 2014

3/3

ST.FINIANS SHOW SPIRITThe latest sports news from St. Finian s Community

College.

The Ladies GAA Team

The Ladies GAA team at

St.Finians played theirfirstsenior game against The

Donahies. Unfortunately, they

lost on the day but the team

showed great spirit and

determination. There are girls

from 1st to 6th year represented

on the team and have great

potential for the Blitz in the

New Year.

St. Finians Senior Boys Team

St Finians Senior Boys team

started the season with a win

over Gael Colaiste Reachrann

in Fingallians GAA club in

November. The game was a

close encounter with St Finians

winning by a point! Fantastic

performances all over the field

especially from the captain

Sean Griffin.

Our next game was against a

strong St Joseph's team in Rush.

Unfortunately we lost out but

again we had some great

displays from goalkeeper

Colm Daly and Dara OBrien in

wing back. There is great team

spirit in the squad at themoment and the group have

represented St Finians very

well.

Girls Basketball

The u16 and u19 Girls

basketball team competed in

the Dublin Basketball league

from September to December.

During this time they played anumber of other schools and

upheld their impressive

record. Special mention to

Clara Kinsella and Aiste

Kavaliauskaite who were very

impressive for both the u16 and

u19 team.

Dates for your

Diary

Monday 5th January 2015:

Students return to school

Wednesday 14th January

2015: 5th year Parent/Teache

meeting from 4.00pm to

6.30pm

Monday 26th January to

Friday 6th February 2015:Mock Exams for 3rd and 6th

years

Every Tuesday resuming

Tuesday 13th January 2015:

English conversation classes

for parents who wish to

improve their English 9.30 to

10.45am. Contact Eileen Foley

for details.

We wish all our

students and their

parents/guardians avery Merry

Christmas and a

Happy New Year!