A Celebration of achievements and academic successes after a year of hard work by students, teachers and friends of St. Louis
Secondary School, Dundalk. 
Monthly Spotlight: January 2015
Soccer Team 2015

The school Soccer team played on Fri 23rd and despite a battle they lost 5-1 in difficult conditions.Thanks to Mr P Hoey, Mr G Byrne & Ms C O'Neill  for giving their time to support the girls .

 

North Leinster Cross-Country

 

Ms P.Fitzsimons accompanied a number of girls who participated in North Leinster Cross Country race on Friday 23rd Jan. Well done to all, especially Katie Mathews 2nd Yr who placed among the top 20 runners.

 

Volleyball

Congratulations to the 2nd Year Volleyball teams who participated in their first matches of 2015 in Naas, Co Kildare on Wednesday 21st. Jan. Many thanks to Ms. L Reilly who accompanied Ms J Spain on the trip.

 

Basketball

Well done to our Cadet Basketball team in their two hard fought wins today in Round 1 of the All Ireland Playoffs. After suffering a shock defeat in the Regional Finals in December, the girls showed great strength and determination today to win a place in Round 2 of the All Ireland Series - which takes place this weekend in Tarbert, Co. Kerry with a place in the All Ireland Semi-Finals at stake! 
St. Louis Dundalk 39 - 32 Muckross Park School
St. Louis Dundalk 55 - 51 St. Joe's Rochfortbridge 
A special thank you again to the Senior basketball team and the teachers for all of their help today hosting the tournament. And a special mention also to our past pupils who called in to support the team! Once a Louis girl, always a Louis girl!
 

The Senior basketball team won convincingly against rivals,  Mount Anvil, on Wed. 21st January. The St. Louis Senior Team then travelled to Bantry, Co Cork on Saturday 31st of January, won their first match, beating Gael Colaiste Chiarra? 58-51. As a result they faced the home team, Colaiste Phobh?l Bantry. Despite a fantastic display of teamwork and spirit, the girls just missed out on a place in the All Ireland Semi Final by one basket thrown up by the opposition in the final second, final score 35-33 to Bantry. Congratulations to the team on all their achievements this year and a sad farewell to the 6th Yr. girls who have sadly represented the school for the last time. They have been amazing ambassadors for the school and wonderful role-models to many younger girls.Many thanks to Ms. K O'Byrne & Ms S Higgins who have given so much of their time and commitment to the teams this year.

 
Senior Basketball Team 2014-2015 
Monthly Spotlight: February 2015

Scholarship

Fanni Pokecz is being awarded an entrance scholarship to DCU. This is the 2nd such award for the school as Aimee McNally received one for Maynooth before Christmas.


 Zoe Conway & John McIntyre

We were honoured on Monday 2nd February to have a very special visit from Zoe Conway and John Mc Intyre. They were in the school to promote the F?ile na T?na, a new traditional music festival in Carlingford. The first years and the music classes were the lucky audience at the gig in the Chapel Hall. Four of the school's trad group played for the duo when they arrived. Zoe played beautifully, shared her joy at being lucky enough to enjoy life as a professional musician and shared some of her memories of her own student days in St Louis. All who attended were moved by the music and inspired to practise more regularly to emulate like Zoe and John!

 
St. Louis Trad group thank the artists after their free performance.

DKIT Engineers' Week Workshops

Ms. D Mee, our Guidance Counsellor, accompanied a number of senior students to DKIT on Friday 6th Feb to attend Engineering Week Workshops devised to encourage female students to see themselves as the Engineers of the future! Thanks to Sile O'Connor from Semple McKillop and DKIT for the invitation. They also met Paula Meehan, a past pupil of St Louis, now an engineer with a  PhD  from DCU, a wonderful achievement!
4th & 5th Yr Students attend the DKIT Engineers' Week Event
Monthly Spotlight: March 2015
Representatives from the cast of Hairspray collect their award.

