Each week to celebrate the brighter side of school life we send a text to all staff and parents to let them know what happened during the week. Below are some of the weekly texts we've been sending out.

Friday 08 December 2023

Students have been busy completing their Christmas tests this week here at Cluny. Well done to each and every one of our students! We are so proud of each of you.

Congratulations to Maedbh Hanney, Leaving Cert Class of 2023, who received her academic scholar award from Dublin City University. Maedbh is studying for a BSc in Athletic Therapy and Training. Maedbh also plays football for Shamrock Rovers F.C. Congratulations!

Our student Mia enters the Irish U/17 development academy, she’s joined a group of thirty players across the 32 counties vying for a place on the 24/25 U/18 Irish team. We wish her all the very, very best.

We've added a "new bring a book, take a book" shelf for students by the student entrance! Happy book-swapping!!

Our sixth years will be hosting a coffee morning and book drive in aid of Laura Lynn next Friday, December 15th, 2023. All in our Cluny community are invited to join us! For more information, please see: https://buff.ly/4157gP9

That is all for this week. We hope you all have a restful weekend. And remember, at Cluny we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 01 December 2023

Welcome back to the latest edition of Good News Friday. This week’s edition includes stories from the last two weeks here at Cluny.

Last Thursday, Ms. Marren, our ABC 'A Better Community' coordinator, and our ABC representatives raised the Cineáltas/Antibullying flag which we received from the Department of Education. The Cineáltas flag acknowledges the good work that St. Joseph of Cluny is doing to prevent and address bullying and to promote kindness, respect, inclusion, diversity and wellbeing.

Last week, we celebrated College Awareness Week. Students took part in several career talks throughout the week. A massive thank you to Fiona D'Arcy, Deputy Principal, Sallynoggin College of Further Education, who spoke to our third year students on Monday in the library about the courses available from Sallynoggin College of Further Education.

We were delighted to be joined by Sinead Donovan, President of Chartered Accountants Association of Ireland and Partner (first female) of Grant Thornton. Sinead spoke to our TYs and fifth years about her career. A fantastic talk!

Dr. Jill O’Mahony, Director of Admissions in UCD, along with Ms. McFarland gave a talk to our senior students and their parents and guardians about the CAO and university life.

Students in fifth year enjoyed a webinar about women in STEM.

TY Culinary Art students enjoyed a Christmas cake demonstration by the fabulous Lizzy. Very creative Christmas trees, robins, penguins and snowmen were produced. Lizzy also gave us lots of tips on how to ice the cake.

Students in TY took part in a makeup workshop where they learned about special effects make up and more!

Students in first year took part in their retreat today. We hope they enjoy the day out.

TY French students enjoyed a trip to the IFI to see the brilliant "La Petite Bande", bravo les filles! Second year French students studied how to make crêpes in French class last week, bon appétit les filles!

TYs had a great day out! Spanish film las Niñas in the pavilion in Dun Laoghaire and a trip to Las Tapas restaurant in Greystones!

Fifth years lended a hand in aid of St. Vincent de Paul recently! Bag packers extraordinaire. Well done to all involved.

The TY library committee were busy decorating the library for the festive period. Be sure to call into the library to see their fantastic decorations.

Congratulations to our school choir who took part in the Kilcoole Music Festival and scored fantastic results! Congratulations to Gwen who came 1st in the U19 solo vocal category. Well done to the highly commended Kate, Lucy, Anna Maria and Ellie. Our choir came in a fantastic third place.

We would like to wish all our students starting their Christmas tests next week the very best of luck.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, in Cluny, we believe, we belong, and we become!

Friday 17 November 2023

We are delighted to bring you the latest edition of Good News Friday. We hope you have all had a lovely week.

This week we highlighted science week! Students enjoyed different special events each day as part of the week including a table quiz, measurement relay, Amgen Biotech Genetics Experience, and deadly dinners. Many thanks to the science department for organising this week of fun events!

