NewslinkCHRISTMAS 2017

MOATE COMMUNITY SCHOOL

From the Principal…Adam Kelly receivesmajor award at NationalFinal of SciFestSecond Year MCS student, Adam Kelly, won theISTA Health Sciences Award at the National Finalof SciFest held in the Marino Conference Centre inDublin on 10th November. Adam’s project “CanBeet Beat Other Feeds?” was one of 42 projectsexhibited at the event which was organised byScience Foundation Ireland.In his project, Adam investigated whether therewould be a difference in weight gain if cattle werefed beet or maize ration. After feeding his ownweanlings either beet or maize or barley, Adamfound that in fact beet was more successful insupporting weight gain.In the Regional Final of SciFest at the AIT in May,Adam won the Science Foundation Ireland BestProject Award, as well as the Junior Life SciencesIndividual category award and an Animal Health andProduction Award.SciFest provides students with the opportunity topresent and display their projects and encourages alove of science, maths and technology. Our studentshave benefited hugely from their involvement inthe programme, developing key skills incommunication as well as scientific investigations.

On behalf of the staffand myself, I wishyou all a very HappyChristmas and awonderful NewYear. It has been avery busy term inMoate CommunitySchool and I hopethat this particularedition continuesto give you someimpression of thewide variety of activities in which we areinvolved and the opportunities available to everystudent. We always striveto encourage each studentto reach their full potentialand we look forward toworking with you in 2018.Nollaig Shona agusatbhliain faoi mhaise dibhgo leir.

Adam Kelly with Mary Mullaghy ISTA.

Deborah wins Rotary YouthLeadership Development

Regional FinalOn Wednesday November 15th, 2017Deborah Fakeye, a Fifth Year studentcompeted in the Regional Final of the RotaryYouth Development Competition held inThurles. She was accompanied by PatrickDeavy, a Rotarian from Athlone Club andJosephine Meehan, School GuidanceCounsellor. Deborah competed against students fromschools in the midlands, west and south-westin a gruelling interview process. Theadjudicators were from outside of Rotary andrepresented various professional walks of life.They were looking for students who

embodied youth leadership anddetermination to succeed at schooland in future life experiences. Deborah represented Athlone RotaryClub and MCS to excellent effect andas a winner will join 23 other youthleaders from around the country on atrip of a lifetime to the EuropeanParliament in Strasbourg at Euroscolain February 2018. She will also havethe opportunity to travel to Belfast andDublin as part of this initiative to meetwith political and business leaders.

Josephine Meehan, Deborah Fakeye and Patrick Deavy.

COMPUTERSCIENCE

We are delighted to announce we have beenaccepted for the Leaving Certificate ComputerScience pilot course, commencing with Fifth Yearsin September 2018.

Feachtas Table Quiz CompetitionOn Tuesday 14th of November our schoolhosted the annual Feachtas Tráth na gCeist. Itwas our first time to host the Irish quiz.The quiz consisted of six rounds, with tenquestions in each round, based on varioustopics such as sport, music, politics andcurrent affairs. The competition offersstudents the opportunity to use their skills inIrish in combination with their generalknowledge. We had three teams entered, withone of the teams doing extremely well to come

in second place, after winning a very toughtie-breaker question. The successful team wasmade up of two Fifth Year students, CatherineShimmons and Ciarán Maxwell and two 3rdyear students, Kirsty Lohan and MichelleCorcoran. The team will now go on torepresent MCS in the Tráth na gCeist Finalwhich will take place in Dublin afterChristmas.Well done to everyone involved.

St. Brigid’s Credit Union Quizfor MCS Students

On Friday 20th October our schoolparticipated in the local round of the CreditUnion Quiz. The competition for second levelstudents is a new initiative and an extension ofthe Primary School Quiz which takes place onan annual basis. Twelve teams from three localschools MCS, Ard Scoil Chiaráin Naofa,Clara and Presentation School, Killina tookpart as these are all located in the Credit

Union Common Bond. Our school was represented by four teams onthe night and our team comprising of AoifeMurray, Fionn Lyons, Conor Heavin andDoireann Coffey took first place and went onto represent both the Credit Union and MCSin the next phase of the competition. Well done to all involved.

Mark Molloy and Josephine Meehan (Teachers), Conor Heavin, Doireann Coffey, Fionn Lyons,

Aoife Murray, John Nestor (Chairman of St Brigid’s CU).

Kirsty Lohan, Michelle Corcoran, Ciaran Maxwell and Catherine Shimmons.

EntranceScholarshipsCongratulations to Áine Hamm (below left)and Hannah Simpson (below right), whoreceived Entrance Exhibition Awards in TrinityCollege Dublin for High Performance inLeaving Certificates Exams 2017. We wish themboth the best of luck in their studies.

Congratulations toOrla Clavin onreceiving an EntranceScholarship toMaynooth Universityin recognition of herhigh achievement inLeaving CertificateExams 2017. We wishOrla the very best ofluck in her studies.

