Christmas events round off busy term for Athboy school

Athboy Community School has had a very busy term, culminating in a Christmas fair and a carol Service. On Thursday 18th December, an evening of Christmas songs, carols and readings was held in St James"s Church, Athboy. The school senior and first year choirs, conducted by music teacher Jacqui McGowan, played and sang before a packed audience of pupils, parents and members of the local community. A full programme of Christmas favourites was performed including 'Silent Night", 'O Holy Night" and 'Away In A Manger", as well as more contemporary classics such as 'War Is Over". The choirs were accompanied by teachers Daniel Darren Curran on drums and Angela Corrigan on guitar and pupils Sophie Kelly and Marie Caffrey on piano, Ruth Tynan and Aine Mooney on flute, Meghan Ennis and Harry Stover on tin whistle and Mary Weston on accordion. Soloists included Shauna Murphy, Sophie Kelly, Sinead Delea, Ruth Tynan, Rachel Murray, Charlotte Flynn, Ally Doherty, Keelan O"Connor and Stephen O"Brien. The school chaplain, Mr Joe Tynan, led the congregation in prayer and reflection and parish priest, Fr Patrick O"Connor, delivered the final blessing. Also on Thursday 18th December, LCA year head Ms Emma Mooney and principal Mr Anthony Leavy held an end of term awards ceremony for the LCA students. Pupils were presented with certificates for academic achievement, work experience merit awards and prizes for project work. Ciaran McGuinness, Louise Reilly, Ian Ellis, Luke Byrne, Conor O"Dowda and James Reynolds were recognised for their excellent progress while on work experience. Des O"Neill received an award for his excellence in ICT, Gary Ennis was commended for his practical achievement tasks and Mark Gourty won a prize for his health and safety project and his progress in art. Jonathon Hamilton and Leanne Magee won an award for their excellent all-round achievement this term. The students" council held its annual fair day in the school gymnasium on Friday 19th December. The council consists of 18 students who were chosen in democratic elections at the start of the year to represent the student body. Its chairperson is sixth-year student Rachel Smith with fifth-year Marcus Kristensen as vice-chairperson and third-year Ally Doherty as secretary. The high point of the council"s activities each year has been a Christmas fair and, this year, all money raised will go towards buying new equipment for the school. The fair was the culmination of weeks" of planning and a great number of students volunteered to run a wide variety of stalls. There were novelty stalls like guessing the number of sweets in a jar, a teachers" baby photo competition and balloon shaving. There was also a very successful cake sale sponsored by Londis, Centra and Daybreak in Kildalkey. The students council has thanked home economics teacher Ms Sarah Maguire for her help with the baking. Daniel Corrigan and Aidan Kelly were DJs for the day and had the gym rocking with atmosphere. The photo competition sponsored by Pricebusters was won by Eimear Burke, Niamh Byrne and Blathnaid Keogh. The guess the number of sweets game sponsored by St Paul"s GFC was won by Grainne Whelehan. The balloon shaving prize, sponsored by Lynn Group, Kells, was won by Robyn Meagher. The teddy bear, sponsored by Smyth"s newsagents, was won by Una Leonard and Carley Fox. The 'Best Buddies" party on 17th December was held in Athboy Community School organised by the students and teachers of the Best Buddies group. The party was attended by regional organisers Mr Gerry McLaughlin and Ms Ann Deering as well as co-ordinating teachers Ms Helen Dunne and Ms Sarah Gibbons. A group of 26 first- and second-year students from Athboy Community School, together with staff members Mr Moran, Ms Donohue and Ms Rice went to Donegal recently to visit Bundoran Adventure Centre. On a two-night stay, the students enjoyed the various adventure activities like surfing, abseiling, rock climbing, doing assault courses and archery. They also had safety talks and demonstrations to teach them how to participate in the activities safely. There was also an enjoyable orienteering activity and many novelty events such as a fancy dress party in the evening. All the pupils spoke very well of their few days away and enjoyed the surfing especially. The Leaving Cert Applied Year 1 class organised a sponsored walk earlier this year to raise money for local charities as part of their leisure and recreation task. With the help of all the first-year students in the school and teachers, especially PE teacher Ms Ruth Fitzgerald, and they raised €1,800. A sum of €1,000 was presented to the St Vincent de Paul Society in Athboy/Trim, represented on the day by Frances Walsh. Other fundraising efforts are underway in the school to help the work of the SVP, including a Christmas hamper appeal co-ordinated by teacher, Mr Tom O"Dowd. Athboy Community School recently finished up its autumn/winter adult education classes with a graduation ceremony where participants in the Ranganna na Gaeilge were presented with their certificates by deputy principal, Ms Angela Crowcock. The courses ran for between eight and 10 weeks either side of the Halloween break, finishing up in early December. The school will run its spring programme of adult education classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings starting in late January or early February. A full brochure will be available after Christmas. Further information is available from the school office on (046) 948 7894.