The Guidance Department in conjunction with Director of Admissions & Strategic Enrolment Jill O’Mahony of UCD will be hosting an information session on The CAO Application Process 2024 & Transition to College. This will take place on Monday 20 November at 7.30pm. All parents and guardians as well as students in TY, fifth and sixth year are invited to attend.

Well done to our students who held a bake sale in aid of St. John’s ambulance service on Tuesday. Students wore their uniforms during the sale, as pictured above.

We are delighted to invite parents and guardians of our current students as well as past pupils to utilise Cluny library every Wednesday between 12:00 and 14:00 starting next week. For more information, please see: Cluny Library now open to Parents, Guardians and Past Pupils

Starting next week, Cluny gym will now be open before school for students to use. For more information, please see the following post: Cluny Gym.

Well done to fifth year students who took part in Concern Debates yesterday from the library.

Well done to TY enterprise students who ran tuck shops this week for their enterprise projects.

Our winter extracurricular sports and activities timetable is now available to view. To access the timetable, please see: Winter extracurricular activities and sports timetable 2023-2024

Save the date! Our parents' council have organised a Christmas fair and choir evening to take place on December the 17th between 15:00 and 18:00. Additional details to follow.

Hao, Mia and Molly in TY recently represented Cluny at Comhairle na nÓg at the Talbot Hotel. Well done!

That is all for this week! We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny we celebrate the days to come!

Friday 10 November 2023

Welcome back to all our staff and students! We hope you all enjoyed your Halloween break and are ready for the coming term here at Cluny. We are delighted to bring you the latest edition of Good News Friday covering this week’s events here at Cluny.

This week we highlighted Stand-Up Awareness Week at Cluny. This is a national week of importance which raises awareness for young people in the LGBTQIA+ community and takes a stand against homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. On Monday, our Head Girl and Deputy Head Girl raised out LGBTQIA+ flag outside of the school to launch the week. On Tuesday, all students participated in our flag day, wearing colours of the rainbow to recreate the flag outside at lunchtime. Students also completed a survey as part of our school’s LGBT Quality Mark program. Throughout the week there were even more themed events including watching Heartstopper! A big thank you to all involved in organising this week.

We were delighted to hold our Ceremony of Achievement yesterday where we celebrated the academic excellence for students from the Class of 2023 who achieved over 600 points alongside our Junior Certificate subject awards. To view the full list of award recipients, please see our full event post here: Ceremony of Achievement.

Fifth- and Sixth-year Art classes had a fantastic time at the Three Times Out Andy Warhol exhibition on Wednesday with Ms. O'Keeffe. A wonderful exhibition enjoyed by all!

Many thanks to the National Tertiary office for giving a talk to our TY and fifth year students earlier this week!

Well done to our Under-16s basketball team who had a successful win against Mt. Anville earlier this week! Final score 31-33.

Our House Teams are well underway in preparation for the final rounds of their volleyball tournament. Best of luck to all involved!

Well done to all involved in the collection and creation of the Team Hope shoebox appeal. A fantastic number of boxes were donated to this important cause.

A spiritual space for In November, We Remember has been created in our school foyer for our school community. There is a remembrance box where names of the deceased can be remembered as well as candles which can be taken to be burned at home in their memory. Thank you to the Chaplaincy Team for creating this space for us.

That is all for this week! We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny we grow and succeed together!

Friday 27 October 2023

We hope you all had a lovely week. We would like to wish all of our staff and students a lovely Halloween break!

We had our annual Halloween dress up day today. Students will shortly take to the stage for our fashion show. Well done to all for their fantastic ideas and creativity in their costumes!

On Monday, second years were busy recording the Monster Mash. Second year Home Economics students followed their Monster Mash recording with an inspired Halloween themed baking class! First years also made spooky themed cupcakes to get into the Halloween spirit.

Congratulations to our wonderful fifth years who organised a ‘sleep out’ for Focus Ireland. They raised €1,100 euro to help support the 1,804 families, 8,835 adults and 3,765 children who are currently homeless. A special thank you to Fiona for championing the event.

Thank you to all for making our inaugural coffee morning for Blackrock Hospice such a success. Many thanks for all the donations of cake and funding. A special word of thanks to our amazing Sixth Year girls and the fantastic Parent Council. We raised over €1,800!

