Team Hope Shoe Box Appeal

'Tis the season to be jolly... In some cases it is, but in some countries it’s just another day without presents.

This year SCC Transition Year will help Team Hope to complete their challenge of gathering shoe boxes, filling them with gifts that have been donated by generous people, wrapping the shoe boxes up and sending them with their love to countries in Eastern Europe and Africa.

Imagine, you’re a child aged 2 to 14, you have been a victim of war and disease, and when the cold winter is just around the corner, you, like every other year have nothing.

What can you do to help this child? It’s easy! Get a shoebox, wrap it up and fill it with little presents that would put a smile on a child’s face.

When filling your shoe box bear in mind the 4W’s, something to wear (clothes, hat, gloves) something to wash with(toothpaste, toothbrush), something to write with(copybooks, pens) and the WOW factor! It doesn’t matter where the box goes to, in Africa at night it is just as cold. If you are putting toys in, please don’t put any toy guns because most of these children have been victims of war. With donation of four Euros you can help Team Hope deliver these presents as if they were on the back of Santa’s sleigh.

Imagine you’re a child and at Christmas you received a shoebox that was generously made just for you. Your cheeks would hurt from smiling so much, imagine being that child and think about the fact that you could change this child’s life. Merry Christmas!

Jesse Faulkner

Come Dine With Me India

Mr. Coldrick has started a new cookery series with the TY pupils - themed 'Come Dine With Me' evenings. Charlotte Cooper reports on the first in the series - India night.

On Wednesday evening, the 17^th of October, Cameron, Jess, Jessye and I went to Mr. Coldrick’s house and cooked an Indian meal for Mr. Coldrick, Ms. Mc. Nelis and twelve other students.

We went down to his house at four after classes and started cooking. Cameron first stir-fried the onions and curry paste, while we prepared the meats and sauces. After a long two and a half hours, all the dishes were ready, the meat cooked, the rice steamed and spiced and the naan bread toasted. We had made a Chicken Tikka Masala, a Chicken Korma, a Lamb cinnamon and apricot curry, and a Beef curry. The students had all just arrived at this stage, so we were ready to go. We decided to have the meal in a buffet style and allow every one to serve themselves.

Everyone helped themselves, and started to eat. Surprisingly, the food actually tasted really good and no one seemed to feel sick afterwards! After the meal we all just relaxed in the sitting room and garden until it was time to go back to school. 

TY Musical Night - Pat Coldrick

The first TY musical night took place last week with classical guitarist Pat Coldrick giving a wonderful and varied set. Cameron Wood reports.

Our first TY monthly music night started with a recital and talk by Pat Coldrick a well known classical guitarist who has appeared on National television and written music for world renowned musicians. On the night Pat played a variety of music from classical to contemporary, including a version of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin. My favourite piece of the evening was one of Pats own compositions called Antarctica.  This piece was very moving and different. Pat used a strange technique of sliding up the strings making a very eerie noise like the sound whales make under water. Overall it was a great evening and very inspirational for new guitar players like myself.

Alexandra Panayotou

On Thursday last, ultra endurance runner and Old Columban Alexandra Panayotou visited the school and gave a presentation to our TY pupils. Jessica Beresford reports!

On Thursday last we were visited by Alexandra Panayotou, an Old Columban and ultra endurance runner. Alex hasn’t done sports her whole life, though she does it intensively now. She began running properly, when she was 30 - her first time since doing running at the college. 

She started running marathons, and quite by chance one day happened to do an ultra endurance run, up mount Olympus. She loved it. Much to her surprise she was able to do it, finishing in an unbelievable 2nd place. From here developed her ultra endurance running career. 

In 2008 Alex decided that she really wanted to challenge herself, by doing a solo ultra endurance run. She was going to run from Barcelona to Santiago de Compostela. This run was 1208 km and would be from April 26th to May 16th. 

This would be her first time running constantly day after day. 

Her next challenge was to run against a horse. With a 5 hour headstart the statistics were that the horse would come in 15 minutes before her. She managed to arrive 15 minutes before the horse. 

In 2010 she ran 2010 km in 31 days to promote the European Athletics Championships. She ran 70 km a day allowing herself a “rest day” on a Sunday- 30 km . 

Her most recent challenge was in aid of Foodbank, a charity that helps send food if a natural disaster occurs. In this she ran 315 km non-stop. To really publicize what Foodbank does she ended her run, in the half time of a football match, in front of 40 000 people. 

