Vol 26 No 22     16 Apr 2021

Welcome Back!

As I'm sure you know we're coming to the end of what has been a challenging and unexpected school year.  I wish you the best of luck in this final term and I hope everyone can get the most out of the time we have left in school.  Despite the difficulties we've experienced this year, if we all stick together (at a distance) we can enjoy these last few weeks to the fullest.
Oisín Stapleton Doyle (Head Boy)

HSD Feis Ceoil Winners

One of the biggest events of the year for young classical musicians in Ireland took place in March.  The annual Feis Ceoil music festival, running for the past 125 years, is usually a two-week flurry of national competitions for every instrument. With frantic solo, chamber music, and orchestral rehearsals, healthy (and fierce!) school competition, and fun time spent with friends from across the country it’s a definite highlight of my year.

This time was quite different.  We had to record our performances and then upload them online.  (You can listen to my entries here).  As a violinist, I competed in three competitions under the Junior Solo Strings category, my program consisting of five pieces in total.  This process of recording included intricate planning, multiple rewarding (but exhausting!) rehearsal and recording sessions with my pianist, hours of editing, hauling around equipment, and a whole lot of patience – cameras ran out of battery, microphones malfunctioned, sound balance was off – pretty much everything went wrong before it was right again!

Due to the prevailing circumstances, The High School orchestra and quartet could not participate but individual HSD pupils competed with great success.  I was delighted to win the first prize in two of my competitions, especially since this past year, the music world has greatly suffered.  Congratulations to Finn Ó Foghlú who won the Junior Classical Guitar (B) category.  You can listen to his wnning performance here.  There were a number of entries from High School pupils and some are available on line here.  We have had over a year without face-to-face lessons, chamber music, orchestra, and concerts but are still going strong.  Despite the challenges, Feis Ceoil reminded us just how much we love music!
Daimee Ng

Diversity and Inclusion Day

On Monday 21 March the school held  ‘A Day to Celebrate Diversity and Inclusion’. Two pupils from Form 3 Maryam Aboiye and Oghenefego Otobo gave a presentation on African culture to their class.  They talked about music, food, hairstyles, and more. The girls told us why protective styles and braids are worn; this is often about protecting hair from the natural elements including heat and humidity. They told us about dance reflecting the diversity of cultures in Africa and how it developed.  We learned that African dances are earth centred and are accompanied by vocal and percussive music. We were introduced to African music genres including Afrobeats, Assiko, and Bongo Flaza. It was a wonderfully interesting and informative talk.  The two pupils both enjoyed giving the presentation and feel that it is important to share cultural experiences and celebrate the diversity of our school community.

In their own words they said the following:

'In honour of the school celebrating diversity and inclusion my friend Fego and I decided to do a presentation on African culture. I appreciated the opportunity to express our culture and give our class a glimpse of what African culture is. As someone who loves to embrace their culture it was very nice to be able to share it with other people. I found it very encouraging, and I personally believe that the more we share our culture the more people will appreciate diversity.'
Maryam Aboiye 

'Since we were celebrating diversity Maryam and I decided to do a project about African culture. Maryam and I are truly honoured to be able to do this and tell our class about who we are and where we come from.  We would like to thank our teacher for letting us take the time to tell our class about African culture.'
Oghenefego Otobo

Junior Art

Notan is a Japanese design concept that involves the placement of light and dark elements.   The idea is that they should complement each other rather than dominating one another and as they are placed next to each other they develop a composition.   Notan is a Japanese term which literally means ‘’light dark harmony’’.   When doing Notan artists use ink, paint, or even paper cutting.   What I found with Notan is that it is very interesting and gave me a great opportunity to explore different arrangements of light and dark and experiment with different shapes without having to focus on other components such as texture, colour, and finer details. Notan tends to look more basic but it gives an image so much power!
Vivan Belavusava

Film Club

Film Club will return next week on Tuesdays at 1.15 pm for Forms 1 and 2 and alternate Thursdays at 12.35 pm for Form 3.  Both will take place in the Demonstration Theatre.  Older pupils are also welcome.
Ms Lyons

Outdoor Furniture

Over the Easter holiday the school purchased almost a dozen picnic tables which are situated across the campus to allow for outdoor dining and recreation.  We hope that they will allow for safe dining and social interaction now and in the future. 
Mr K D Poole
Finance and Estates Bursar

Adults Read Too

Our HSD parents have been invited to send in the name of their favourite book. We would love to know what our adult community is reading.  Please send in either the name and author of your favourite book or a photograph of the cover.  We welcome parents of all year groups to join in and all entries will be displayed anonymously.  Please see our first entry below – sent from one of our parents on the Parents’ Association!  Pictures will be displayed on the Library noticeboard for pupils to enjoy. 
Ms Wiggle