Third years enjoyed a trip to Avondale yesterday.

A Better School Community (ABC) held a "Take Bake" to promote wellbeing and community spirit. Kindness Costs Nothing was our motto of the day. Thank you to all who took part.

Gorgeous shadow puppet workshop with artist Niamh Lawlor and the second year Art classes. This is part of the creative cluster initiative that Cluny is part of. We are hoping to make some fabulous puppet shows to share with our own school and the primary schools we are clustered with. Well done to everyone involved!

Congratulations to Gwen, Grace, Tia, Ella, Abigail, Lucy, Tess, Jennifer and Keela who were presented with their Bronze Gaisce medals and certificates on Monday morning by Ms. Delahunty. The months of hard-work and dedication was finally awarded. Hopefully they are looking now to begin their journey for Silver!

Well done to all of our TY students who completed their TY work experience this week.

From the 6th until the 10th of November, we will have Stand Up Awareness Week throughout the school. We will have daily events as part of this important week where we stand up against homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.

That is all for this week! We hope you all have a fantastic weekend and a happy Halloween! And remember, at Cluny we celebrate the days to come!

Friday 20 October 2023

Welcome back to another edition of Good News Friday, covering stories from the past week here at Cluny.

Today, we were delighted to welcome so many people to our school for our coffee morning in aid of Blackrock Hospice in association with Bewley's Big Coffee morning. Students, staff, parents, guardians, past pupils and more were welcomed to this event in which we raised money for an important cause. Thank you to all who baked and donated to this event. We were delighted to welcome you all to Cluny.

Congratulations to our TY students who received their Junior Certificate results earlier this week! We are so proud of each of you.

Yesterday we had our whole school photography day. Year groups and sports groups were all welcomed to the sports hall for their photos. Many thanks to the photographers for working with us to capture these moments!

During our school's exciting Math Murder Mystery, students showed exceptional teamwork and problem-solving skills. The winning team, made up of sharp detectives, impressively pieced together clues, identified the 'culprit,' and solved the mystery, showcasing their dedication and critical thinking. This victory demonstrated the power of real-life problem-solving with math. The winners were: Clodagh Glansford, Amelie Hetherington, Niamh Mc Gorrian, Sophia Steele, Ciara Fitzpatrick and Sophie Lynch.

Two very good wins in Basketball for Cluny Under 16’s vs Loreto Dalkey, 35-37! A close game! Cluny U/19’s had a very good win also, 45-38 win over Dalkey. Go Cluny go!

We were delighted to take part in the “lets fix fashion” programme this week as part of Climate Action week. Students watched a series of important short films on the topic of fast fashion and its environmental impact. On Monday, we had a whole school assembly to highlight the week’s events and about the lets fix fashion programme. Themed days held during the week included no trash Tuesday and walk to school on Wednesday. Students also took part in a whole school Kahoot quiz.

Third year students took part in a clean up in Cluny Park on Tuesday and cleaned up lots of litter, including a bike!

Well done to Rosa, Eimear, Sophie, Ciara, Lilith and Cora on a fantastic debut in the first round of the UCD Junior Leinster Schools debate on Wednesday night. The teams debated on whether a carbon tax on airlines should be imposed and if standardised testing in schools should be banned. Well done!!

A massive thank you to acclaimed author Jane Mitchell who visited us on Tuesday. Jane spoke to TYs and Third Years about her writing process and how she immersed herself into research for her young adult books which explore the realities of being a refugee. As part of this, she spoke to students about her time volunteering in direct provision centres where she spoke to refugees as well as her time in France within refugee camps. This was an eye opening and impactful talk.

Students in 4L enjoyed a trip to the DSPCA earlier this week.

We held our first book club meeting for first, second- and third-year students this week in the library at lunchtime on Thursday. Students spoke about their recent reads and some of their favourite books. Well done to all.

TY students auditioned for the TY musical today! Well done to all.

Best of luck to all of our TY students who are completing their first week of work experience next week. We are looking forward to hearing about your placements!

