On Wednesday 10 April, St Paul’s held their annual Spring Concert in the school assembly hall.

The sparkling concert featured the combined talents of the School’s Junior, Senior and Learning Support Centre and mixed Choirs, various ensembles, Ethnic percussion groups, Orchestra, Pathways and Traditional Groups.

Congratulations to the Music Department at St Paul’s for organising such a wonderful event.

See below to view the programme from the Spring Concert 2013.

On Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 March, St Paul’s hosted a cultural awareness event which was funded through the CRED enhancement scheme.

The CRED enhancement scheme is funding from the Education and Library Board which has been designed to support school and youth settings in the implementation of the CRED policy. The criterion for funding is taken directly from the CRED indicators which accompany the Department of Education CRED policy.

The event was held in the St Paul’s assembly hall during which non-national students set up stalls with information about their culture, artefacts, traditional clothing, sample dishes and traditional customs. Year 8 students from St Paul’s, St Joseph’s High School, Crossmaglen and Newtownhamilton High School, then had the opportunity to go around in small groups to take part in the activities and listen to interesting facts about each culture.

It is hoped that the event will promote an awareness and appreciation of the different cultures within the local community and help our students develop a mindset that embraces diversity.

Pictured above are staff and students that organised ‘Big Yellow Friday’.

On Friday the 1st March St Paul’s hosted its third ‘Big Yellow Friday’ in order to raise awareness of Childhood Liver Disease and to raise much needed funds for the foundation.

Hannah Babe, a Year ten pupil co-ordinated the day as her younger sister Catherine suffers from childhood liver disease.

All pupils in St Paul’s participated by wearing something yellow and contributing at least £1 to the charity.

There also was a bun sale at break time and a “Guess the amount of sweets in a Jar” competition. Peter Quinn a Year Ten pupil guessed the closest to the total amount in the jar and received the jar of sweets.

The total amount of money raised was £950.

Pictured at the presentation of the cheque was Vice Principal Mr Burns, Miss O’Hagan (Form Teacher), Hannah Babe Year 10 pupil and her Mother, Mrs Babe. 

Pictured above are the four Year 11 students who took part in the Stock Market Challenge, along with Principal Mr Oliver Mooney and Maths teacher Miss Catriona Doran.

On Friday 1st March, four Year 11 pupils travelled to Abbey Christian Brothers’ Grammar School to compete alongside over 20 other schools in the Stock Market Challenge.

It was a very fast paced day giving the pupils a taste of the real world of finance and a feel of how hectic a trading floor is.  There was a lot of shouting, continuous news articles blaring from the speakers, adrenalin and anticipation as the price of the shares rose and fell.

As the day went on, more and more of the £21,000 (paper money!) the pupils started with began to get locked away on shares.  They were glued to the screens predicting what was going to happen to the price of the shares.  There were huge debates within the team about whether to take the risk or play the game safely.

At the end of the day values of portfolios were totalled up to see who made the most capital gain from their portfolio of shares and we waited on the winner with anticipation.  St Pauls Year 11 students had made a whopping £24,000 profit and just missed 3rd place by £100.

A brilliant day was had by all.  The pupils developed core skills of communication, team-work, decision making, self-confidence and most importantly they learned the importance of mathematics and how it opens the door to so many different career paths!

Pictured above are the students at the Stock Market Challenge. (L-R) Joseph Mee, Sean Cully, Shauna Hughes and Linda McKeown.

On Thursday 17 January, St Paul’s Ethnic Percussion Group was invited to perform in Stormont and were given the privilege of performing in two Chambers.

This is the first ever percussion group that has been given the opportunity to perform in the room that the Assembly is held.

Well done to all involved and a special word of thanks to Megan Fearon and Barry McElduff for the great day and chance to perform.

See below for a video of them performing:

Principal Mr Oliver Mooney, pictured giving a speech to Primary 7 pupils and their parents/guardians at St Paul’s Open Day that was held recently. 

St Paul’s High School, Bessbrook held its annual Open Day on Saturday 26 January.  Prospective pupils from Primary 7 classes in our feeder primary schools and their parents visited the school in large numbers.  They were guided around the school by our current Year 8 and Year 9 students and shown the different departments, getting a flavour for what the school is about.

See below for our video from Open Day 2013.

See below for pictures from Open Day 2013.

Pictured above are Year 14 pupils Maeve Morgan and Shane Fegan, who won the International Projects fundraiser ’St Paul’s has got Talent’.

The staff and students of St Paul’s performed to a packed house in aid of St Paul’s International Projects. A capacity crowd were entertained by students and staff who danced, sang, drummed, strummed, recited and whistled their way through the night. All year groups were represented among the acts and the audience added to the success of the night through their encouragement and responses.

In true reality television style the audience were involved in the selection process through filling in a voting slip, with votes being tallied by the organising committee. The top three acts were announced to the crowd – solo singer Sarah Kilgallon (Year 8), Irish Dancers Ronan Magennis (Year 9), Anna McCann, Aine Malone (Year 10) & Ruairi McCann (Year 11) and guitarist & singing duo Shane Fegan & Maeve Morgan (Year 14). The judging panel, consisting of Paddy McEvoy, Maria Wilson, Marion McNamee, Catherine Hughes & Julie Simpson, then decided the overall winning act – with Shane Fegan & Maeve Morgan being announced the overall winners. It was very fitting that these two won the show as both travelled to Romania last year and did excellent work while there. Mr Burns, MC for the night, handed over the trophy and cash prize of £100 to the winning act.

