UPCOMING EVENTS

NEWS IN BRIEF

SUMMER TERM SPORTS RESULTS

August

Monday 30

10.30am Induction Day for Preps and Year 1 Parents and Pupils

Tuesday 31

10.00am College opens for all pupils

Classes end at 12.30pm

September

Wednesday 8

Transition Year Bonding Day
Junior Certificate Results released

Saturday 18

PTA morning for all parents of 1st Year and Preps in the Pavilion 10.30am

This page was last updated on the 28/08/2010

21/5/10

U13 A boys lost to St. Andrews by 9 wickets

First Year girls cricket- beat Mt. Anville

Junior A beat High School

20/05/10

Junior boys lost to St. Andrews by 22 runs (semi final)

U13 B beat St. Columba's by 75 runs

U14 A boys beat St. Columba's

Senior 2nd XI boys beat St. Columba's by 22 runs

Tennis - Senior Boys: Peter English, Senior Girls: Carla White, Boys Doubles: Conor Motyer and Peter English, Girls Doubles: Jennifer Anderson and Sophie Pratt Senior Mixed: Carla White and Philip Henry

13/5/10

Cricket U15 boys beat St. Columba's by 9 wickets

U14 boys beat Belvedere by 20 runs

Author Visit   Marcus Sedgwick  14 May 2010

The impressive biographical note, the Marcus Sedgwick website, his list of titles and awards, the extraordinary reviews promised a marvellous afternoon’s entertainment and the man himself did not disappoint. Marcus Sedgwick stood before Preps, Years 1, 2 and 3 in a packed Myles Hall on a Friday afternoon in May and treated his audience to a very funny and informative talk on vampires and sources and research and writing. He had with him a slide show that traced the origins and history of the vampire phenomenon and when he read from his novel My Swordhand is Singing you could have heard the proverbial pin. In his novel Witch Hill, one sentence reads: ‘A strange dark black thing.’ And that somehow captures the Sedgwick world. His novels, whether set in Russia, Venice, in contemporary times or long ago feature mystery, murder, death. When asked why he wrote about such dark things he said that ‘Going out at the weekends, hanging out with your friends, shopping’ is fine but other writers write about that. I don’t.’ read more...

Green Week 2010  click here for more photos

Water conservation was the theme for Green Week this year as Wesley is working towards the Green flag for water. Guest speakers, Philip Beck and Gavin Harte, gave thought provoking presentations in Assembly on the challenges of conserving water resources and living more sustainably.The Green committee have set up a rainwater collector in Wesley. Many competitions were held including quizzes, posters, poetry and slogans. Tara Masterson Hally + Louisa Harland won first prize for their song ‘We have a thirst’.  Paul Mc Kay won first prize for his Robot and Sadbh Grehan won second prize for her Sim card jewellery in the competition for making an object out of recycled materials. Bake sales raised €102 for Tearfund's Make Life Flow campaign to improve access to clean water in Africa. Other activities were a cleanup of the campus, a Green themed debate, a no car day for staff and a visit from eco gardener Brenda Palmer. The Green committee visited the Greenstar Recycling facility in Bray and saw how green bin waste is sorted for reuse.

Catrin Duffy

Creative writing Workshop with Kevin Power

Wesley College hosted a very special event earlier this year. On 3, 10, 24 March,

14, 21, 28 April, and on 5, 12 May 2010, an eight-week Creative writing Workshop with the young Irish novelist Kevin Power took place. It was open to all pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6 and it offered the fifteen who took part a unique opportunity to learn more about the art of writing. Kevin Power, in his late twenties and completing a PhD on Norman Mailer in UCD, has published one novel, Bad Day at Blackrock, which explores, as the novel’s Shakespearean epigraph suggests ‘the imposthume of much wealth and peace’. It’s a clear-sighted, no-holds-barred look at a group of affluent, privileged, amoral young people in South County Dublin and its plot echoes the ugly and frightening event some years back when a young man was kicked to death outside Annabel’s Niteclub in Dublin 4. The narrative voice is both compelling and intriguing and the novel is a powerful indictment of Celtic Tiger excess. It won the 2009 Rooney Prize for Literature and has already been translated into Italian and Spanish. The film rights have been sold. Everyone should read it.

Sophie Browne, Robert Campbell, Yvonne Corcoran, Josh Hayes, Eve Kearney, Liah McElligott, Rebecca McKimm, Leanne McNamara, Fion Murray, Andrew Nuding, Aoife O’Hagan, Stephen O’Kennedy, Aislinn Rowe, Megan Shelly and Mark Wright were lucky enough to attend this workshop. Eve Kearney found Kevin Power ‘charismatic, witty, inspiring and overall just a completely sound guy’ and says that the classes with KP will be one of my fondest memories of Wesley.’ Sophie Browne thought it ‘brilliant’ because ‘not only did it give us an insight into a writer’s life it also provided us with valuable writing tips and priceless life experience.’ Mark Wright found the study of ‘different people’s style of writing and different techniques’ very beneficial and Fionn Murray thought Kevin Power ‘a witty, intelligent, insightful young writer whose classes were consistently informative, entertaining and encouraging.’

Niall MacMonagle

ISTA/Eureka Junior Science Quiz

This year’s Irish Science Teachers Association Junior Science quiz took place on 21^st April at Belvedere College. Wesley was represented by a team of three 3^rd Years: Alastair Greene, Kate Reidy and Spencer Christie. The team scored an excellent 41 out of 48 on a set of challenging questions, mainly based on the Junior Cert Science curriculum.

They narrowly lost out to a winning score of 45, finishing in third place. Well done to Alastair, Kate and Spencer. 

Student Enterprise County Final        click here for more photos

Wesley College had a great day at this year's county final taking 3 out of 9 prizes. Sugar & Spice came first in the Senior Section and now go forward to the county final so congratulations to Yvonne Corcoran and Nathan Walsh. Lockerboards- Sean Hanlon, Jonathan Kelly, Stephen Dallas and Luke Gray came first in the Intermediate Section. Caca Milis - Grace O' Reilly won 3rd place in the Junior Section. Both Sugar & Spice and Lockerboards will now go forward to the National Finals in Croke Park on April 27th.

Model United Nations: Edinburgh 19-21 March 2010

Nineteen Wesley students made the trip to Edinburgh to participate in Scotland’s only MUN Conference. Hosting over 500 delegates, George Watson’s College in Morningside is the ideal location for an event of this size with its grand Assembly Hall and large committee rooms. The delegates from Wesley made an excellent contribution to the debates with at least four of their resolutions being chosen for debate out of stiff competition from students from the UK, Europe and Iran. The only Dublin school represented at the Conference, the Wesley delegates were noted for their skilful debate and clever lobbying. One Advisor was impressed by the ease with which Sarah Cullen quoted Winston Churchill during General Assembly debates. In all 9 delegates were awarded at the closing ceremony, Matthew Nuding picking up a Gavel for being the Best Delegate in the Health Committee, no mean feat for a Year 3 student in a committee room of senior students. As well as the intensity of the debate and the taxi trips over the Edinburgh cobbles, the trip will be memorable for the visits to Edinburgh Castle, Princes Street, the Scottish Parliament in Hollyrood, Camera Obscura on the Royal Mile and Edinburgh’s only Tartan Weaving factory, the latter proving to be a highlight.

