Day 6

Checked out of hotel at 10 .30
Headed to Oparinor shopping centre to spend our last remaining euros and experience French shopping.
Checked in at 1. 30 pm for our return flight to Dublin.
All arrived back safely but very tired at St Pauls at 7pm

On behalf of myself and the other staff, it was a pleasure to have such a great bunch of  St Paul’s students with us.   

Mrs M McMahon

See below for pictures from the trip:

Day 5

Magical experience for everyone in Disneyland.
We had 12 hours to enjoy all it has to offer!!!!

Day 4

Up early, beautiful  breakfast in hotel.
Rendezvous vous at 10 15am with Tour guide, Joe Walsh at Place de la Concorde.
Entertaining tour with lots of info on Paris, is history and architecture.
Lunch on Avenue de Wagram , next to Avenue de Mac Mahon!!!!!
We then descended the Champs Élysées en masse and met up with our bus driver, Christian who escorted us to La Tour Eiffel for our 2.30pm reservation.

Everyone enjoyed this, some venturing right to the top for the breathtaking views.
En route to Flunch for dinner, we all sang”Champs Élysées”by Jean Dessinbas we made our way back up to Montmartre.
After dinner we had some free time to visit le Sacre Coeur and Place du Tertre.
More spending, presents and even more portraits were acquired.
All back safely to hotel
Lights out and dreams of Disneyland tomorrow.

Update: Tuesday 30 October, 1500 GMT

Arrived Sunday night in Hotel Campanile in Roissy near Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Dinner in Flunch beforehand. Ryan Doran was extremely adventurous in his choice. Frites frites and more frites!

Hotel is tres chic et moderne!

All slept well and ready for a full day in Paris on Monday! More updates later.

Update: Monday 29 October, 1300 GMT

Very early start in Chamonix on Sunday morning.

We then headed to Taize, and experienced really bad weather conditions en route.

Thanks to Christian, our driver, we got through the biting wind and heavy snow.

We arrived at Taize for Mass, and had a presentation on Taize from Brother Jean Luc of the community and then visited the shop where more presents were bought

We had a simple lunch in Taize and then a long trip up the road to Paris

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Senior students from St Paul’s High School had the opportunity to ask questions to the Minister of Education, Mr John O’Dowd MLA, at a recent breakfast meeting organised by Newry Chamber of Commerce.

Students from other schools in the South Armagh and Newry & Mourne area were able to collaborate on their questions which were presented to the Minister.

(Photo courtesy of Newry Chamber of Commerce)

Year 9 and Year 10 students travelled to London with the English Department on Thursday 20th September to Friday 21st September.

On Thursday 20th September they attended an evening performance of the West End Show SHREK THE MUSICAL at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. The Musical features new songs as well as the cult Shrek anthem ‘I’m a Believer’. The Musical brings the well loved characters to life. The world of fairytales is turned upside down in an all singing, all dancing, irresistible mix of adventure, laughter and romance.

See a trailer for the musical by clicking on the link below:

Click on the interactive booklet below to read more about the Musical.

We were delighted to host a football tournament for our local primary schools recently.  Everyone  had a great day – well done to everyone who took part. Team Photos below.

Winners: St Oliver’s Primary School, Carrickrovaddy

 Runners up: St Malachy’s Primary School, Ballymoyer

St Laurence O’Toole’s Primary School, Belleeks

St Theresa’s Primary School, Tullyherron

St Oliver’s Plunkett Primary School, Forkhill

St Peter’s Primary School, Cloughreagh

St Joseph’s Primary School, Bessbrook

Some photos from the football tournament below:

Pictured is Deputy Mayor of Newry & Mourne District Council, Ms Geraldine Donnelly, Year 13 student Ryan Cinnamond  and Olympic flame torch bearer, Year 8 student and Special Olympic medallist, Ferghal Gregory and Councillor John Feehan.

The official mascot of the 2012 London Games, Mandeville, visited recently to celebrate St Paul’s High School being designated as one of only two Olympic schools in the Newry and Mourne area.

Deputy Mayor of Newry & Mourne District Council, Geraldine Donnelly, and local representative, Councillor John Feehan, were present to welcome the mascot, along with Head of PE & Sport at St Paul’s Mr John Rafferty, and his colleague, Mr Martin Rafferty.

The mascot was introducted to our own Olympic torch bearer Year 13 student, Ryan Cinnamond, and our special Olympic gold medallist Fergal Gregory from Year 8

Mandeville also visited the boys and girls in St Paul’s Learning Support Centre where he was shown the Olympic display prepared by the pupils and their teachers.

Below are some photos when Mandeville the Mascot visited St Paul’s: 

The History students from St Paul’s High School at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Students from Year 13 recently visited Berlin as part of their AS Level History studies.  Accompanied by Head of Department Mr Emmett McCaffrey and History teacher Mr Neil McArdle the students enjoyed their time in the historical German capital.  Year 13 student, Niamh McGovern recorded the students’ activities and visits during their time away.

Day 1

After an entire day of travelling, and arriving on Wittenbergplatz, the best impression of the city is definitely at night. After finally arriving at the hotel for a quick stop off, we went on a walking tour of the city… they said walking tour but every stop took a train to get to- first to the Brandenburg gate, very spectacular at night, and then the surrounding landmarks… Mr McArdle now holds the record of the highest piece of chewing gum on the Berlin wall (he needed about 3 people’s help for the height). The Holocaust Memorial, although quiet and respectful, makes an epic snowball arena.

