We are delighted to have received our @WorldWise_Irl global passport award which recognises our continued efforts in raising awareness & creating action around global citizenship & social justice issues 
‘ Before you finish breakfast this morning you have have depended on more than half of the world’ – Martin Luther King Jr
As part of Fairtrade Fortnight 2021, Home Economics students learned more about what exactly fair-trade is, how different our food can look in its original state before it reaches our table, and the impact our shopping choices and habits can have for Fairtrade farmers and those who produce all our favourite foods & drinks like tea, coffee, chocolate, fruit and even our clothes. This years Fairtrade theme was around cocoa highlighting the importance of farmers being paid fairly for their work and being able to earn a living income. Students completed the chocolate quiz to learn more interesting facts about chocolate production and 1st years entered a Fairtrade Poster competition to encourage family and friends to choose fair-trade products when shopping. Congratulations to Saffron Flynn who won first prize and to runners up Kate McCauley and Rosemary Brady. All their poster’s will be displayed on the GCE noticeboard also.
Within the Sustainable Development Goals an area where TY’s wanted to focus on this year was that of inclusion. As part of this theme students planned a culture event in December to celebrate the range of diversity in our school. They encouraged others to create a poster showcasing the country they were born in or have roots to. All these posters were colourfully displayed around the GCE Noticeboard and it was really interesting for everyone in school to learn more about all the different countries that our school community have connections to.
Congratulations to 1st year student Nicole Kellett who was the winner in the Junior Category of the Poetry Competition and to 5th year student Saidhbhe Honeyman who was the Senior Category winner. Thank you to the English Department who judged the entries. Congrats also to 3rd year student Amelia Woolterton who was the overall Art/Poster competition winner and to 1st year student Kate McCauley who was runner up in that competition. The theme for both of these was ‘Celebrating Culture’.
There was a ‘Coffee and Culture’ chat at breaktime where staff chatted informally about travel and culture. Second year student Theodora Usatii made a delicious Romanian Cake called Cozonac and 5th year student Huda Batool made Kheer a delicious Pakistani rice dessert for this. They were thoroughly enjoyed by staff.
There was also some cross curricular culture in action when French teacher Mr Keeney joined the Home Economics class where students made some delicious crepes with him over some conversational french.
A variety of guest speakers spoke to students on a range of issues this year so far as part of their GCE studies. In December, John Lonergan (former Governor of Mountjoy Prison) spoke to TY and 5th year students about his experience as Governor with an emphasis on social justice and reform.
The TY students also participated in a zoom workshop with Amnesty International where they learned all about the work that Amnesty do here in Ireland and Internationally regarding the promotion and protection of human rights for all. Students learned about the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and about how we all have the capacity to campaign for freedom, justice, truth and dignity where ever it has been denied. Students examined some case studies that are currently happening globally on this.
In January students received an online presentation from John O Shea (who founded the NGO GOAL). John spoke about his experiences working in various parts of the world providing humanitarian relief and the challenges that came with that from conflict in countries, instability and climate change. He stressed that never have the needs of vulnerable people been more pressing. He spoke about the concept of social entrepreneurship among young people and how young peoples voices are now being heard much more as we hear from people like social activist Greta Thunberg who campaigns for issues on climate justice and Malala Yousafzai who is an activist for female education. 
Our Ty Group recently had a very engaging workshop about West African music and culture. Thanks to dave from Jabba Jabba Jembe for delivering the workshop
Our 3rd Year CSPE Classes (3A & 3B) recently carried out a fundraiser for Bothar as part of their Action Project. They ran a movie morning before Christmas for the 1st and 2nd year students, and in doing so managed to raise €566.27. They choose some items for the money to be spent on, one of which was an In Kid Irish Dairy Goat. Aisling from Bothar gave us a very informative talk on all of Bothar’s activities, and is pictured here collecting the cheque from the 3rd Years with their teachers Ms Moran and Ms Bohan.
This year’s focus on GCE was to increase student led awareness and action in the area. Our Social Justice Club organised a School Climate Strike at the beginning of the year. The Green Schools Committee have been busy throughout the year working towards our 7th Green School Flag and planned a series of events and activities as part of ‘Climate Action Week’ along with creating an eco-friendly Christmas card that was circulated to our school community digitally.
1st and 2nd year students have participated in a FAST FASHION workshop organised by ECO UNESCO which then influenced them to upcycle old tops and jumpers in Home Ec Class into Christmas themed jumpers for our annual jumper day. Some 2nd year students and social justice club members organised a clothes swap shop before the Christmas disco to reduce unnecessary buying of new outfits and instead share / swap clothing.
Some students participated in the Concern ‘World Food Day’ where they learned more about the implications on issues like world hunger, food shortages and food waste. A big action they then undertook was organising the Concern Fast in school where €896 was raised for Syrian refugees living in camps in Lebanon. Through this action students in school learned more about the Syrian crises.
John O Shea (founder and former CEO of GOAL) spoke passionately to students about ‘The Forgotten World’, about humanitarian assistance in global disasters and the concept of social entrepreneurship. Hugh Bergin from Self Help Africa also engaged students in his workshops with TY’s on areas such as climate change and gender inequality. These guest speakers came with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the area of GCE and this helped to increase students’ awareness and encouraged student leadership to shine through as they engaged in action around various issues.
1st and 2nd year Home Economics students along with members of the Social Justice Club participated in the ECO-UNESCO Fast Fashion Workshop. They explored the lifecycle of our clothing, how much resources/energy it takes to produce clothing, the working conditions of those manufacturing our clothing and what happens when we are finished with our clothing. They looked at sustainable solutions when buying clothing. They also upcylced an old t-shirt into a tote bag. Watch this space as students create awareness on this topic throughout the year.
Ms Colum’s Ty and First year students planted wildflower seeds to help encourage bees and other pollinators around our school. Encouraging bees helps biodiversity in our locality and is also part of the National Pollinator plan
A message from the Social Justice Club:
This morning we stood in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of other students across the globe on our #climatestrike to protest climate inaction. We study science in school, we understand the data and we trust the scientific community when they tell us that we must act now to prevent the most catastrophic consequences of man-made climate change. There is still time, but Governments must take action now. The time for talk has passed.