FEIS CEOIL

Wesley’s musicians made a real splash at this year’s ESB Feis Ceoil, an annual music festival which promotes excellence in the learning and performance of music across all ages, levels and disciplines comprising almost 200 competitions and attracting over 3,000 participants from all over the island of Ireland.  Carla White, a fifth year music scholarship student, competed at senior level this time around having won four competitions at junior level in last year’s festival.  Carla spoke about her previous successes and her passion for playing the violin with Ryan Tubridy on RTE radio on March 12^th last [Listen here -select "listen back" and go to 51mins 15secs].  At the age of only 16 Carla, who attends the Royal Irish Academy of Music, was competing against much older musicians many of whom are studying music at third level.  Carla was awarded second place in the Arthur Catterall Cup for senior violin and viola concerto playing and went on to win both the Arthur Darley Memorial Prize, awarded for the playing of unaccompanied Bach sonatas, as well as the Elsner Memorial competition.  The Elsner is awarded to a duo for the playing of a string or wind sonata and Carla was joined by her chamber music partner, Sean Rooney, for this competition.  They were awarded first prize of the cup but also the RTE Lyric FM award of a cash prize and a recording for future broadcast.  Success for the White family did not end here as Rory was awarded the Johnston Cup for junior violincello and Phoebe took the St Cecilia Cup for junior string recital and a junior violin competition as well as being placed second in the junior string concerto competition.  Paul Mullen, a third year student, competed in the Senior Organ competition and was awarded the Fitzgerald Woodworth Cup for his playing of the two prescribed test pieces on the organ in St Bartholemew’s Church and he went on to take second place and a silver medal in the Junior Piano Duet class with Alastair Greene.  The Senior Choir competed for the Alice Yoakley Quirk cup which they had won last year but were unfortunate not to be placed despite giving an excellent performance.

SENIOR CHOIR TRIP TO LIVERPOOL        click here for more photos

Members of the Senior Choir travelled to Liverpool in March in what is happily becoming an annual event in the choir’s busy yearly schedule.  An early morning flight with an even earlier bus journey from school was the starting point for a hectic and busy four-day tour of Liverpool’s cultural and musical highlights.  Anfield, the home of Liverpool Football Club, was our first port of call and we were treated to an interesting tour of the building from Stephen Gerrard’s seat in the changing rooms to the hallowed turf of the pitch itself.  The Tate Liverpool was our next stop, along with a group dinner and a cinema visit rounded off our first tiring, but enjoyable day.  Saturday morning saw some early risers take a swim in the hotel pool with Mr Lewis on lifeguard duty followed by a hearty breakfast leaving us all ready to take on Beatlemania on the Magical Mystery Tour.  Iconic sights such as Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, colleges attending by the Fab Four, as well as many of the Beatles family homes were included along the way all to a colourful soundtrack of our guide and countless Beatles hits.  The tour finished up in “the most famous club in the world” – The Cavern, synonymous with the Beatles where we had a vocal workshop led by one of the Cavern Rock School’s tutors.  The choir were put through their paces and then had the privilege of being the only choir in history to perform on the legendary Cavern stage – a tight squeeze but well worth it!  Shopping in Liverpool One, the city’s premier shopping area was next followed by a group dinner in none other than Jamie Carragher’s own restaurant, Café Sports Express.  Theatre was next on the list and a touring West End performance of Dancin’ in the Streets in the impressive Liverpool Empire Theatre was the evening’s entertainment.  The stars of Motown and their hits were brought to life onstage and the whole theatre was dancing in their seats by the end of the evening.  A day in Alton Towers followed where the adrenalin was certainly flowing as we experienced rides such as Oblivion and Infinity first hand – once was enough for some but for others they queued up again and again absolutely loving the thrill of it all.  Drumming was centre-stage on our final evening in Liverpool as the choir had an African Drumming workshop where they explored rhythm, improvisation and chant while generally making a whole lot of noise together!  A Ferry Cross the Mersey showed us that there was no better way to experience Liverpool & Merseyside than from the deck of the famous Mersey Ferry, running for more than 850 years.  A visit to Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall which plays host to classical, popular and jazz performers as well as running an extensive community teaching programme and being the home of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra rounded off this year’s choir trip – once again a marvellous four-day tour with a great bunch of pupils from the Senior Choir.    

Author Visit   Alexander Gordon Smith  19 March 2010

Friday, 19 March 2010, was Non-uniform Day in Wesley and Second Years enjoyed another kind of colourful and relaxing experience to kick-start their day – a visit from author Alexander Gordon Smith who lives in Norwich. Though relaxing, perhaps, is not the best word to describe Smith’s rip-roaring, action-packed, non-stop account of how he became a writer. He began and over the next thirty minutes hardly paused for breath telling us that his parents thought of calling him Gordon Alexander but anticipating a nickname based on initials they reversed the names and called him Gordon anyway. And he’s still got the nickname “Gassy”!

He always wanted to be a writer and when asked if anyone in the audience wanted to be a writer, a dozen or so Second Years raised their hands. He suggested that if you’re stuck when it comes to describing something or someone then draw it. Or make it. He and his younger brother made many of the gadgets that feature in Smith’s Furnace trilogy which features a prison like no other. Anecdotes abounded, some sounding far-fetched and over-the-top [shooting cow pats, nose-attacking robots, garden traps] but they were told with such style and fizz and sound effects that he entertained his audience highly.

There was a Q&A and pupils learned about his interest in computer games, how he got published [with prestigious Faber and Faber] and if he always wanted to be a writer - and the answer was Yes.

Second Years read some extracts from Smith’s work in class before the visit and were invited to write a personal response. When Smith finished speaking he presented prizes. In third place, Thomas Redmond, second was Emily Stynes and Gordon Smith presented Stephanie Elliott with First Prize for her perceptive piece.

Finally, Katie Sweetman thanked Mr Smith for coming and presented him with a gift.

Niall MacMonagle

The Wesley College Ready Steady Cook Competition 2010

Wesley College's annual culinary competition “Ready, Steady, Cook” took place on Wednesday 3^rd of March. In this the 7^th year of the competition we supported the national campaign to “Love Irish Food”. Twenty finalists were selected to compete to produce the best dessert using at least one Irish ingredient in one hour and thirty minutes. The ingredients and prizes for the competition were once again generously sponsored by the Wesley College Parents Association.

The student’s work was carefully assessed by Thomas Haughton, Executive Head Chef of Harvey Nichols Restaurant in Dundrum! He was assisted by two excellent judges from the Parents Association; Mrs. Lynda Dwyer Joyce and Mrs. Anna Keogh. The students competed for first, second and third place. Each prize winner was awarded a voucher for a cookery course in the acclaimed “Cooks Academy” in Dun Laoghaire. The first prize winner also won the Ready Steady Cup for the year. The standard of desserts produced was outstanding! There was a great buzz as the judges set about sampling twenty different desserts; what a task! The great crowd of supporters looked on eagerly. They were anxious for the results…and a piece of cake!

First prize was awarded to Deirdre Cassidy for mouth watering Chocolate Lava Cakes. Second prize was won by Grace O’Reilly for her tasty lemon pudding with strawberries and white chocolate. Third prize was awarded to Esther Glenfield for her Artemis Delight, a delicious almond meringue and strawberry cake. The teachers of the Home Economics Department are delighted to see the ever improving standards of culinary excellence achieved in the “Ready, Steady, Cook” competition. I think I can speak for students, parents and staff alike when I say we are licking our lips in anticipation of next year’s event!

