For the last few weeks budding entrepreneuring TY students across all seven form classes have been facing a mammoth challenge. It takes vigour, determination and intelligence and the weak will be divided from the strong! No, it's not the Loreto Hunger Games - it's Fingal County Business Enterprise!
· Personalities clash, heads roll, and greed quickly becomes individual. Not everyone can be the big boss so delegating responsibility to a wider team who knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses is vitally important in getting ahead of the competition. Yes, some of us students have team members located in different form classes, but overcoming challenges is what TY 21stcentury business success is all about! Now anyone for a game of drawing pigs?!
*DISCLAIMER* whatever your result is don't take it to heart. This could all be hogswash!
· Four legged piglet or not, without a product or service or concept, you have no business. Timelines, SWOT analysis, opportunity costs: the stress for us TY students is real. Brainstorming is the creative way for us to problem solve and get everyone’s best ideas together.
· Businesses be aware – if you build it they will come. This year, the bargain that beats Black Friday takes place on Friday, 14th December in Loreto Balbriggan. ‘Christmas Market Day’ is the shop-till-you-drop opportunity forstudents and staff alike to be treated to bargains from stalls, stalls everywhere. During both lunchtimes budding entreprenurial TY and 2ndyear Loreto girls will meet and greet you in an atmosphere where Wall Street meets Walmart (that’s Pennys to me or you, hun). Buyers beware, these smiling sales students want your coins so be armed with lots and lots of cash! With plenty of meetings, market research and business classes still ahead, ‘Christmas Market Day’ promises to be a day of success that everyone can share in.
Fingal County Business Enterprise Awards - here we come!
On Monday, the 17thof September, a group of very lucky students from 1stto 4thyear stood in the school courtyard, shivering with the cold, waiting to go to the EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS).
Ireland was very lucky this year to host this prestigious competition, and we were excited for it as well, despite the bitter cold as we stood waiting outside. Finally, warm coaches arrived to take us to the RDS, where the exhibition was being held. Our excitement began to build throughout the journey.
The exhibition was better than we had hoped! We met some past – pupils on arrival, such as Diana Bura, Khadija Gull and Renuka Chintapalli. We strolled around the exhibitions all morning, marvelling at each project, and yearning to some day reach this impossibly high standard. We learned how these students were innovating and changing the lives of many.
Among my countless favourites, a project I particularly liked was carried out by a school in South Korea. These students learned how to diagnose Parkinson’s disease by examining the sound waves of person’s voice. It struck me how students so young could make such a huge difference to the world. We also met last year’s BT Young Scientist overall winner, Simon Meehan, who explained his project to us. Even though it was tough to decode the scary scientific words the contestants used, we had fun anyway.
We were also very lucky to visit a science talk, which explained and demonstrated the science behind the “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise. This fun, interactive show was enjoyable for everyone.
It was sad when we had to leave the exhibition, but we all hoped that we wouldn’t be visiting the exhibition next time, we hoped we would be competing in it.
On Monday the 9th of April Ms Monk’s Module class hosted a Road Safety Day. We were lucky enough to host the Road safety shuttle and turn over cage to come to our school for all fourth years to try. In the shuttle there were many different simulations that replicated real life driving situations, for example driving in the rain, driving at night, driving a motorcycle. Also there were mock theory tests, dance games and many other fun activities. The most exciting part of the entire day, in my opinion, was the roll over cage. The roll over cage consisted of a car which had no wheels or engine that was attached to a machine that turned it 360 degrees. We were strapped in with ordinary seatbelt and also waist belts to that we weren’t injured. This was a very valuable experience as it gave us a small taste of what it would be like to be in a real accident. Along with that, the RSA asistants told us the correct procedure for getting out of a crashed car, what to do when your seat belt is stuck and many more valuable lessons.
All in all it was a really fun day that was so enlightening and valuable, we hope to never experience a road accident but we are so glad that we have these tips to help us out.
For my first week of Work Experience I went to the Mater Hospital in Dublin. As I have been interested in a career in medicine for a while this course was very beneficial for me. We mostly spent the week listening to talks from different workers in the hospital. For example, we got to hear the realities of studying medicine and working after college from a Junior Doctor in the hospital. The highlights for me were visiting the blood labs and the mortuary. In the blood labs we saw bags of different blood cells and learned how blood is analysed. The hospital had tubes that could send vials of blood to different parts of the hospital instantly which I found amazing. In the mortuary we saw a brain which had been preserved in a bucket, I was surprised that nobody fainted. Overall, the week was very enjoyable and gave me a much better insight into working in a hospital.
