As part of the Green School’s module, our teacher Ms. Gormley brought our class out on a litter pick of the area around our school for a class. We wore high-vis jackets, and we had litter pickers, gloves, and plastic bags. We picked up a lot of litter in the area around our school, including masks, plastic bottles, pizza boxes, and even tweezers and a make-up brush. We found it surprising and disappointing that although there are public bins, people are still littering. Many members of the public thanked us for keeping our area clean.

Dearbhla Parker, Sara Zenelaj, Nadine Rafferty

Our 3rd and 6th year students had great days out to the National Concert Hall to see their Course Set Works performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. Many thanks to Ms. Byrne, Ms. Flynn, Ms. Cooney and Ms. Clancy who accompanied them on their outing.

The Maryfield u16 team narrowly missed out on winning the div A Dublin colleges camogie championship. They lost by 2 points against St Joseph’s, Lucan.

They also travelled to Wexford to play Colaiste Bride in the all ireland semi final.

Congratulations to the three teams who contested the basketball finals on the 16th of January. The u16 and 19 A teams were victorious against St Mary’s, Killester and Our Lady’s, Drogheda respectively. The u19B team fought bravely but succumbed to a strong St Mary’s, Baldoyle team

1st year Home Economics class made Oreo truffles today and packaged them as gifts to give to their family and friends.

2nd Years made delicious mince and apple pies.

Great fun was had by all doing Christmas cookery.

Maryfield students who took part in the Poetry Aloud Competition in the National Library of Ireland earlier this term

Many thanks to Ms. Whyte for preparing the students for this competition.

Transition Year student and her horse Indie jumping in the Interschools League

Ar an 12 Samhain 2019, ghlac daltaí agus múinteoirí ó Choláiste Pháirc Mhuire páirt i nGaeilge 24. Is dúshlán é Gaeilge 24 chun daltaí scoile a spreagadh chun labhairt as Gaeilge amháin ar feadh 24 uair an chloig; sa bhaile, ar scoil agus gach aon áit eile. Tá an dúshlán á eagrú ag Conradh na Gaeilge agus ghlac 30,000 dalta ó 300 scoil páirt i mbliana.

Deis iontach ba ea í do na daltaí a gcuid Gaeilge a feabhsú agus a chur chun cinn sa scoil. B’iontach an rud é an Ghaeilge a chloisteáil timpeall na scoile.

Bhí lá den scoth againn i gColáiste Pháirc Mhuire agus bhain gach duine taitneamh agus sult as an lá.

Thosaíomar le Bricfeasta Gaelach ar maidin agus bhí Pop-up Gaeltacht againn ag am lóin. Labhair na daltaí as Gaeilge don lá ar fad. Comhghairdeas leo go léir.

Beatha teanga í a labhairt !

Translation

On the 12th November 2019, students and teachers from Maryfield College took part in Gaeilge 24. Gaeilge 24 is a challenge which encourages pupils to speak only in Irish exclusively for 24 hours; at home, in school and everywhere else. The challenge is organised by Conradh na Gaeilge and this year 30000 students from 300 schools took part.

It  was a wonderful opportunity for the students to improve their Irish and to promote it in the school. It was wonderful to hear the Irish language being spoken around the school.

We had an excellent day in Maryfield College and everyone enjoyed the day.

We started with Breakfast in the morning and we had a Pop-up Gaeltacht at lunch time. The students spoke in Irish for the whole day. Congratulations to everyone.

As part of our Transition Year Computer Coding Module 4K took a trip out to visit Cisco Systems a company that uses programming and coding to produce communication systems for companies throughout the world. They learnt that Cisco was voted the number one company to work for in Ireland in 2019.

The girls had a fun filled and informative day learning about the history of the company and how it all started. They got to meet a Sales Engineer and they had a talk by a female employee who works as a coder within Cisco creating a communication tool for companies called Web Ex.

They got to play with interactive screens and communicate with each other on different screens and in different rooms throughout the building. A great day was had by all.

Thank you Cisco!

Transition Year Students attended a talk today by guest speaker Fionnbar Walsh, the father of Donal Walsh and a representative of the #LiveLife Foundation.

The talk was about Donal’s life and struggles when he was diagnosed with Cancer as a teenager. Donal Walsh, the Kerry teenager who touched so many lives when he came to prominence through his writings and subsequent appearance on Brendan O’Connor’s ‘The Saturday Night Show’ is being honored by his native county. Donal who fund raised tirelessly while battling Cancer has now had the Donal Walsh #Livelife Foundation set up by his family primarily in order to promote his anti-suicide #Livelife message.

This talk was moving and inspiring and promoted Donal’s message to live your life to the full and when you are struggling in life to reach out and tell a friend, find someone you can open up to, there is always help.

Donal’s message has inspired the class of 4K to create a Charity Christmas calendar that will promote this important message and all funds raised will go towards the #LiveLife Foundation.

Thank you Fionnbar for sharing Donal’s story with us!