That is it for this week! And remember, at Cluny, we stride, we believe, we become!

Friday 13 October 2023

Welcome back to our latest edition of Good News Friday, covering stories from the past week at Cluny.

Our Cluny polytunnel is starting to fill up with herbs, tomato plants, lots of seedlings, a kiwi tree and we now have some fig trees. This week, we also planted strawberry plants and Ms. Larney explained how the plants produce runners for propagation.

Mrs. Wolahan showed students where to find cones which we will use to make Autumn wreaths. Martin has installed a water butt so we can harvest the rainwater for our polytunnel!

Senior home economics students had a tour of a working mill! They then collected freshly milled flour to make their own loaf of delicious bread. Of course, they also got a chance to taste the bread with a nice cup of tea. A most enjoyable tour.

This week we held a special themed week in the library on the topic of Cloud Forests. These are a rare forest environment found across the world which are home to numerous unique species of plants and animals. These biomes are in danger of disappearing and so through this themed week, we hoped to raise awareness for them. A star of the week was a pitcher plant to be seen in the library, a carnivorous plant which students got to see and learn about.

Mr. Geraghty’s first Year Home Economics group gave short-crust pastry sausage rolls a try this week in their practical class. Great work by one and all.

On Tuesday, we highlighted World Mental Health Day by holding a drop everything and read event for all staff and students. To assist in getting ready, our librarian also set up a pop-up library in the school foyer! Happy reading!

Students in second year recently enjoyed their second-year retreat earlier this week.

Our Inktober competition is continuing to run, well done to all students who are continuing to take part. This week’s theme was candle! Next week’s theme is Moon. As always, students can drop their submissions into the library before Friday. Winners will be announced after the completion of the Inktober period.

Don't forget to bring in your shoeboxes for the Team Hope shoebox appeal. All boxes must be in the week of the 23rd of October.

The Oireachtas Essay Competition is now open and accepting entries from fifth and sixth year Leaving Certificate students on the topic of “Parliamentary Politics Matters for Peace”. For more information, please visit: https://buff.ly/45t71hF

Next week, we will be hosting a coffee morning in aid of Blackrock Hospice in association with Bewley's. All are invited to join us! It will take place on Friday, 20th October from 11:00 until 13:00. Entry is 5 euro. We are looking forward to welcoming you all to Cluny.

That is all for this week! And remember, at Cluny, we celebrate the days to come!

Friday 06 October 2023

Welcome back to another edition of Good News Friday covering stories from the last two weeks here at Cluny.

We celebrated our school opening mass yesterday. Thank you to all of our students and choir who took part during this ceremony. We wish all the very best in the coming academic term.

We were delighted to welcome pupils and guests from the Class of 2023 back to Cluny yesterday to celebrate their subject awards. Teachers nominated students from the class of 2023 to receive an award based from their subject areas. Three of our students who scored 7 H1s in their Leaving Certificate examinations received crystal prizes as well as part of the ceremony. Well done to all! We were delighted to welcome so many of you back to Cluny.

Our senior prefects and sports prefect, deputy head girl and head girl each received their badges as part of the days ceremony also. Congratulations to our senior students!

All students received a copy of the school annual 2022-2023 which showcased the past academic term. We hope you all enjoy revisiting and reading all the lovely articles!

Our third year Art class enjoyed a trip to see the Sculpture in Context exhibition in the Botanic Gardens. There was so much to see and inspire them for their upcoming exam project. Students got to take lots of photos and draw the fabulous sculptures as well.

Students in first year held a bake sale to fundraise for the Morocco earthquake appeal. Well done to all involved and all who baked for this important fundraiser.

Third years enjoyed their retreat in Dublin City Centre last Thursday where they took part in a city walk. A pilgrim path, they visited four churches north and south of the Liffey. Great day had by all!

We were delighted to run an introduction to academic research workshop with sixth year history students on Monday morning ran by our School Librarian. Student's learned how to select and challenge sources for their projects and how to navigate academic texts.

The latest addition to the Cluny Polytunnel are these tomato plants kindly gifted to us by a parent! Thank you Annemarie!