My second week of work experience was at an Ikastola in Spain. An Ikastola is a primary/secondary school where classes are taught through Basque, a minority language in Northern Spain, like a Gaelscoil in Ireland. The students learned English as a third language there and I helped out in their classes for the week. At the start of the week, I was in the playschool and primary school part of the school. I read stories like The Three Little Pigs to those children and made them do actions and sound effects with certain words to keep them engaged and help them to understand. I also helped older primary school children who were practising dramas they would be performing for their parents in English. I read scripts with them so they could hear how a native speaker pronounced different words. With one class who were studying the ocean, I told them the story of The Giant's Causeway. They loved hearing about Irish culture and laughed at my accent every chance they got.
Later in the week, I spent time in the secondary school section of the school. I spoke to them about differences between Ireland and Spain and answered questions they had about Ireland. They were especially shocked by the different foods we ate in Ireland. Nobody there had ever eaten or even heard of turnips or parsnips. They were also surprised by how different our school was to theirs. I told them that we couldn't wear nail varnish, makeup, or big earrings and they all looked horrified. They were also surprised when I showed them pictures of our school uniform and told the that most schools in Ireland had uniforms. Based on the information I told them, they assumed my school was a private school, as it sounded similar to private schools in Spain. None of them could believe that my school was not private and that most non-private schools in Ireland were similar to my school. We also talked about books, celebrities, and TV shows. Their standard of English was amazing so it was easy to have conversations with them. I even got to help out in a 6th Year English class who were preparing for the Spanish Leaving Cert. I read the ending of the novel they were studying aloud for them so they could hear my accent. Then I got to hear about the different college courses they wanted to do and what the Spanish Leaving Cert was like.
That week was an amazing and unique opportunity to see what teaching English as a foreign language is like. It really was one of the highlights of Transition Year for me and helped me to decide my career path.
Week Three- Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Cork.
I spent my final week of work experience at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Cork. Pfizer manufacture different medicines like Paracetamol, and at the plant I visited, they made the raw materials for the medication rather than the actual medication. We had guided tours of the labs, plant, and warehouses from workers in the different areas. The highlights of the course for me were working in the labs and engineering talks we heard. In the labs, we got to analyse different substances and use advanced technology to create graphs to help us identify the substances. This was a fun way of seeing what working as a scientist in a lab is like. During the engineering talks, we did different challenges which made the talks really engaging. We had to build a tower and a bridge out of straws and balance different things on them. This week was very interesting as I learned a lot about different careers in STEM subjects. I got to see where different STEM degrees could lead which I found beneficial.
My mum works as a receptionist in a speech and language clinic, so I decided to go there for my first week of work experience. I was also interested to discover more about the occupation of a speech and language therapist. On the first day, I was nervous as I arrived at the clinic, because I was unsure of what it would be like. However, the three therapists were very welcoming and I soon settled in. I was given the opportunity to sit in on several therapy sessions everyday. I was very lucky to get to do this and most of the parents were open to me being there. I liked interacting with the different kids and watching how the therapists worked with them. Each child had different issues and the therapists adapted the sessions to suits them, changing every week. I realised that speech and language therapy covers a wide variety of topics, not just stammering and pronunciation. I really enjoyed my week and got the chance to work with lots of different children. I would now consider a career with children or/and with speech therapy in the future.
For my second week of work experience, I decided to return to my primary school. I didn’t really have an interest in teaching, but I wanted to experience work with children and see how it suited me. On the Monday, I attended the I Wish conference in the RDS instead of work experience. This was interesting and gave a good insight into the various opportunities the STEM subjects can give to girls. On the Tuesday I began work in the school. I split each day between a junior infant and senior infant class. This was slightly overwhelming at first, as there were so many small children, but it became easier as the week progressed. I helped out with art, writing and reading. It was fun and interactive. On the Wednesday I talked to the 6th class about secondary school and gave them some tips. I also went to the 5th class and helped them with the foreign languages they were learning. Overall I enjoyed the week, but I’m not sure if I’d like to work with kids all the time.
