Vol 26 No 07     23 Oct 2020

Happy Hallowe'en!

It is Hallowe'en at The High School and pupils are getting into the festive spirit by making monster-themed treats and pumpkins in Home Economics and Art as we come to the end of the first half of the Autumn term. Well done to our pupils and staff who have pulled together through these extraordinary times - keeping teaching and learning at the centre of what we do.  We hope that everyone has a well-deserved break next week and returns to school rested and ready for whatever challenge lies ahead.

Geography Field Trip

On 14 October the Form 6 Geography classes enjoyed the opportunity to go to Shankill Beach for their Fieldwork project.  Although the pressure of completing 20% of our Leaving Certificate mark loomed over our heads, everyone was excited to be out of school in the fresh air for the day.  With ranging poles and graduated cylinders we made our precarious climb down to the beach front.  We were there to study the effects of erosion on the coast.  The teachers helped us to understand the experiments and it was great to see things first hand that we usually only get to learn about in class.  It was a lovely sunny day and altogether a good experience.  
Éle Ní Chonbhuí (Head Girl)

Space Week

Recently as part of Space Week our class participated in an online seminar with Blackrock Castle Observatory Education and Outreach Officer Frances McCarthy. She spoke to us about how we can go about reflecting more light back into space to save the planet. We discussed different ideas about how to reflect more energy from the sun like painting buildings white, making more clouds and making them brighter, and sending mirrors into space. Some methods have already been put into place for example buildings tend to be painted lighter colours in hotter countries. Our class learned a lot and we are very grateful to Frances McCarthy for speaking to us.  A number of Form 1 pupils were challenged to participate in an AstroPhoto Competition: they had to take a picture of the night sky.  Unfortunately, there were too many dark rain clouds but Ms Deane managed to capture this evocative photo of the moon early one morning.  Senior Art pupils Elijah Rosney, Leah McGrath, and Roger Sun created these space-themed pieces to mark the end of the week. 
Ava O’Brien and Rebecca Knight 

Science Club

At Science Club last week pupils made rainbows using neutralisation reactions.  In Chemistry, neutralisation is a chemical reaction in which acid and a base react quantitatively with each other.  This week they tried fire writing which involves writing a message using invisible ink, letting it dry, and then revealing the secret by touching a flame to the edge of the text. The message burns away leaving the paper untouched except for the fire writing.  Well done, everyone!
Ms Deane

HSD Parents' Association News

The High School Parents' Association Committee for 2020-2021 recently met 
welcoming Jennifer McGrath, Richelle Flanagan, Brian Fitzgerald and Peter deLacy to the group.  Jennifer and Brian will be the Form 1 parent representatives, with Richelle joining Avril to support Form 2 parents and Peter focusing on Form 4 as well as participating on the Sports and Recreation committee.  You can expect some reach out from our new representatives as we go forward to ensure we continue to  build and develop solid connection and feedback loops across all year groups.
Nigel Donovan

Calendar Change

Calendar Change: The Form 2 parent - teacher meeting will take place on Monday 9 November.