 

After weeks of careful deliberation Bord G?is Energy announced the shortlist for the second annual Bord G?is Energy Student Theatre Awards.The standard of entries was exceptionally high and the judging panel had a difficult time selecting the top entries in each category. 

 

Very exciting news was received the week before mid-term that the St. Louis 2014 production of HAIRSPRAY had been shortlisted for Best Musical Number for 'Big Doll's House'.There were only two other schools nominated in this category out of thousands of entries! Congratulations to all involved in the production.

 

The TY class of 2014 travelled to Dublin on Wednesday 4th March and were awarded the runner-up prize out of over 3300 entries in the Bord Gais Energy Student Theatre Awards.....well done to all, an amazing achievement!

 
 
Award-winning 2nd Year entrepreneurs

The Student Enterprise Awards is the biggest enterprise competition for students in Ireland. It helps students to grasp real life skills associated with running a real enterprise including working as part of a team, managing production and finances, organising a sales and marketing campaign and liaising directly with customers, judges and the media.The competition supports the business studies curriculum and is a rewarding experience for transition year students in particular, who have that bit more freedom to develop their business concepts to the fullest.

 

Introducing enterprise to students in such a relevant fashion can only help to create more entrepreneurs in the future and on Tuesday 3rd March TYs and Second Year students from St. Louis attended the Louth Enterprise Finals with Ms. P Fitzsimons and Ms R Mallon in the Carrickdale Hotel. Aine Mellin won the the Best Quality Award for her fabulous chocolate treats, and Eimear Shine won Best Organic Product for her hair product which gives you beach hair!

Our five intrepid 2nd years, Amy Mc Keown, Katie Newell, Katie Matthews, Estela Gjoretta and Fabiane Nunes won the overall Intermediate Award and would represent Louth in the all Ireland final in Dublin on 22nd of April! 

 

Junior Basketball

Congratulations to our first and second year basketball teams who had two fantastic wins this week over Sacred Heart Drogheda.

The girls were inspired by their transition year mentors, Roisin Curley, Oonagh Mathews and Jade Woods as well as the captain of our senior basketball team, Sinead O'Hagan, who used her years of experience and words of wisdom to inspire the girls! Well done all.

  
1st Year Basketball squad 2014-2015

 
2nd Yr Basketball squad 2014-2015

Technology Dept. Success

Grace Abbott Leaving Cert 2014, is pictured below with her award from the Irish Technology Teachers Association presented in GMIT Galway on Saturday 7th March 2015. Grace achieved 2nd  place in Ireland in Ordinary Level Technology. Congratulations also to Mr J Kelly who was acknowledged as her Teacher.
Grace Abbott - Leaving Cert. 2014 recognised by the Technology Teachers Association

 

Orchestra Success- Inter-Schools' Music Festival
Ms. E O'Callaghan prepared the school's orchestra to attend Wesley College, Dublin on Saturday 7th March for the inter-school's Musical festival competition.The trip was a success as the girls won two awards: Highly Commended and Commended  and they got to say hello to Ms Killoran too! Thanks to Ms O'Callaghan for all the hard work over the last two months giving up her time for lunchtime rehearsals. The girls will play for the school before the Easter Holidays.Thanks too to Ms Drumgoole who accompanied the Orchestra.

5th Yr Geography Field Trip

Geography field Trip - The Burren Co Clare

Ms Reynolds & Ms Crinion travelled to a windy co Clare with 31 eager 5th Yr. Geography Students on their annual field trip to explore physical Geography in preparation for their Leaving Cert. course.

  

Seachtain na Gaeilge 2015

An annual prize is awarded to the member of Staff who makes the greatest effort to speak "as Gaeilge" during Seachtain na Gaeilge 2015. The theme of this year's Irish langauge event is "Bain Triail Aisti" ("Have a go"!) so  Staff and students were encouraged to do just that! Events were  organised for each year group during Irish class time.

