Aoibhín Tutty Bardon - Rotary Competition

Aoibhín at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Near the beginning of my fifth year, I was presented by Miss Carey with the opportunity to take part in the Rotary Youth Leadership competition. Though I wasn’t quite sure what exactly Rotary was or the details of the competition, I took an application form – this proved to be one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time. After three stages of interviews at School, District and Regional level, I was delighted to win a trip culminating in a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

On 25^th of January I headed to Connolly Station in Dublin to get a train to Belfast with six other people I had never met before. After the two hour train journey full of chatter and laughter, we found our way to Jury’s Inn which would be our Belfast home. After checking in with Rotary, we waited as the rest of the twenty-four participants arrived over a two hour period.

After a quick shopping trip we headed back to the hotel where we had a meeting about the week that lay ahead of us and what to expect. We had already been given the topics which would come up for discussion in the European Parliament. We all chatted late into the night, getting to know other participants from around Ireland, both North and South. 

After getting up at 7:30 the following day, we packed our suitcases, loaded them on to the bus and made our way to the European Office in Belfast. There, we were given information about the EU Commission and had a question and answer session. We took some photos, gathered some booklets that would help us learn about our given topics for the EU Parliament and then made our way over to City Hall, a fabulous building. We were invited up to the Mayor’s Parlour we had tea and biscuits. We then got a bus to the Northern Assembly in Stormont, where we got a short history of the building and then had a rather interesting question and answer session with some Members of the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly was in session, so we watched that for some time and started our journey down to Dublin.

Following arrival at our hotel in Dublin we began to present speeches to the other students to see who would represent Ireland in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. I was privileged to be one of the four students selected to represent our group to the hemi-sphere in the Parliament.

We had another early morning on Tuesday, waking up at 7 o’clock. We headed out to the EU Parliament offices where we were individually filmed explaining what we would do in Ireland if we were Taoiseach. Afterwards, we had another question and answer session which would help us in Strasbourg. Our next destination was Leinster House where we had a tour of the building and a question and answer session with TD and Minister for State, Simon Harris which was really interesting. We rushed back to the hotel, gathered our luggage and travelled to Dublin airport where we boarded a plane to Frankfurt en route to Strasburg. 

We set off at 8a.m. next morning on our three hour journey to Strasbourg. We arrived at our hotel, dropped our luggage off and were let loose in the city centre. It was gorgeous, almost like a postcard city. A group of us had a look around and had a lovely lunch in a little French café. We then split up and went shopping before heading back to the hotel where we gathered in the meeting room. We preformed our “Introduction to Ireland” piece several times, and then we split into our groups again and prepared for our presentation in the European Parliament. 

We were up at the early hour of 5:45 on the day of the Euroscola, the competition at the heart of the trip, before departing for the EU Parliament. After going through airport-like security, we settled in the restaurant for some hot chocolate as we waited for the other twenty-two countries to arrive. Soon enough we started filing into the hemi-sphere, which is the main chamber in the Parliament. There was a short introduction and the presentations began. We were sixth up, and it wasn’t long before I found myself standing up to walk to the podium.  It felt so invigorating to stand there speaking about Ireland to such a vast number of people – this was the same podium we see European leaders standing at on TV – what an honour! After all the presentations were over a question and answer session took place with incredible Irish representation with over half of the overall questions posed by my colleagues. We used the voting system to vote on several topics so we got accustomed to how it worked. 

After lunch we split into our six groups according to our topics, and went to smaller chambers to prepare for the group’s presentation. My group’s topic was Integration and Migration in the Euro-Mediterranean region and an Irish student was deserving to be elected as spokesperson for our group. We broke into smaller groups and discussed ideas to bring to the spokesperson, and then began presenting our ideas and discussing proposals. It was soon time to return to the hemisphere for the presentations. The pride I felt when I looked down to the centre of the room and saw that seven of the twelve spaces for the main speakers were occupied by Irish people is indescribable! The spokespeople (four of the six which were Irish) began to put forward their proposals and after they did so the floor was opened to questions. I managed to ask two questions of the spokespeople. After each round of questions the floor voted on whether or not they supported the proposal.  The occasion was over all too soon, and we climbed onto our coach, on a high once again, and headed back to the hotel.

We went out to a French restaurant for dinner and were treated to a three course meal as celebration. Once we were back in the hotel, we all gathered together and listened to some great musical talent from the group, watched a spectacular Irish dance and shared our experiences from the trip. Tears began to flow as the realisation that the trip was coming to an end dawned on us! 

As a result of a very late night we ended up having our breakfast on the bus to the airport and sleeping on the plane home. As we collected our luggage there were more tears - I hated leaving the people I had gotten to know so well over a week and with whom I had shared such an incredible experience. It completely surpassed all expectations I had, and I can’t thank Rotary enough for having given me such a wonderful opportunity.