A massive thank you to one of the parents of our current students who donated a lovely selection of art books for our students. So many wonderful titles for them to learn and get inspired from!

Sixth year students are enjoying a day out to see Hamlet today as part of their Leaving certificate English. We hope they enjoy the day!

Next week, we will have a special themed week in the library on the topic of Cloud Forests. Students are also reminded that the library Inktober competition will be continuing over the next few weeks. Keep an eye out for the week’s theme!

That is all for this week! We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, in Cluny we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 22 September 2023

Welcome back to the latest edition of Good News Friday. We were delighted to welcome so many parents, guardians and students to Cluny last night for our open night. Thank you to all who joined us for the evening. Well done to all of our students who helped out during this event, we are very proud of each of you!

The sixth years took part in their retreat today with a trip to Glendalough. We hope they all enjoy this trip.

Today, we were excited to put two pumpkin plants, grown from seed, into the new raised beds across from the Art room. TY students have named them Federico and Polyann!

Students in fifth year took part in their retreat this week as well where they took part in games, meditation and ice breaker challenges with their peers.

We were delighted to have Maeve join us on Monday from Poetry Ireland to run a haiku workshop for our first years. Students got inspired on a nature walk before writing their very own haikus. A lovely morning of creative writing!

The latest addition to the Cluny Polytunnel is tomato plants kindly gifted to us by a parent! Thank you, Annmarie.

Three of our fifth-year students were recently away in Avoca Manor completing their Ember Training. Well done!

Our fifth-year student Niamh featured in the teenage edition of the Irish Times magazine recently. Congratulations and well done to Niamh for her article. To read this article, please visit: https://buff.ly/3PIOAkl

We have lots of brand-new titles available in the library for students to borrow including The Crime of Grindelwald by J.K. Rowling, Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens and Global by Eoin Colfer. Students can borrow up for 4 books for 3 weeks.

St. Joseph of Cluny would like wish Mia the very best of luck this weekend in the trails for the Irish U/17 girl’s basketball team.

Gentle reminder, the deadline for TY library committee applications is Monday, 25 of September.

That is all for this week! We hope you have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny, we believe, we belong, and we become!

Friday 15 September 2023

Welcome back to our latest edition of Good News Friday. We hope you have all had a lovely week.

Our Class of 2023 Debs reception took place yesterday, Thursday, in Fitzpatrick's hotel. We hope they all had a fantastic night.

On Monday, TY Textiles students visited Sealife in Bray to carry out some research for their design of the Blue Lagoon group quilt which we are in the process of planning.

Seventeen Cluny students embarked on a trip to Murcia, Spain this week to further improve their Spanish! They took a break from their studies to visit El museo de Santa Clara la Real which is comprised of archaeological and architectural remains of old royal palaces.

We were delighted to open our new polytunnel earlier this week. Congratulations to our Green Schools group who helped fundraise for the tunnel. Our eldest and youngest pupils were first in to plant our very first plants! We are excited to see what is planted next. Thank you to all involved!

Library inductions are well underway now at Cluny library. Lots of great books being borrowed by students and bookish conversations happening! We have a fantastic new selection of books now available to borrow. These new books can be found to the right-hand side of the library entrance.

First years enjoyed a trip to Kilkenny earlier this week where they took part in a hockey blitz. We hope they all enjoyed this day out.

We are looking forward to welcoming parents and guardians of sixth class girls entering the secondary system in September 2024 to Cluny next week for our open night. Our open night will take place between 17:00 and 20:00 on Thursday 21st of September. Don’t miss our Principal’s Address which is due to start at 17:15.

That is all for this week! We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, in Cluny, we grow and succeed together!

Friday 08 September 2023

Welcome back to our first edition of Good News Friday for the 2023-2024 school year! We hope you are looking forward to seeing your weekly recap of some of the lovely events that have happened in our school this week. If this is your first Good News Friday, welcome! We hope you enjoy this edition.

Last week, we welcomed new and returning staff and students to Cluny. We hope all are settling into their new timetables and enjoying being back in the Cluny.