Ms. Fallon -on behalf of the Home Economics Dept.

Discover Lifelines: letters from famous people about their favourite poems              More Photos-click here       Link-click here

This National Library exhibition marks the 25th anniversary of the Lifelines project. The exhibition celebrates the Lifelines project which began in 1985 when English teacher Niall MacMonagle suggested to his Fifth Year class in Wesley College, Dublin that they do something to help those suffering in Africa.  They wrote to famous people and asked them to name a favourite poem and give a reason why. The replies were compiled in a simple booklet and sold out in two days.  Further booklets, also compiled by Wesley College pupils, were published in 1988, 1990 and 1992.

The success of the booklets resulted in the publication of the Lifelines book in 1992, with a foreword by Seamus Heaney.  Lifelines 2 appeared in 1994 and Lifelines 3 in 1997.  A selection from Lifelines was published by Penguin in 1993, and a further volume, a New and Collected edition, published by Townhouse in 2006. Royalties earned on the various editions had, by 2006, raised over €100,000 for Concern to fund the organisation's work in the developing world.

The National Library of Ireland purchased the original letters that were included in the first Lifelines publication and the money was donated to Concern. Subsequently Wesley College donated all correspondence, photographs and other related archival material to the Library. The Discover Lifelines exhibition in the Library's main hall shows letters from this archive from writers, poets, actors, artists, media personalities and politicians. 

The exhibition was formally opened at an event in the National Library on Thursday 4 February. Wesley College Head Girl, Thelma Harris, welcomed the many guests. Graham Norton, broadcaster and comedian, opened the exhibition with an inspired and highly entertaining speech. Gerry Danaher, chairperson of the Board of the National Library introduced four speakers who gave us a flavour of the anthology: Joy Marshall, one of the first pupil compilers of Lifelines in 1985; poet Paul Durcan; novelist Jennifer Johnston; Fiona Masterson, pupil at Wesley College.

Mr Christopher Woods, Principal of Wesley College, thanked Mr MacMonagle for Lifelines, for Poetry Aloud and for his inspirational teaching. He called on Mr Pat Murphy, teacher at Wesley College, and pupil Dónal O’Connor to present a cheque to Mr Tom Arnold of Concern. Carla, Rory and Phoebe White, pupils at Wesley College provided the musical accompaniment.

The exhibition continues throughout 2010.

Lifelines New and Collected is available from the National Library Shop.

Opening Hours
Mon – Wed: 9.30am – 9pm
Thurs – Fri: 9.30am – 5pm
Saturday: 9.30am – 4.30pm

WCDMUN2010                                                                              More Photos-click here

WCDMUN2010 saw about 350 students from Ireland and Great Britain come together to discuss and propose resolutions to some of the most difficult problems facing the world in 2010. The delegates sat on 8 committees, including the Security Council and Human Rights Committee as well as meeting altogether in a simulation of the United National General Assembly to deal with a simulated international emergency and the question off 21^st Century democracy. This was the 3^rd Annual Wesley Model Untied Nations Conference, and this year debate was spread across two days, Friday 26^th and Saturday 27^th February. After a Banquet, Opening Speeches from the Secretary General and Guest Speaker, Minister Eamon Ryan, the students delegates Met in their committees to win support for their prepared resolutions to be debated on the Saturday. This year, for the first time, the Late Late Jazz Café was open after the formal proceedings for students to unwind and relax before the next day’s more intense debate. Many Wesley delegates picked up awards for their efforts, and there was praise for both the high standard of debate and the professional chairing of committees provided by Wesley students and a few Guest Chairs from Methodist College Belfast, and Terenure College. The overall winning delegation represented the USA from Terenure College and they took home the WCDMUN2010 Salver.

Debating

Congratulations to Carin Hunt (Form 5) who was part of the five-speaker Irish Schools’ Debating Team that made the break at the World Schools in Doha, Qatar at the mid-term. The tournament featured 59 nations. The Irish team were unfortunate to run into eventual World Champions Canada in the knock-out stage at the Octo-finals.

Since returning, Carin and her Wesley speaking partner Dara O’Brien have won the University College Dublin Law Society Mace competition. Jamie Haughton and Tara Masterson-Hally were runners-up by a split adjudication. Both teams also shared the distinction of topping the tab.

Author Visit: Garrett Carr  26 February 2010                                                                                View more photos here

Garrett Carr is a new, young Irish writer who has just published his first book, the Badness of Ballydog. He spoke to Preps and Form I on Friday, 26 February. A leisurely, relaxed speaker he spoke of growing up in Killybegs, his boyhood obsession with monsters, why ‘bad bad bad’ is more interesting than ‘nice’, how and where to find your characters' names and the need to keep reading, reading, reading if you want to become a writer. He showed a series of slides depicting monsters – he was very impressed that Wesley pupils identified the wyvern (until he was told that it was part of the school crest) – more monsters, Donegal, images from his school copybooks, and cover designs for his novel, the first in a trilogy. He also read a [very short] story that he had written when he was in Second Class, called 'A Day at the Zoo'. He had never been to a zoo - 'There is no zoo in Killybegs' - but that didn't prevent him from making it up.

To coincide with this visit pupils were invited to read the opening three pages of The Badness of Ballydog and to tell the story so far in two haikus. Garrett Carr judged the short list, placed Adam Curry, third, James Austen, second and named Jessica O'Hanlon first. Her haikus went as follows:

The terrible town - Was not seen but smelt and heard - Ewan was upset. The Ballydog smell, Smelt of a fishy fog that - Hung around all day.

Dylan Lewis thanked Garrett Carr on behalf of everyone there and presented him with a gift.

Concern

Year 1  Speak week

On Friday, 12 February 2010, the Class of 2015 [aka Year 1] buzzed with excitement and anticipation in the G B Shaw Auditorium at 9 a.m. Twelve finalists, two from each class, were taking part in Speak Week and the topics for their speeches this year were wide-ranging and varied. Nadia Armstrong chose to speak on Brendan Kennelly; Sophie Campbell advised us about Healthy Living; Sarah Cannon defended Red Heads; Christine Cox focused on People who were Wheelchair-bound; Isaac Harris explored Funny Names; Dylan Hughes denounced Graffiti; Emmanuel Mansuk informed us about Scents and Smells;

Leo Micklem’s topic was Seal Culling; Kevin Smith argued that a General Election was needed; Jonathan Wilson urged us to abandon exams; Fiona Wolfe celebrated Nelson Mandela; and Heather Wolfe warned against Animal Extinction. Well done to all who took part.

The performances were of a consistently high standard this year and Ms Glenfield and Ms Rowan had the difficult task of selecting a one, two, three. Third place went to Nadia Armstrong, Second to Leo Micklem and the Mr Woods presented Jonathan Wilson with the Overall Prize. This year a special Perpetual Trophy, the OAR Award [Oratory and Rhetoric] which was specially commissioned and Jonathan Wilson was the first to raise this splendid trophy [made from mahogany, oak and walnut by Mark Ennis in Fifth Year] to thunderous applause.