 
Full TY  cast sing "We are the world"

 

TY Show 2015- Back to the 80s

Large, appreciative audiences, on the three nights of the show, demonstrated their enjoyment of the 2015 TY show, Back to the 80s, by their rapturous applause and very positive feedback. The show was the result of many months of hard work by the TY students and the team of staff who supported them every step of the way.The quality of the acting, singing and dancing was extremely high and further represented the amazing talent to be uncovered when our young people are given opportunities to grow and learn in new directions. Congratulations to Ms M Meehan, Ms K O'Byrne, Ms E Byrne, Ms S Higgins, Ms A McEnaney and all involved, on a job very well done!

 
Kora Armtrong, 5th Year ,accepts her Pope John Paul Award from Archbishop Eamon Martin.

 

On Wednesday 11th March 2015, hundreds of people both young and old flocked to St. Patrick's Cathedral Armagh for the Diocesan Faith Award Ceremony. This event was celebrated by Archbishop Eamon Martin and it was set up in order to rejoice in the gifts and talents of 300 young people who were there to collect awards for their role in their respective parishes, communities and schools. Representatives from all over the Diocese collected their awards,  in an event that has been described as "a fitting celebration for the work of young people in the Diocese."

 

The Pope John Paul II Award is a prestigious award in the area of faith development and to receive one is undoubtedly a thing of great honour.  Congratulations to our Fifth Year students, Shauna Armstrong and Aisling McEntaggart who received the Gold Award and Eimear Byrne and Caoimhe Watters who received the Bronze Award.

 
St Louis Networking Day

On Tuesday the 24th March twenty students and two teachers travelled to the Crowne Plaza in Tallaght to attend the St. Louis Networking day. During the day students met with their peers from nine other schools and participated in a variety of workshops on development education facilitated by Irish Aid WorldWise Global Schools and ECOUNESCO. Topics discussed included international development and underdevelopment; human rights (and human wrongs); justice and equality issues; race and interculturalism; views and perspectives on a variety of development issues including poverty, exclusion, women's rights, HIV and AIDS, discrimination and aid; development and human rights education; climate change. Students' behaviour was commendable. Grant application is being submitted for funding for development education activities in the upcoming 2015-2016 academic year.  
U14 Gaelic Team 2014-2015

 

The U 14 Gaelic football team showed great team spirit and determination as they battled hard against very strong opposition l in the Geraldines' complex near Haggardstown. Conditions were perfect but unfortunately they were unsuccessful in their endeavours. Their final match against The Bush left us with no doubt that there are plenty of future stars in this team. Well done to their coach Ms E Byrne & all the girls involved!

 

The Historical College Society, Trinity College Dublin 
Annie & Molly debate in Trinity's first female-only Mace Debate

 

Fifth Year students Annie McAleer and Molly McKenna represented the school admirably on Friday evening and Saturday in a debating event for girls organised by The Hist.Trinity's
prestigious Debating Society. The girls were given controversial topics with only minutes to prepare their arguments and face other teams in a fast, dynamic style of competition called a Mace Debate.The challenging motions on Friday included: This house would introduce a lower income tax for women;This house would inform residents of criminals in the area;churches and other cultural landmarks should be legitimate targets in a conflict. Molly reported: "Saturday went really well.Unfortunately they didn't do a semi-final round as was scheduled, they just went straight through to final four which we didn't qualify for but we really felt ourselves progressing through the rounds and motions. It was great experience and some of the opposition were very experienced and some motions we found tough. We really enjoy it though and got to do five debates in total.Thanks for the opportunity!" 

Thanks to Mr C Fisher who has been mentoring the girls in preparation for the competition and who travelled with them on Friday to Dublin to support their efforts.

 

2nd and 3rd Year girls who travelled to The Helix to see a performance of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet on Friday 20th March. Many thanks to Ms E Byrne & Ms O Drumgoole who arranged the trip.

 

Show Racism the Red Card Project & Multicultural Day

 

Here in St. Louis Secondary School we foster inclusivity and multiculturalism. The Student Council  held the first ever Multicultural Day on Wednesday March 25 this year and they invited staff, students and friends stories  on a designated facebook page called Humans of D?n Lughaidh.The aim of the project was that by highlighting stories we could spread the message that here in our school we Show Racism the Red Card every single day.

