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Newsletter
Awards night. See the awards night page for a photo of Natalie and some biographical materials
Once again this was a very enjoyable and celebratory night in the ARD Scoil as we recognised so many students for their achievements. We were joined on the night by our guest speaker, past pupil, Natalie Conaty, guest of honour, Teresa Wright, Mayor of Dungarvan, members of the Mercy Order community, the Parents’ council, the Board of Management, staff and of course our students and their parents.
Mr. John Cunningham opened proceedings and introduced Principal, Mrs. Dorothy Hughes, who welcomed everybody to this very special night in the Ard Scoil calendar.
The first award recipients were those nominated by their classmates for the class awards. The citations for these awards are always a pleasure to listen to as they tell us of the esteem and affection in which these girls are held by their peers.
CLASS AWARDS. ; 1.1 Aoife Kiely, 1.2 Frances Whelan, 2.1 Sophie Duhig, 2.2 Lisa Fitzgerald, 3.1 Sarah Harty, 3.2 Orla Queally, 3.3 Lucy Whelan, TYA Tara ni Fhoghlu, TYB Jenny Burke.
5th Years; Anne Marie Moloney, Aoife Dunford, Ciara Coffey and Colleen Power.
6th Years; Bridget Landers, Megan Roche and Linda Bouskine.
These were followed by the Special Awards;
FULL ATTENDANCE for two years; Clare Connors, Ciara Denmead, Lisa Denmead, Naomi Lyons, Siobhan Nugent, Grace O’Sullivan, Emer Scanlan and Colleen Whelan.
PANTOMIME Niamh Drohan and Mary Hogan accepted on behalf of the cast and crew.
SENIOR CHOIR; this award was accepted by two members of the choir; Aine Organ and Laura Flynn.
MUSIC; Cliona Ashe, Denise Conway, Eimear Fahey, Niamh Hally, Aisling Lonergan, Annie O’Brien and Kimberly O’Riordan.
SPIRIT OF T.Y. award; Tara Roche.
ELOCUTION; Rebecca Fraher, Aisling Hayes, Jennifer Hurley, Norma Kearns, Emma O’Connell and Hayley Roe.
ENDEAVOUR AWARDS; Cliona Ashe, Richael Hayes, Samantha Hayes, Aine Lynch Leanne Murray and Tara Roche. These awards recognised the girls’ achievements and endeavours in many fields and their wonderful contribution to the school community.
SPORTS AWARDS. Athletics; Elma Nugent, Zoe Scanlon, Jenny Hurley, Colleen Whelan, Kate Kennedy, Clodagh Gallagher, Rebecca Maher, Claire Collins and Edel Roche.
Racquet Ball; Gemma Cliffe.
Camogie; Shona Curran, Deirdre Fahey and Deirdre Nugent.
Equestrian; Meabh de Burca, Laura Duggan, Kate Mulvihill and Kelly Dwane.
ACADEMIC AWARDS.
The Margaret Radley Award is presented each year to the student who receives the highest marks in the Leaving Certificate Geography exam. The award was presented by Angela and Denis Radley in memory of their mother, the late Margaret Radley who was such and excellent and enthusiastic teacher of Geography for many years in the Ard Scoil. The recipient this year was German Exchange student Stefanie Hockendorf who, unfortunately could not be with us. The Award was accepted on her behalf by her friend, Rebecca Sweeney.
Rebecca was on duty again to accept awards on behalf of Cliona Ashe who was in Dublin being awarded her Entrance Scholarship to U.C.D.
JUNIOR CERTIFICATE AWARDS; Eilis O’Keeffe, Christina Moore and Megan Daly received these awards for their wonderful results in their Junior Cert, exams
LEAVING CERTIFICATE AWARDS. The following girls all achieved more than 500 points in their Leaving Cert. exams; Cliona Ashe, Stefanie Hockendorf, Eimear Fahey, Anna Ballott, Ciara Drummey, Yvonne Hilliard, Kellie Anne Morrissey and Emer Scanlan.
Once again the Ard Scoil girls surpassed the national average in the percentage of those who received such excellent results….we congratulate them and wish them all the best in their future studies and careers.
SPORT STAR OF THE YEAR. This year’s Sport star is Zoe Scanlon who was recognised for her many achievements during the year, among them the following; for her club, West Waterford A.C., Gold at under 15 discus and winner of the Celtic International under 15 discus competition. In the schools’ competitions she took silver in the All Ireland Championship and also in the Tailteann Games. She was also a member of the Irish Schools’ International team. We wish Zoe continued success in the future.
Our Guest Speaker, Natalie Conaty, then addressed the audience and held them spellbound and told them of her life since leaving the Ard Scoil.