Dramatic Society Production 2009 - Little Shop of Horrors

The plot for this year’s Wesley College Dramatic Society production, ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, may leave many with raised eyebrows and questioning looks as to the sanity not only of the directors taking on the show but also the very creators of it!  Fortunately, the students of Wesley tuned into the quirky comedy and zany spirit of this musical based on the B-movie of the same name and before long, the cast and backstage crew were assembled and were rehearsing away with their usual boundless enthusiasm and energy.  Thankfully, that passion was palpable in the school in the week running up to the performance and the audiences arrived excited and expectant – they weren’t disappointed!  Every student onstage and off gave everything they had over the three nights and the overall result yielded high praise from audience members young and old.  They thoroughly deserved every tribute paid them and they should be very proud of themselves.

Christmas Music in Wesley

Wesley’s choirs were particularly busy this Christmas season with a huge number of events taking place.  he Junior Choral Group were carol singing in Dundrum Town Centre on behalf of Focus Ireland, raising almost €550 in just under an hour an a half as they entertained passing shoppers with seasonal songs such as Let it Snow, Winter Wonderland and many more.  All of Wesley’s choirs from preps right up to sixth year were busily preparing for the annual carol services which were a mix of old and new music with every group giving of their very best - some even had choreography from Ms Spicer to add to the festivities as they were Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree!  The Senior Choir really took centre stage this term, however, with an extremely busy schedule of performances in the Wesley Senior Carol Service, St Ann’s Church in Dawson Street and in the amazingly beautiful surroundings of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  At the invitation of the Salvation Army for the second year running, the Senior Choir were guest performers at the annual carol service in St. Ann’s on the first Saturday in December performing for a congregation which included the Lord Mayor of Dublin and Minister Mary Hanafin.  Helen Tempany gave an exquisite rendition of Oh Holy Night which was a real highlight on the night.  The Senior Choir were also selected for the second year running to be broadcast on Lyric FM as part of their annual Choirs for Christmas competition.  Following an excellent Senior Carol Service the Senior Choir had yet to complete their final engagement of the season as guest performers with the Celtic Tenors in St Patrick’s.  James Nelson, a former Wesley pupil, along with Daryl and Matthew are the Celtic Tenors who have established themselves as the most successful classical crossover artists ever to emerge from Ireland.  Just back from a successful tour of North America and Canada, the Tenors were playing a number of dates around Ireland with Wesley participating in their Dublin gig.  Joined by past-pupils and Sophie Clery-Browne on flute, the Senior Choir put in an awesome performance to a packed audience of many favorites such as The Holy City, Rutter’s Star Carol, Ireland’s Call and the classic tenor aria Nessun Dorma.  An amazing experience for all involved ending the Christmas season in Wesley on a real high.

ISTA/Pharmachemical Ireland Senior Science Quiz 2009

The Dublin Region final of the Senior Science Quiz took place in Trinity College on Thursday 12^th November.  There was a great turnout, with 51 teams taking part. Wesley had two teams of 6^th Year students: Team 1 was Brandon Janse van Vuuren, Hannah Pratt and Rebecca Geary while Team 2 was Soyama Anachebe, Rupert Christie and Anna Tierney. The questions were challenging, with two thirds taken from Leaving Cert Biology, Chemistry and Physics and one third general knowledge. Both teams did very well, but it was Team 2 that got ahead of the field early on and stayed there all the way to win the trophy for Wesley. Their score was an amazing 41 out of 48 and they beat Blackrock College into second by three points.

Along with the other top five teams, Soyama, Anna and Rupert go forward to the National Final in Trinity on Saturday 28^th November and we wish them the best success there.

Gaisce Awards

The Gaisce Silver Award requires a large commitment of time and effort, with the participant challenging themselves for a minimum of 26 weeks in various areas. While many of our students embark on the Bronze Award, not all find themselves able to make the commitment necessary to see it through. To gain the Silver Award requires further commitment and stamina. It is a significant achievement and we congratulate Alexander Sloane for it. Alexander undertook challenges in a number of areas, not least his Adventure Section where he was part of the Wesley Habitat Team in Honduras. If you ever need a bell ringer he could well be the man to ask as he set this for his Personal Skill challenge. There are many students who are currently going for the Bronze Award and many more who have already achieved it. It would be great to see more Silver Awards being achieved and the Gold is certainly worth striving for. Remember, while it is a challenge by the President of Ireland to you, it is also your own personal challenge to yourself, the only person you’ll compete with is yourself. We look forward to recognising more of those successful challenges in the future.

POETRY ALOUD 2009     ‘No one will speak in prose, Who finds his way to these Parnassian islands.’

Poetry Aloud, founded in Wesley in 1993, is celebrating its seventeenth year and it goes from strength to strength. Over forty pupils from all years entered Poetry Aloud 2009 and Round One took place in the G B Shaw Auditorium on Wednesday 14 October. On that occasion Mr Frank Bredin was judge and he nominated eighteen pupils to go forward to the Final Round which was held on Thursday 12 November:

JUNIOR: Sadbh Grehan; Katie Hastings; Edwina Hilton; Helen Major; Gianna Nordon; Grace O’Reilly

INTERMEDIATE: Lucy Gaynor; Esther Glenfield; Emer Haughton; Matthew Nuding; Peter O’Donovan; Nathan Walsh

SENIOR: William Dwyer-Joyce [ill and unable to attend the Final]; Carin Hunt; Fiona Masterson; Dara O’Brien; Alice Ritchie; Natasha Waugh

The judges for the Final Round were Mr Frank Bredin, Mr Ken Dover and Ms Maureen Sheehan and many members of the audience felt that the standard this year was the highest ever. Grace O’Reilly spoke sensitively and beautifully, especially the Fanthorpe. Nathan Walsh gave a  dazzlingly entertaining performance of Ogden Nash’s ‘Very Like a Whale’, Carin Hunt spoke Eavan Boland’s ‘The Lost Land’ and MacNeice’s ‘Les Sylphides’ with great insight, Natasha Waugh’s version of Elizabeth Alexander’s ‘Praise Song for the Day’ was truly memorable. The judges took a long time deliberating and awarded a special prize to Lucy Gaynor and Natasha Waugh. Then Mr Woods opened the envelopes and announced the three winners of the individual categories: Gianna Nordon won Junior; Esther Glenfield, Intermediate and Fiona Masterson, Senior. Linda Dwyer-Joyce presented the prizes and then the overall winner of Poetry Aloud 2009 was announced by Mr Woods. It was Gianna Nordon, Preps, for her exceptional and outstanding performances of Yeats’s ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’, ‘Stones’ by Brendan Kennelly and ‘BC:AD’ by U A Fanthorpe. This is the first time that a pupil from Preps will have a name engraved on the Perpetual Trophy. She has a glittering career ahead of her. Congratulations to everyone who entered, they are winners all and will have poems in their heads and in their hearts for years to come.

Poetry Aloud is generously supported by the Parents Association. There is a Perpetual Trophy and a first prize of €150. This year the overall winner also received a signed first edition of Seamus Heaney’s District and Circle.

MUN Methodist College Belfast

Fourteen students, accompanied by Ms Reid and Mr McConnell, made the trip to Belfast to participate in the annual Methodist College Belfast Model United Nations Conference. Northern Ireland’s only MUN conference, MCBMUN saw over 400 delegates from schools across Ireland Britain and Europe assemble for the 3-day event. Representing Costa Rica and Indonesia, Wesley delegates soon made an impression on their committees. As well as debating issues as diverse as marital rights and reform of the UN Security Council, delegates were addressed by ITV News Foreign Correspondent Bill Neely. He reminded the General Assembly that the world can change dramatically overnight, citing his experience in post 9-11 America and Berlin as the Wall fell in 1989. During the closing ceremony, the Wesley team representing Costa Rica were awarded the McMordie Cup for being the best Delegation in General Assembly debates, no mean feat for this group of TY students in a crowd of students most of whom were older and more experienced on the MUN circuit. Also of note was Jayne Misstear’s impressive individual achievement. She was awarded a gavel for being the best Under-16 delegate at the Conference. Others who achieved individual awards were Nathan Walsh (Security Council, Commended Delegate Award) and Yvonne Corcoran, (Human Rights Committee, Highly Commended Award).

