Latest News
French Debating
Congratulations to the French Debating team who gave a wonderful performance against Coláiste Iosagáin at the Alliance Francaise on 18 January and won the quarter finals. The team comprised Martha Fitzgerald (Captain and Best Speaker on the night), Michelle and Sinead Horan and Cliodhna Ryan. Emma O’Leary provided help and support.
Loreto Debates
Ms. O’Connor writes - A big congratulations to the four 2nd year students who took part in the Loreto Debates semi-finals in Beaufort on 25 January. Well done to Sally Bergin, Ella McLoughlin, Niamh Ryan and Saoirse Kilgarriff who all spoke excellently.
Saoirse and Niamh progressed into the Final and went on to win the competition. Many thanks to their loyal supporters who represented the school so well.
The Cup was last in the Green in 1992 so it is a fantastic achievement.
Dublin Schools History Quiz
Well done to Niamh Murray, Isabel Ghose, Hazel Bergin and Gabrielle Deeny who came 4th in the Dublin Schools History Quiz competition on 25 January.
Leinster Schools Debating
Well done to Catherine Donnelly, Hannah Donnelly, Martha Fitzgerald, Niamh Ní Leathlobhair, Rebecca Moloney and Niamh Murray who all been taking part in the Leinster Schools Debating competition. All three teams won their latest debate and have now qualified for the Quarter Finals.
Student Enterprise Awards 2012
We had 54 students take part this year with products ranging from bath bombs, key rings, T shirts, computer applications, white boards, school accessories and earrings to stickers and scarves. The last few months of work culminated in a great school final on 18th January. We had lots of prizewinners in different categories but it was Loopy Ltd., the scarf company, that won out. Well done to Shauna Casey, Sarah Torrans and Nicole Hemeryck who will go on to represent the school in the Regional Finals in Croke Park.
Other category winners were: Runner Up – “Beauty Bouquets” – Jennifer Neenan, Rebecca McGovern, Grace Given. Best Report – “Earringz” – Eve Gilligan, Stephanie Fitzpatrick, Christina Walsh, Tethba Grace. Most Innovative – Drop ‘n Pop – Aoife Martin, Orna Monaghan, Fiona Martin, Eimear Merriman; Best Stand – Proud to be---- - Elizabeth Bolger, Eva Buckley, Orla Collins, Kate Lynch, Eliza Ní Thighearnaigh. Runner Up Best Stand – Key Clet Ltd – Emily Kelly, Sarah Murray, Caoimhe Stewart.
The Business Department would also like to thank John Cunningham and Mary Ryan Kelly for giving of their time to judge this year’s competition.
Young Scientist 2012
Congratulations to all the students who were out at the RDS displaying their science projects last week. This year we had four wonderful projects representing the school and with record entries of over 1700 for the 500 places the competition was very tough to qualify.
Alex Griffin and Kate Danaher from first year displayed their work on how friendship values changed over time. They surveyed first and sixth years and adults. They found that friendship values are established at a very young age and that first years prefer large groups whereas sixth years are more comfortable with small groups of friends. They were highly organised throughout their research and received a Highly Commended Award for their efforts.
Dervla Brennan, Megan Mulgrew and Victoria Brunton, also from first year, investigated the relationship between how high a person can jump and how fast they can run. They set up a research day in their local parish hall and carried out their tests on 40 teenagers. They found there was a strong correlation between vertical jump height and running speed. Another excellent project.
Regan McGlynn from second year was the sixth member of her family to display her work at the Young Scientist exhibition. She carried out her research on using orange peel to reduce the salinity of seawater so that it could be used for crop irrigation. This was a very impressive piece of work which could prove very useful considering the shortage of fresh water in some areas of the world.
And last, but definitely not least, a huge congratulations to Aoife Gregg who won the overall Runner Up Award for individuals. She carried out her project by investigating Cryptography in the Irish Language by analysing the frequency of letters and groups of letters that are used in Irish texts. Through her work she discovered that by analysing the letter frequency in Irish passages she could actually pretty accurately date old Irish texts. Aoife also won the very prestigious Intel Travel Award. As part of her prize Aoife won an all expenses trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) being held this year in May in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We wish her all the best with her further work in this area and with the competition in May.