To welcome all back to Cluny, fifth and sixth year students were our Cluny fairies in residence dropped welcome back treats to our first and second year students!

Our TY students had a fantastic day out in Carlingford on Tuesday. We had such amazing weather too! Thoroughly enjoyed by all.

A massive thank you to John O'Shea who spoke to our TY students about social entrepreneurship and what we can all do to help those in need around the world. An eye opening and inspirational talk.

TY Culinary Arts class, with some help from the TY Textiles class, enjoyed the fantastic weather this week and picked lots of blackberries which we will use to make Jam in their next class.

Artist Orla Kaminska did a lovely workshop with the second-year art class back in May and they made beautiful ceramic flowers to decorate our new raised beds.

We wish Anna Watson in sixth year a great year as our School Sports Leader for 23/24 sports year. Anna will be vital in the world of sport for all our students.

Well done to all who played their first season's friendly hockey matches against Newpark Comprehensive. Well done to our Seniors, Juniors and Minor hockey team. A special mention to Doireann Dowdall and Emily Woods who stepped in and played for our senior squad. Also, a special mention to Keela Murphy (fifth year), our senior goalkeeper and to Gemma McAteer (second year) who played Goalkeeper for our Junior Squad. Team Cluny - Go Cluny Go!

That is all for this week! We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 02 June 2023

Well done to all of our students who completed their summer tests today. We are proud of each of you!Best of luck to our sixth- and third-year students who will start their Leaving and Junior Certificate exams shortly.

We would like to wish Ms. Jacinta Joy the very best as she retires this week from Cluny. Jacinta began teaching in Cluny in 1985 and has been a stalwart of the school, a year head and taught French and German. Congratulations Jacinta on your retirement.

We are delighted to share that Alice Walker and Alana Hurley will be our Deputy Head Girl and Head Girl for the 2023-2024 school term.

Congratulations to our student Lily in second year who as part of the MGL South U-15 Girls team recently won the All Ireland Inter League Final against Longford 2-0. Lily scored one of the goals. Well done Lily!

We recently celebrated our sports end of year assembly here in Cluny. This assembly was a chance to reflect on the year’s sporting activities, highlight the achievements of our students and also announce the winner’s of the House Cup and Shield. Congratulations to all who were nominated for awards and a massive thank you to all of our students who took part in sporting activities over the year. Congratulations to Róisín O’Connor who won the senior sports person of the year award and to Mia McEntee who won the junior sports person of the year award. To see a full list of awards that were given, please visit our sports end of year assembly news piece.

Congratulations to our student Niamh who was interviewed by on Oliver Callan this morning. Niamh will star in the BBC drama 'Best Interest' which broadcasts on June 12th. To listen to this interview, please visit: https://buff.ly/3qgONkp

TYs celebrated their end of term assembly on Tuesday. Congratulations to Gwen who won the TY achievement folder award and to runner-up Firinne. We hope you all enjoyed this special event! To see a full list of the students who received awards during this event, please see our TY end of year assembly news piece.

After finishing Junk Kouture, students started a new textiles module which will continue next year. This year we based it on the locality and took photos of seascapes by Sandycove. Students then drew a design and made a textile panel based on their drawings.

The Ukrainian art club is taking a break over the summer months but they left this lovely thank you to us as part of Saturday's art class. This thank you message can be seen on our social media accounts.

Home Economics CBA1 required students to upcycle a household item to demonstrate the value of sustainability of textiles. Each student tie-dyed and embellished a plain cloth tote bag to create thus lovely selection of unique and creative designs.

We are delighted to have been included in the latest edition of the Le Chéile Connects newsletter. Recent news and events, accompanied by photos, were included in their newsletter on pages 17 and 18. If you would like to read this newsletter, please visit: Le Chéile Connects (lecheiletrust.ie)

First year students finished Picasso inspired themed self-portraits this week in art class. We are very impressed with their creativity!

We hope you all have a wonderful summer break. And remember, here at Cluny, we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 26 May 2023

We have one more week left in our school term; the weeks have flown by! We hope you are looking forward to hearing what happened this week at Cluny.