MARK WALDEN  Author Visit  6 November 2009

On Friday morning, 6 November Walden told Preps and First Years about his fiction, he explained why a book is more freeing than a movie or a video game and why he is more interested in villains rather than heroes. H.I.V.E. stands for Higher Institute of Villainous Education and in Walden’s novels, including Escape Velocity, Dreadnought, Overlord Protocol, he explores the bad rather than the good, the dangerous rather than the safe. He read from book four in the series which featured an exciting car chase.

The pupils were familiar with Walden’s work before he stepped into the G B Shaw Auditorium. They had read the opening pages of three of his novels in class and they were encouraged to Google. They also wrote their own opening beginning with Mark Walden’s words ‘All that I could see was blackness . . .’ There were three prize-winners until the judges insisted that there be a joint Third. In Third place – Patrick Gifford and Siobhan Slater; in second, Fiona Wolfe and first prize went to Nadia Armstrong whose piece began: ‘All I could see was blackness. It engulfed my body, pulling me down to its lowly depths, like a human ivy creeping its way around my torso. It took me deeper into its lair. Cobwebbed fingers gently felt the pulse upon my neck, its sense taking in the mouth-watering feast that was me . . .’

Leo Miklen thanked Mark Walden for his very entertaining talk and presented him with a gift on behalf of everyone there that day.

SOPHIE McKENZIE  AUTHOR VISIT  20 October 2009

On YouTube Sophie McKenzie describes herself as ‘persistent’, ‘curious’ and ‘clumsy’ and two of those are essential qualities in any writer.  In the past three years she has written eight books. She likes the unexpected but she always wants her stories to be convincing. Aliens and flying saucers are not for her. The thriller novel was what she wanted to write.

She read from her most recent novel The Set-Up in which four teenagers have psychic powers. The one the audience liked best was telekinesis and the extract vividly described Nico causing commotion in School Assembly.

Preps and First Years read the openings to six of McKenzie’s novels before her visit and also wrote a personal response to their favourite. The standard of work was very high [the Class of 2015!] and prizes were awarded. Hannah McKay, Nathan Hayes and Sam O’Connor were named best in the personal response category. Pupils were also asked to write their own opening page to a novel and the judge insisted on four prize-winners not three. Michelle Groos came fourth, Christopher Maher, third, Rory O’Callaghan, second and first place went to Luke Campbell whose story began:

Then, prizes presented, Sophie McKenzie signed copies of her novels and away she went into the rain leaving behind her a feeling of excitement and a heightened awareness of the power of storytelling.

Bullying Awareness Week 2009

Wesley College’s annual Bullying Awareness Week took place from Monday 21^st to Friday 25th September.  The   theme “I Have a Responsibility” was drawn from the Wesley College Rights and Responsibilities Charter, incorporating our new anti-bullying logo. This logo also featured on the Wesley College pens which were sold throughout the school by prefects to support our chosen charity, Barnardos. 

The Chief Executive of Barnardos, Mr. Fergus Finlay, came to speak to parents on the work of Barnardos and our collective responsibility towards the most vulnerable of our children.

The following day all students were addressed by Mr. John Lonergan, Governor of Mountjoy Prison, who spoke passionately about individual responsibility towards the vulnerable amongst us, both here in the College and in the wider community. His talk was followed by a lively question and answer session.

Students were invited to participate in a poster competition, while junior students also took part in a slogan competition, both highlighting the responsibility theme. The art work and decorative slogans created a wonderful, colourful display and focal point in the Concourse and the library.

Assemblies during the week had bullying awareness themes, while those given by the Head and Deputy Head Boys and Girls and the Prefects were particularly entertaining and thought-provoking. Prefects were also involved in the “buddy” system with First Year students and Preps.

The theme “I Have a Responsibility” was further explored in CSPE and RE classes. All in all, a very successful and worthwhile week.

MUNCH IX (Manchester) 2-4 October 2009

It was an early start for the French delegation. After a 6.30am flight, a bag drop at the hotel, and a chauffeur driven excursion around Manchester’s M60, there was shopping to be done at one of the UK|’s largest retail meccas, the Trafford Centre. Later that evening Delegates Nuding, Walsh, Corcoran, McNamara, Doherty and Cullen dined with their Chauffeur at TGI Fridays before a final briefing in advance of the opening of the Conference.

At the opening ceremony on Saturday morning, the 450 Delegates representing 90 countries and from 30 schools, were addressed by Mr John Stalker, former head of the Greater Manchester Police. He told delegates that he was heartened by their involvement in “internationalism”, something which he only began to see the importance of in his mid-thirties. By 10.30am the Committees were up and running across the Cheadle Hulme Campus, and as debating got underway it was clear that France would make a significant impact.

Sunday saw joint committee debates before lunch and the closing ceremony at which Wesley delegates were recognised in the awards ceremony. They were as follows:

France: Commended delegation (One of 6 Delegations out of 90)

France: Human Rights Council           Yvonne Corcoran – Highly Commended

France: Human Rights Committee     Matthew Nuding – Best Young Delegate

France: Middle East Committee         Sarah Cullen – Commended Delegate

France: Security Council                     Nathan Walsh – Best Young Delegate

RDS McWilliams Young Science Writers; a Wesley Prize-winner!

 Paul Kelly (6^th Year) has won a prize in this prestigious competition, renamed last year in honour of the late meteorologist and science writer Brendan McWilliams. The Weather Eye column in the Irish Times showed over many years how science-related topics could be explained in an entertaining way for the general public. Secondary level students were invited to write either factually or in fiction on a topic of their choice and hundreds of entries were received from all over the country. Paul’s essay, entitled Particle Physics: a Catastrophic Waste? was entered in the factual senior category. He wrote about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and particle physics generally.  This was a big media story last year, with alleged threats of annihilation by a mini black hole! He seriously impressed the judges with both style and substance. He won second prize in this category, one of only 14 prizes awarded overall.

He was invited, with his family and his teacher, to the RDS on September 16^th to be congratulated by the Minister for Education, who unfortunately couldn’t make it due to urgent business in the Dail. Dr Tony Scott, President of the RDS, presented the prizes and praised the very high standards of the prize-winners.

Paul continues an excellent tradition for Wesley in this competition, with Aoife Cassidy winning a prize the previous year. His article can be read on the RDS website at this link: http://www.rds.ie/index.jsp?a=290&n=280&p=182

4th Year Bonding Day-September 2009-click here for photos

On the morning of the day that we received are Junior Certificate results, all pupils from Fourth Year and many teachers climbed Ticknock mountain. It was good fun working as team on many activities along the way allowing us to get to know our new class group a little bit better and took our mind off the results to come later that day. Although it was very tiring, it was a great experience.

SciFest: May 2009

Nine students form First and Second Year represented Wesley at this year’s SciFest science investigation competition. They presented the results of their four projects along with other Dublin schools at the Institute of Technology in Blanchardstown.

