By Katie Brogan
Rose Week - Irish Society for Autism
Our TY students collected for the Irish Society for Autism this week. Well done to the TY students who collected tirelessly downtown for the week. The people of Ballymahon were very generous as the students sold out on bags and keyrings. Thank you to everyone who supported our students and the Irish Society for Autism. We will announce the full amount raised next week when all proceeds will be counted.
Talk on Autism
Our first years received a talk on Autism from Denis Sexton who works for the Irish Autism Society. Denis told the students that he is a former vice principal and has a number of family members who live with Autism. He informed our first year students about Autism and how to make our school more inclusive.
Aisling Festival Art Competition
Mercy Ballymahon did exceptionally well this year in the Aisling Children’s Arts Festival Longford Art Competition. The theme this year was “My place in the World” and we had a huge entry this year from Mercy Ballymahon. We achieved great success this year with a number or talented art students.
The students will be presented with awards and their work will be displayed in Backstage theatre on Thursday 10th October At 6.30p.m. Congratulations go to Jennifer Flynn a 3rd year Art student who won the 12-14 year old category.
Keira Lily Farrell a 5th year student who received runner up in the 15-18 year old category,
James Gerety 1st year who received runner up in the special category and Laura Hand who recieved a special honourable award.
Sports
Our U16 boys’ basketball team had a successful first outing in the “A” division, overcoming an excellent Rathangan side. Well done to all the boys involved. Congrats to our U16 and U19 Girls’ basketball teams’ div “A” who have both qualified for the Regional quarter finals. Congrats to our U16 div “A” and Senior Ladies div “B” football teams who both won their first games.
TY Trip to AIT and Careers Fair Roscommon
Our TYs had an excellent Careers day out. First they visited AIT for a talk on college courses and then received a campus tour. Then they travelled to Kilbride for the 2019 Roscommon Education Fair Day. Thanks to Ms Bohan, Mr Larkin, Ms O Brien, Ms Malone and our SNAs Claire and Helena for accompanying us.
Alan Devine
Our TYs had a workshop from Alan Devine over the course of the past two weeks. Alan did a workshop on public speaking to promote confidence, teaching us how to connect with an audience and different techniques. He is truly inspiring and we learned lots of useful skills which will help us in our careers going forward.
TY talk
Bradley Clinic talked to our TY students on the importance of good posture and gave an insight into the work of a physiotherapist.