I thought Alex was very interesting, an amazing inspiration. She maintains a belief that with mental preparation, determination, resilience, discipline and courage you can do anything. Her story just shows that it’s never too late to aspire to fulfil your dreams. 

“Find your own motivation to keep you moving forwards for when the road ahead seems tough” –Alex.

TY Film Society - O

The TY Film Society is organised by Mr. Coldrick, who chooses some hard hitting classic films for our TY pupils once a month. Ally Boyd Crotty reveals how the first film of the year, O, was received.

On Tuesday evenings, once every month, Mr. Coldrick comes into our prep to treat us to a film society evening. This being our first film evening, we were all very excited. The chosen film was called O, and is basically an modern adaptation of the tragedy Othello, the play written by William Shakespeare, which we are just beginning to study in English class. 

The film was set with a young cast, in a US high school, set around the a basketball player, Odin (depicting Othello). The film concentrates on the basketball team in this high school, and the harsh coach of this team, who wants to lead them to victory. But the coaches son, called Hugo, does not think his hard work is getting the recognition he deserves, especially when the coach gives the best player award to Odin, and says he loves him like he is his own son. Odin also then only give recognition to another basketball player Michael Cassio. Hugo then decides to get back at the boys who stole his glory, and sets them up. He slowly schemes against them, turning them against each other, and his jealously leads him to hurting more people than expected. 

I think that all of us in TY enjoyed the film very much, and it was fresh in our minds and still being talked about for days afterwards. After starting the play in class, we can now see the similarities between it and the film and it makes it even more interesting. I would say I can speak for everyone in TY when I say that I cannot wait until our next film and am very eager to find out what film will be next!

Transition Year Information Evening

All Form III and Form IV parents and pupls are invited to the Transition Year Information Evening which will take place in the Big Schoolroom on Thursday 4th October at 8:00pm.

This is a chance to hear more about the nature of our Transition Year Programme. The presentation, involving staff and former and current TYers will last about 45 minutes and there will be an opportunity to chat to various members of staff over coffee in the Drawing Room afterwards.

We do hope that many parents will attend.

Junior Cert Celebrations

A few weeks ago, our Transition Year pupils received their much anticipated Junior Cert results. Luckily for them, their results were exceptional so we left them escape that evening for some (organised) fun! Sofia McConnell reports.

On Wednesday, 12 September all 52 of us received our Junior Certificate results. There were tears, smiles, frowns and laughs but by 1.30, all that was pushed to the back of our minds as we set out on our trip!

We reached Dublin and all got off the bus, excited for what was ahead of us. Randomly split into groups of about 23 we each set off for our separate adventures. My group’s first trip was a Viking Splash Tour, we all got on an open roofed bus with Viking helmets on our heads and, driven by our tour guide Paddy and his almost funny jokes we made our way into Dublin City Centre. He showed us the main Irish offices for Google, Facebook, the Boland’s mills, houses and apartments of Bono, Jedward, Colin Farrell, admired some pretty ‘Celts’ that passed by our bus and finally we arrived at the canal. After putting on life-jackets and readying ourselves for the change from land to water, our bus became a boat and we continued our tour by canal.

Our next activity was a visit to the Jeanie Johnston, a beautiful, old boat that had been used to transport emigrants from Ireland to Canada during the Famine in 1840, she was famous for having a kind, caring captain and an accomplished doctor. We learnt about how difficult life had been for them, how rarely they found who they were looking for once they arrived at their destination and the small percentage that actually made it there alive (however on this particular boat everyone was taken care of and survived the journey, sadly this wasn’t always the case with other boats.)

Our final group expedition was a sea safari around Dublin bay. We went in an open boat, rode the wake, got thrown about, completely soaked and overall had a brilliant time. Delicious, crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside chips, hamburgers and hot dogs followed as dinner. 

Finally all 73 of us walked to the Odeon Cinema. With popcorn and cokes in hand we watched a gruesome and exciting movie about prohibition in the USA, in Virginia. At 10 PM we arrived back in school feeling content, comfortable and not nearly so worried about our results. We would all like to say a big thank you to Mr. Sherwood, Ms. Kilfeather, Mr. Clarke and Alannah for coming with us and organizing such a brilliant day.