(Please include here the piece I will forward on Natalie and other speakers, thanks to Mr. Tom Keith)
In conclusion the Principal, Mrs. Hughes expressed our thanks to the following people; Our sponsors; Bank of Ireland; David Walsh; Easons;Ger Wyley Sports; Jitterbeans; Parents Council; QuikPick; Radley Auctioneers; Ulster Bank.
Our 6th year piano soloists for the Entrance music; Teaching staff for support; Maria Ryan for the flower arrangements; the Parents’ Council for the night’s catering and ongoing support; School Secretaries, Caretaker and Cleaning Staff; and the members of the Awards Committee.
Waterford Festival of Food. Senior Choir delights audience.
On Thursday night the West Waterford Festival of Food held a very entertaining and informative evening in the Park Hotel when top Chefs Eunice Power and Paul Flynn demonstrated some absolutely delicious recipes for Christmas. Following the demonstration, there was a question and answer session and people had the opportunity to taste the wonderful dishes. Entertainment on the night was provided by our superb Senior choir under the baton of music teacher, Mrs. Ciara Lucey. We all know the excellence of their performance and it was a real treat for members of the audience who hadn’t heard them before.
Louise Clarke of Nude Food complimented Mrs. Hughes and the Ard Scoil for our continuing support of the Festival. We look forward to another brilliant festival next year to highlight to culinary delights of Dungarvan.
My thanks to Mr. Tom Keith and Brid Power, 6th year, for their help in compiling this week’s notes.
T.Y.s support West Waterford Hospice.
On Friday, the T.Y.A students continued the charitable endeavours of the school by baking and selling sausage rolls at break time. The combination of a very cold day and really delicious rolls ensured a sell out success and the girls collected € 80 for this very worthy cause.
The T.Y. s start their two weeks work experience this Monday and we would like to thank all the employers in the area who are taking the girls under their wing
W.I T. honours Ard Scoil students.
Congratulations to Megan Daly, Amy Duggan, Grainne Dwyer, Christina Moore and Eilis O’Keeffe who were awarded certificates at a ceremony in W.I.T. on Wednesday, November 5th. The W.I.T. celebrates the achievement of an n A grade in Junior Cert. Business Studies. 9% of students received an A grade in Higher Business Studies nationally. Once again our girls have surpassed the norm! Well done to the girls and their teachers.
Well done again Kate!
During the midterm, T.Y. student, Kate Mulvihill was once again a member of the Irish Pony Club team which competed in the International Pony games in Belfast. The team had already done very well at he prestigious games in Windsor earlier this year and were unlucky to be beaten for the gold by the British team .Well done to Kate and her teammates and we hope to see her competing again soon for the Ard Scoil.
I know other students are doing very well in show jumping competitions at the moment and we look forward to success again this year with a school team.
Camogie Blitz.
On Friday the following girls travelled with Ms. Pickering to W.I.T. to take part in the annual Camogie Blitz; 2nd years; Hannah O’Connell, Orla Dunne, Ciara Beresford and Una Mc.Grath
1st years; Jenna Kiely, Daniella Kiely, Jemma Kiely, Nicole Loftus, Jessica Troy, Tara Healy Eimear O’Donnell, Angela Mc Intosh, Roisin O’Flynn, Eleanor Walsh, Lauren Sheridan, Nicola Mulcahy, Aoife Landers and Lorraine Whelan.
They made up two teams an d played four games each against four other teams; this game them all an opportunity to play a competitive game and enjoy themselves while meeting girls from other schools.
T.Y. students, Zoe Scanlon and Amy Duggan refereed matches as they have recently earned their green card. Well done girls!
Kilcohan Park dog night.
Only one week remains to our major fund-raiser, i.e. the Dog Night in Kilcohan Park in Waterford next Saturday, November 15th. Gates open at 7p.m. and races begin at 8p.m.
Please make every effort to support our Parents’ Council in their endeavour to raise funds for the school. Admission tickets are €10, which also include a chance of winning an attractive door prize.
Sincere thanks to all the parents who have already supported the event. Should you be unable to attend the event in Kilcohan but would still like to support the school, you can still purchase tickets at the school. The funds raised will go towards the purchase of I.T. equipment for your daughters.
November 3rd 2008
Cookery demonstration by Eunice Power
On Thursday, October 9th, all the T.Y. students enjoyed a fish cooking demonstration by Eunice Power of Powersfield House. Eunice made everything from fish stock to a lovely fish pie. Eunice brought along a great variety of fish and she made us aware of how lucky we are to have this fresh fish available locally, and to have such easy access to the fish. As a nice end to the afternoon, everyone got a chance to taste the wonderful dishes Eunice had prepared. It certainly proved that many more people enjoyed fish than they had thought. We would like to thank Eunice for taking the time to come and demonstrate her skills to us and make us aware of the delights of fish dishes. A great afternoon was had by all.
