Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Caoimhe Murphy: 1984

Second Year pupil Caoimhe Murphy shares with NewEnglish a Blog presentaion on George Orwell's 1984. Caoimhe studied the novel in short extracts this year.

Winston’s world, 1984

I read an extract of 1984 by George Orwell. I found the extract greatly interesting and the descriptive writing very entertaining.
I was amazed by how different Winston’s world is to ours; my first impression was that his world was unfair or cruel. In the extract I read about telescreens, which were televisions used to spy on the people. You could never turn off the telescreen, I found this in particular quite interesting, and it shows how little freedom the people of that time had.
I also read about the thought police. These police scrutinised every moment of a normal person’s day. They go around snooping into people’s windows, like an annoying bluebottle. The goals of the government are too great, as is the power. I don’t believe the government should have, or want, control like this.
I find the whole concept unacceptable. The whole idea of this much control is just unthinkable, for me.
I tried to find out more about the book on the internet. I found a very useful cartoon of the complete summary of the book. It is quite interesting. I’ll leave the link at the bottom of this page.

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Ted-Ed.com

The online learning site Ted.com recently launched an educational iteration called Ted-Ed. The site contains lots of useful videos on many various subjects. It is also possible to change or 'Flip' the video to suit your personal needs. The video below is just one great resource from Ted-Ed that explains how Shakespeare used insults to develop his plays.

Resource Pack: Lord of the Flies

This is a collection of online resources for William Golding's classic Lord of the Flies. The novel has been a favourite choice for the Junior Certificate Studied Fiction section for many years. The novel is an allegorical tale (see video below) and it follows a group of young boys that crash land on a remote island. The boys form a society but it slowly becomes corrupted and fails. The resources start with an interactive online game that can be found at nobelprize.org.






1. Nobelprize.org interactive online game Lord of the Flies
2. Find the the entire novel here.
3. BBC GCSE Bitesize collection with notes, videos and tests.
4. Bookrags.com chapter summaries and notes.
5. A collection of pictures from a movie adaptation of Lord of the Flies.
6.eNote Series of Youtube videos on; Introduction, Themes, Characters, Top Ten Questions, Summary



Ralph and Piggy try to bring order to the island.


Thursday, 3 May 2012

Resource Pack: Hamlet

Listed below are some online resources for Hamlet. We hope to amend and grow the list in future so get in touch if you find a helpful link. The list of reources starts with a 30 slide overview of Hamlet by  J.W.Hallahan from Slideshare.

  1.  The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (The entire play)
  2. Summary and commentary on Hamlet by eNote
  3. Themes and analysis by Shakespeare Online
  4. SCC English series of ShowMe on Hamlet
  5. Series of links from  Leaving Cert English.Net
  6. Podcast lecture on themes in Hamlet by Professor Hubert McDermott of NUIG  from Podomatic.

Tuesday, 1 May 2012

Third Year wins Poetry Award

Elizabeth receives her award (Back row 3rd from left)

NewEnglish would like to congratulate Third Year pupil Elizabeth MacBride on a recent poetry award she received. The award was presented by North West Words -Focail Aniar Aduaidh 2012 Children’s Poetry Competition. It was Sponsored by Donegal Pens & The Educational Company of Ireland. Well done Elizabeth!

The Kookaburra and The Wasp
You be the kookaburra, I’ll be the wasp
Who cares what they say, who cares if they talk

You’ll be the hyena with your cackling laugh
I’ll be the awkward and clumsy giraffe

You’d be the house cat, trying to sleep
I’d be the church mouse, timid and meek

You’d be the eagle soaring high overhead
I’d be the mole that’s grounded instead

I would climb the highest tree and I would swim the deepest sea
But would you do the same for me?

You are the lion, I am the lamb
We both know our love is damned                            

Elizabeth MacBride

Hairytale Land

Hairytale Land is a TY production.
Hairytale Land

When: Thursday May 3rd at 7.30. 

Where: Newbridge College Theatre.

Tickets: 3 Euro  and are available at the door. Parents, pupils and the general public are all welcome.


Hairytale Land is a facetious story that relays the bizarre situation of two ordinary school kids who are thrown into a strange world with fairytale characters they have only ever read about. Don’t miss this great opportunity for a fun night out at the theatre!


(Cameo appearances from teachers on the night!)