The Russian war memorial is a great place for photos with T-34 tanks, and a random soviet soldier statue… perfect for Mr McCaffrey to show off his hipster camera (which didn’t take colour photos). After the crash tour of the city, we dined at the Sony centre, a very modern German looking building. The food was great, from pizza to crocodile to choose from. Staff very friendly, giving free glasses away- Ryan was in his element. And Sinead’s best souvenir from Germany was a 2ft Beer glass.

Day 2

Early morning we took yet another train, this time to Checkpoint Charlie House, the highly acclaimed museum, and quite huge. Brilliant exhibitions on the Berlin wall years, and the perfect street to buy your own Russian Bolshevik hat, we were a mini march of communists on Berlin’s streets. This street in particular was very cultural, littered with war stalls and a re-enactment base, perfect to get a taste of history.

After a quick lunch in Mcdonalds, which, surprise, tastes exactly the same as anywhere else in the world, we went on another tour… an alternative tour and one of the best points of the trip.

Tour guide, Ben, from outside Boston- there’s no other word for him but awesome, led us through the backstreet, cultural side of Berlin. Graffiti is everywhere, they dedicate a whole house to it, it’s about 8 floors and filled with German art. He took us to every corner of Berlin, Berlin has about 6,000 number 6′s graffitied on walls, and a lot of a girl called Lucy who kills cats!!  After a long walk through the city, we went to the Reichstag parliamentary building- a rare opportunity, as they don’t usually let big groups through. After security checks, where they took our Russian hats off us, we had a late tour, and were able to see the viewing dome, built new after the second world war, and a fantastic night time view of the city.

Then we went out and had kangaroo and crocodile burgers, trying to be very German.

Day 3

This trip was much more about the history of Germany rather than their culture; we took an early and long train outside the city to Sachsenhausen, the closest concentration camp to Berlin. Probably the most serious trip we took, but very interesting. The entire place was absolutely silent, and literally had an eerie feel to it. By far, the Nazi exhibition was the most impressive, and one of the largest.

We got back to Wittenbergplatz  and all separated, I took a trip on the train to the Kreuzberg district and it’s  more unique style shops, rather than the main shopping street and got a taste of modern/alternative German music culture, literature (well, comic books) and fashion.

The small Chinese restaurant beside the hotel is 5 star. The atmosphere in the hotel was excellent; give a St Paul’s group 2 decks of cards and some drinks, and we have one very serious card tournament. Just don’t let any of them do a victory dance, (no names, but it’ not a student).

Day 4

We had an early walk back to the Brandenburg Gate, down Unter din Linden; it’s like a gateway to the best street in Berlin and packed with landmarks. The German Volkswagen showroom, looked very sophisticated, has a really cool collection of vintage cars…and 1.8 million dollar Bugatti Veyron  Unter din Linden street is packed full of historic monuments and further down, Berlin Cathedral; the most impressive German architecture in my opinion.

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 14 History students, Christopher Boylan, Christopher McGuinness and Niamh Boylan, pictured with Rev Hutton and Head of History Mr Emmett McCaffrey

As part of their A Level History course, Year 14 students welcomed the Rev Norman Hutton to the school for a discussion on the history of Presbyterianism in Ulster. Rev Hutton is the minister of the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church on Hill Street in Newry.

The discussion covered the founding of the first Presbytery in Carrickfergus in 1642. It was also interesting to hear about the long running dispute between Henry Montgomery and Henry Cooke concerning attitudes towards the Westminster Confession of Faith in the 1830s. Our discussion also covered Presbyterian relations with the Church of Ireland in the 19^th century.

The discussion ended with a general chat on the Non Subscribing Presbyterian Church, focusing on issues such the decline in church attendance, relations with the Free Presbyterian church and the complexities of life of being a Minister in the Church.

We would like to thank the Rev Hutton for taking the time to visiting St Pauls and for an enjoyable and informative talk.

Mr Dermot Kelly from the Armagh Diocesan Youth Commission, with Religious Education teacher Mrs Deirdre Graham and Year 13 pupils from St Paul’s High School.

Mr Dermot Kelly from the Armagh Diocesan Youth Commission visited St Paul’s on Thursday 29th September to launch the John Paul II Award to Year 13 students.

He gave a very inspirational talk and delivered a PowerPoint presentation which underlined the widespread appeal that this award has around Ireland. This is the third year of the award and it is going from strength to strength.

The response from Year 13 students was excellent, and we currently have eight Year 14 students completing their award in preparation for the Awards Ceremony in Armagh in early 2012.

Mr Martin Canavan and students from St Paul’s High School, along with Mrs Caroline Alexander and students from Newtownhamilton High School, who are working together as part of the Shared Education Programme.

St Paul’s High School Bessbrook and Newtownhamilton High School are continuing their partnership links through the Sharing Education Partnership.   Students and staff from both schools are working closely cross community projects to promote mutual understanding.

This is the second year of the programme and involves Year 9 pupils from both schools. The work they will carry out will hopefully be of benefit to themselves and also to the wider community in South Armagh.