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St. Farnan’s Post-Primary
Spring Newsletter 2015.
An update for students, parents and the school community
March 2015
Message from the Principal
Welcome to our school's Spring newsletter! As always, St. Farnan's has been a hive of activity this term.
Thank you to all the students and staff who have participated in and organised sporting teams, cultural events, trips
and fundraising activities. A special thank you to everyone involved in our annual Race Night, which was very successful and which assists us greatly in maintaining our extracurricular programme. Special thanks and best wishes
also to everyone involved in the school's production of Grease, which we hope the whole school and local community
will support when they take to the stage in April. Another significant occasion in the school’s calendar has been the
conclusion of the partnership for this year with SAP Ireland through the Schools’ Business Partnership. Well done to
the 5th year students who were fortunate to be part of this excellent project and we look forward to continuing our
collaboration with SAP Ireland next year. As we approach our final summer term, may I take this opportunity to wish
our Junior and Leaving Certificate students well as they prepare for their oral, practical and written examinations.
Best wishes for a very enjoyable Easter break.
Mr. Eddie Collins, Principal.
Key Dates for the next term
April 13th & 14th: Leaving
Cert. Irish Orals
April 14th—16th: Junior Cert.
Home Economics Practicals
April 16th: Junior Certificate
Music Practicals
April 20th: Leaving Certificate Music Practicals
April 20th & 21st:
Leaving Cert. French Orals
April 24th:
Leaving Cert. Spanish Orals
Deadline for Leaving Cert.
Construction Studies & Junior
Cert. MTW projects
April 23rd, 24th & 25th:
‘Grease’ the musical
April 27th:
TY Work Experience begins
April 30th: Scifest Regional
Final in IT Carlow
April 30th—May 3rd: School
Tour to the UK
May 1st: Closing date for Late
CAO applications
May 20th: 6th Year Graduation
May 26th: Summer House
Exams begin.
May 29th: End of term
June 3rd: Junior & Leaving
Certificate Written Examinations begin.
Events & Successes
celebrated this term!
 TY trips to Dublin, Larchill. Garda Training College & Mini-Companies Competitions
 Swimming classes for 1st year students
Green Schools Inspection
Interviews for next year’s Senior Prefects
French Department Cinema trip to the
Riverbank Theatre, March 3rd
Race Night, March 6th—very successful
fundraiser organised by the Parents’ Association and the staff to support extracurricular
activities in the school
Scifest Competition for 2nd year students, March 13th
 CSPE Projects— Operation Ree (school
cleanup) and Sale of Friendship bracelets
for Amnesty by Class Tara
 Seachtain na Gaeilge celebrated with
song, stories, dance and artwork
Information Night for 3rd years, March 18th
Language and Adventure trip to Donegal
March 24th & 25th
SAP Ireland project - CV & Interview
preparation, mock interviews, team building
workshop & final presentation and certificates
Some of the cast busy rehearsing for the upcoming staging of “Grease”!
Grease—the Musical— talented students are taking
the story of Sandy and Danny to the stage!
St. Farnan’s students will bring Sandy, Danny and all the hand-jiving glory of the 1950s back
to life in the school's performance of "Grease" this April.
With over 40 student actors, the production is one of the school's largest. It follows not
just the original 1971 Broadway musical, but adds in favourites from the 1978 movie as
well. The Burger Palace, a hot rod, the Pink Ladies and T-Birds will all be featured.
The students will perform the movie songs, "Summer Nights," "You're the One That I Want"
and "Born to hand jive," on stage in this upbeat musical.
Saidbh Palmer from Second Year and Sean Fitzhenry from Transition Year, both talented
stars, will play the lead roles of Danny and Sandy.
Show times are April 23, 24 and 25 at 7.30p.m in Prosperous Parish Hall. You can book
tickets online in advance at [email protected] , or purchase them at the Parish Centre
or from the St. Farnan’s School Office.
Can you guess who the T-Birds are???
St. Farnan’s Post-Primary
Update from the Transition Year Programme
Page 2
Written by Audrius Marcinkevicius:
This year’s Transition Year students have been busy going on trips, doing courses and helping out where needed. There are some weeks in the TY year that are
action packed with different trips and activities.
