Showcase and Share

SHOWCASE AND SHARE –

STUDENT ACTION FOR CHANGE

Patricia Seery / Maryfield College

On Tuesday February 1^st, Maryfield College attended an online gathering to connect with the wider Le Cheile community. This day was to celebrate St. Brigid’s day by showcasing and sharing all the amazing work that all the Le Cheile schools are involved in. the day was a celebration of many forms of student action that our schools are involved in.

Five Maryfield students were involved- Karoline Biju(6thYear), Amy Sheehy and Emma Kearney (5^th Year) and Sophia Malik and Sarah Elders (3^rd Year). There were over four hundred participants from seventy-five schools. everyone gathered in prayer, in shared activities and shared ideas.

This meeting also provided an opportunity for the teachers involved to connect with other teaching colleagues in the Le Cheile community regarding Student Leadership and ethos in action. As part of the gathering, everyone was divided up into Breakout Rooms, where the students got to talk to each other, and were able to share and highlight the many great things that happen in their school community involving student leadership and action.

The students enjoyed the gathering and perhaps have brought some new ideas back to Maryfield.

Some student reflections:

REFELCTION ON LE CHÉILE’S ST BRIGID’S DAY CELEBRATION

Since St Brigid’s day is officially a national holiday starting from next year, this year was the last year where schools would be open for St Brigid’s Day. To celebrate this joyous occasion, On the 1^st of February this year, Le Chéile organised a zoom meeting where all Le Chéile schools could gather to show their appreciation for St Brigid, and her core values evident in each Le Chéile school. I had the honour of participating in the celebration and I really enjoyed it. The day started with introductions given by the CEO of Le Chéile and then it moved onto the showcase and share where presentations were made by different schools to showcase the values of St Brigid evident in their schools. I thought all the presentations made by each school were well done. I especially enjoyed the song that was sung by one of the schools. The song was an original written by a student in the school and it showed the talent and creativity found in the Le Chéile schools. It made me reflect on how being a part of Le Chéile has allowed schools to harness their students’ abilities and give them an opportunity to reach their full potential. After the showcase and share, we were put into breakout rooms. This was my favourite part of the day because it allowed me to connect with students from other schools across the country and abroad! We had a chance to talk and present our schools to each other. There were about six other schools in my breakout room, and I really liked how small the breakout rooms were because we all had a chance to talk and converse. When it was my turn to talk, I had so many things I wanted to talk about, but I settled on talking about the One Million Stars project we started doing in school that aims to end violence against women. I wanted to talk about something that was important and something I was proud of doing in school. I also hoped that other schools would hear the idea and would be inspired to also start the project in their own schools. Not only was I able to represent Maryfield and present what we had to offer, I was also lucky enough to take from the experience, new ideas that can be brought into Maryfield such as the initiative to cycle to school or including learning about all the languages found in Maryfield into our intercultural club. I am so thankful to have been asked to be a part of this celebration and I enjoyed and learned a lot from this occasion.

Showcase and Share 2022

My experience in the showcase and share with Le Cheile was very special and moving. I thought it was incredible the way so many schools were connected and were able to spread the things and events that make their school special. I really enjoyed watching the videos that were presented during the meeting as I think they were very impactful as they showed you a visual of all the amazing things they do, whilst watching the videos it just put you in a great mood and made you want to do all those things too. During the zoom meeting I learned that our school and all the other schools celebrate similar events and have similar procedures, but we all do them in different ways. By attending the zoom meeting, it really opened my eyes to some of the ideas that other schools shared and made me want to bring and spread those ideas in our own school. I think by attending the showcase and share, it really made me want to make a difference in our school and make our school have an even better atmosphere, including environment and do things that don’t just benefit us in Maryfield, but the wider local, national, and international community. Overall, I think the Le Cheile St. Brigid’s day Showcase and share made everyone feel touched and motivated to do amazing things in their schools and made everyone feel included in an experience that will change the way all the schools approach all these events, holidays, social issues, and problems in their schools. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in such a wonderful and impactful event.