YOUTOPIA - DAY 5 This was our final day of the project. In the morning the students put the finishing touches to the presentations, models, role plays, movies and 'You-topia' Magazine that they had created over the course of the week. While they did this, the teachers had a meeting to plan for what will take place in our next Youtopian visit. Once the meeting was finished we were lucky enough to be given a wonderful concert by Meán Scoil Mhuire students and St Christophers service users. The concert was a display of some of the wonderful talent in our school and in St Christopher's. Our Youtopian partners were blown away by the amazingly talented Irish dancers, singers and musicians. We would like to thank Ms McMorrow and the students who gave up their time to perform for us. We would also like to say a special thank you to Rosie Maguire for her two beautiful songs. After the concert it was then time to go to the Mall for the official opening of our urban garden where we were joined by members of the Longford Council and our urban garden partners St. Christophers Services Longford. The You-topia students then went back to the school to present the work they had created during the project. The week was finished with a celebratory dinner in the Aubergine. Thank you to all of our fellow You-topians for making it such a fantastic week!

YOUTOPIA - DAY 4: All youtopians started the day off by watching some traditional Irish GAA videos to demonstrate how we played games such as Hurling and Gaelic football. Everyone had a lot of fun practicing and learning these traditional Irish sports. After that, we all gathered at the bus to begin our journey to Sligo. On route to Sligo, we stopped off at Dominic Stevens’ (who is an award winning architect) self-built sustainable house. The house was quaint, cosy and cute! Everyone was really interested in the advanced architecture of this cosy home. We then advanced to Sligo where we visited Strandhill and got something to eat. Although it was wet and windy outside, it didn’t stop everyone having a really good time while observing the beautiful surroundings of Strandhill. Strandhill was followed up by a visit to Sligo town, where everyone got the option to either choose between a guided tour of Sligo or free time. The bus headed back to Longford at 5:30pm with all passengers tired but delighted after a fun day out.

YOUTOPIA - DAY 3: Wednesday was when our You-topia students really got down to the hard work. They started in the school at 9:00am and worked in their relevant groups until 4:00pm. The development group turned the idea of our urban garden in the Mall into a reality. The interaction group continued making various models of features they envisage in the 'Smart City' of the future. They were also visited by Machán Magan for a second time to further develop the points they had come up with on Monday. The documentation group worked tirelessly on creating a You-topia magazine that will report on everything that took place over the week. After dinner that evening the You-topians took part in an Irish set dancing class provided by Deasún Lyons. There was craic agus ceol beyond measure!

Leaving cert Geography: Ms Foley and Ms Hardiman took all of the leaving cert Geography classes to Derrygonnelly to complete a field trip examining erosion in a river. The weather was poor but nobody complained!!!!! Well done girls

YOUTOPIA - DAY 2 Well............day 2 got off to an early start with our group setting off for Wicklow. We were going to The Cool Planet Experience in Powerscourt Wicklow. This is Ireland's first interactive climate change museum and boy was it worth it! Our Erasmus students had an opportunity to look ok at how they can become agents of change. We tracked our carbon footprint and even came away with our own wrist band that can be used online regularly to keep track of our progress. Check them out at www.cpe.cool.ie Here are some inspiring photos of our trip!

YOUTOPIA - DAY 1 .....got off to a flying start with the Irish students leading our European guests in a series of games and Ice breakers! A particular favourite was "human bingo"and the "stand up" game from the video! After this it was down to business as each of the 7schools had to present their research for our theme 'Smart City' The most popular 'Smart City' ideas were related to street LED lights in Martano Italy and ecological buildings in Slovakia. After this we had the pleasure of welcoming, Manchan Magan: passionate environmentalist, author and playwright to our school. He inspired the students to think about innovative building and farming using his own experience and experiences from travelling around the world. Finally, we were delighted to offer our visitors a tour of the Cathedral, a beautiful building we are very proud of. A big thanks to Stefan Macko for leading this tour..........after a quick sleep we were ready for DAY #2😁

Youtopia Urban Garden:

School Notes:

The Student Enterprise finals were held in the Rugby Club yesterday, Wednesday. A big thank you to the Local Enterprise Office for organising this wonderful event. We had seven products in the final and all teams acquitted themselves very well. Special mention to Hadassah Cass who won the award for Best Display for her product "Hearts of Stone", very well deserved indeed! Congratulations to the students from Moyne Community School who were the overall winners and we wish them the best of luck in the All Ireland Finals.

Our TYs went on a trip to Dublin and Wicklow last Wednesday. The TY students, accompanied by Ms Griffin, Ms McMorrow and Mr Regan, began their trip by visiting the newly opened Cool Planet Experience in Powerscourt House. This interactive learning experience about Climate Change was thoroughly enjoyed and the girls gained a wealth of knowledge on this important world issue. From Cool Planet the group then went to Caffery's chocolate factory in Walkinstown where they learned about 'everything chocolate'. They then put their skills to the test by decorating their own chocolates (which they got to bring home). To finish an already wonderful day off everyone went to the Junk Kouture Western regional finals in the Helix to support their classmates Emily McCarthy, Emily Reilly and Kara Shannon. Meán Scoil Mhuire's supporters raised the roof and clearly stood out on the night, with the presenters stopping to complement the TYs on their fantastic support.

TY Trip Wednesday 07/03/18

Meán Scoil Mhuire History teacher Ms Mary Murphy with Senator Martin Daly at the recent Thomas F. Meagher exhibition in the GPO.