The TY's most recent trip was to Larch Hill Scout Centre where they spent the day completing maths activities, archery, grass sledging and going through an obstacle course. They also have gone to Dublin for their European Studies trip to visit the National Gallery of Ireland and the European Commission Office, Garda open
day, ice skating, BT Young Scientist, Kildare County Council Road Safety Expo, Ploughing Championships and they will go to run the Bogathon in the near future.
The TY students have also done a couple of courses such as first aid, film-making, GAA refereeing.
They have organised three quizzes during the year and they were the European Day of Languages Quiz for First Years, a Maths quiz for Second Years and a Science
one too. These are not the only things that the Transition Years have done; they have fundraised for charities and for the 'Grease' musical that they are producing
in April through bake sales and bag packing. A particular highlight was also the visits to the TLC Nursing home in Maynooth and spending time with the residents
there. They also have provided science experiment demonstrations for primary school children to inform them that science is fun and that it is not always meant
to be practiced in laboratories. The TY students are having a fun and educational year so far.
Seachtain na Gaeilge
Le teacht seachtain na gaelainne beidh fuinneamh an Earraigh
ag rith trí chuisle na scoile. Mar is gnáthach, beidh eachtraí faoi
leith ar siúl i ngach rang Gaelainne. Le máistreas De Buairc mar
bhádoir, seolfaidh na daltaí ar fharraige cultúir na teanga.
Chuirfidh Foireann na Gaelainne ranganna speisialta faoi lathair
le beim ar dhamhsa, ceol, amhránaiocht, agus scéalaiocht. Le teacht an luain beidh siad
reidh le taispeantas bríomhar damhsa agus iad féin a chur in iúil sa tsean- slí idir ceol
agus rince ag Céilí na bliana i hálla na bialanna.
Successful first year of the Schools’
Business Partnership with SAP Ireland
Our school was delighted to have been involved in the Schools’ Business Partnership which paired us with SAP Ireland. In all, 33 5th year students took part
in the project which gave them an insight into and an understanding of the
world of work through presentations, workshops and mock interviews. The
project came to its conclusion for this year on March 26th when the 5th year
students welcomed guests from the school’s Board of Management, SAP Ireland, the Schools’ Business Partnership, KWETB and the local media to present
their reflections on the project. They also received Certificates of Participation
and were congratulated on their efforts by all the speakers at the event.
eBusiness PLC Course in St. Farnan’s
Enrolment is now taking place for our eBusiness Course which will commence in
September 2015. This is a one year full-time course leading to a QQI (Formerly
FETAC) Level 5 qualification. The course is designed to provide learners with vocational skills to enhance their prospects of securing full-time employment or progression to further studies. Financial assistance may be available - Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) Grant or Back to Education Allowances may
apply if you are over 21 years of age and receiving certain social welfare payments.
For further information visit www.stfarnans.ie Application forms are available from
the school. Closing date is 30 th April 2015.
Sports Update from the PE and Extracurricular Departments
St. Farnan’s has had another successful sporting year with teams representing the school in Gaelic Football, Hurling, Soccer, Basketball and Athletics. The U14 and U16 boys Gaelic Football teams dominated North Leinster again with wins in the North Leinster Finals for the U14’s against Tullamore
CBS and for the U16’s against Avondale. The U16’s are now awaiting a Leinster Semi Final fixture against the winners of St. Fintina’s of Longwood and
Mullingar Community College. The Senior Boys were unlucky to miss out in a South Leinster Final spot after a disappointing defeat in the Semi-Finals.
The U14 boys hurling team are training in anticipation of a Kildare County school tournament. The girl’s football team trained hard this year and were
unlucky in the group stages of the League. The soccer teams did the school proud this year with impressive performances across all age groups.
Both the 1st years and U17’s were unlucky not to qualify past the Divisions 1 Group stages. The U19’s had a successful campaign but lost in the quarter
final of the Division 1 League. The U15 soccer team took Division 1 by storm in their first year promoted and did their school proud in the Leinster
Final. For the first time in years the 1st year girls basketball team participated in the East Leinster League and All Ireland Cup. The girls had a superb
win against St. Wolstan’s of Celbridge in the league and lost in the quarter final of the All Ireland Cup against an impressive Muckross Park. In Athletics, the school took part in the 3 Counties Cross Country Championships. All Athletes ran very well. The Minor Boys team came 2nd in Division 3 and
the Junior Boys team won Division 3.
Wishing all our students, parents and staff
a very happy and peaceful Easter holiday.
St. Farnan’s will reopen for all students on April 13th 2015.