My third week was spent in a vintage clothing shop in Temple Bar in town. This was quite different to my previous weeks as it did not involve children and I was doing completely different tasks. I got great experience working in a shop and I also learned a lot about vintage clothes. I have an interest in fashion and sewing so I really enjoyed this week. My jobs involved helping customers, steaming, sorting and colour coding clothes and dressing up mannequins for display. I loved seeing the different eras of fashion while I was organising the clothes by style and colour. I would possibly like to work with fashion in the future, as I am interested in an artistic or creative career. However, I don’t think my strengths would lie in a career like managing a shop.
I decided to work in a St. Vincent de Paul charity shop for two weeks. I found my experience great and it has totally changed my expectations towards the local charity shop. I started at 10:00 and I would sign my name in the sign in booklet, then I would put my jacket and bag in a locker. The jobs varied from day-to-day, sometimes it would be a busy day full of work or a day that their would be repetitive work. The work that I had to do included recycling products that were over ten days old which included, books, clothing, house decorations, toys, CDs & DVDs. I also had to click size cubes on clothing hangers for each of the clothes, write the date and price of the products and bring in donations to the back to discard what we would not want to put onto the shelves. Colour coordinating was one of my favourite things to do along with attending customers.
We would have a 15 minute break by 11:00. During that time I would have something to eat, fill in my Work Experience Journal, talk with my colleagues and rest. We get back to work whenever we are ready and continue with our work until 12:30. Then we would have a break and we got to go out and buy our lunch, walk around the town and get some fresh air. Thirty minutes later we get back to work until 14:00 which is when I finish. Skills I developed: Sensitivity to others, Initiative, Motivation, Communication, Team Membership and Independence.
I worked in Vila, a retail clothes shop. My experience there was good. I learned a lot of "retail skills" such as folding trousers and jumpers in a particular way, unpacking new in clothing, steaming new in clothing, polishing the shelves and clothing rails, putting price stickers on sales clothing and tucking tags into the clothing. My day began at 9:30 I would put my bag and jacket down in the staff room, start polishing and continue from the previous day. My favourite memory from that experience was when I got complimented by a local customer of how professional I seemed to be. That made me be confident throughout the whole week. At 12:30 I had lunch and got back to lunch at 13:00, continued working and finished at 15:00.
Skills developed: Adaptability, Learning Skills, Customer Focus and Active Listening.
Taking advice from teachers and coordinators I decided to spend one of my weeks in a career sector that interested me and I had considered for my own future. So off I headed to Hayes McGrath Solicitors on Baggot street in Dublin city. Being completely honest, I was terrified. I got an extremely early train, I got lost on my way from the train station and I still arrived far too early at the office. All was well in the end though. I learned a lot in my first day let alone the entire week. Everything was smooth sailing, except for a silly mistake that landed me on a train to Newbridge instead of Rush. I got to read case file about things I had heard in the news for example the stabbings at the Swedish House Mafia concert in 2012. It was all so overwhelming to see the real life work behind the scenes of the most famous criminal cases in Ireland. I was so impressed with my week there, hopefully I will be able to return when I’m in college for a summer job.
My second week was probably the best out of the three. I spent it in Shannon, Co. Clare in The Irish Aviation Authority. I was in the air traffic control section and I was able to witness, in my opinion, the most crucial element of flying. The air traffic controllers speak to pilots, airports, runway staff, and other air traffic controllers all over the world. They control every single plane that flies over Irelands airspace, which is more that just the country itself. I absolutely loved every second of it. I was also lucky enough to get to visit the air traffic control tower, which is at the runway of Shannon Airport and see a few planes taking off. It really opened my eyes to another possible career.
On the week commencing the 9th of April, I spent Monday to Friday in Rotunda Hospital shadowing midwives and nurses. For this course I had to apply really early to secure a place, February 2017. Every day I started at 9:30am except on Friday, when I started at 10:30am. On Monday and Tuesday, I spent the days on the General Postnatal Ward, were mums and their new born babies stay until they go home. On Wednesday and Thursday, I was on the Lillie Suite, which is were the private rooms are for mums and their new born babies.