EduBlog Awards 2012

Please find below nominations for this year's EduBlog awards from NewEnglishBlog.

Best individual blog - Seomra Ranga

Best ed tech / resource sharing blog -The Frog Blog

Best teacher blog - Evelyn O'Connor

Best individual tweeter - @levdavidovic

Best twitter hashtag - #edchatie

Best free web tool - @poppletny

Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast - SCC Series of ShowMes

 

Best mobile app - Skitch

Elliot Davis receives Cecil Day Lewis Literary Award

Congratulations to one of our first year English students, Elliot Davis, who received a Cecil Day Lewis Literary Award for his poem Devotion.  It is not Elliot's first award or publication in this annual competition.  This year he entered his winning poem and also a short story entitled Michael the Starling, both of which you can read below.  

Devotion.

The vixen is hunting,

Searching for food,

She knows she must find some,

Aid for her brood.

She pads through the snow,

Lightly on foot,

Her red fur is glowing,

Her nose is like soot.

Way in the distance,

She can hear calls,

Her children are praying,

She must save them all.

The stars they are shining,

Leading the way,

The fox must keep scouting,

Or else she will pay.

Her eyes are devoted,

Her heart is so proud,

She always keeps going,

For that she has vowed.

By Elliot Davis.

 Michael the Starling

Once upon a time there lived a starling called Michael. He was a very greedy bird. One day in Spring when he was going on his early morning flight he came across two nesting boxes mounted on a wall, one green and one brown. Michael thought they would make a great home for him but he didn’t know which one to pick. Eventually he went inside the green one first. He thought it was beautiful. Then he went inside the brown one. He thought it was equally as nice. Michael went to find his mate and brought her back to the nesting box. That day he went to find some grass and small twigs to build a nest for his mate. On his way he met a robin. “I have this great new house !” said Michael boastfully to the robin. “I’m still looking for one,” said the robin with a sigh and he flew off. Michael found enough grass and twigs to build the nest for his mate in one go. For a whole week Michael hopped between the two nesting boxes, scaring away all other birds while his mate sat in the new nest. But on the eighth day Michael began to get hungry. He flew away in search of food. This time he met a blue tit. “I have such a brilliant house !” said Michael to the blue tit pompously. “I know,” said the blue tit, “you’ve been telling everyone !” and he flew off. When Michael got back to the two nesting boxes he found someone in the brown one. It was the robin from last week ! “I thought I’d come and investigate your ‘brilliant’ home,” said the robin. “Get out of my house !” bellowed Michael angrily. “It’s not your house,” said the robin, “’that’s’ your house,” and he pointed to the green nesting box. Michael went back to the green nesting box in a huff. He decided that he and his mate would complain to the mayor of that area which was George the Eagle. Michael and his mate flew and flew and flew telling everyone they met along the way about their superb home. Finally they reached George’s house at the very top of a big, old oak tree. “Mister George, hello? Are you up there?” Michael called out. “Is that Michael the Starling?” boomed George. “Yes and I was just…” said Michael but George cut in. “If this is another complaint about wanting more things or wanting someone else’s stuff then I’m not listening Michael,” said George. “But…” started Michael. “Go home Michael,” said George and he closed the door on his huge nesting box. Michael flew home with his mate, livid that George wouldn’t listen to him. To his surprise when he got back to his lovely, green nesting box he found someone else in it. It was the blue tit from earlier that day. “I came to check out what all the fuss was about,” said the blue tit. “But this is my house, get out of my house,” roared Michael. “It’s mine now,” said the blue tit and she moved to reveal a brood of six young chicks. Michael and his mate flew off searching desperately for somewhere to live but all the nesting boxes and good trees were full. Every time he went to a nest the birds inside just said, “you were the one bragging to all of us so we came to have a look,” Michael was very sad, but he learned his lesson !

By Elliot Davis.

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

A Changing Land

Sixth year student Jack Tinsley shares with NewEnglish his short story ‘A Changing Land’. Jack received and ‘Essay of the Year’ award for his story last year. Find the full story here and below is an extract.

He stood up, and could feel his aged bones creaking, “not much left in them” he thought “but enough, enough to take him home”. He untied his horse from the hitching post. The horse fully laden with supplies, he swung himself onto the saddle and the horse trotted out of town, glancing over his shoulder and taking his last look, he felt nothing. The dull thumping of mallets on wood echoed against the rocks as he rode past teams of men glistening with sweat as they laid the ever increasing line that extended all the way from Nevada to the west coast. This is how it all began, he recalled, the railroad paving the way for civilization.