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

Read the rest of this entry »

Students from St Paul’s enjoying all the fun of the Balmoral show

St Paul’s students have a long history of visiting the Royal Ulster Agricultural Show at Balmoral in south Belfast.

For the twenty-seventh year, students and staff travelled to the show and had a great time.   This year the students of Years 8, 9 and 10 were joined by their friends at Rathore School for Special Educational Needs.

The show offered something for everyone from large farm machines to wild and wonderful animal species including many rare breeds. Everyone enjoyed seeing around the show from getting to see the variety  of displays from fashion, footwear, food, gadgets, house and garden furnishings, jewellery, handbags, toys and so much more.

There were many tempting foods to sample and buy and no one had an excuse to go hungry. The crowds were all in good humour and the atmosphere was very exciting.

Below are few photos from the day: 

Below is a video from The Balmoral Show:

Students in Year 10 at St Paul’s High School had the opportunity to attend a special retreat at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, which culminated with the celebration of the Eucharist, with His Eminence, Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh.

Cardinal Brady, welcomed the students and their form teachers to St Patrick’s Cathedral, and encouraged the students to work hard at their studies over the next few weeks and months.

The annual Year 10 retreat to St Patrick’s Cathedral is part of a series of retreats offered to students at St Paul’s High School.

Pictured above St Paul’s students along with a resident who they visited recently at Avila Nursing Home

In order to demonstrate their communication skills, Health & Social Care students recently made two visits to Avila Nursing Home where they had the opportunity to interact with the older residents there.

The students spent two afternoons with the residents talking, playing bingo & bowls and providing musical entertainment & dance.

This interaction enabled the students to put into practice effective communication skills they had learned about in their Communication Module. Each student had to demonstrate their use of direct eye contact, tone, pace of speech, open body language, active listening etc the visit provided a unique opportunity for them to do this.

Ms Christine Fearon and the students involved would like to thanks the staff and residents for giving their time so freely and facilitating them.

Over 100 Year 8 and Year 9 students travelled to the Odyssey Area in Belfast to see Ice Hockey team Belfast Giants take on Sheffield Steelers in the final game of the Elite Championship.

We had a great night, and were delighted to help cheers the Giants to success and the championship title.

Some photos are below.

Thanks to Mr Burns, and friend of St Paul’s, Mr Tom Mallon, who organised the event.

We hosted a football tournament for our local primary schools recently – and we all had a great day.  Photos below.

St Patrick’s Primary School, Cullyhanna

St Peter’s Primary School, Cloughreagh

St Joseph’s Primary School, Poyntzpass

St Michael’s Primary School, Newtownhamilton

St Mary’s Primary School, Mullaghbawn

Clonalig Primary School

St Joseph’s Primary School, Bessbrook

 St Brigid’s Primary School, Silverbridge

Below are a few action photographs taken from the tournament:

Those wishing to travel to Lourdes on St. Paul’s Pilgrimage can book by leaving their name and €100 deposit with Fr. Dermot or Kathleen Moore at St Paul’s High School.

For further details please contact Fr. Dermot or Kathleen at St. Paul’s (028) 3083 0309 or Fr. Dermot at Jonesborough (028) 3084 9345.

Students from St Paul’s pictured before heading off on their  Swedish exchange trip, accompanied by staff members Mr Tony McParland and Mrs Mary McMahon

Eight Year 13 pupils accompanied by Mr Tony Mc Parland and Mrs Mary Mc Mahon have travelled to Sweden for the second leg of this year’s exchange, returning home on Monday 12th September.

St Paul’s students from Year 13 who are taking part will be hosted by a Swedish student in their own home for the six nights of the exchange.

The programme is designed to help students to appreciate the richness of their own culture while experiencing the cultural heritage of others; the programme allows students to experience in a unique way family, school and community life in a foreign country and is a valuable opportunity for participants to develop their communication skills.

The students will take part in a range of activities in Nystromska School and various outings have been arranged including a visit to Stockholm and a boat trip to the Swedish Archipelago.

Throughout the month of May Year 8 students accompanied by their form teachers attended the Good Shepherd Parish Centre, Cloughreagh, where Fr Dermot Maloney conducted their retreat.

The students thoroughly enjoyed their experience and thankfully we were also blessed with good weather.

Fr Dermot and Mrs Graham would like to thank all the form teachers for their invaluable assistance in this year’s programme.

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.