Vol 28 No 22      10 Mar 2023

Interschools Music Festival Victory

On Saturday morning musicians from The High School and many others gathered for the annual Interschools Music Festival. A lot of hard work had been put in over the previous weeks and months by teachers and students alike in order to prepare for the big day.  The first competition of the day was the Junior Chamber Music competition and The High School had two entries. After a warm up in a room with what felt like hundreds of other people both groups were ready. After a fabulous performance from all competitors, The High School Junior Trio were victorious! It was a great start to a great day. With solo competitions happening throughout the day, it was a challenge to keep track of everyone! Adjudicators, teachers, and parents were all commenting on how high the standard had been this year, and it was a joy to be in the audience to see the talent that is apparent across Ireland in the music world.  The last group competition of the day was The High School Orchestra.  In my six years at The High School, we have never managed to win.  Due to a few last minute dropouts we were on last.  As a result, we did not get to hear any of the other orchestras perform, so we had no idea what the standard was like, but we were told by some dedicated parents and teachers in the audience that it was high!  We went out there and played the best music we possibly could and took our seats in the audience to wait for the adjudication.  I’ve never seen such sombre faces on our orchestra!  Finally, when second place had been called out, and The High School had yet to be named, a shriek went up from where we were sitting.  We’d won!  After Daimee Ng and William Wu ran up to collect our certificate and trophy we celebrated a huge day for The High School Orchestra.  Overall, The High School won 6 first place, 3 second place, and 3 third place awards - remarkable success by any standards.  Thank you to the teachers who made it all possible with hours of rehearsals as well as camping out all day on a Saturday.  Well done to all those who performed in both the group and solo competitions - everyone was brilliant. We can’t wait to see what Feis Ceoil will bring in the next couple of weeks! 
Ena Ó Fóghlú

Irish Times Sportswoman of the Month

Congratulations to High School past pupil and Ireland cricket player Orla Prendergast (HSD, 2014-20) who was named Irish Times Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Month for February.  From being a sporting all-rounder, playing on the Ireland U17 soccer team in 2018, she’s now, according the The Irish Times, 'One of the most promising cricketing all-rounders in the game, her performances in that T20 World Cup in South Africa earning her a place in the team of the tournament.'  Well done, Orla!

Senior 2 Hockey Success

On Friday 3 March the Senior 2 Boys took on St Andrew’s College in the semi final of the Cup.  We were confident in ourselves as we had beat them earlier in the season but still knew they were a great side.  The first half was very even with chances on both ends but it ended 0-0.  We got off to a fantastic start in the second half after some great skills by Zenan Spain who passed it through to Andrew Robinson for a spectacular finish.  However, the opposition caught us on the break and got one back with a few minutes to spare. But it didn’t effect us as we came back and won two short corners.  In the final seconds of the game Nick Wright got on the end of a loose ball and smashed it past the keeper to win the game. We couldn’t have done it without the support from everyone on the sidelines which made a huge difference to the game.  We now have a cup final against either Wesley College or The King's Hospital and we would love to see everyone down at it to support the team!
Sam Kelly

Great Reads Award

The Great Reads Awards is an event held every year by school librarians who are passionate about introducing secondary school pupils to interesting novels.  The main idea of the awards is to showcase new authors and help pupils have more of a mixed selection of books.  It highlights several new and upcoming books for secondary school pupils and these people get to vote for which book they think should win the award.  There are two awards: the junior award and the senior award.  Leaving school around mid-morning we took a bus into town to St Stephen’s Green where the Great Reads Awards are held.  We watched clips sent in by the authors which were followed by the Junior and Senior Shortlisted Book Awards being presented.   'All That’s Left in the World’ by Erik J. Brown won the Great Reads Award this year.  I read this book over the summer holidays and I loved it!  I think the book would be good for the 12+ age group. The genre is apocalyptic fiction but there are also elements of romance, teamwork, and friendship.  It was very well written and I couldn’t stop reading it!  It was really interesting reading about the character development and all the twists and turns in the story.  I'm glad this book won - it deserved it!  The event itself was a brilliant opportunity to discuss books and learn about different authors.  We'd like to thank everyone who made the event possible.
Cian Lynch, Jo Jo O’Connor, and Olivia Leonard 

HSD PA Talk

Last week The High School Parents' Association organised a talk for the school community with former refugee and GAA player Zak Moradi.  His talk was an interesting insight into his previous life in Kurdistan before becoming a well-known hurler in Ireland.  His story is an inspiration to others because he shows that no matter who you are or where you come from you can make it in the end.  Zak Moradi has also written a book about his life, which is a fascinating read.  He is currently making a documentary in Kurdistan.  It's about the culture and people of the region as well as his own personal journey.  I really enjoyed his talk and I recommend that people read his book.
Elliott de Lacy

Finding Joy in a Busy World

Joy is perhaps the most elusive yet valuable human emotion.  Sometimes it is found in the most unexpected places.  For myself and my twin sister, it was found on the sun-kissed streets of Malaga.  Click here to read the full article.
Rebecca Collins

Award- Winning Film

We are delighted to learn that a short animated film made by former High School pupil Avery Angle (HSD, 2012-18) won the Best Animation category at the Royal Television Student Awards and the National Association of Higher Education in the Moving Image (NAHEMI) - the national student awards in the UK.   It is also a semi-finalist at the Student Academy Awards.  The film entitled The Small Makings of a Storm had its national premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival and will be playing at the St Patrick's Film Festival in London.  It is also currently nominated in seven categories at the Dingle Animation Festival.  Avery made the film in her final year at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) as her major animation project and she chose to make it about the water cycle.  It follows the different stages and transformations water takes in its life cycle.  High School past pupil Wolf Chung (HSD, 2013-19) also worked as an animator on the film.  Avery is currently working at  Little Moon animation studio as a concept artist.  We wish our past pupil every success in her chosen career and look forward to seeing her award-winning animation in the near future.

Senior Music at NCH

On Tuesday 28 February Form 5 and 6 Music classes made their way on the mini bus to the National Concert Hall.  We were fotunate to get the chance to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform a piece that is included on our course: Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.  Firstly, Tom Redmond, joint Principal Director of Music from the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music, ran us through the most important elements of this fabulous piece of music, from the themes, to the instrumentation and to the importance of the different keys in certain moments.  The orchestra was a valuable resource here, as they could play the specific parts being discussed, something that isn’t possible to do at home with a recording. Having grasped a new understanding of this piece, the event finished with a full performance of the overture, performed by the orchestra under the baton of renowned conductor David Brophy.  Both years felt it was incredibly helpful, especially Form 6 as they head towards their final examinations.  We all really enjoyed it and would like to extend our thanks to Ms Bourke. 
Ena Ó Fóghlú

Form 1 Rugby

Form 1 pupils enjoyed some contact rugby matches against teams from St Louis' High School and Wilson's Hospital School recently.  There were some 32 players on our grass pitches; over half of the girls scored tries and all teams won trophies.   A wonderful day was had by all.
Ms Garland

HSD MUN Change of Date

The High School Model United Nations conference has been rescheduled for 28-29 April. We are still looking for pupils to help in the run up to and during the event. If you are interested please contact Ms Maher or Mr Scanlon. The MUN team are very excited about the HSD MUN conference and always welcome people who would like to join us!
Ciara Morton

Form 1 Science

In Science we were asked to use our knowledge of separating techniques to figure out how to separate rock salt into salt and sand.  After some brainstorming groups came up with varying methods - some successful and some not so successful!