We would like to wish our fifth year students the very best of luck in their exams, which they started today.

Yesterday, we said farewell to the Class of 2023. We held a whole school ceremony to celebrate their six years here at Cluny. Well done to our Head Girl Grace and Deputy Head Girl Laura who gave speeches to our whole school. A massive thank you to each of our sixth years. Last night, we celebrated their graduation mass. Congratulations to Roisín O’Connor who won the Solas award and to Emily Daly who won the Outstanding Senior Student Award. We hope you all had a fantastic evening.

We also celebrated the junior subject awards this week. Our TY students received their certificates for their Junior Certificate exams. Students were also awarded by their teachers for their subject awards. Students who were nominated, received book prizes for their subjects. Congratulations to Sophia Kiefel and Hannelie Foley who won the Junior Certificate Achievement Awards.

Congratulations to our junior students who won €500 toward the continuation of their How Cool is Your School project.

Julia, Lucy and Gwen in TY raised money for St. Josephs Dementia home Shankill which they presented to them earlier this week.

We were delighted to be visited by Blue on Wednesday! It was a lovely surprise for all. Many thanks to Ms. Marren for organising this for us.

Congratulations to our Leaving Certificate computer science students who completed their computer exam on Wednesday. We are very proud of each of you.

Ava, Sofia, Lily, Grace and Aoife represented Cluny at an event in St. Joseph's Dementia Care Home to launch Alzheimer's Ireland teaching resources. While there, they also met with residents at St. Joseph's. Well done to all involved.

Fifth year chemistry students recently visited UCD school of Chemistry. We hope you all enjoyed your time there!

First year students finished Picasso inspired themed self-portraits this week in art class. We are very impressed with their creativity.

That is it for this week, we hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny, we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 19 May 2023

This week we started to celebrate our end of year assemblies. These assemblies are about gratitude for our school community and an opportunity to give thanks to one another for a fantastic year at Cluny.

On Tuesday, we celebrated our first year end of year assembly. Congratulations to Faye who won the Cairdeas award! This is awarded to a student who in the eyes of her peers has made a consistent effort to include every student in her year group.

On Thursday, we celebrated third and second year end of year assemblies. Well done to all involved. Ciara won the Léirgeas academic award as nominated by her teachers. In third year, Lucy recieved the Outstanding Junior Student award. Congratulations to Ciara and Lucy!

This morning, we celebrated the fifth year end of year assembly. We thanked our fifth year students for their hard work over the year and their participation in extracurricular activities including debating, our House system and student council. The winner of the Sr. Dolores Memorial award was Mimi.

We were delighted to welcome Sr. Teresa Rai, head of the Cluny worldwide order, to Cluny on Wednesday. Sr. Teresa lives in Paris and is currently visiting Cluny schools in Ireland. Sr. Teresa spoke to our whole student body about the important work of the Cluny Sisters and where she has visited worldwide. Thank you as well to Sr. Mary who is accompanying Sr. Teresa during her time here.

On Tuesday night, we were delighted to welcome parents and guardians to Cluny for our TY exhibition night. TYs were busy creating colourful displays showcasing the fantastic year they have had. These displays included photos from trips, projects from modules and lots more. Well done to all involved. A massive thank you as well to TY co-ordinator, Ms. O’Riordan.

Yesterday, students in TY enjoyed a kayaking trip.

Recently, fifth years took part in a qualitative study for ecology where they examined what organisms can be found in grassland areas.

That is all for this week! Next week, we will celebrate our Class of 2023 graduation here at Cluny. We hope you all have a relaxing weekend and will be ready for the week to come!

And remember, at Cluny, we grow and succeed together!

Friday 12 May 2023

Our annual sports day made its return to Cluny today! Students and staff enjoyed an array of activities including a 3km walk, dodgeball, bouncy castle, novelty and multi-sports. We were delighted to fundraise for a variety of charities throughout the day. Well done to all involved in running this event!

We were delighted to welcome the Class of 2003 back to Cluny last Friday for their school reunion. It was great to see you all. We hope you all had a fantastic time being back!

