East Leinster Cross Country
On the 25th January DCW competed in the East Leinster Cross Country. Against stiff opposition and wintry conditions, DCW did well. We had three new debutants running with the school, Katie Lawlor, Saoirse O’Brien and Keira Delahunt. Hopefully this is the first of many races for these girls. A massive congratulations to Alex Carey who came 2nd in the Senior grade along with Lily Sheehy who came 14th. Both these students have now qualified for the Leinster Final. Another mention must be made to the gallant efforts of Catherine Mitchell and Akysha Kelly who missed out on the top 15 by less than 10 seconds, but who ran a fantastic race and will no doubt be back stronger than ever for track events. Finally, well done to Tianne Kelly who ran in the Junior finals. This was a very tough and fast race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Tianne’s day, but she can be so proud after dominating the Avondale events in her grade earlier this year. A massive thank you to Ava Martin and Hannah Maho who supported the girls and took the photos. Both were injured so could not take part, but their enthusiasm was very much appreciated by the other girls on the team.
Catholic Schools Week
This week we celebrated Catholic Schools Week in DCW. This year’s theme was “Walking Together in Faith and Love”. As part of this, the Ember team made daily announcements with prayers for the theme of each day. They also organised a reflective walk around the grounds of the school. The team wrote five short reflections based on faith, love, transforming our world, and hope. Religion classes with Ms Flood, Ms Walsh and Ms Whelan took a walk around the gardens, stopping to listen to each thought and reflect on the theme of the day.
TY Trip
The TY students headed off to Go Quest in Carrickmines this week to enjoy a day of fun and bonding. They were really put to the test with the many challenges that awaited them. A big congratulations to the winning team of Alice Donnelly, Dean Fermo, Michelene Smith and Holly Lewis.
TY Geography Fieldtrip
4 Silver carried out their Geographical Investigation Coastal Study down at the Murrough on Monday 23rd. They carried out a number of different investigations including measuring a beach profile, sampling the beach fabric to see if waves sort the beach fabric, measuring the wave frequency to see if waves are constructive or destructive and measuring the rate of longshore drift to see if sediment is transported by longshore drift. Thank you to Mr. Molloy for facilitating.
Anything but a bag day
The Green Schools committee organized an “Anything but a Bag Day” fundraiser for sustainability projects within the school. There were many great bag alternatives from coal bins to pillowcases and shopping baskets. The top prize went to Ciara Whelan bringing in a red and yellow toddler car to cart around her books, runner-up was Jessica Griffey who brought in her nightstand and third place went to Grace Barry with her toy cot.
DCW Lotto
Thank you to all that participated in our school fundraiser. The draw was January 26th. There was no winner of Thursday’s jackpot. Congratulations to Ingrid O’Sullivan who was our weekly winner of 20 euro, the grand prize rolls over to next week. This is a fundraising initiative and the money raised will be used to directly support your children’s education and purchase resources for our school including IT equipment, sports equipment, classroom and teaching resources.
3rd Year Wellbeing Workshop
In DCW we are very conscious and aware of the pressures that our students and all young people are experiencing these days. With this in mind we ran a workshop for our 3 rd years to explore and discuss techniques that they could use to manage their own mental wellbeing. We endeavour to support all of our students and really value positive mental health in DCW. The hope is that this workshop has helped in some way.
Mock Exams
The 3 rd and 6 th year mock exams will begin in DCW this week. This is a great opportunity for our students to get a feel for what it will be like to sit a large set of exams together. But more importantly this is an opportunity for learning. We wish all of our students the best of luck and in the words of Shannon Miller “Doing your best is more important than being the best”.
Book Club
As part of our work towards our Well Read Award this week has seen students and staff as well as 1st Year parents completing an online survey on reading habits and favourite books. We also had a visit from Joanna at Bridge Street Books who very kindly went through the current library contents with student members of the school Book Club. We will be compiling the results of the survey with the input from Joanna to expand and improve on the selection currently on the shelves.
