Congratulations to our 6th Years who graduated on Thursday! They began their day with a guard of honour (the entire student body mobilised by the 5th Years - well done!!) and a graduation breakfast prepared by the 6th Year team. It was a wonderful day of both reminiscence and looking ahead to the bright future. We welcomed the 6th Years, their parents, the Sisters, Le Chéile, the Parents' Council and the Board of Management to the Graduation Mass with Fr Éanna last evening which was followed by a decadent reception hosted by the Parents' Council - thank you! The OLS community is proud to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements to date of our superb group of 6th Years and to wish them the very best as they prepare for their exams over the coming weeks.

Good luck to our first group of Leaving Cert Physical Education students as they prepare to sit their exam in this new Leaving Certificate subject in June!

Congratulations to our 1st Year students Aoibhe Tunney, Iman Niazi and Jamilla Saidi who were selected to attend the national finalists of the AWS Get IT  app design competition. They traveled to the AWS Dublin office today and pitched their app idea 'Plant IT' to a group of 100 Amazon staff and invited guests. The team did an excellent job presenting their app and were awarded the runners up prize. Well done to them.

A huge well done and thank you to the Camogie players for their fantastic bake sale on Friday. The girls are raising money to buy a new set of jerseys for next season. Between baking, organising, selling and cleaning up, the girls did a fantastic job. They managed to raise a massive €750 which brings them that bit closer to their target. 

Congratulations to the After-school Drama class who excelled in their Grade 3 Acting exams from the Royal Irish Academy.

A big congraulations to Caoimhe Mooney who secured one of 15 places for the Edna O'Brien Young Writer's Bursary. The Bursary is a week long intensive programme for talented young writers and Caoimhe will be mentored by acclaimed writer Jessica Traynor.

Today we welcomed parents of our incoming Head Girl (Ella McCabe), Deputy Head Girl (Megan Clancy), Sports Captain (Jenny Power) and House Captains - B (Ali Dougan), C (Katelyn Hallows), L (Rachel Vaughan), M (Iris Muldoon) and P (Rachel Byrne). We wish the girls the very best in their leadership journeys!

Finally, the 6th Years surprised the staff today with rapturous applause at breaktime and the presentation of a much appreciated Nespresso coffee machine for the staffroom! So thoughtful! Thank you, 6th Years, and we are all looking forward to celebrating Graduation with you tomorrow!

Please see the attached letter from the Principal.

Many thanks.

What a busy week it has been for the TY’s who came back with a bang after their last week of work experience!

Microsoft Dreamscape 

On Monday some of our lucky TY students attended the last session of Microsoft Dreamspace. To finish what has been a fabulous experience they were challenged to come up with an idea using technology to help someone with a disability. Well done to the winning group who had the idea to create a sensor on the front of blind persons shoes which would then connect to an airpod in their ear telling them if there was an obstacle ahead such as a pothole or step. Some of our students also got the opportunity to talk to Tara Roth, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Customer Success Engineering, who was visiting from Seattle! She was very interested in hearing what we had thought of the Dreamspace Programme and was very impressed by our project ideas.  It is safe to say that everyone enjoyed the experience and have been given a great insight into the world of coding, artificial intelligence and digital technologies because of it!

Garda Talk 

On Tuesday during Pastoral Care all TY classes attended a talk given to us by Garda Detective Rachel Kiernan. We will now hear from Isabel Kelly about it!

Rachel Kiernan is a guard in the special criminal unit in Dundrum. She told us all about becoming a garda, starting from when she was younger than we are now! Her career hasn't always been easy, but Rachel is proof that if you work hard you can achieve your goals. She showed us her medals and told us about different work she has done, including a year-long peace-keeping mission in Syria. It was very interesting to hear from someone who has accomplished so much at such a young age. We had loads of questions to ask her at the end, and I think everyone learnt something from Detective Rachel Kiernan.

Coiste Gaeilge

On Wednesday Coiste Gaeilge had a visit from a representative of the Gaelbhratach Council. Gaelbhratach is a scheme which supports and encourages schools in their efforts to promote Irish and the cúpla focal. We told her about the events we organised this year, our favourite thing about being a member of the Coiste and some of the challenges we faced in trying to promote Irish throughout the school. It’s fair to say that she was very impressed, especially with our comhrá Gaeilge skills! It was a lovely way to end our last meeting, helped by the fact we were each gifted a pencil case by Ms. Kinsella! We would like to thank Ms. Kinsella for all the support and patience she has shown us throughout the year, she made being on Coiste even better!

Being on Coiste has been a great experience and I would really encourage anyone with an interest in Irish to sign up as there will be ten new spaces for next year! Bliain iontach a bhí ann gan dabht!

Congratulations to Saibh Gormley who has been named head of Coiste for 2023-2024.

Kilmainham Gaol

This week the TY 1’s made their way to Kilmainham Gaol. We will now hear from Katie on the experience! 