Concern Debates
Hard luck to the Concern debating team of Síomha O’Connor, Roslyn Colgan, Sinead Moynihan and Abbie O’Neill who spoke well but were defeated by Lucan Community College in the third round of the Concern Debates on 18 January. Thank you to those students who came along to help at the Debate.
Drama Club
The first production of the Drama Club took place on Monday 5th December with the staging of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Match Girl’, the story of a dying child’s hopes and dreams. The cast, consisting mainly of students from 1st and 2nd Years, wish to thank all the parents who came along to offer their support.
Trinity Entrance Exhibition Awards 2011
Twelve of our Leaving Certificate students of last year received Entrance Scholarships for TCD. This is a simply amazing achievement. Our congratulations go to these girls all of whom got over 560 points and, of course, also to their teachers.
Pictured are Aisling Colclough, Emma McDonnell, Clare Kelly, Jennifer Lardner, Ailbhe Kenny O'Brien, Arianna Fox, Eleanor Guiney, Emma Boylan, Ciara Forristal, Brona Staunton. Not included are Maria Banatwala and Sophie Penco.
Irish Mathematical Olympiad Young
Congratulations to Aoife Gregg, Rachel Murray-Watson, Rebecca Murray-Watson and Eimear Linehan who performed very well in the Junior Certificate Higher Level Mathematics Exam in June 2011. They have been invited to attend some Mathematics Enrichment Classes in UCD, which will lead into Olympiad training classes.
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a prestigious annual team competition for mathematically talented second-level students representing their countries. The aforementioned classes help identify and train students with a view to selecting a team to represent Ireland in the next IMO in Argentina in July 2012. Ireland has participated in the competition since 1988 and Irish students have won medals in eight of those competitions.
Good luck to the girls and enjoy the classes!
Business Studies Award
Eimear Linehan also received an award for being placed in the top 50 students in Dublin in Junior Certificate Higher Level Business Studies. She will attend an Awards Ceremony in DCU in January 2012 with her parents, her teacher Mrs Moran and our Principal Ms Barrett.
Junior Certificate Awards
Congratulations to Rebecca Murray Watson, Aoife Gregg, Rachel Murray Watson and Eimear Linehan on being ranked in the list of top achievers in Junior Cert Maths – and, of course, to the teachers who prepared them so well.
Congratulations also go to Eimear on winning the DCU award for being ranked in the Top 50 results in Business in Junior Cert.
Dublin Contemporary
This year the Transition Year Craft Class had the honour of working with an artist from Dublin Contemporary, a temporary international art exhibition based in Earlsfort Terrace. The students worked with Ciara Scanlan on an interactive installation, which involved leaving positive messages around the city centre. Below is the project they documented.
Art Exhibition 2011
On Thursday 29th September Loreto College’s Art Exhibition took place in the Assembly Hall. Fantastic work was on display from current Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth years.
Parents Information Evening – 2013 1st Years
An information evening was held on Monday 14th November for parents of prospective 1st Year students 2013. A copy of Ms Barrett and Ms McAteer’s presentation may be viewed on the Information for Parents page of the website – scroll to the end of that page and click on the appropriate link.
TaeKwon-Do European Championships in Slovakia
We congratulate Chloe Aboud, 4T, on her outstanding achievement in winning a European gold medal and European Champion title in the recent Taekwon-Do European Championships in Slovakia. Chloe is to be commended for her tremendous dedication, perseverance and hard work in her sport. This is a remarkable accomplishment and we in Loreto, Stephen’s Green are extremely proud of her.
To read Chloe's account of her experiences in Slovakia with the Irish team, please go to the Sports News section.