However, this talent show was one with a difference! As usual, St Paul’s goes one step further and not only was the talent of official acts showcased on the night. Year 14 students treated the audience to a surprise flash mob and nobody expected them to jump up from their seats in the crowd to Nathan Carter and then take to the stage with carefully selected songs from Evolution of Dance. This fantastic contribution to the night was enjoyed by all present and serves as evidence of the type of student that St Paul’s produces.

In keeping with surprise acts, the teacher novelty act went down a storm as they performed on stage to Tina Turner and Gangham Style. The entire audience responded as the teachers took to the floor and danced their way down through the hall.

The final aspect of the ‘talent show with a difference’ was the contribution of Kevin Kearney who did a brilliant Elvis routine and got the crowd on their feet, out of their seats and on to the stage to jive the evening to a close.

This event was very successful in creating a great evening’s entertainment for the St Paul’s community and also raising funds for needy places that will be visited when the St Paul’s teams begin their visits next week. A total of £2,851.80 was raised through this event, all of which will go directly to the orphanages, schools, clinics, hospitals etc that the staff and teachers will have the privilege of visiting.

The organising committee would like to sincerely thank all those who contributed to the event in any way, staff and students. Special thanks also goes to Marty McCone who looked after sound on the night, past pupils who sponsored prizes and Dan Gregory’s who donated the tuck shop for the night.

Videos of the Acts performing.

Year 14 Flashmob

Staff Novelty Act

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

Act 6

Act 7

Act 8

Act 9

Act 10

Act 11

Act 12

Act 13

Act 14

Act 15

Reigning Champions

The Acts.

Rooney O’Malley’ dancers, who opened the show as they were the reigning champions.

Photos of the Acts performing.

Pictured are some of the students who will be participating in the ‘St Paul’s Has Got Talent’ Show on Thursday 24th January. 

Students were invited to attend auditions to showcase their talent in a bid to secure a slot in next week’s show. To the delight of the organisers, over thirty acts signed up to the challenge and fifteen were selected to perform on the night for a cash prize of £100. Acts on the night range from solo singers to recitations to Irish dancers to gymnasts and much more!

Timmy Hamill, Taragh Boyle & Sharmaine Jarabelo are the driving force behind this idea of raising funds for St Paul’s International Projects 2013. The event promises to be a big success and has generated plenty of excitement among the students. Generous staff have offered to do a ‘novelty act’ on the night, with Kevin Kearney also performing and Jarlath Burns acting as MC on the night.

We invite the wider St Paul’s community to attend this night of entertainment and also support a very worthy cause. Tickets are priced at £5 and are available from the reception desk or any of the named organisers.

Pictured are students Oisín Groom (left), Anastasia Ní Riabhaigh (centre) and the Lord Mayor of Newry and Mourne District Council, Councillor John McArdle (right).

Anastasia Ní Riabhaigh writes about a recent opportunity she had to discuss issues with local councillors, and how frustrating it can be to get a direct answer.

On Tuesday 16 October my classmate, Oisin Groom, and I were provided with the opportunity to question local politicians, including the Lord Mayor of Newry, about issues we felt were relevant to our daily lives as citizens of the Newry and Mourne area. We were escorted by Mr McCaffrey, of the History Department, to the Newry and Mourne District Council Chambers where students from several other local schools were also present.

Before the meeting began several council members came around the room to shake the hands of the students, including myself, several welcomed us with the clichéd and rather outdated  ‘Children are the future’ themed speech, others didn’t bother with such pleasantries and instead jokingly requested that we ask ‘No awkward questions,’ a request which I decided to ignore as Oisin and I had barely no limitations on the topics we could interrogate the council members on, so I planned to take full advantage of this fact.

Oisin kicked off the meeting with a relevant inquest into the prominent crime that is present in Newry today, a question which the councillors all responded positively to and even allowed Oisin to state his own opinion on the issue. I asked the councillors’ opinions on the cultural expression, or there lack of, present in Newry and the funding the council did not seem to provide for such endeavours. They seemed to completely misinterpret or strategically distort the question into something a long the lines of ‘Why is there no fun things for kids like us to do?’ which was frustrating to say the least, but was to be expected.

Many topics were covered in the meeting, despite the majority of unnecessarily elongated answers of certain council members, and I found the experience most insightful into the inner-workings of Northern Ireland Politics as the small room of council members were a fairly valid microcosm of the debates that occur in Stormont.

After being present at such an occasion my interest in the political running of the country and the methods used in order to ensure the best possible opportunities for Northern Ireland citizens were further increased. I am most definitely considering a career in politics in the future as I feel that there is a large minority of the population whose opinions and views go unheard.

Pictured above are Year 9 students who took part in the ‘Home Accident Prevention’ Quiz.

The students took part in the quiz recently and whilst they did not come inside the top three, each student gained some very valuable knowledge in how to prevent accidents in the home.

The students that took part were:

Liam Ferris 9/38
Cailam Craven 9/38
Ryan Hughes 9/03
Jamie Breen 9/03
Robert Vowles 9/03
Kyle McCourt 9/03
Lucy Travers 9/38
Lorna Hillen 9/38
Ailis McDonnell 9/38
Ciara O’Keefe 9/38