Then on Friday, I spent the day in the Paediatric Outpatient Unit, where babies would come back for their 6-8 week checkups, if they had any problems with jaundice or weight loss etc. From Monday to Thursday, the jobs were very similar, although I did prefer being on the Public Ward rather than the Private Suites. I went around with the healthcare assistants to ask the mums how they were getting on and how their pain was etc, I got to watch all the 2-3 day old babies get their hearing tests on the day they were going home, I helped out with baby baths, brought babies down to another part of the hospital to get their antibiotics, helped out with changing linens and observe tests for the babies' breathing and heart.
All the staff in the hospital were extremely welcoming and took me under their wings throughout the week. They answered any questions I had and would also explain whatever they were doing during the day. I learnt a huge amount about different postnatal illnesses and medication. The parents were also really lovely and I was glad they didn't mind me being there; many of them invited me in to chat and watch their checkups being completed. On Friday, on the Paediatric Outpatient Unit, I shadowed 2 midwives who did the checkups for the 1-2 month old babies. These included weighing the babies, taking blood tests, using a bilimeter to measure the babies jaundice levels and asking about the general wellbeing of the babies.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my week in Rotunda Hospital and gained a whole lot of valuable information and experience that I will take with me for the future. After this placement, I would definitely consider working as a midwife, as I've found I'm really passionate about this area of work and found myself adjusting to the environment of the hospital and the wards really easily.
Transition year students in the JPIC group attended a presentation and workshop on homelessness. Mary Kilgarriff from the Dublin Central Mission in Abbey St. Dublin, gave the group an inspiring insight into the life of rough sleepers , the limitations of services available and the causes of homelessness. The group also packed toiletry bags for homeless girls and women and presented the charity with 200 euro they had raised and supplies of sanitary ware that they had collected over the past weeks. The workshop was hugely informative and motivating and it has inspired the students to maintain links with the homeless charity and continue to work towards understanding & changing the homeless crisis.
The 4E form class took part in a ‘Fashion Focus’ workshop on Wednesday morning facilitated by Eco-UNESCO. They engaged in activities which discussed and challenged their ideas on fashion, the ‘fashion life cycle’ and the environmental impact of the textile industry. They finished off the workshop by learning some upcycling skills. The students made some throw bags from old t-shirts and also created some other new fashion items from old shirts and t-shirts they had in their wardrobe.
All TY Home Ec students were offered an opportunity to go to the Butlers Chocolate Factory to have a tour of the factory and to see what happens in the factory. We left the school in the morning and arrived an hour later in Coolock. First of all, we had to make sure health and safety measures were put in place. We had to wear fishnets and white coats to protect our hair and clothes. After that, a speaker, Laura, spoke to us about how chocolate is made in the factory.
As we were walking around listening to her, we got ready made toffee chocolates. There was different departments and every person in the factory had a role to fulfil. Some people had to decorate the chocolate and others had to package the chocolate. We saw different types of machines that make the work more efficient. We learnt about the origin of chocolate by walking through the timeline hallway. A short film was presented to us about the origin of chocolate and the Butlers Chocolate Factory. From the short film we learnt many new facts. For example, modern chocolate comes from West Africa. The founder of Chez Nous was Marion Butler. James Sorenson bought the company and renamed it Butlers Chocolate. Also, the company was renewed in 1984.
At the end of the tour we got to make our own personalised chocolate elephants. First of all we had to watch a demonstration and then we had to try make it ourselves. Everyone had their own brush to decorate the chocolate with white chocolate and a plastic bag and ribbon to package the chocolate. After that, the tour unfortunately came to an end. But fortunately we got to go to the Butlers Chocolate Cafe and we stayed there and waited for our bus to come and pick us up. We took a group photo before the bus came. When the bus came, we headed back to school. Overall, It was a successful outing and I think everyone gained more understanding about their favourite snack! It was a very enjoyable experience that will long in our memories.
TY Biology Talk - "The Genetics Revolution"
On Tuesday the 14th of November, Ms Gillen's lucky Biology students took a trip to Dublin Institute of Technology to attend a science talk called "The Genetics Revolution". This anticipated lecture was to be of stimulating content to the class as we had spent the previous number of weeks studying the cell and efficiently, genetics and DNA etc.
We arrived to the college at approximately 10:15 that morning, with a comfortable 15 minutes to spare before the talk began. We arrived into the hall to be presented with a large number of other schools, also there to attend the talk.