 

Congratulations to the Student Council and Ms. O Drumgoole for all their work to promote tolerance and understanding through their participation in the programme "Show Racism the Red Card." The final event of 2015 was held in the Aviva Stadium on Monday 20th April and while St Louis did not win a prize on this occasion, it was a wonderful opportunity to see the work of other schools and community groups in preparation for next year's project. The four students who represented the school on Monday were wonderful ambassadors through their excellent behaviour and participation
 

 

 
We had such a wonderful day exploring the different food,cultures and traditions among of the 16 different nationalities represented in the St Louis family!

 

 
Monthly Spotlight: April 2015

Congratulations to Muna Mgba Okolo who was chosen to take part in the recording of an episode of the Poetry Programme on Easter Monday. The recording took place in the Peacock Theatre, Abbey Street, Dublin as part of the RTE 'Road to the Rising' event. Muna was chosen as a result of her fine performance in November at the Poetry Aloud National Finals in the National Library. She read the poem 'The Old Woman of the Road' by Padraic Colum. The Poetry programme will be aired on RTE Radio 1 on May 2nd. Ms. L Rice travelled with Muna to the recording on Easter Monday. Muna received a 50 Euro book token for her contribution.

Students and staff enjoy New York, Easter 2015

St. Louis annual Spike ball tournament. 


The in-house school spike ball tournament concluded on the last day of term prior to Easter. It was a very successful tournament which took place over five weeks between February mid term and Easter, it was a new event and it was uncertain how it would be received. Thirteen teams from across all year groups signed up and matches took place during lunch times. The event was great fun and all girls seemed to get a lot from it. Well done to all those who took part in the tournament but especially to team 6L who triumphed over all. 

and many thanks to Ms J Spain who arranged the lunch-time tournaments.

 

 

 

Well done to our school Green Committee and other students who volunteered their time to take part in the Spring Clean around the grounds of the school on Wednesday the 22nd April.

An Taisce's National Spring Clean is Ireland's most popular, well recognised and successful anti-litter initiative. Now in its 17th year, the campaign encourages every sector of society to actively participate and take responsibility for litter, by actually conducting clean-ups in their own local environment. National Spring Clean traditionally takes place throughout the month of April.
   

North Leinster Athletics Competition 
Katie-Murphy  shot putt Champion

 

Ten girls took part in North Leinster Athletics competition on Fri. 24th. April in the National Stadium Santry.Caoimhe Matthews/Katie Matthews qualified for the Junior girls 200mts final.Aisling Carvin/Aisling Phelan ran in the Minor girls 800mts.Hannah Stewart ran in Inter girls 800mts.Niamh Hayes qualified for the Under 16 girls 200mts final.We also entered teams in to the Junior & Inter girls relay-The Inter team qualified for the final.Katie Murphy & Destiny Ogben participated in Minor girls Shot-Katie won the gold medal and is through to the Leinster final in May.Well done to all the girls.

 

 

'Leaders on our Level' Conference 

On Friday the 24th April the two fifth year Business classes headed off to Croke Park to attend the 'Leaders on our Level' conference organised by Terenure college. It was an inspiring and motivating event with an array of speakers from different walks of life.
 

First up was Bobby Kerr who spoke about how he set up his 'Insomnia' coffee shops, next was Sr Stan, a sister of charity who set up Focus Ireland which is Ireland's largest homeless charity.Next up was Clodagh Logue the HR Director from Microsoft. Michael Carey, who is chairman of Bord Bia spoke about the importance of and opportunities available in the food industry.

The last speaker was Enda McNulty, from 'Motiv8' who was inspiring to listen to and who works with many of the world's top athletes. He outlined the importance of having goals & working hard to achieve them. He introduced us to Riverdance's lead male dancer & Joe Schmidt the Irish rugby coach who both spoke about their journeys to the top of their field!It was a very informative & enjoyable day and two of our fifth years were nominated as top tweeters on the day.

