TY Pupils going to Antarctica

Congratulations to Gavin Arneill who has been selected to travel with seven other TY pupils from other schools throughout Ireland to Antarctica. Yes you’ve read it right; Gavin is heading on this expedition of Scientific Discovery on the 4^th November for nearly three and a half weeks. While out there he will work closely with a scientist taking samples and analysising data on global warming and climate change. He will communicate all his adventures and findings  to us daily on his blog and we will get the opportunity to ask him questions and share with him his experiences. For more information you can log onto www.tyact2008.com

Mental Health Ireland

On Wednesday 22nd October, Michael McGinn from Mental Health Ireland came
to our school and talked to us about the importance of our mental health.
He told us that our mental health is how we feel inside and it depends
greatly on our outlook on life;” is the glass half full or half empty??.”
He gave us tips on how to look after our mental health like a healthy diet,
regular exercise, going out with friends and family and sleeping well.
Things that damage our mental health are alcohol, smoking, drugs and
stress. Common mental health problems are depression bipolar disorder,
anxiety and schizophrenia. He also told us that we should keep contact with
our parents and friends to help maintain a positive mental health.

Gaisce Presidents Award

On Wednesday the 27th August, Mary Yore from Gaisce – The President’s Award – came to speak to us about how to achieve the bronze medal award, or Bronze gaisce.  She explained to us that there are three different awards – The bronze, the Silver, and the Gold. For our Transition year we will be participating in the Bronze award. It will involve community work, gaining a personal skill, and doing some form of physical activity, spending thirteen weeks on each, and a 2 day night adventure course. We would be in groups for this and also covering a minimum distance of 23 – 25 km over the two days. The Bronze Gaisce is awarded over a minimum period of six months.

Samaritans

This week in guidance class we had guess speakers from the Samaritans group. They came in to talk about how people especially teenagers are committing suicide due to different things that are occurring in their life. They told us about how the Samaritans work and that it is confidential to talk to them. We learned that over 50% of the Samaritans callers were males, which surprised our class as we assumed it was mostly young females. We were shown a DVD about three people at a friends funeral. Their friend had committed suicide for reasons unknown but they then explain how each of them were in situations where they were once suicidal. After the short video we were handed out sheets with certain situations on them. We had to write down our feelings on them and how to deal with them.

Psycho Spaghetti

On Wednesday 1^st of October all of the TY pupils travelled to the Ramor theatre in Virginia to watch a one-man play called Psycho Spaghetti. It was hilarious. The play dealt with all the emotions us poor teenagers face on a daily basis-some slightly exaggerated! Psycho Spaghetti II is coming to the Ramor in April and we can’t wait for some more laughs!