On the 9th of March drummer Jeremy Hickey visited our school and facilitated a Samba drumming workshop with the boys from Ms. McGarr's and Ms. Foley's 2nd classes. The drums were on loan from Kildare Education Centre.

The boys had a lot of fun and, most importantly, they learned a lot about rhythm and Samba beats. The teachers and students involved really benefited from this workshop and would thoroughly recommend it.

On Thursday the twelfth of February, an engineer came into St. Corban's to talk to the 6th classes about what it is like to be an engineer and what engineers do. He introduced himself as Michael Regan and went on to show us a picture of a house on the whiteboard. He asked us if there was any problems with the house. A lot of the lads agreed that the foundations didn’t look steady. Michael said that this was correct and showed us a representation of the house. A brick  represented the house and there was a sponge underneath the brick to represent soft ground. Underneath the sponge was the teacher’s desk, which represented the hard ground. He showed us that when the heavy brick was placed on top of the soft sponge, the sponge sagged but the table didn’t react. This is what would happen if a house was built like the plans he had shown us. Then he went on to stick a couple of pencils into the sponge and placed the brick back on top. This time the sponge didn’t sag. This is because the pencils were transferring the weight of the brick to the desk. He explained to us that this is what the foundations of a building look like (in a simple form). That was only one of the projects in a very fun talk that I think all the boys enjoyed very much. Everyone was extremely engrossed in the talk and had a good time. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that in 10 years some of the pupils have gone on to become engineers.

Recorded by David C., Adam, Seán, Elliot, David M. and Devlin.

On the 26th of November 2014 a lady came into our school, St. Corban's, to talk to us about  the charity she works for, named GOAL.

The lady introduced herself as Louise. First of all she showed us a video about what GOAL do and a few facts about the charity.

What is GOAL?

GOAL is a charity that was founded 37 years ago in 1977. It was founded by a man named John O’Shea (not the soccer player) . His aim was to help third world countries and countries who are dealing with natural and/or man made disasters. Back then all he did was bring supplies such as medical gloves and very basic first aid equipment to countries who were struggling with said problems. Now GOAL has ballooned into a massive organisation who have visited and helped over 50 countries worldwide! With over 2900 staff and over €800,000 spent on helping people less fortunate than ourselves, GOAL is on its way to being one of the worlds largest humanitarian organisations.

In 2014 GOAL celebrated a few anniversaries. It had been 30 years since they had helped out hugely during the famine in Ethiopia, 20 years since they had responded to the Rwanda genocide, 10 years since they had helped over 30,000 people after the Sri. Lanka Tsunami and 5 years since GOAL fed over 200,000 people after the earthquake in Haiti and built over 20,000 homes for people whose homes had been destroyed. In 2013 GOAL celebrated their 35th anniversary since they had completed their first mission in India. They are currently tackling Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone. 

GOAL's mission statement reads:

“To work towards ensuring that the poorest of the poor and most vulnerable in our world and/or those affected by humanitarian crises (either natural or man made) have access to the fundamental rights of life, including (but not limited to) adequate shelter, food, water & sanitation, healthcare and education”

They have done exactly that in their 37 years of existence.

GOAL have multiple fundraisers every year to help them raise money for their work. One of these, The GOAL Mile, is taking place all over the country on Christmas Day.

GOAL is a great charity and you could help them continue doing their great work by either donating or running the GOAL Mile or taking part in one of their fundraisers in the future.

Thanks for reading this article and please, do whatever you can to give this great charity the money in order to keep their great work up.

During science week here in St. Corban's Ms. Dunne very kindly invited everyone down to the hall to take part in various different experiments provided by her class. Here’s a quick overview of the results.

Station 1 displayed a skeleton and an iPad. The object was to use the iPad to play a game in which you built a body using the application provided.

Station 2 involved an experiment using the fact that oil does not mix with water. Unless, of course, you add washing up liquid.

Station 3 boasted numerous tests on eggs. Will it crack? Not if you cover it with cling film!

Station 4 experimented on the making of lemonade. Yummy!

Did you know that raisins can dance in water? Well, Station 5 proved they do!

In Station 6 they created lava lamps using a 2 litre bottle of vinegar, salt and more.

If you rub a balloon against your head for a long time it creates static electricity which can be used to pick up small pieces of paper says Station 7.

Station 8 involved a game in which you attempt to fish some paperclips out of a bowl of water using a magnet.

In Station nine they showed you some optical illusions, proving that you don’t always see everything that’s there.

To cap it off, Station 10 was equipped with the fact that you can blow up a balloon using a bottle, baking soda and vinegar.

Thank you for reading and we hope everyone who participated had fun.