 
Monthly Spotlight: May 2015
Niamh O'Neill - Past Pupil award 2015
Fashion Designer

Having honed her design skills in London, New York and Paris, working alongside designers such as Diane Von Furstenberg and John Galliano Niamh O'Neill's debut Autumn/Winter 2012 collection highlighted a signature style, combining clean lines and contemporary cutting with luxurious fabrics, creating an instantly identifiable look of understated elegance that marked her out as a key player in Irish fashion.

Voted 'Fashion Designer of the Year 2013' at the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards, Niamh O'Neill's star is certainly in the ascendancy and we are delighted that she attended our Awards' Night  to receive the Sr. Clare Past Pupil Award.She spoke about her career and her philosophy that success comes as a result of self-belief and hard work. Niamh is an excellent role-model for St Louis students and we really enjoyed welcoming her back to the school to celebrate her success.


TY Trip to London 8-10th May

Having arrived in London city after an early morning departure on May 8th, the tour guide joined our coach to deliver an energetic and entertaining tour of London. We enjoyed sights of Big Ben, The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Harrods to mention a few...We continued to our hotel and after a quick check in we made our way to Pizza Express for dinner followed immediately by a trip to WestEnd to see The Lion King - we were stunned by the fluid movement of humans excellently portrayed as animals and magnificent staging alongside familiar well loved songs.


We successfully took the London Underground back to the hotel and were glad to see our beds at the end of an endless but exciting day! Saturday morning we walked to the nearby National History Museum which was interesting and interactive creating a great sense of wonder and awe. This was followed by more sight seeing and shopping on Oxford Street and later a visit to Westfield Shopping Centre followed by dinner at La Rouge restaurant. Sunday morning we travelled to the exciting theme park -Thorpe Park.


After a sunshine filled day on roller coasters and rides we returned to our coach for our journey home. A fantastic fun filled and educational weekend was had by all with exceptional students who behaved impeccably.

Head girl & Deputy Head girl 2015-2016
Head Girl 2015-2016
Eimear Byrne
Deputy Head Girl 2015-2016
Sarah Devitt.
After the wonderful event of Awards' Night it was a joy to witness 19 inspiring young women on Friday share their ideas about the role of Head Girl and the work of the next Student Council. All the girls shared their experiences of growing, blossoming and developing in confidence as a direct result of the wonderful relationships they've enjoyed with other students and the generous staff who have nourished them. It was a privilege to observe their eloquence and hear their genuine love for their school expressed so openly and emotionally! It was with great pleasure that we learned that Eimear Byrne was elected Head Girl by her peers and the staff while Sarah Devitt was chosen as Deputy Head Girl.

Music & Drama Recital




We had such a heartwarming evening in the Chapel Hall. Our sixth years performed some of their practical pieces, our saxophone, cello and flute players who learn with Music Generation played, the second years performed a wonderful abridged version of Romeo and Juliet and finally our orchestra under the baton of Ms O Callaghan played a superb selection of music, from Adele to Guns and Roses. 

We celebrated our end of year Mass on Friday 15th May. This was the last day that all of our school would be together before TYs attended their individual interviews  and the sixth years said their goodbyes to us. The Student Council received certificates and gifts and carried out the final activity of the year.

 

This is our heart. It is made up of the thumbprints of all of our students, teachers, SNAs, secretarial, cleaning, care -taking and canteen staff. 

This will be cut out, painted to last and then mounted for our Open Day in September to show that we all make up the Louis family together.
Heart created using thumbprints
Finally..... a fond farewell
Congratulations  & Best Wishes

A fond farewell to our 6th years and to Ms. C Duffy and Ms B Matthews who are both retiring after many years of service in St. Louis. They have both always wanted the very best for all their students and we wish them both nothing less as they begin the next chapter of their lives - go n- ?ir? an b?thar libh uilig!
Ms C Duffy
Ms B Matthews


St Louis Secondary School|  +353 42 933 44 74 | [email protected]| www.stlouisdundalk.ie