The talk began and we were immediately immersed in engagement with the speaker and voluntary audience contribution. The speaker made sure everyone felt involved and even called some members of the audience up to help him with experiments.
The lecture mainly focused on the biological areas of genetics, DNA, blood types and subtopics such as chromosomes and cells etc. It was very interesting to learn about ways to collect cell samples and also how to preform experiments on them.
On Tuesday the 28th of November a group of 30 Transition Years had the chance to go to a Public Access to Law course in the school. The course took place all day in a classroom. In the morning we watched a CSI video which talked about two famous murder cases. The cases were easy enough to deduce just by watching, but they showed that forensic evidence plays an important role in court cases. The second case we saw was especially easy, I saw a good few people mumble "it was him" the second the actor who was later revealed as the killer came onto the screen. Nevertheless, the videos were informative and educational.
Afterwards we went through the main newspaper headings concerning law for the day, which showed us that law is always a topical subject. My personal favourite headline which was about a genuine case: "Man jailed for stealing from church boxes using sellotape-on-a-stick." In the afternoon we did three separate mock trials where we had the chance to be barristers, witnesses, and defendants. I chose to be a barrister for the prosecution for a case about an angry man 'disturbing the peace' on an aeroplane. My side won the case as he was found guilty, although I later felt bad because I certainly had a reasonable doubt about whether he was actually guilty or not.
I really enjoyed the course, even though Ms. Clerkin came in at the end and informed us that we had a test on everything we learned that day. We've been assured that the test is very easy. We didn't get a chance to discuss Twelve Angry Men, the film we had to watch and answer questions on prior to the course, but we did get to discuss important aspects of being a barrister. Overall I found the course extremely beneficial and it has guided me to consider pursuing a career in law in the future.
Last Thursday was the first week of the five week course. At twenty to two, the participating TYs met with Ms Clerkin in the atrium and walked to Balbriggan Library where we were greeted by Ruth, the very friendly woman running the course. We were asked to sit beside one or two of the senior citizens in the room and help them throughout the lesson. The woman that I was helping was lovely and she chatted away to me throughout the couple of hours. I found that the time flew by! Not only did I help her to improve her skills for using the internet, I realised that I was learning a lot from her too, as she told me stories of life before the internet and computers.
Halfway through there were refreshments, and we then continued with the class. One of the women was Polish and the girl that initially sat down beside her couldn’t understand the settings on her computer. Luckily enough though, one of the other TYs was also Polish, and could soon help the woman with her computing skills! Even more of a coincidence, the two had actually met a few years before, in Balbriggan. They exchanged emails and will keep in touch if the woman needs further help with her computer. The others also really enjoyed the class, and each TY got on very well with the person they were helping. We realised how important it is that the older generation know how to use the internet safely, and that it is a great idea for the younger generation to teach them. Ruth taught the class and instructed us on how to help the senior citizens, so we had nothing to worry about. We showed them how to use Google properly and navigate around websites. Next week we will be setting up emails with them.
I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent there and I am really looking forward to helping out again next week!
We were all excited on a cold Tuesday morning for our Transition year retreat, as we waited in the religion room, reminiscing our previous retreat we had with Gerry, and how much fun we had listening to his compelling and fascinating stories and the sing songs we had. We all couldn’t wait for the much anticipated ‘music quiz’ that Gerry does every year. Spirits weren’t exactly high after coming back to school from a relaxing midterm, so we couldn’t wait for fun and reflection.
back every year, and we were all amazed to learn that this year was his 25th year coming to our school.
He went on to tell us that he enjoys kayaking and hiking, and he feels a sense of peace when he is doing his favourite activity, and the fears he is forced to come over when he is faced different challenges on the water, but afterwards feels accomplished and proud. We were all absorbed by these interesting life stories he told us, some his very own personal ones and some he has learned by meeting all kinds of people throughout his life.
He told us a touching story about an adopted mother and son finding each other after many years apart, and his own experience with the passing of his father that was a very unique and distinctive story to him and an inspiring story about a talented young teenager by the name Brian McFadden. It came to the music quiz we were all excited about, and we all had the best fun trying to guess the different songs, old and new. All and all, a retreat day is always one of the best experiences in Loreto Balbriggan, and a chance to reflect on life and have good craic with your friends!