Dublin - All Ireland Champions
On Thursday the 20th of October, three of the Dublin players paid a visit to our school, with the Sam Maguire cup! Bernard Brogan, James Brogan and Michael Darragh MacAuley arrived at the junior school at lunchtime. Both senior and junior school girls had been anticipating their arrival. When the bell rang in the yard excitement grew. The junior girls had their photos taken with the players and Sam. While this was going on the senior girls waited impatiently for them to come into the hall for the first glimpse of the players and Sam. The lads could never have been prepared for the screams and cheers that greeted them. The atmosphere was fantastic. They spoke about the win and we thanked them for coming in to visit. We had time to take some photographs which was great. It was a memorable occasion for the school, especially for all the Dublin fans. The girls gave them such a warm welcome and congratulated the lads. They did Dublin proud, let’s hope it we keep Sam in Dublin next year!
Sarah Keartland, Gaelic Secretary
Second Year Carlingford Trip October 2011
On last Friday 7th October the second years went on their trip to Carlingford near Dundalk in Co. Louth. We were split into two groups. One group spent the morning paddling around on canoes (right side up and upside down!) jumping into the freezing water, toppling each other’s canoes and struggling to get back in. The other group started the morning by putting on khaki overalls. It turned out that the people on the canoes weren’t the only ones swimming in the morning. The overalls were so big we were practically swimming in them! Feeling ridiculous, we trekked up a very steep mountain to the laser combat course where we spent the morning shooting each other with our laser guns! After a while everyone had developed a huge appetite, despite the amount of sweets we had eaten on the bus journey that morning! We returned to the centre for a delicious hot lunch. After lunch, we swapped activities so that everyone had a chance to do both canoeing and laser combat. In no time at all, it was time to go home. On the bus home we were all exhausted and we all agreed it had been a great day! Our thanks to Ms. Crinion, Ms O’Connor, Ms Cunningham ,Ms Davis and Ms Smith who accompanied us on our trip!
Niamh Ryan 2G
Happy Retirement
In June we said ‘ farewell’ to Mrs Bailey and Ms Tierney as they embarked upon the next phase of their lives.
In October 1986, Muriel joined the staff at Loreto College, St. Stephen’s Green which was then situated in Harcourt House. Muriel was the first port of call for parents – present and prospective, for staff and thousands of students who had the privilege of knowing her. After 25 years in ‘The Green’, we wish her good health to enjoy her retirement and thank her most sincerely for all she has done for us and for all she has given to the school.
Mary joined the staff in 1972 and brought with her an enthusiasm for all things numeric, poetic and artistic. She worked as T.Y Co-Ordinator, compiled countless editions of the Yearbook and most recently, became Year Head for the class of 2011. She will be greatly missed by staff and students alike. We wish Mary a healthy and happy retirement.
Debating and Public Speaking Success
Well done to Niamh Murray who recently won the Loreto Senior Public Speaking Competition. Niamh gave a very funny and insightful speech on the topic “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. She is the first students from this school to win this trophy since 1992.
We would also like to congratulate Niamh Ní Leathlobhair and Martha Fitzgerald who won the Aoife Begley Memorial Debating Competition in NUI Maynooth. Over 60 teams participated in this competition, which is organised by the Literary and Debating society in Maynooth. The girls took part in a number of rounds of debating before qualifying for the final. In the final they proposed the motion that “When faced with overwhelming assault, this house would fight to the death”. Both Niamh and Martha argued excellently and are worthy winners. Well done girls.
‘Get Up and Go’
The National Final of the ' Get up and Go' Competition took place in the Osprey Hotel in Naas April 7th 2011.
The TY Mini Company scooped a first in the Presentation category for their website, www.transitionyearhelp.com
SVDP
We participated in the Dublin Schools SVDP Day in Kerdiffstown, Naas on Friday, 8th April. The day centred around the sharing of ideas and resources to help run our St. Vincent de Paul groups in our schools. Thanks to Ali Dix 5G for her presentation and to Stacey Memery 5G, Aoibheann Doyle 5M, Isobel McCullough 5B, Fiona O’Connor 4B and Lucy Bergin 4T.
The Marc Owens Medical Fund Trust
A 5km sponsored run will take place on Sunday, 8 May in Belvedere Sports Grounds, Navan Road.
