News Page

If you want the gossip on the latest happenings in the St.Vincent's Transition Year, this is the place to be!

For some information on Transition Year in our school click here.
To see photos of many of the events reported on below click here.

30th August 2004

As a new school year draws ever and ever closer (help!), Gaisce has still been going on throughout the summer. Many students will be completing the final few weeks of their various tasks and hopefully the Venture will be arranged soon!

29th May 2004

The TY graduation was held last night in the school hall. For this all TY students had made a sheet of all their best TY memories as well as putting together a portfolio box had included all their best work done throughout the year. The traditional TY song was also sung - a remake to the theme tune of 'Friends'. (To see our new lyrics here)

All TY's were given a booklet of all their certificates earned throughout the year. It was an emotional night (although the delicious food sort of made up for it!) and was rounded off with a performance of the TY musical "The Boyfriend". It was a great success and everyone was sad to say goodbye to the wonderful year that was TY.

24th May 2004

Today, all 42 transition year students travelled to the home of GAA, Croke Park to recieve certificates for completing a course in Gaelic football coaching. The course took place once a week for seven weeks and included learning the rules of the game, learning the proper warm-ups to do before and after a training session, being taught drills to do in a training session and coaching a group of first years.

We also had to fill out a logbook with all we had done during the course in it. After being presented the certificates (as well as t-shirts and kit bags), we were given a tour of the stadium and had a quick visit in the GAA musuem and then we were off home - newly apponinted GAA coaches.

10th May 2004

Yesterday, the 9th May, a group of about 25 students were up at the crack of dawn (we didn't even know there was such a time of day!) to travel to Tullamore to support Louth County Enterprise Board Senior Winners of Best Mini-Company 'Smooth Operators' who were off to compete in the National Finals.

The group who consisted of 5 Transition Year students - Aideen Mallon, Susan Laverty, Roisin Farren, Rosaleen Galligan and Ciara Gormley - who set up their own smoothie and milkshake stall within the school and also travelled to several other primary schools to sell their wares.

They were up against stiff competition from the 43 other senior finalists from all over the country. Involved in the competition was the writing of a 20 page report on the running of the business, setting up a stall on the day and an interview with the four judges.

The girls blew the judges away with their business expertises and despite this, when results time came around expectations were not high due to the extremely difficult competition.

2FM DJ Rick O'Shea announced the winners and to our shock and delight, 'Smooth Operators' were announced in 2nd place!

The girls were presented with their prize (a hefty lump sum of money!) by Minister for Education and Science Sile DeValera.

Congratulations to the all involved on this wonderful achievement!

30th April 2004

Last night, the Transition Year students held their fashion/talent show - "Fashionably Talented" - in D.K.I.T. in aid of the Simon Community.

Countless weeks of preperation had been put into this huge event which was packed to the rafters on the night.

It was an astounding success, with the total €1240 in total being raised from ticket sales and also sales of raffle tickets where the prize was two tickets to the Slane concert.

27 acts appeared as part of the talent show with their skills ranging from singing to dancing, poetry to acting, as well as instrumental pieces.

After the talent show, Transition Year students displayed their costumes made from a wide variety of materials for the fashion show.

But a special act stole the show. A surprise appearence by the St.Vincent's version of Westlife brought the house down. The teachers - Ms. Burke, Ms. Monaghan, Ms. Clyne, Ms. McMahon and Ms. Leahy wore their finest black suits to do their rendition of 'Uptown Girl'. And then to the audience's added enjoyment another teacher appeared on stage as the uptown girl - none other than Mr. McAteer!

It was a fabulous night, enjoyed by all and the most important aspect was the large amount of money raised for charity. Well done to all involved!

To view more pictures click HERE

26th April 2004

On the 21st April, a group of 150 students and teachers from St.Vincents travelled to the Point Depot in Dublin to support the group of TYs and 5th years involved in the 'Dancing at Lughnasa' costume who were one of the 35 costumes from all over the country who qualified for the Coca Cola Form and Fusion Design Awards Finals - the first time St Vincents had got into the finals of the prestigous event.

The group of Meadbh Moriarity, Rachel Brennan, Siobhan Carroll, Ailis Corrigan, Michelle Sharkey and Marisa Clarke worked extremely hard on the costume and the performance. The costume itself was made from passion fruit, hay, pampas grass and other designing materials. They were wildly cheered on from the travelling faithful, who screamed themselves hoarse, and eventually walked away with the prize for 'Best Use Of Materials'. This was a fantastic result for all involved. Everyone enjoyed the night - especially those who were lucky enough to meet presenter on the night Ray Darcy and celebrity judge, comedian Tommy Tiernan!!!

Click here to visit the main Form and Fusion website.

16th March 2004

The Transition Year students at St. Vincent's are busy getting ready for their talent and fashion show, aptly named - "Fashionably Talented". 35 students ranging from the age of 12-18 have been auditioned and 27 are set to battle it out for the prizes. The event which will take place on the 29th of April is keeping everyone busy and will contain the wonderful creations of the transition years which they have been working on for the past 2 months. It is going to be the event of the year so keep it here for more details.

15th March 2004

Today, the County Louth Enterprise Awards were held in the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk. This event is to decide the winner of the best mini-company from all the secondary schools in the county. Three groups from our school qualified for this event - "Reflections" who made mirrors of all shapes and sizes; "Smooth Operators" who sold milkshakes and smoothies and "Zen Creations" who manufactured Jacob's ladders, money socks and denim pencil cases.

Competition was fierce and all three groups did their best to impress the judges. Tension rose all the judges took for what seemed to be an eternity to reach their final decision. Eventually, it was announced that our very own "Smooth Operators" had been chosen as the winner. The team of Aideen Mallon, Susan Laverty, Rosaleen Galligan, Roisin Farren and Ciara Gormley will now travel to Tullamore on the 9th of May for the National Finals. Best of luck!

4th March 2004

Congratulations to Siobhan Carroll, Meadhbh Moriarity as well as model Michelle Sharkey and dancers Ailis Corrigan and Marisa Clarke who have been one of thirty-five costumes chosen from thousands of entries nationwide who have qualified for the national finals of the Coca-Cola Form and Fusion Design Awards 2004. The team is behind the fantastic costume - 'Dancing at Lughnasa'. They, along with the wild support of fellow TY students, will travel to The Point Depot on April 21st to compete. Congratulations must also be awarded to the creators and performers of 'Mrs. Doyley', who are Aideen Mallon, Rosaleen Galligan, Roisin Farren, Susan Laverty and Ciara Shields. They will be awarded a specially commissioned  “The Coca-Cola Form and Fusion Design Award” medal for being selected by the judges for their outstanding display of design excellence and performance.

23th February 2004

All 42 Transition Year students travelled to Clondalkin, Dublin to attend the first Leinster heat of the annual Coca-Cola Form and Fusion Fashion Show. The competiton consists of big and extravagant costumes made from unusual and recycable materials. More than 1000 costumes are expected to be entered for this year's competition with three coming from St. Vincent's!

The three costumes - "Dancing At Lughnasa", "Mrs. Doyley" and "Frozen Inc." -  took hours of hard work, time and dedication to design and construct (including the whole mid-term break!). The costumes were made from a variety of materials such as passion fruit, plaited hay, used teabags, sugarcubes, doyleys, mirrors, pens, can tops and buttons. The day went extremely well and all the costumes were shown-off brilliantly down the catwalk by Michelle Sharkey, Aideen Mallon and Laura Warnock. A big thanks must be extended to the Art Department for all their hard work and dedication and hopefully we'll be in the national final in the Point Depot in April! Click HERE to view more pictures...