Avondale Community College

Avondale Community College
School Notes
Week beginning November 21st 2011

Sporting Successes!
Senior Girls’ Football
On Tuesday 8th November the Senior Girls’ Football team met St. David’s Secondary School, Greystones. The first half of the game was an evenly matched contest with Avondale Community College leading by 2 points at half time. In the second half Avondale found their feet and ran out the convincing winners on the final whistle.

U14 Boys’ Football
The U14 Boys’ Football team have enjoyed great successes also. They had great win over Blessington Community College in the first round of the Leinster competition. Following this, they had another convincing win on Tuesday 15th over St. Brendan’s College in Bray. They now meet Colaiste Chraobh Abhainn in the next round.

Girls’ Basketball
While U16 Girls’ Basketball team played St. David’s Secondary School, Greystones. Avondale Community College went ahead at the start of the game and despite a good display by the opposing side the Avondale girls managed to hold on and came out victorious, with the final score 32 – 21. The U16 and U19 Girls’ Basketball teams play St. Mary’s College, Arklow in the next round of the Wicklow League.
Well done and best of luck to all the teams in their next games!

Co. Wicklow VEC Schools’ Team
Well done to Padraig Geoghegan, Simon Cullen and Cian O’ hAnnain who are on the panel of the Co. Wicklow VEC Schools’ team. They play Wexford on 3rd December 2011. Best of luck to the team.

Theatre Trips

The Merchant of Venice
3rd Year English students enjoyed a trip to The Helix, DCU on Friday 11th November to experience a production of The Merchant of Venice by Cyclone Repertory Company. This was an extremely engaging, educational and entertaining version of the play.
Romeo and Juliet
Transition Year students travelled to Dublin on Wednesday 16th November to experience a modern take on Shakespeare’s classic, Romeo and Juliet. This version was set in Gangland Dublin, but maintained the Shakespearean script. It was an interesting and highly enjoyable interpretation and provided students with much food for thought.

Medical Careers Seminar
20 Transition Year students attended a Medical Careers Seminar in St. Vincent’s Hospital. They had an opportunity to listen to a wide variety of professionals and learned a great deal about their careers. Many thanks to Louise McCormack in St. Vincent’s Hospital, who organised the morning.

Carlow IT Open Day
Transition Year students visited Carlow IT Open Day on Friday 11th November. The students also attended a talk on Post Leaving Certificate courses in Carlow Institute of Further Education. This was a great experience for students, as they begin to think about their future career paths.

Music Outings
The 5th Year Music students recently enjoyed a trip to the National Concert Hall to listen to N.S.O. perform Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. Following on from this, students also experienced a production of Romeo and Juliet in Dublin on 16th November in Smithfield. Both trips were extremely enjoyable and educational.

Science Week
Science Week was opened in Avondale Community College, last Monday November 14th with a talk to all 1st and 2nd year students called ‘Why is Blood Red? – Vampires and Medicine’ given by Prof. Dr. Mathias O Senge from Trinity College, Dublin. This week, lots of fun experiments were carried out, such as creating the World’s Easiest Lava Lamp and building a film canister rocket!
On Thursday, 17th November students enjoyed a trip to Kevin Street, DIT to experience ‘On Board the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station with NASA Astronaut, Greg Johnson, who gave a first- hand perspective on what it’s really like to climb on board a space shuttle and dock with an International Space Station. This was a unique opportunity to get a real insight into what it is like in space. The day ended with a trip to the Science Gallery at TCD to view the latest exhibition, currently on display ‘Surface Tension – The Future of Water’.
Several first Years entered a natioonwide Poster competition celebrating Science Week while other years tried their luck with a Crossword competition in the hope of winning an ipod!
It was extremely engaging, fun and informative week, promoting the relevance and importance of science through a variety of innovative activities.