Annual Christmas Carol Service and School Enterprise Final
On Friday 20th December Presentation Castleisland held their Annual Christmas Carol Service and School Enterprise Final in their school hall. The School Choir orchestrated by their musical director Ms. O’Connor, led the Carol Service. 12 student enterprises were on show across all three categories. Our school entrants for the Kerry Enterprise County Final we’re selected for all three categories. The winner enterprises were:
- Junior Category – ‘Cast Aways’
- Intermediate Category – ‘Gaelic Touch’
- Senior Category – ‘Gluin and Glan’
Special guests on the day included Bank of Ireland officials who sponsored our awards, Margaret Murphy and Paola Kennedy of Kerry LEO, Patricia Walsh from Walsh Colour Print and a St. Vincent de Paul representative. A fantastic way to end the first term of school’.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Digital News from Presentation Secondary School, Castleisland
The school Digital Champion programme promotes digital adoption and encourages the productive use of technology by students. Now in its 5th year the programme is creating an interest in STEM and developing an aptitude for digital and ICT at all levels in secondary schools.
Presentation Secondary school Castleisland first took part in this programme last year. It proved so popular that students this year that it was difficult to select projects from the proposals submitted in September. Three projects went forward to the programme: the effective use of Microsoft 365, educating students on the dangers of screen time and teaching members of the wider community how to use technology.
On December 12th second year students attended a training day in Thomond park along with thier teacher Annette Leen. The workshops included: App development, website design, video editing, developing excellent presentation skills and Infographics
These skills will help students to complete their projects and the knowledge learned will also be useful to them in the future.
“This exciting programme enables students to develop their creativity, critical-thinking and communications skills” said Ms. Leen
“The girls are all very enthusiastic to progress their projects and communicate their findings to a national showcase event in May” she added
After Christmas a further visit to industry is planned as well as a showcase event.
In other digital news, two students from Presentation will travel to Google Headquarters in Dublin in January to train students from other schools as Safer Internet Day ambassadors. Cáit O Mahony and Ava Flaherty are Webwise youth panelists and have been selected to organise events for Safer Internet Day and provide training to their peers at a national training event. Safer Internet Day takes place on Tuesday February 11th 2020.
Webwise Youth Panel
Every year Webwise recruit proactive teenagers from all over Ireland to be a part of their Webwise Youth Panel. The panel is made up of 30 students, who want to stand up and speak out about against online safety issues through the Youth Panel. These views are heard at a national and European level, so that young people can have a real say on the issues that affect them.
Presentation Secondary students Ava Flaherty and Cáit O Mahony have been chosen to be members of this youth panel. They have already attended a webinar with other panel members and will travel to a meeting in Microsoft headquarters in Dublin on Monday 11th. Throughout the year they will play an active role in creating resources which will be made available by Webwise to educate parents, teachers and students about Internet safety. As the school’s Safer Internet Day ambassadors, they will lead a campaign in the school to raise awareness of the dangers everyone faces online.
Ms. Annette Leen, the school’s ICT coordinator said “We are delighted that our school has two students on this national panel. It is a great opportunity for Ava and Cáit to develop their own skills and collaborate with other students nationally. We look forward to hearing their ideas and supporting their Safer Internet Day campaign”