5th and 6th Year Politics & Society students attended The Claire Byrne Live Show in RTE Studios on Monday 16th September.  The group had the opportunity to meet some of the producers of the shower and participate in the debates broadcasted live on RTE 1 Television.

€1,170 raised for Sherrard House, for homeless Teens.
Thanks to all for their support and enthusiasm.

The first year A team beat st Dominic’s, Cabra by 4 points. The second year A team beat st Mary’s, Glasnevin by the same margin.

The first year captain is Grace Cleary and the second year one is Roisin Boland.

The Annual  Public Speaking Competition for girls U’15 years organised by The Irish Federation of University  women took place in UCD Belfield on Saturday 2nd February at ! p.m.

Maryfield’s three first year ambassadors spoke with eloquence on their given Topics

Suzanna Jurkiewiez  Teenage Years
Ella Foley    Travel
Sara Vailiu   Social Media

Congratulations to Ella Foley who was awarded Best Speaker overall for her amazing speech ‘ My mobile phone travels everywhere with me’

Ella  will represent Maryfield in the final in the Edmund Burke Hall at Trinity College Dublin in three weeks time. Suzannah  Ella And Sara were also awarded certificates  for their excellent participation

What was outstanding about their  speeches was that  they were allowed only 30 minutes to prepare .

A special thanks is due to all who supported this event- parents, members of staff,  students  inparticular Nina Coghlan Colley  who gave  valuable advice from her experience last year   and to our loyal  first year substitute Emma Venables

Congatulations Ella Sara and Suzannah

Ms Whyte

Transition Year students from the Green Schools class  with their teachers Ms.Parkinson and Ms. Carroll organized their own Beach Clean at Burrow Beach, Sutton in association with Clean Coasts and An Taisce Spring Clean.  On Monday 25th February the students assembled at Burrow Beach and armed with litter pickers they spent the afternoon clearing the beach of plastic fishing netting and rope,plastic bags, empty bottles and Aluminium cans and other general rubbish.  The beach clean was also another step for Maryfield College in the achievement of its third green flag for water conservation.

Congratulations to Class 4L on winning ‘Best Artistic Performance’ at the YSI Speak Out on March 4th in the Mansion House. Their project involves lobbying the government for free sanitary products for girls in schools and colleges. They wrote a poem and performed powerfully on the day. We all had a great day.

Congratulations to the u16 camogie team who were crowned Dublin champions! They beat St Macdara’s by 21 points and will now represent Dublin at All Ireland level.

On Friday 18th January 2019, the 3rd annual Intercultural Day was held in Maryfield College.  The day saw Maryfield hall exploding with colour, sounds, tastes and culture from all over the world.  In total there were, 16 countries exhibiting and Maryfield students represented their cultures confidentially and passionately. 

The day is a wonderful opportunity for students with diverse cultural heritage to present their culture to the other students in the school and it is a great chance for us as a school community to learn more about other cultures in the world and perhaps more importantly, the diversity of the other cultures we have here in Maryfield. 

The day was organized by Ms. Mellon and The Global Issues Group and supported by Worldwise Global Schools and Irish Aid.  We were delighted to have Lauren Wright from Concern Worldwide present on the day to encourage the students to engage with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and learn more about how their actions impact the wider world.

The Global Issues Group see this day as a really important part of celebrating diversity in Maryfield and reminding us that all over the world, we are united by our common humanity.  We hope that days such as these might remind us to continue to look out for our brothers and sisters all over the world and to always endeavour to live responsibly and sustainably so that we can ensure a fairer more just world in the future.

Download the timetable here

The annual Mince Pie and Mulled Wine Evening for parents of First Year students took place on Tuesday the 4^th of December. The event began with a concert showcasing the musical talent of students from throughout the school. The audience was treated to performances by the school choir, the Maryfield Wind Ensemble, the First Year Music class and a variety of soloists. The varied and entertaining programme certainly captured the Christmas spirit. The evening concluded with a reception hosted by the Maryfield Parents’ Association. A very enjoyable evening was had by all.

Programme:

Once again Maryfield College has managed to fill the list of 133 children for the Christmas toy appeal for the SVP. All these toys will go to local conferences and make Christmas a little nicer for people who have little. Thank you to all staff, students and the Parents’ Association for all the wonderful toys donated.

The semi-finals of the Poetry Aloud Competition took place on Thursday 22 November in the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street. Maryfield’s semi-finalists in the Intermediate Category were Sara Coogan and Aoife Kehoe.  Both students were flawless in their recitals of both their prescribed poem ‘The Great Blasket Island’ by Julie O’Callaghan and their personally chosen poems from one of the prescribed Anthologies. Judges remarked that they found the standard very high and complemented all competitors who reached this stage of the competition. Sara and Aoife came away with the award of being a semi-finalist from well over 1,300 entrants and look forward to the Poetry Aloud Competition in 2019.