Congratulations to AlanHenson on receipt ofThe All-IrelandScholarship in a specialceremony held at theUniversity of Limerick. The scholarshiprecognises highachievement in theLeaving Certificate and isfunded by a trust set upby well-knownbusinessman and philanthropist J.P. McManus.We extend best wishes to Alan in his future.

Congratulations also toAlex David who receivedan Academic Scholarshipfrom The Institute ofTechnology Carlow. We wish Alex everysuccess in his studies.

CAMOGIE BLITZOn Wednesday 8th November our First andSecond Year Camogie players took part in aCamogie Blitz held in St Loman’s GAA groundsMullingar. Our girls played four teams on the day,Scoil Mhuire, St Joseph’s Rochfortbridge, StFinians and Mercy Kilbeggan.Well done to all involved.

A group of Second Year Students from MCSattended the Pre SciFest event at the AIT. AdamKelly presented his award winning project ‘Can Beetbeat other feeds?’ to a group of students frommidlands schools and took part in a Question andAnswer session with Dr Don Faller (AIT). Thestudents received a passionate talk from SciFest

founder Sheila Porter strongly encouraging them totake on Science Projects. This was followed by threemore stimulating talks from a local Bee Keeper,Pottery Artist and Herbalist. The students found allthe talks thoroughly engaging and armed them withlots of interesting project ideas. Many thanks toChris MacCormack (AIT) for organising the event.

Second Year Students attend Pre-Scifest at AIT

DEBATINGOur senior debators shone in the first round ofConcern Debates against Lanesboro CommunitySchool. The team are due to compete againstBorrisokane in late January.

TY JOURNALISM COURSEOn Thursday the 16th of November a group oftwenty two TY students from our schoolparticipated in a journalism course organised byTweakel. Tweakel are a website organisation thatprovides bespoke, modular, online, interactive videotraining which at the end of the day course helpsyou create your own radio station.The course was given by Ian Doyle (a presenter onFM104) who instructed students on how toestablish a radio station. Firstly, the group listenedto online presentations on how radio stationsworked and how to create an ad and a radio talkshow. Students were then separated into groups of

3-4 and wrote skits for their own shows. Some ofthe subjects recorded were about Irelands sportingdefeats and wins over the previous week,competitions, current news and celebrityentertainment. After a short lunch break, Tweakel brought in aportable recording studio where students recordedtheir own ads and talk show. The talk show and adwere recorded on camera, so teachers and studentscould watch them. It was a worthwhile day asstudents got to learn how to write articles on topicscurrently in the news and also how to present thesetopic.

TY students participate in journalism workshop.

MCS Second Years with Ms Cusack, Ms Mandal & Seila Porter (SciFest).

Deborah Fakeye, Sean O’Flaherty, Darcy Lawless andEmer Counihan (with teacher and mentor Jenny

Coughlan).

MINI-COMPANY There is a huge spirit of enterprise in MCS this yearwith fifty one mini companies in total, fifteen of thesefrom TY and thirty six from First Year. On Wednesdaythe 5th December the school gym was transformedinto a bustling market place. All fifty one companiesconstructed their stands and students, teachers andparents were invited in to browse and shop. TaraWalker from Westmeath County Enterprise was alsoin attendance on the day and she spoke to the studentsabout their products. Products included: Keyrings, silicone earphones,power banks and chargers, defib app, rulers with builtin calculators, google cardboard, Irish and Englishstorybook, football gloves, keyrings, woodenornaments, second-hand books, pen holders, organiccosmetics and jewellery, medal holder, light switchcover, canvas pictures and lots more. Following thevery successful market day there were 6 companiesselected to represent MCS in the County Final inFebruary. We would like to wish them the best of luck.

Jamie Ravenhill, Sinéad Kelly, Saoirse Ripley, Jack O'Donovan and Niamh Kelly - Aon Scéal.

Muireann O'Donohoe, Carol Seery, Niamh Lynch andHolly Barden - The Sum of It.

College Awareness Week During the week of November 20th to 24th CollegeAwareness Week 2017 was celebrated in our school.The objective is to ensure students of all ages andfrom all backgrounds know the educationalopportunities that are available to them and withthat in mind our activities revolved around thirdlevel options at further and higher education,apprenticeships and so on.Our week’s activities sought to engage all studentsfrom First to Sixth Year. Junior students participatedin a poster competition to create awareness for therelevance of this week from their perspectives. A vastdisplay covered the walls and windows of the maincorridor in school. All students embraced the dailyquiz and talks were arranged for senior cyclestudents.On Monday, Moate Business College came toschool to speak with our students regarding FurtherEducation and the many opportunities to accesshigher education opportunities, links with

employment, the Institutes of Technology andUniversities here and in the UK. On Wednesday Aaron Farrell, a Third Year studentat Trinity College and past pupil came back todiscuss his course in Deaf Studies, the relevance ofsign language in modern Ireland and future jobprospects and careers. He also spoke about his owngoals after graduation.On Thursday morning, Vincent Flynn fromMountbellow Agricultural College came to talk tostudents about further and higher education optionsfor those interested in the agricultural sector. A visit to Athlone Extrusions for students interestedin STEM courses brought an end to a busy week atMoate Community School. Kenny O’Brien,General Manager, James Murtagh, R&D Managerand Mark Hallinan, Technical Manager in theColour Department led this tour of a very successfulcompany which specialises in the fabrication ofplastics.

