On Tuesday 23rd Mary Cleary, Aoife Kennedy, Ciara Kennedy, Bríd McClearn and Aoife O’ Hara travelled to the Ardilaun Hotel in Galway to receive their regional certificates from the Bank Of Ireland.

The TYs won the award for their service to St. Dympnas Centre. They organised the TY rota for visiting  the centre and providing help to the staff working with enable learning students while swimming, bowling and horse-riding. The students showed their teamwork skills and made a very positive contribution to the local community.

Well Done!

Congratulations to Conor O’ Meara who was named top “junior volunteers” in Ireland in the Pramerica “Spirit of the community awards” in Cork on Wednesday(24th).

On Tuesday last (23rd) the Transition Year Public Speaking team- Mary Cleary, Niall O’ Meara and Ciara Kennedy- took to the podium once again, this time for the Mental Health Public Speaking final.

Today (Fri 19th) at break time in the social area, a “Sésiún Mor” was held as part of Seachtain Na Gaeilge. It included Transition year and fifth year students playing tin whistle, fiddle, flute and mandolin. They were accompanied by Ms. Kelleher on fiddle, Ms. O’ Sullivan on harp and Mr. Molamphy on bodhrán. The TYs,  fifth years and Ms. Kelleher had been working hard over the last few weeks to perfect there traditional Irish tunes in preparation for today. The “Seisiún Mór” was a great success and was greatly enjoyed by all present. Many thanks to Ms. Kelleher and all the students involved.

Today, four TY mini-companies travelled to the Athlone Springs hotel to the “Get up and go” mini company competition. The groups were accompanied by their teacher, Ms.Cahalan and their fellow TY classmates. The four mini-companies involved were:

• “Hoofy Holders”- Brid Mcclearn & Aoife O’ Hara
• “Crafty Creations”- Mary Cleary, Ciara Kennedy & Caoimhe Ni Laoi
• “Eminence”- Niamh Bergin & Sarah Larkin
• “Fire Fuel”- Conor O’ Meara, Donal Flynn & Míchael Lambe

During the day, each company member rotated between stand duty, doing task sheets and attending discussions. The overall standard was very high and judges found it hard to decide on the winners.

There were six individual categories.  ”Hoofy Holders” came 1st in presentation and “Fire Fuel” came 2nd in the accounts category and 2nd in presentation also. The judges were also particularly impressed by Conor O’ Meara and awarded him an individual trophy . However in the end, none of the companies got to go through to the All- Ireland finals.

Well done to all the companies, particularly to “Hoofy Holders” & “Fire Fuel”.

Fire Fuel are also through to the Ireland Finals of the student enterprise awards in Galway, which took place on March 7th.

On Sunday 7th, two T.Y mini-companies went to Galway to compete in the student enterprise awards. One of the companies were called ”Eminence” owned by Niamh Bergin and Sarah Larkin. They sold personalized key rings. The other company was called”Fire Fuel” owned by Conor O’ Meara, Donal Flynn & Michael lambe. They sold turf and timber.

Each company had to compile a business report and decorate their stand. In the end, “Fire fuel” were announced senior category winners. Well done to the lads and best of luck in the all-Ireland’s!!

Today the TY public speaking team travelled to Tuam for the Western Regional Public speaking Final. The team members were Mary Cleary, Niall O’ Meara & Ciara Kennedy. They were accompanied by their teachers Ms. Skelly, Ms. Hough and the rest of the TY year.  The team topic was “children are in more need of models than of critics”. The team were up against Elfin Community College of Roscommon and Scoil Muire agus Padraig, Swinford Mayo. Portumna were last to speak and each speaker delivered their speech with confidence and ease.

After some time the judges came back with their verdict. It was announced that Portumna Community School were the winners and would proceed to the semi-finals. The semi-finals are due to take place later this March. Well done to the team on your fantastic win, and best of luck in the semi-finals!

Last Tuesday (2nd Feb.) a group of TY student’s competed in a Model Council of the EU debate in Dublin Castle. Each team acted as the Minister for transport of an EU member state. Our school represented France in the debate. The event was chaired by Ruairi Quinn T.D. With 29 schools taking part speaking time was at a premium. Due to the number of teams competing, each school was only judged on 2 short speeches. The topic was whether directive oralternative fuels should be accepted by the EU. In the end the judges had a difficult task in picking a winner. Despite an excellent performance by our team they did not choose Portumna. Congratulations to the team (Fiona Hyland, Conor O’Meara and Sarah Larkin) who did themselves proud. Also thanks to Mr. Coughlan who travelled with us on the day.

Donal