Katie- “ This Thursday TY 1 made the trip to Kilmainham Gaol where they were given an amazing tour with tour guide Roisin, we learned about the different rebellions such as the 1916 Rising that led to political figures being held in Kilmainham. We were given the opportunity to see the cells of Padraig Pearse,  Countess Markievicz and many other rebels and civilians. We learned of stories of inmates getting married and friends escaping together as well as getting the opportunity to visit the courtyard where many Irish leaders in the past were executed. We finished the tour with some time to walk around the museum where we saw many artefacts such as diaries, artwork, and valuable possessions of the inmates. Overall it was a fantastic day and everyone definitely enjoyed it”

Fighting Words 

On Thursday, Ms. Beamish’s English class headed off to Fighting Words

Over the course of two hours, the girls were split into groups of four and worked together to produce a play each. The TYs really showed their creativity and let their imaginations run wild as plays about an alien sighting on a train,being trapped on a roller coaster and missing a flight were all produced to great effect.Great fun was had with some near ‘Oscar worthy’ performances! Everyone then got the opportunity to practise creative writing for ten minutes. All in all, the Fighting Words workshops were a great way to let the TYs express their creativity and innovative thinking. 

Rounders 

Commiserations to the TY Super Troopers who narrowly lost the Rounders Final at lunchtime on Thursday to a very strong sixth year team. We have no doubt you’ll be back again next year, and we are looking to see you claim the title!

Money Smarts

After placing in the top five teams in heat 2 at the Money Smarts Quiz held in the RDS back in March, the brilliant team of Ciara O’Loughran, Kathryn King, Matilda Murray and Rachel Davis qualified for the Grand Final held in Trinity today. The girls put in lots of hard work all week to ensure their general knowledge was up to scratch. Answering questions on current affairs, politics and banking they came 3rd overall. They were the top all girls team overall out of over 450 teams from throughout Ireland. 

We are very proud of the girls’ achievements!

Reminders and other activities

This week TY interviews were completed. Here the girls talked about everything TY and they got the opportunity to show off their fabulous e-portfolios and discuss all their achievements throughout the year. Well done to everyone for completing their interviews this week!

This week also marked the start of the TY Irish Orals. These are the first ones that the girls will have ever completed and they are a great practice for their final ones in 6th year. Well done to everyone who completed theirs this week and best of luck to those scheduled for the following week. 

A reminder that the application forms for Coiste, Lighthouse and Amber Flag have all been posted on the TY google classroom. We would encourage all students to sign up for these committees as they are a great way to get involved in the school community. Applications must be in by the 16th of May and please drop them into Ms.Kinsella in her room.

On the google classroom this week the google forms went up to vote for the TY Spirit awards! Everyone must put in the form filled out with full names on who you think deserves each award the most! Best of luck to everyone and we look forward to hearing the recipients being announced at the TY Awards ceremony at the end of the year. 

TY Night is fast approaching and we need as many people involved as possible. We are looking for people to talk about their experience of the various classes and activities, for example Journalism, Chinese, TY Baristas and Sign Language participants. Please go to the relevant TY Reps to sign up to get involved! This is a great chance to participate/ take part in the celebration of each TY’s achievements this year and to show parents, guardians and families everything we’ve been up to!

Maria Hennelly and Saibh Gormley.

Contributed to by Katie Kennedy and Isabel Kelly.

Please see a message from Ms Kinsella:

https://youtu.be/JDRZqacflC4

Huge congratualtions to Matilda Murray, Ciara O’Loughran, Rachel Davis and Kathryn King who took part in the Bank of Ireland Money Smarts Quiz Grand Final today. They competed in the first round in the RDS back in March, qualifying in the top 16 teams out of over 450 teams from throughout Ireland. In today’s final they placed 3rd and were the top girls' team overall. This is an amazing achievement for the school - well done to the TY students & Ms Phelan!

The OLS Parents' Council hosted a fabulous table quiz last night in Terenure Rugby Club. Many thanks to Massey Bros Templeogue for so generously sponsoring the event and to all those who contributed by sponsoring individual rounds/donating raffle prizes - The Two Sisters, Quillsen, Tara Kadampa Meditation Centre, Little Caesars, The Orchard, Marlowe Dry Cleaners, MQ Photo, Templegue Synge Street, Faughs GAA, Posy Bakes, James Brereton Heating & Plumbing.

Best of luck to Zoe Brown, Laura Potts, Ruby Marley, Eva Walsh, Amelia Duff, Dea Moloney, Hannah Rose Duff, Caitlinn Comerford and Alison Dillon who will be competing in the Leinster Swimming Championships this weekend. We are so proud of their hard work and dedication it takes to compete at this level.

Quiz night is finally here! Thank you to all who have purchased a table for this evening's event. In particular, a huge thank you to all our sponsors.

Details, for this sold out event, can been seen on the flyer attached. We look forward to competing with you all for the title of OLS Quiz Team Champions 2023! 

Please see attached information regarding this scholarship opportunity.