One group form 1^st year, Emma Telford and Orla Reynolds, achieved particular success. They studied the friction on different surfaces around the school campus in a project entitled “Slippy or Grippy? …our school surfaces”

The judges were very impressed by this project and they won the Discover Sensors award for their innovative use of data logging and sensors.

Congratulations to Emma and Orla and all the other students who took part: Sarah Clarke, Conor Brady, Edwina Hilton, Sophie Andrews-McCarroll, Sara Ensor, Lara Sutton, Grace Mason.

Burren Field Study

On 7^th May, 69 cheerful 5^th formers, 6 enthusiastic teachers and 1 very helpful technician set off for the annual Biology field study to the Burren. Fifth formers got to sample the delights of one of the most beautiful and unique landscapes in western Europe. Despite a dismal forecast, Friday morning was bright and fresh, perfect weather for quantitative surveying of the rocky seashore! Students were inspired by the weird and wonderful ‘egg carton’ beach and by the many curious animals found there. One of the most exciting finds was a mother common crab with a full brood of eggs on her abdomen!

The marine study continued with a visit to Lahinch Aquatic centre where students had an opportunity to tour the facilities with some very enthusiastic and friendly marine biologists. One of the highlights of the centre was the lobster hatchery were baby lobsters are raised in separate containers to prevent cannibalistic activities! Students also had a chance to get up close and personal with some of the monsters of the deep. Some very intrepid 5^th formers were allowed to ‘pet’ and hold spider crabs, relatives of the giant spider crab, one of the largest crustaceans in the ocean.

Students had a welcome break from all the hard work of the morning at the Cliffs of Moher. A short tour of the visitor centre was followed up with some souvenir shopping and the obligatory treat for any seaside trip, icecream!

Our last night in Clare ended with a general knowledge quiz final and spot prize distribution.

WCDMUN09

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Around 250 delegates arrived at Wesley College on the morning of Saturday 21^st March 2009 for Wesley College Dublin Model United Nations 2009 (WCDMUN09). Model United Nations is a simulated meeting of the UN at which students participate as representatives of UN members. 40 Countries were represented by the delegations from England, Northern Ireland and Dublin. The Conference was opened by Mr Tom Kitt TD who addressed delegates on the issues of development aid Global responsibilities. In the afternoon session, Senator David Norris addressed the General Assembly with his encouragement to get actively involved in world politics. read more....

London Choir Trip

A motley crew of almost forty choristers and staff headed for London this year on what is happily becoming the annual Senior Choir trip.  A huge amount of music, theatre, history, art, well-known tourist sights and even the odd rugby game was packed in to a four-day tour of the British capital, leaving everyone exhausted but exhilarated.  A guided tour of the Westminster area by night took in many of London’s iconic sights including Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and the impressive Horse Guards Parade as well Churchill’s Cabinet war rooms, to name but a few.  Saturday morning brought us to Islington where the Senior Choir was introduced to a totally new sound by two very talented musicians in a Gospel workshop.  read more here.....

The Student Enterprise County Final took place in the Marine Hotel DunLaoghaire on Thursday March 26^th. 

We are delighted to announce that out of the three awards in the Intermediate Section, Lucy Gaynor & Scott Ringland won 1^st place with their fimo models and decorations business “Funky Fimo”.  Yvonne Corcoran and Nathan Walsh took 2^nd  place with “Wicked Wicks” (candles and wick based products)  Lucy and Scott now go forward to the National Final in Tullamore on May 14^th and we wish them the best of luck.

“The Calendar Company” – Conor Brady and Nicholas Stratford didn’t win a prize in the Junior Section but represented Wesley very well on the day.

There was also an optional extra dimension to this year’s competition – businesses were invited to make a presentation on their business to an audience of teachers and students – Yvonne Corcoran and Nathan Walsh won the prize for the best presentation.

The Home Economics Department held Wesley’s “Ready? Steady? Cook!” on Wednesday 3^rd March for its sixth year running. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the PTA, students of all ages competed for generous prizes of vouchers for the Cooks Academy in Dun Laoghaire (First and Second prize) and a book token (Third prize). The Ready Steady Cook Cup (First Prize) and Prizes are awarded at the Wesley College Annual Arts and Sports Awards evening.

This year, the brief was given a new twist as Wesley’s young chefs and cooks were asked to prepare cook and serve an international main course dish, in one hour thirty minutes. The main course dishes ranged from Japanese, Indian, Italian, French, South African and Irish dishes, to name but a few regions.  Each dish was skilfully prepared by students from Form one up to Form six.

The mystery Judge for this year’s competition was none other than the highly acclaimed Michelin star chef, Kevin Thornton. With the help of Sandra Pullen and Anna Keogh from the PTA, Mr. Thornton carefully assessed the culinary skills of all 18 participants and found it quite difficult to choose between them. He was impressed with all the competitors but in the end it came down to three talented people. In third place was Peter Mawhinney (Form one) who served up a tasty Chicken Satay and Basmati Pilaf from India. Second prize went to Kyrsten Baker, who made a mouth watering Asparagus and Gruyere Cheese Quiche with Garden Salad. First place was awarded to Conor Brady (Form one) who prepared a French/Asian fusion dish; Curried Monkfish with Mussels. It was superb!

An appreciative audience had gathered and the clean plates left behind were testament to the skills of the competitors. On behalf of the Home Economics Department, Ms. Fallon would like to congratulate all the talented competitors and the winners on their impressive work during Ready, Steady, Cook, 2009.

Model United Nations, George Watson’s College, Edinburgh 13-16^th March 2009

11 Wesley students made the trip to Edinburgh (via Belfast and Glasgow!) for the 3^rd Annual George Watson’s College MUN Conference over the weekend 13^th – 16^th March. As well as enjoying the sites of the Old Town in Edinburgh, the delegates distinguished themselves as representatives of Palestine and Nigeria. George Watson’s College stands on Colinton Road, Morningside, close to the home of J K Rowling. It is the largest Independent School in Scotland and its imposing 1930s edifice was a grand location for a MUN conference. The Conference was opened by the BBC foreign correspondent Alan Little who encouraged delegates to change their world and not to allow the metaphorical “blood bath” he has witnessed during his career to become a reality in the 21^st Century. All the Wesley delegates spoke well but the following deserve special mention for the awards they received:

Eve Kearney (Highly Commended, Middle East Committee) Anna Tierney (Highly Commended, Health Committee), Thelma Harris  (Commended, Political Committee), Victoria Veitch (Commended, Human Rights Committee) Katy Rae (Commended, Disarmament Committee  Megan Skelly (Commended, Environment Committee) Nathan Walsh (Commended, Disarmament Committee) Yvonne Corcoran (Best Junior Delegate, Human Rights Committee) Sarah Cullen (Best Junior Delegate, Health Committee)           

Justin Somper   Author Visit    12 March 2009

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The best-selling author Justin Somper was in Dublin for two days: a morning television appearance, a Pat Kenny radio interview on the Friday, a talk in Liberty Hall Later on Thursday but his short Irish visit kicked off with Wesley. There are several genres of storytelling and Somper, in what he calls a ‘Eureka! Moment’, had the idea one day of combining a pirate adventure story and a vampire tale and to give the narrative a fresh twist he added in a futuristic element. The Vampirates books take place 500 years from now when ocean levels have risen and ruling the waves is paramount.