Have a nice day!

Photos by Devlin, article by David M., St. Corban's Media Team.

Ms. McGarr’s Class

Last Monday, 21st October, Ms. McGarr’s class had a taste of Autumn with apple and blackberry crumble and ice-cream.
“It was yummy.” - Jack T.
“It was a very nice taste of Autumn.” - Jack C.
“It was delicious” - Filip
“Even though we’re in second class, it was first class standard!” - Conor C.

Ms. McGarr is wearing some of her students’ masks and most of them are in costumes. Brilliant costumes!

Ms. Lynch’s Class

Everybody is dressed up superbly and they are all having delicious, sweet chocolate and treats. They are all having great fun and enjoying themselves. Vampires, werewolves, bats and pirates can all be seen. The class are watching a movie with Ms. McDermott’s class.

Ms. McDermott’s Class

They are all wearing costumes and masks, having sweets, watching a movie and having a great time! With the sweets and treats, they are in heaven! No work, unlike our class! They have also been drawing cupcakes and we’ve seen some great colouring from the boys.

Seán, School Media Team.

Coming up to Halloween we have many different forms of decoration. Most classes have put up decorations to indulge in the festivities. Here are a few examples:

There are some very, very scary skeletons on the doors of Ms. Foley’s and Ms. Kelly’s classrooms. One or two classrooms boast a collection of haunted houses. There’s a big party going on in Ms. Kelly’s class. As well as all those we have the first, second and third classes kitted out in costumes.

Thank you to everyone involved and we hope you have a spooktacular Halloween!

David M, School Media Team.


Click "Read More" to see lots of photos from Elliot and Devlin! >>>

From the 11th to the 17th October, it was Maths Week for schools all across the country. One of those schools was St. Corban's!

Mr. Ryan and his class had the job of organising a fun activity for the other classes to enjoy. Mr. Ryan taught his class some maths magic tricks, some maths games and the answers to a few maths puzzles as well!

The classes came in one after another and Mr. Ryan and his class did the activities with them. It seemed that every class was more amazed by the magic, more puzzled by the quizzes and more delighted by the games than the class before them!

The event was a huge hit! Not only did the participating classes have a good time but Mr. Ryan's did as well.

Maths Week was a great week in St. Corban's.

The sixth class maths group were going to have a brilliant day. They were heading to DCU in Dublin for a magic maths show.

10:30am = The maths class meet up in the yard.

10:35 am = The maths class leave on a bus to DCU.

11:15am = The maths class arrive at DCU

Now that the maths class has arrived at DCU , its time for show!

The show is under way and it is BRILLIANT! Andrew (the magician/mathematician) is teaching us loads of fantastic maths tips and tricks. The magic tricks are superb and are leaving everyone amazed!

Andrew pulls a piece of paper and a lighter out of his pocket. He sets the paper alight and when the fire disappears he is left with a €10 note in his hand! He presents St. Corban's own Eoin Keogh with the tenner!

Unfortunately for Eoin, the magician asked for the €10 back but gave Eoin a signed copy of his new book instead! He then folded the €10 note which transformed into a fake $1,000,000 note! He then gave the note to Mr. Lane who looks after the sixth class maths group in St. Corban's.

But like everything, unfortunately, the show had to end. So the students all ate their packed lunches in DCU's cafeteria.

The bus then drove us back to St. Corban's and the day was over. Everyone had a fantastic day.

Our two second classes have been busy so far this year!

Ms. McGarr's class have been busy learning about autumn, doing artwork about themselves and working on projects. You can see some pictures below.

Ms. Foley's class have been doing their Credit Union art competition, portraits of friends, writing about themselves in Irish and they also wrote a narrative on The Hare and The Tortoise.

It was to be a busy day for Mr. Ryan's sixth class, for they had the job of collecting every class's bags for Fill The Van.

It was a fun time collecting the bags because in between all the hard work and heavy lifting there was some good banter going on.

But now, let's go straight to the interesting part... the results!
Coming in at a respectable fifth place is... Ms. McDermott's first class!
And now, in a fantastic finish of fourth place is... Mr. O'Reilly's sixth class!
Coming in third out of the seventeen classes in the school is... Ms. Phelan's fifth class!
Now, coming in only one, single bag behind first place is... Ms. McCarville's fourth class!
And now... the one you've all been waiting for... first place is... Mr. Ryan's sixth class!

Well done to everyone involved because with your joint effort the school managed to raise an incredible 2162 kg of clothes spread out between 388 bags, all going to MS Ireland. The school also profited, as they received an astounding €1190!

Thanks for donating clothes, and thanks for reading this article.

Don't forget to keep doing what you can to FILL THE VAN!