For details Click here For sponsorship card Click here
To read about this and to access a Booking Form for the concerts please Click Here
World Book Day
The Library ran a series of competitions to celebrate Work Book Day on 3 March. These competitions – a short story, a quiz and a wordsearch - were very well supported. In the short story competition, students were given an opening line by author Philip Reeve and invited to finish the story.
If you would like to read the winning entries Click here
Loreto/Trinity SVDP Cookery Night
The Loreto St. Vincent de Paul combined with Trinity College to host a cookery evening for adults with intellectual disabilities from St. Michael’s House on 9 March. Cup cakes were on the menu for the evening and many thanks to all our students for giving up their time on the night from 6 – 8pm. Thanks also to Ms. McCaul for the use of her kitchen on the night.
The girls who took part were Klara Mullen 4M, Dervla Gallen 4B, Niamh Murray 5M, Maul Gilligan 5T, Lucy Brady 5B, Áine Dempsey 5M, Niamh Quinn 5T, Ailbhe O’Dwyer 5M and Hazel Bergin 5T.
Guide Dog Bev visits First Years
Thank you to Mrs Comerford (Mum of Orla 1T) who brought in her guide dog Bev to visit the First Years at the end of January. She gave a very interesting talk on how guide dogs are trained and how worthwhile it is to be part of the Guide Dog Volunteer programme. Guide dogs are now trained to not only assist the visually impaired but also to act as a companion to autistic children.
Mission Possible
The Mission Possible team are currently raising money for a library in Nyumbani Village, Kenya. Their latest project consisted of guessing the number of students who could fit into the Chaplain’s Office. The total number of students was 88 and over €200 was raised. Emma McDonald 3M with a guess of 81 and Ann Donnelly 6M with a guess of 96, were the closest and received book tokens. Well Done to all involved.
St. Vincent de Paul
The St. Vincent de Paul Group resumes after the Christmas break with Soup Runs on Fridays and the Soup Kitchen on Saturdays. In particular, volunteers are needed for the Soup Kitchen and the times remain the same:
First slot: 9am – 11.45am
Second slot: 1pm – 3.30pm.
Any senior student can volunteer to do one of the slots on any given Saturday. Please come to our meetings on Mondays at 1pm in Room 401 to sign up for these events. The Soup Kitchen is located on Church Street and the directions are on the Chaplain’s Noticeboard.
The Soup Run leaves from the school every Friday at 3.30pm.
Table Tennis
On the 18th of November Loreto College table tennis team travelled down to Wexford. The 2nd year team of Emily O’Shea and her team Katie Havel, Alyce Grant and Julie Masterson had a great win by Emily but unfortunately for Julie the other team won this time!
The 1st year team, who also won overall, consisted of Ellie Wilde and her team Niamh Ryan, Flora Piquet and Hannah Taylor. It was a great day and enjoyable for all. A big thank you to Ms Kelly for taking us down to Wexford. We hope to play again!
Emily O’Shea 2B
Fun Hockey
A fun hockey match against Loreto Foxrock held in the last week of term was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Fun Activities on Friday
By now all First years should be taking part in some extra-curricular activities – and Fun Sports on Friday is a good way to start. So First Years, if you are not yet involved – join in Fun Sports after the mid-term break.
Punctuality and Attendance
Effective from Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Punctuality
Students who are consistently punctual for their classes over the course of a term will receive a certificate in recognition of this achievement. This will be recorded on their school record. Certificates will be posted to their home address.
Parents will receive a letter to inform them that their daughter has been registered as arriving late for class on three occasions or more in any given week. Students who are delayed for class legitimately during the day will be given a small card signed by their teacher. This card must be handed to their next teacher. In these cases the student will not be marked as late.
Students arriving late for the first class will also be marked as late.
A Saturday detention will apply to any student who receives two letters re late arrival to class.
Attendance
Parents will receive a letter informing them that their daughter has consistently neglected to swipe in. This causes great inconvenience to secretarial staff who must manually input their attendance.
Please note that failure to swipe in and NOT inform Year Heads is a serious breach of school rules and consistent failure to swipe in will result in a Saturday detention.
A student must never ask another student to swipe in on her behalf. This is considered a serious breach of school rules and will result in a Saturday detention.