That morning Somper announced his storyline and characters, including Connor and Grace Tempest, fourteen-year-old twins, several baddies and one of his favourite characters Lorcan Furey from Dublin. He explained how he did research during which he discovered that Julius Caesar had been captured by pirates and that ended up in one of the Vampirates series. There are four books to date and the first three have sold 250,000 copies and are available in twenty-six countries.

It was a very entertaining and enjoyable English class and, following a Q & A session, Murray McDonald having thanked Justin Somper for visiting Wesley the winners of various competitions were announced. Pupils had been asked to write an outline of the plot of Somper’s Demons of the Ocean in three haikus and to write a short story using the Somper sentence ‘There was steel in her voice’ somewhere in the story. Sophie Campbell came third, Aaron Clarke Maher, second and first place was awarded to Edwina Hilton for their haikus. Justin Somper, on arriving in Wesley that morning, read three short-listed stories and named Andrew Nicoll, third, Zach Mosse, second and first prize was presented to Katy Thornton. Katy’s story, which she called ‘Steel’, impressed Somper with its mixing of genres and he read her opening paragraph aloud to a wonderful audience.

Habitat For Humanity Army Band Concert

On Thursday the 29^th of January, a special fundraising concert was held in the Myles Hall for Habitat.  The renowned ‘Celtic Tenors’ were singing in our school, as well as (thanks to efforts from Wesley parent Mark Armstrong) the Army No. 1 band.  The sell-out show raised over €11,000 for the Honduras 09 team,  and was a great night out for all involved.  At the end of the night Mark, the Army bands conductor, even got Rev. Mackey up on stage to try his hand at some conducting.

An Inner Adventure:  Michael Longley in Wesley

'Ah, did you once see Shelley plain,
And did he stop and speak to you
And did you speak to him again
How strange it seems and new.'

On Friday, 16 January 2009, Michael Longley gave a Reading in Wesley College. Longley is a distinguished poet and Ben Healy who introduced him to an audience of Fifth and Sixth Years spoke of his eleven collections, a Collected Poems (2006) and his many honours including The Whitbread Prize, The Hawthornden Prize, The T S Eliot Prize and the Queen's Medal for Poetry. Michael Longley is a member of Aosdana, The Royal Society of Literature and is Ireland Professor of Poetry. read more...

Christmas Day Service

At the kind invitation of Dr John Stephens and The Methodist Church in Ireland, Wesley College was afforded the amazing and challenging opportunity of leading Christmas Day worship on RTE television.  The school’s Senior Choir (the majority of whom had just stepped off the stage following their superb run in this year’s production of Grease), along with Rev. Nigel Mackey and Mr Christopher Woods had a long and tiring afternoon of filming out in the studios in Montrose at the end of November, having put in many hours of rehearsal and careful preparation over the winter term.  Ben Healy and Aoife Cassidy, as well as Wesley Shaw, Lisa Delacey and Mr Woods recounted the story of Christmas and Rev. Mackey delivered a thought-provoking sermon, all against a back-drop of carols such as Oíche Chiún, Ukrainian Bell Carol and The First Noel.  Many thanks to our accompanist Ms Paula Dowzard and to each member of the Senior Choir, all of whom worked with great dedication and commitment in the run-up to this engagement and who represented Wesley College so well.

4th Year Ice Skating and Charity Collection

On the 17th of December 4th Year students travelled to Smithfield on Ice for the annual tradition of festive ice skating and charity collecting. Following a fun filled and indeed relatively injury free hour on the ice students went to Molesworth street to the ISPCC. Here students were designated streets, given bright yellow bibs to wear and boxes of Christmas holly pins to sell for 2 euro in the city centre. The students were well received on the streets and were very successful in raising much needed funds for the charity.

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POETRY ALOUD 2008

Poetry Aloud 2008 celebrates sixteen years of poetry speaking in Wesley College.

This year the standard was extraordinarily high, the highest ever in my memory and the fifteen pupils who took part gave remarkably fine and impressive performances. At the Interval no one could predict the winners and naming them was the judges’ difficult job. Katie Hastings was named winner of the Junior Category, Louisa Harland, the Intermediate and Natasha Waugh was named the Senior winner. The Principal, Mr Woods presented the prizes. There was also a special prize this year, a signed copy of Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie and this was awarded to Carin Hunt by the judges for her performance.

Then Mr Ken Dover of the PTA opened the envelope and announced that the Overall Winner of Poetry Aloud 2008 was Natasha Waugh who spoke ‘A Nun Takes the Veil’ by Bernard O’Donoghue, Shakespeare’s ‘All the World’s A Stage’ and Thomas Hardy’s ‘Drummer Hodge’. Mr Dover presented Natasha with the Perpetual Trophy, and a handsome cash prize of €180 at the end of a very, very enjoyable and enriching evening.

And when Sir Salman signed Midnight’s Children he wrote ‘Poetry Allowed 2008’! Poetry Aloud and Poetry Allowed.

THE BIG SING

The ‘Big Sing’, an attempt to break the current world record for the greatest number of people singing simultaneously, took place on November 28^th, 2008.

All 150 Transition Year students participated, and each donated an amount, which will be given to Special Olympics Ireland and the ISPCC Childline service.  €300 was raised for these worthy causes.This year, Special Olympics Ireland celebrates 30 years of changing the lives of people with an intellectual disability by giving them a real opportunity to achieve in life, through sport. The money raised through the BIG SING will help them to expand the programme throughout Ireland.

The ISPCC Childline Service is Ireland’s only multi-media listening service for children, operating 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Nearly 2,000 children contact Childline each day, yet, due to lack of funds, only half of those called are currently answered. The money raised by the Big Sing will help Childline reach its goal of 100% call capacity by 2011.

The Transition Year class joined with 600,000 students across the country, to sing ‘You Gotta Be’ by Desiree.  They are currently awaiting ratification of their record-breaking achievement. The class was accompanied by Carl Pullen on drums and Ms. Hiney on piano.    

Science Week 2008

Wesley’s Science took place in the second week of November. 1^st and 2^nd Years had a visit from “Galileo” in the Auditorium. He explained how he made his famous discoveries and we felt like we had gone back in time to see them as they happened! Transition Year saw the speculative docudrama Supervolcano, in which the massive volcano in Yellowstone Park exploded with global consequences.  A great buzz of discussion on “could it really happen” was created after seeing this film.  A highlight of the week was the visit of the AgriAware Mobile Farm, including two seriously cuddly donkeys. A quiz and a competition for the best” Science Fact” poster also took place ( one of the winners is shown here), well done to all the pupils who took part.

HEALTH WEEK 2008 17- 21 NOV

Health Week is our annual reminder of the importance of looking after ourselves.Some of the activities going on during the week were:

• Artistic Wesley students brightened up the school with their colourful, eye-catching posters

• The catering staff provided us with their usual fare of healthy, nourishing foods

• In particular we were provided with and encouraged to eat more fruit

• During assembly we were reminded by no less an expert than Professor Ian Graham, who is Professor of Cardiology in TCD, of the damage that poor eating habits can do to that most important body organ – the heart!

• Recognising that teenagers are not always at their best first thing in the morning, Mr Lemon produced a 10 minute exercise programme that can be done with minimal effort but maximum return. There were some interesting sights in the staffroom as teachers practised the routine before heading off to their classrooms!

• But of course it was the 6^th years who stole the show. They organised, with great enthusiasm, gladiator-like challenges against the staff. These feats required great skill and strength. Guess who were the mightier warriors on the day?