We played St Farnan’s of Kildare in the first round ofthe Cup at home in tough conditions on MondayNovember the 23rd. A great solo run and finish fromAlfonso Valdes opened the scoring. Moate doubledtheir lead on the stroke of half time when EoghanRayleigh made a great run from midfield to be on theend of a fine low cross from Toby Conteh. We started off the second half at a slower pace with StFarnan’s battling hard to try and get back in the game.It wasn’t until 20 minutes into the 2nd half when thehardworking Eoghan Curran won great ball in midfieldand went onto put in a fabulous defence splitting passto Eoghan Rayleigh who calmly placed the ball into thecorner of the net for his second goal. Ten minutesbefore the end Liam Maxwell produced some excellentskill to beat two defenders and produce a shot whichthe St Farnan’s keeper could only parry before Liamtapped in the rebound to seal a great win for the ourlads.

LEINSTER U15 FAICUP FIRST ROUND

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U15 FAI team.

Our First Year boys won the Bother Hubert Cup onDecember 5th, defeating St Mary’s Mullingar andmaking history for our school (Moate 5-11: St Mary’s5-8). The encounter against a very competitive StMarys CBS Mullingar was gripping from the outset.Scorers: Eoin Bracken: 1-1, Odhran Lawlor: 2-6,Dean O’Neill: 1-1, Ronan Murray: 1-0, Daragh

Lowry: 0-1, David O’Reilly: 0-2. Team for Moate: Sean Furey, Cian Rainey, Brian Carey, Conor Tracey,Cathal Guinan, Donal Shirley, Conor Molloy, DavidO’Reilly (C), Eoin Bracken, Ronan Murray, DaraghLowry, Adam Daly, Dean O’Neill, Odhran Lawlor,Michael Okpaeye. Well done to all involved.

First Year boys claim The Brother Hubert Cup

First Year Boys Football team.

On Monday the 20th of November our U16 girlskicked off their Leinster campaign with a heartstopping encounter at home to Edenderry. It turnedout to be heartbreak for Edenderry who came so closebut it was the Moate girls never say die attitude thatresulted in victory. The semi-final against St. Leo’sCarlow on Friday 15th December marked a historicvictory with a convincing score of 5-15 to 2-2.Intensive preparation is now underway as the girls

now face Eureka Kells in the new year in the LeinsterFinal. MCS Team: Fiona Fox, Hazel Kelly, ThereseRobbins, Aimee Smyth, Hazel Hughes, Ruth Martin,Roisin Killian, Aine Gaynor, Roisin Ennis, SineadRobbins, Leah Quigley, Maria Farrell, Ava Cornally,Aoife Dalton, Niamh O’Reilly, Ava McHugh, EmmaQuigley, Caoimhe McDonnell, Cliona McCormack,Rachel Butler, Kacey Rotheroe, Marina Heavin,Clodagh McCormack and Erin Pettit.

Lidl PPS U16B Leinster Final awaits

U16 Girls Football team.

To mark Science Week 2017, we hosted a number of science themed interactiveworkshops throughout the week. On Monday, Bridget Molloy from Intel visited tospeak to the TY students on considering a career in STEM (Science TechnologyEngineering and Maths). She encouraged students to take science subjects at seniorlevel and showed the importance of STEM careers in society and the amount of jobopportunities available. On Wednesday, past and current BT Young Scientist / SciFest contestants from ourschool presented their projects to Second Year classes. These projects ranged from

combating the Varroa destructor mite to studying the ecological impact of a gorse fireon bog land habitats. Throughout the week there were science quizzes held for SecondYear class groups. Transition Year students prepared and presented some fun physicsand chemistry demos for the First Year science classes. The Regional Final for theISTA science quiz took place on Thursday, 16th of November, in the AIT. Threeteams of Sixth Year students took part.The corridors in the school were lined with Science Posters with factual informationabout famous scientists’ discoveries, the elements of the periodic table and interestingScience facts. Students and teachers engaged with all the activities for Science Weekwhich were both fun and educational.

Science is in the Air

SENSORYGARDEN

TY students have been busy working on their projectfor the ECO-UNESCO Young EnvironmentalistAwards. Continuing on from previous years’ projects,they have been working hard on further developingthe Sensory Garden in the local Dún na Sí Amenityand Heritage Park. Our students are joined by theservice users of St Hilda’s. This group have beenworking on the project from the start of September,meeting up with the team every Monday for twohours. Throughout these weekly visits great bondshave been made.

Ciara, Carina, Saoirse, Sinead, Niamh & Saoirsewith St Hilda’s group.