A student who loses her Anseo card must inform Mr. Fitzgerald immediately so that a new card can be ordered.
Thank you for your co-operation with these procedures.
Folk Mass
Fr. Jim Noonan celebrated the first Folk Mass of the school year on Saturday 9th October at 6.30pm in the school Assembly Hall. Sincere thanks to all who contributed to the celebration.
School Retreats
The annual 6th Year Retreat took place on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th October. 6B and 6T travelled to Lough Derg in Co. Donegal, while 6G and 6M went to Dromantine in Co. Down. Well done to all the students for entering into the spirit of the retreat with such enthusiasm.
Homeless Week
We had a week of highlighting ‘Homelessness in our Society’ from Monday 4th to Friday 8th October. There were various activities in the school to highlight this issue, such as Morning Reflections, Guest Speakers, a Bake Sale and a Raffle. St. Vincent De Paul raised €230 through the raffle and Mission Possible raised €191 from the bake sale. Many thanks to the SVDP and Mission Possible groups for co-ordinating this week in our school.
Leinster Hockey Team
Congratulations to Alanah Quinsey, 4th Year, who has been selected for the Under 16 Leinster Hockey Team.
‘Pay It Forward Week'
Ms. Doyle writes:
Sunday 11th October was Good Deed Day, so from the 12th to 15th October our school community will be participating in ‘Pay It Forward’ Week.
During this week, every single member of our school will be encouraged to do something nice for someone else or to do something positive for our school community. The important thing to remember is that these random acts of kindness should not cost a cent!
Do something this week to make yourself feel proud!
Eucharistic Celebrations
Fr. Dermot Clarke celebrated a special Mass on Thursday 23rd September, commemorating the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, in University Church, St. Stephen’s Green. The school choir sang beautifully at the Mass and there was a large attendance on the evening.
Fr. Jim Noonan celebrated our Opening Year Mass in St. Teresa’s Church, Clarendon Street, on Tuesday 28th September. This is one of the highlights of the school year and our theme focused on ‘reaching out to others in the coming year’. Many thanks to all for their efforts in preparation for both Eucharistic Celebrations.
SVDP Soup Runs
The Soup Runs are taking place every Friday after school and we are looking for new volunteers this year. The SVDP group have set up a new initiative this year which involves volunteering in a soup kitchen on a Saturday. All the information regarding St. Vincent de Paul can be obtained by attending weekly meetings on Mondays at 1pm.
Our Mid-Morning Treat
On Thursday, 16th September, 4B hosted the National Hospice Coffee Morning in our school. 4B organised the event and the rest of 4th Year were encouraged to bring in baked goods for the cause. The bake sale ran very smoothly leaving very little to clean up afterwards. With a minimum of a €2 donation from each student and any additional donations very much appreciated, we raised €957.14 for the Hospice in Harold’s Cross. As this was our first project as 4th years we would like to thank everyone who helped it go so well including Ms. Hickey and everyone who donated money.
Sarah Boyce 4M
Young Scientist 2012
Congratulations to all the students who were out at the RDS displaying their science projects last week. This year we had four wonderful projects representing the school and with record entries of over 1700 for the 500 places the competition was very tough to qualify.
Alex Griffin and Kate Danaher from first year displayed their work on how friendship values changed over time. They surveyed first and sixth years and adults. They found that friendship values are established at a very young age and that first years prefer large groups whereas sixth years are more comfortable with small groups of friends. They were highly organised throughout their research and received a Highly Commended Award for their efforts.
Dervla Brennan, Megan Mulgrew and Victoria Brunton, also from first year, investigated the relationship between how high a person can jump and how fast they can run. They set up a research day in their local parish hall and carried out their tests on 40 teenagers. They found there was a strong correlation between vertical jump height and running speed. Another excellent project.
Regan McGlynn from second year was the sixth member of her family to display her work at the Young Scientist exhibition. She carried out her research on using orange peel to reduce the salinity of seawater so that it could be used for crop irrigation. This was a very impressive piece of work which could prove very useful considering the shortage of fresh water in some areas of the world.