Hopefully we are now a little more conscious of how simple it is to include some healthy food and a little more exercise in our busy lives. It can also be good fun.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the week and most importantly, look after yourselves!

Grease

After the extraordinary response following the announcement of Wesley College’s 46^th Dramatic Production, ‘Grease’ was the word echoing through the halls for the following two months.  As opening night dawned upon us, everyone involved in the production, from our cast of 90 students to the artists, the backstage crew and the sound and light team, began to sense that they were a part of something quite special.  Their performances over the three nights were filled with energy, enthusiasm and fun and every single student who participated could relax in the knowledge that their incredibly hard work had paid off.  Congratulations in particular to the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies who, in spite of remaining incredibly focused throughout, were possibly having more fun on stage than off it!!  They worked so well and with such diligence throughout every rehearsal and the audiences’ applause was well deserved.  Well done to one and all.  And as for next year……! 

Book Week Author visit: Jenny Valentine

On Tuesday 21 October Jenny Valentine spoke to Form II. Jenny Valentine lives in Hay-on-Wye with her husband and children and runs their shop three days a week. The rest of the time she devotes to writing. She published her first novel, Finding Violet Park, in 2007 and it won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Broken Soup followed in 2008 and she told Form II that her third novel, The Ant Colony, which she has just finished will be published in March 2009.

She finds openings easy and explained how and where she gets her ideas. Her first novel is told from a fifteen-year-old boy’s perspective, her second has a female narrator and she has already been translated into Italian, German and Dutch as well as being published in America where Finding Violet Park was re-titled Me, the Missing and the Dead. Valentine read from her first two novels and this was followed by a question and answer session.

Author visit: Kate Thompson

On Thursday, 16 October,  Form I and Preps met Kate Thompson, author of many highly-acclaimed novels and winner of the Whitbread, Guardian, Bisto [four times] Awards and she has also won the Dublin Airport Authority Book of the Year Award. Living in Ireland since 1981 and daughter of the distinguished social historian E.P. Thompson, Kate Thompson’s work combines the realistic and the supernatural. All of Form I were familiar with Thompson’s work Creature of the Night [which had as its working title The Small Woman] which they read in class and it proved a very popular choice. They hung on her every word and they had many, many questions. She told Form I and Preps that she wrote in longhand, could write a first draft in three weeks but a novel really took a year to complete. She named Jan Mark’s The Eclipse of the Century one of the best books for teenagers ever and she also praised Geraldine McCaughrean’s work. Creature of the Night is being published in America and she showed us the American cover. She is now working on a novel about climate change.

Book Week Author visit: Keith Gray

On Tuesday 14 October the Edinburgh-based, English writer Keith Gray brightened up a rainy afternoon when he spoke to Form III about himself and his work. He began with a commentary on some of  the eighteen different instructions that came with a ladder he had recently bought and then produced a rock from the shores of Loch Ness and a cigar (he HATES smoking) and told two fascinating and engaging stories about both. Then having had the audience in the palm of his hand he announced that one of those stories was a lie. He didn’t read much as a boy but loved comics and his favourite book is The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall: ‘It ‘s not the best book that I’ve ever read but when I was thirteen a really cool guy in school, a year above me, was reading it so I read it too and it won me over to the power of storytelling.’

He spoke about his six novels, showed pupils different editions of his work including a Japanese version of Creepers and also produced the manuscript of his next novel: he writes in pencil on the right hand side of the page and on the left makes notes and observations as he goes. He was a very entertaining speaker and Jack Perdue presented Keith Gray with a gift and thanked him for coming to Wesley.

Bullying Awareness Week 2008

This year’s theme for Bullying Awareness Week (22^nd -26^th September 2008) was “Communication:” students and staff were asked to reflect on the impact of their words, verbal, written and typed, on others. Advances in Technology have only underlined the need for careful reflection on the impact of the way we communicate on others, and so the whole area of Cyber-bullying was broached in a series of talks to each of the Year groups. Kyle Petrie, currently a resident master in Embury, spoke to students about the issues surrounding message-posting of the internet and the use and abuse of social networking websites. His informative and relevant discussion of the subject was well received by students and staff alike. On Tuesday 23^rd September Junior Cycle parents were invited to a talk on “Promoting Positive Mental Health in our Teens,” and “Cyber Bullying and Internet Safety..” The speakers for the evening were Suzanne Harris and Nola Lambert from Newpark Comprehensive School and Kyle Petrie.

The week was a further opportunity to continue the Prefect Buddy system which has been introduced over the last few years. Under this initiative, Preps 1^st and 2^nd Year students have been befriended by the Prefects to offer them advice and support during the school day. Assemblies for the week were taken by The Prefects and 6^th Year Vocal group “Glitter” took assemblies on the theme, as well as the Chaplain Nigel Mackey and Niall MacMonagle. During these assemblies the Bullying Awareness wrist bands were launched. The Proverb, “Words kill, words give life - they’re either poison or fruit, you choose” (Proverbs 18:21) was printed on these bands and this was the theme for the Poster competition. A stunning set of posters was put on display in the Concourse. The new logo for Bullying Awareness week was also launched during the week (designed by Freddie Stevens, Year 6, 07/08) and unveiled in a number of banners on display throughout the campus.

Model United Nations, Cheadle Hulme School, Manchester 3^rd-5^th October 2008

16 Wesley students had the opportunity to represent Indonesia, Israel and Egypt at the 8^th Annual MUNCH Conference in Manchester. Of these, Victoria Veitch (Year 5) was invited as a Guest Chair for the Human Rights Council having distinguished herself in this role at WCDMUN08. The conference, one of the largest in England, attracts students from the UK and Ireland, and this year there were 95 delegations and over 500 delegates. All of the Wesley delegates made an impression in the Committee rooms and the General Assembly but the following students were awarded during the closing ceremony:

Sarah Cullen (Yr 3) Commended Delegate Award, Yvonne Corcoran (Yr 3) Best Young Delegate Award, Anna Tierney (Yr 5) Commended Delegate Award, Eve Kearney (Yr 5) Commended Delegate Award, Katy Rae (Yr 4) Commended Delegate Award, Kevin Stone (Yr 6) Highly Commended Award,Alex Coleman (Yr 6) Special Mention

In addition to these individual awards, Israel (Katy Rae (Ambassador), Eve Kearney, Thelma Harris, Anna Tierney, and Natasha Waugh) had the distinction of winning a coveted Commended Delegation Award. Congratulations to all those who took part.

Author Visit-Geraldine McCaughrean

On 23 September Geraldine McCaughrean, author of 140 books and winner of numerous awards [the Carnegie Medal; the Guardian Children's Fiction Award; the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award (three times); Smarties Bronze (four times)] and whose work has been translated into 38 languages visited Wesley and spoke to Preps, Forms I and II about her life and work, during which she invited her lively and enthusiastic audience to shape the opening of a new story. A young woman from Afghanistan, with a facial scar and a fear of chicken bones were some of the pupils' suggestions. And she urged her audience, even if they didn't like reading, to keep their imaginations open. And she provided an example which involved a cliff top, crashing waves and a deathly plunge.

Wesley MUN Committee meet David Miliband

On 11th September 2008, five Year 5 students were invited by the British Embassy to attend an event in the Mansion House, Dublin entitled, "Delivering a Global Europe: a conversation with The Rt Hon David Miliband MP, British Foreign Secretary."