T.Y. Table Quiz.
Every year the T>Y. students meet up with their counterparts in the C.B.S. to enjoiy various events and always very popular are the table quizzes. Last Wednesday was no exception and great fun was had by all with the winning score being achieved by the team of Megan Daly, Roisin Cleary and Kevin Buckley.
Footballers enjoy a win.
Team captain Richael Hayes gave me the following account of her team’s success against the girls of St. Declan’s, Kilmacthomas.
On Monday, October 13th, Mrs Ashe and the under 16 footballers made the short journey to Lamebrain to take on the girls from Kilmacthomas. We got off to a slow start with Kilmac scoring early on but gradually we found our form after Faun Duggan rattled the net with a magnificent goal just seconds after Kilmer had found the net and at half time we trailed by 2 points. Following some words of wisdom from Mr.Ashe, we went back out for the second half and were on fire, scoring point after point, leaving Kilmac a few points behind with 10 minutes to go. After a foul on Amy Duggan, we were awarded a penalty and up stepped Katie Whyte who as happy to put it over the bar. We kept our form to the end and added two more points to the score and were worthy winners, the final score being 1.13 to 2.3
Team; Zoe Scanlon, Amy Duggan. Louise Hyslop,Megan Daly, Ciara Walsh, Rebecca Power, Cloe Veale, Richael Hayes (3) Edel Roche, Katie Buckley (3) Faun Duggan (1.1) Katie Whyte(4) Maire Donnelly Keelin Organ(“) Orla Queally and Roisin Tobin.
Heineken Cup comes to the Ard Scoil.
Last Thursday, John O’Neill, development officer with Munster Rugby brought the Heineken Cup to the school. After listening to a brief talk from John who encouraged the girls to become involved in leprechaun or tag rugby, the students had the opportunity to have their photo taken with this magnificent trophy, It’s good to see the Munster team continued on their winning way this weekend and all their supporters in the Ard Scoil will be hoping for future success.
The T.Y. girls will be doing tag rugby and some students have already enjoyed playing this fun version of rugby.
Amnesty International Ireland.
On Saturday, our enthusiastic members of Amnesty travelled to the Irish Conference of Amnesty in Dublin with teacher, Ms.Cotter. Third Year pupil and avid Amnesty supporter, Andréa Foley gave me this account of their trip.
Last Saturday we, the members of Amnesty International went to the conference in the Hilton Hotel in Dublin. We heard many speeches about Amnesty’s budget and about the work of the young members of the organisation. We voted on possible changes such as the changing of the name from Amnesty International, Irish Section to Amnesty International, Ireland.
Many issues were discussed and Amnesty voted to stand against poverty. To mark this, we went outside the hotel and made a pledge against poverty, We also heard about the “Small Places” tour, and learned some new songs about the wonderful work done by Amnesty worldwide. It was a very good day; we learned a lot and had good fun too!
Octoer 13th
Board of Management.
The final meeting of the 2008- 2009 Board of Management took place last week. Mrs. Ann Stack, Mr. Michael Leo and Mr. John Fahey were thanked for their hard work and commitment to the school during their many years of dedicated and loyal service. A beautiful painting by Rayleen Clancy was presented by the Board of Management to Ms. Margaret O’Brien who resigned earlier this year from her position as Principal of Ard Scoil na nDeise.
Mr. John O’Flynn will continue as Chairperson of the new Board of Management, and the other CEIST representatives are Mrs. Joan Mansfield, Mrs Angela Conway and Mr. Paul Clerkin. The parent representatives are Mrs. Marion de Burca and Mr. Ray Moloney, and the school staff is represented by Mrs. Pauline Dowdall and Mr. Tommy Collins. We are very grateful to the Board members who give so generously of their time and expertise to undertake this extremely important voluntary work on behalf of the CEIST Trust in support of the Principal.
T.Y. Activities.
As usual all sorts of events are taking place for the T.Y. students. As well as their academic studies they are enjoying kickboxing, first aid and this week they had a cookery demonstration from Ms. Eunice Power (more on this next week) They are a busy lot preparing their enterprise projects and working on their e.c.d.l. exams but have time to help in fundraising projects too. Three students are also preparing for this year’s debate on the E.U.which is organised by the National Forum on Europe. The first round of this takes place before December 12th.
Mid-term trip to Germany.
On Thursday night a meeting was held for the students who are travelling to Germany, and their parents. The meeting was addressed by Principal Mrs. Hughes and the parents met the tour leaders and the teachers who will travel with the group on October 25th. Excitement and anticipation are rising now as everyone looks forward to what promises to be an excellent journey, first visiting Munich and then travelling on to the Rhineland.
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