Year 14 student, Lauren O’Hare, pictured with her certificate of proficiency from JLPT.

Last December Year 14 student Lauren O’Hare completed her Japanese language proficiency test in Dublin – an exam that’s held worldwide in 54 countries.

Lauren began learning Japanese through her own self-study almost four years ago. She took the opportunity to sit the exam in December and has five different exams to take to complete the course. Lauren commented,  ”I have a long way to go, but I believe that with hard work, and my love for languages, I can get through it.”

This shows that if you have an interest in something, you should go for it and stick with it to the end. Lauren hopes to study French or Linguistics next year at Queen’s University or University of Ulster.  Lauren currently studies French, Biology and BTec Dance and is also interested in Italian and Korean.

(the Japanese symbol for congratulations)

St Paul’s Science students demonstrating an experiment to a P7 pupil and a parent at Open Day. 

St Paul’s High School, Bessbrook held its annual Open Day on Saturday 25 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.

Principal Mr Oliver Mooney addressed parents and pupils on the day.  A video of Mr Mooney’s address is available below.

Prospective parents and pupils of St. Paul’s can watch the video to experience a virtual tour of the school.

A selection of photographs from Open Day 2012 are visible below.

Year 12 students at St Paul’s, who completed a 10 week online Irish course, pictured with Head of Irish Miss Ciara McCoy

Twelve GCSE students have just completed an online GCSE Irish course which they started in September.  This course was designed to last ten weeks and gave the students the opportunity to boost their knowledge of Irish and to learn new vocabulary and structures as well as practice their Irish in the digital world.  The course concluded this week and the students were presented with certificates of completion.

Miss Ciara McCoy, Head of Irish, designed the online course as part of her OLTE (Online Teaching and Learning for Educators Course) course. This course is provided by the RTU (regional Training Unit) and four of St. Paul’s colleagues are now graduates of the OLTE course.

Mr Dáithí Murray, Director of ICT at St Paul’s, praised the students for their participation and commitment to the online course. He said that this course provided the students with an excellent opportunity to improve their Irish while developing their high order thinking skills such as synthesising and reasoning.

Mr Murray also said that this online course provided a great experience for the students, which will prove invaluable when they continue on to higher level education.

Year 10 students of Irish at St Paul’s High School who completed the Level 2 OLA examination in Irish were recently presented with their certificates by CCEA.

OLA stands for OnLine Assessment, and replaces the old GOML (Graded Objective in Modern Languages) Award.

Head of Irish at St Paul’s, Miss Ciara McCoy, congratulated the students on their hard work and dedication to Irish and for completing the exam online.

Comhghairdeas le scoláirí Bhliain 10 in Ardscoil Naomh Pól, An Sruthán, a tháinig sa 2ú áit i dTráth na gCeist mór Gael-Linn ar na mallaibh.

Congratulations to the Year 10 students from St Paul’s High School, who achieved 2nd place in the inter-schools Irish language quiz, organised by Gael-Linn recently.

The students are:  Caoimhe Mackin, Lucy Quinn, Aoife McAteer and Chloe Reel.  Maith sibh, a chailíní cliste.

Year 14 students at St Paul’s High School, with their Spanish visitors from Granada in Spain.
The students are pictured with Principal Mr Oliver Mooney and Spanish Teacher Miss Louise Mulholland 

St Paul’s High School warmly welcomes seven Spanish Exchange Programme students from Granada, Spain.

They arrived on Saturday 10th September and were greeted by their Year 14 exchange partners who had visited Granada in April.

As part of the programme they will be attending classes at St Paul’s during the week and visiting many attractions that are on offer around Northern Ireland.

The Spanish students will be staying with their host families and will depart on Tuesday 20th September. 

Pictured with teacher Miss Louise Mullholland are the Seven Students that participated in the exchange.

Seven St Paul’s Year 13 Spanish students have completed their ten day stay in Granada, Spain, as part of a Spanish Exchange Programme.

During their time in Spain they lived with host families and experienced all aspects of Spanish life and culture including the opportunity to experience Spanish “Semana Santa” Easter processions.

They visited the infamous Alhambra Palace, the beautiful Sierra Nevada, Almuñecar beach resort south of Granada and the very interesting and educational Science Park.

All students involved had a very enjoyable experience and have gained confidence in their use of the Spanish language as a result.

We now look forward to the Spanish students’ return visit to St Paul’s in September

The group of AS students from St Paul’s High School, Bessbrook who are participating in a Spanish Exchange trip to Granada accompanied by Miss L Mulholland (Spanish Teacher and Trip Co-ordinator)

On Tuesday 12^th April a group of Spanish A Level students from St Paul’s High School headed off to the south of Spain as part of an exchange programme. Accompanying the group from St Paul’s High School were a further 36 students from St Catherine’s College, Armagh, St Patrick’s College, Armagh, St Michael’s Grammar School, Lurgan and Loretto College in Coleraine.

The students will stay with host families in the beautiful city of Granada and during their 10 day stay, they will have an opportunity to visit the very many cultural attractions and historical landmarks which this region has to offer. They will attend classes in a Spanish secondary school and experience life as a typical Spanish teenager.

Their Spanish counterparts with whom they will be staying whilst in Granada will travel to Ireland in September on a reciprocal visit.

Múinteoirí agus scoláirí Ardscoil Naomh Pól, An Sruthán ag ócáid bhronnta GLEO i mBaile Átha Cliath

Staff and students from Ardscoil Naomh Pól travelled to Dublin to receive the All-Ireland GLEO award for Irish language.

The school was presented the award by Mr Pat Carey, TD, Minister for Community Affairs, Equality and the Gaeltacht at a special awards ceremony in the Alexander Hotel, Dublin.

Receiving the award, students Oisín Mac Murchaidh, Caoilfhionn Nic Eoin-Manus and Alannah O’Hanlon were congratulated by Minister Carey for their efforts in promoting Irish and encouraging their friends and classmates to speak it.  Teachers, Dáithí Ó Muirí, Stiofán Ó Coinne and Ciara Nic Aodha, accompanied the students and paid tribute to the hard work by all the students of Irish in promoting the national language.

The GLEO award, which is accompanied by a prize of £3000, will be used by Ardscoil Naomh Pól to further strengthen Irish within the school.

Éist le hagallamh a rinne Louise McCreesh ó ‘Blas’ ar BBC Raidió Uladh le scoláirí agus le múinteoirí Ardscoil Naomh Pól

The Michael Warde Library was the location for this year’s Foram Plé, a discussion forum for senior students of Irish, which is part of Seachtain na Gaeilge.

The theme of the discussion was ‘Cad é atá i ndán dom leis an Ghaeilge?’ and the students heard from three very interesting speakers who shared their own personal story and experience of learning Irish and how it benefitted them in later life.

The first speaker was local man Réamann Ó Ciaráin, Bainisteoir Chúige Uladh with Gael-Linn, who spoke about his youth growing up in Crossmaglen, and his work with all-Ireland language body Gael-Linn.  Past pupil, and TV and radio producer and presented Céara Ní Choinn was the second speaker, and Céara spoke about her experiences learning Irish at St Paul’s, and how this encouraged her to continue her studies at university.  Céara talked about her experience in working in various different media roles, and how having Irish was an additional advantage.

The third speaker was Niall Comer, Uachtarán Chomhaltas Uladh and lecturer at University of Ulster, Coleraine.  Niall spoke of how his family was steeped in Irish culture and how, again his early days and experiences of learning Irish helped him to develop a deep love for the language.

A lively discussion continued after the speakers.