Transition Year, 5th and 6th Year students all attended the Careers Fair which took place in the Maryfield Sports Hall on Tuesday 13th November. The range of industries and professions represented at the event included Technology, Healthcare, Finance, Civil Service, Education, Government Bodies, Aviation, Legal, IT and Engineering. The colleges in attendance were National College of Ireland (NCI), Dublin City University (DCU), Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, Maynooth University and Portobello Institute. The students visited each stand and employers were able to share their experience and career pathways as well as offering information and advice to the students. Admissions Officers from the colleges provided our students with information and advice about the vast range of courses available and how to research their future options. Two local politicians, Richard Bruton and Naoise Ó Muirí, lent their support to the occasion with Naoise Ó Muirí providing very practical insights into the working life of a politician. Ms. Ryan, Guidance Counsellor, is very appreciative of all the people who gave their time freely for the benefit of the students. Employers and students reported how much they enjoyed the event and found it useful. It was good practice for students to engage with people from the world of work and ask career related questions on a one to one basis. This was a vibrant and hugely successful event for the Maryfield school community. We are extremely grateful to all staff members and parents who assisted in the organisation of this very beneficial event.

The choir have just returned from a lovely trip to Sligo for the Sligo International Choral Festival. We set off very early from school and arrived at IT Sligo. We enjoyed a choral workshop before the competition. The choir sang two pieces arranged for SSA choir, ‘City of Stars’ from the movie La La Land, and Burt Bacharach’s ‘I Say A Little Prayer’. We had a great day out. Looking forward to many more singing opportunites. Many thanks to the teachers who accompanied us that day – Ms. Clancy and Ms. Tyrrell.

Our First Year students enjoyed a fun afternoon of Halloween themed games, activities and treats to celebrate their first term as Maryfield Girls. Well done to all on participating with such enthusiasm. Thanks so much to all those who helped to set up the Sports Hall and in particular to the Sixth Year prefects who ran the afternoon for the First Years. What a lovely way to start the mid-term break. 🎃👻

Some members of the Global Issues Group attended a workshop on World Food Day last Friday 20th October. The workshop was organized by Concern Worldwide and offered the students an opportunity to engage with students from other schools on the topics of sustainable development goals and the challenges surrounding global hunger.

The Maryfield College Debate team successfully opposed the motion “Individuals serious about climate change must give up eating meat” in their first debate this year of the Concern Debates series. The team debated against Moyle Park College and enjoyed exchanging thought-provoking ideas before the judges brought back their unanimous decision in favour of Maryfield.

The prefects held their first fundraiser of the school year on Friday 12 October. This purpose of the event was to raise funds for St. Francis Hospice and also to remember our dear pupil Ciara Hawe. €1,765 was raised on the day and we all enjoyed looking pretty in pink!

Congratulations to Transition Year student Katie Farrell, who received the award for Female Second Level student from the “Write Here, Write Now” Writing Competition. This competition is presented annually by Hot Press Magazine, in conjunction with Creative Writing Ireland and the Irish Writers Centre. Katie was presented with the “Very Highly Commended” award by the Most Honourable President Michael D. Higgins at the Irish Writers Centre on Monday the 28th May. Katie also won an award for her writing from Trinity College Dublin earlier in the year. Well done Katie!

Three First Year science students, Martyna Baran, Anna Kendellon and Lara Phipps, represented Maryfield College in the Salters’ Chemistry Festival held in Trinity College on Saturday 21st April 2018.This is an annual event held in the Chemistry Department of Trinity College to promote science among First Year students. This year twenty-four schools participated in the festival.

The three Maryfield students won first prize in the Salters’ Challenge and according to the judges they obtained one of the highest marks ever awarded for this Challenge.

Well done girls!

We congratulate all our Maryfield competitors in SciFest@DCU 2018.  SciFest is an all-inclusive, all-island science initiative which fosters active, collaborative and inquiry-based learning among second-level students. It involves second-level students showcasing science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects at a series of one-day science fairs. We are very proud of our eleven students who represented Maryfield so well at this prestigious festival. Well done to all!

Maryfield competitors: Ramsha Owais, Charlotte Velasco, Ava Flynn, Elle Cooper, Holly Donnelly, Elycia Flood, Anu Thomas, Sarra Ryan, Róisín Brennan, Viktorija Cvetkove, Leah Wu.

Maryfield College choir recently performed in the choral section of the Kilkenny Music Festival. This was a very enriching experience for these students whose love of singing was very evident on the day. They sang in two competitions and were awarded a second place and third place against very notable competition. Participating in the Sacred Music and Post-Primary School Choir categories, they gave very musical performances of John Rutter’s May the Lord Bless You and Keep You and Karl Jenkins’ Adiemus. Adjudicator Peter Stobart commended the choir for their tone and musical interpretation, produced under the baton of their dedicated conductor Ms. Flynn.

You can listen to the choir’s prizewinning performances on the below video.

[vimeo width=”600″ height=”400″]https://vimeo.com/264217101[/vimeo]