Three peaks Challenge
On Friday the 4th of May all the TY students participated in the Three Peaks Challenge. The purpose of completing this task was to raise money for St. Catherines as we will be undergoing a big difference day project in the following weeks. Each student was given a sponsorship card and was asked to go around asking their neighbours and relatives if they would sponsor them for the walk. For the actual walk we left the school on busses at 9;45 on Friday morning and we were left at the bottom of the Big Sugarloaf. It was a beautifully sunny day out and we could not have had nicer conditions to walk in. We walked up to the shoulder of the big Sugarloaf but not to the top as it is too dangerous to go up there in a large group. So instead we just walked to the shoulder and back down the other side of the mountain and down into Kilmacanoge. We then stopped in the garage to grab ourselves some lunch and we headed up into the small Sugarloaf. Once we reached the top of the small Sugarloaf we stopped and had pour lunch. After lunch we walked probably the longest part of the walk as we came down through Kilruddery and up Bray Head and then down onto the seafront where we stopped for an ice cream. From there we got a bus back to the school and I came straight home absolutely exhausted but had a really good time out on the walk.
Carlingford adventure centre
For our first week back after Mid- Term, my year group went off to Carlingford adventure center for four days. We travelled down on Monday morning and when we arrived we met our instructors for the week and got a briefing on what the week was going to entail and a few basic housekeeping rules. We were then shown to our rooms and my room was absolutely tiny with 6 boys in it. We had three bunk beds squished together in a 12 foot by 6 foot room. However it didn't matter much as we spent very little time in our rooms. Most of our time was spent outdoors doing activities. I really enjoyed the activities, I thought that they were a lot of fun some of the best ones were the high wires course and the Ziptopia. The only activity i did not enjoy so much was the kayaking because it was freezing cold out. I thought the food was really good and they had a sweet shop in the hostel itself which was always busy ! I thought it was a really good week and one of the best school trips I've been on to date.
wellbeing week
During the week of the 6th of November we had our Well - Being week in school. This week was introduced to promote overall health, physical and mental and well being. On Monday morning we had the minister for health, Simon Harris, in the school to give us a talk on what he and the Government was doing to try to improve the mental health of the Country. He spoke very well and gave some very striking statistics. He mentioned to us that they have recently changed the food pyramid and updated it as they had experts take a look at it and they came to the conclusion that it was outdated.
Something else we did for Well being week was that the YSI group came up with the idea to give each year, first through to sixth, a coloured ribbon to wear on their jumper throughout the week. The fourth years were given the colour purple to represent creativity. We had several other guest speakers such as Alison Canavan giving us her story of her youth when she was suffering from depression and anxiety. It was really insightful to hear from someone who had herself actually gone through this and dealt with it and has overcome it. On Thursday I then had an aware workshop with Steve. He talked to us about managing our stress and putting in place coping mechanism's.
overall I think that Well being week was a big success and hopefully will help people in the future.
Something else we did for Well being week was that the YSI group came up with the idea to give each year, first through to sixth, a coloured ribbon to wear on their jumper throughout the week. The fourth years were given the colour purple to represent creativity. We had several other guest speakers such as Alison Canavan giving us her story of her youth when she was suffering from depression and anxiety. It was really insightful to hear from someone who had herself actually gone through this and dealt with it and has overcome it. On Thursday I then had an aware workshop with Steve. He talked to us about managing our stress and putting in place coping mechanism's.
overall I think that Well being week was a big success and hopefully will help people in the future.
public access to law
On Friday the 10th of November, I took part in the public access to law course run by a very successful barrister through the school. At the start of the day Mary talked to us about what her job entails, what she's worked on in the past and what she's currently doing now. We then watched a video which showed us how evidence is used to determine who or what is responsible for a crime. After the break we came back and did a mock trial. In this trial i was the barrister for the defence. At the end of the trial the jury ruled in my favour and i had got my client off the charge. I really enjoyed my experience and may look more into becoming a barrister.