Second year Home Economics and Green Schools students enjoyed a trip to Shankill Community allotments on Monday. It was a very informative visit which all thoroughly enjoyed.

We were delighted to welcome Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Latvian Ambassador, HE Mr. Juris Štālmeistars to Cluny on Monday. TY students learned about the role of the European Union and also took part in a questions and answers session after the talk.

Students in first year Home Economics created an array of dishes for their end of year assessments. Culinary skills are a big part of the Junior Cycle course and it is wonderful to see the progress that these young people made in just one year.

Eleven TY French students went to the Alliance Francaise last week to take the DELF A2 exam. This was a great way for them to complete their year in French and get their language skills ready for the Leaving Certificate next year. And they had an authentic treat in the Chez Max cafe too!!

Fifth years took part in a qualitative study for ecology where they examined what organisms can be found in grassland areas. Well done to all!

Our first-year students raised €1000 for Goal in aid of the Syria and Turkey earthquake appeal. A fantastic achievement for all involved! Thank you as well to Ms. Kavanagh, Ms. Doyle and Ms. Rooney for helping the students organise their fundraisers.

We would like to invite all students, staff and parents/guardians to participate in the Summer Reading Challenge! Like last year, we have created a prompt list for you. Participants are tasked with reading something that matches each prompt over the summer and to compile your own unique reading list. This can be a great way to read something outside of your normal reading preferences.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. And remember, at Cluny, we believe, we belong and we become!

Friday 05 May 2023

We hope you all enjoyed the bank holiday weekend!

Well done to all of our TY students who completed their work experience this week. We are looking forward to hearing about your placements on your return next week.

We were delighted to welcome past pupil Naomi Cunningham back to Cluny this morning. Naomi received an award for achieving the highest result in applied maths in the country. Congratulations to Naomi and her teacher Ms. Delahunty! A major achievement!

A massive thank you to past pupil Isabel Lawlor Plazas who visited us this morning. Isabel spoke to students about her work as with a grassroots organisation called Second Tree. They provide education to refugees in remote parts of Northern Greece.

Second- and third-year students enjoyed a day out yesterday in Emerald Park! We hope you all had a fantastic day. Thank you to all involved for organising this trip.

Congratulations to Doireann Dowdall in first year who came third in her race at the East Leinster Athletics this week. Well done to all of our students who took part! We are proud of you all.

Our first-year students raised €1000 for Goal in aid of the Syria and Turkey earthquake appeal. A fantastic achievement for all involved! Thank you as well to Ms. Kavanagh, Ms. Doyle and Ms. Rooney for helping the students organise their fundraisers.

Well done to members of our Ember Team who graduated yesterday in DCU St. Patrick’s campus. We are proud of each of you.

We recently played against a match Dalkey as part of the Super Tennis Bowl Trophy. We hope you all enjoyed the match!

We would like to wish all of our TY students the very best of luck as well with their DELF exams next week.

We hope you all have a relaxing weekend! And remember, at Cluny, we believe, we belong, and we become!

Friday 28 April 2023

It is hard to believe that we are at the end of April already here at Cluny! The weeks are flying by. We hope you are excited to read the latest edition of Good News Friday.

Congratulations to our TY students Emma Jane Hughes, Lucy McElheron Woods and Rose Adams who won the Rubbish Film Festival yesterday with their short film! We are so proud of you! Well done to all involved in this film. Members of Green School collected this award on behalf of our TYs who are currently away on a trip.

Congratulations to Ms. Torpey and her first-year science class who have been invited as award nominees for the Cool School Competition ran by the Globe Program. A fantastic achievement for all involved!

Our TY students are in Waterford taking on the Greenway! We hope they are enjoying their cycling trip.

Well done to our sixth-year art students who completed the art practical exam for their leaving certificate exams yesterday.

We would like to say a massive thank you to pharmacist and entrepreneur Laura Dowling for talking to our TY students earlier this week. Laura spoke to students about her career as a community pharmacist and the founding of her brand. Students thoroughly enjoyed this talk. They also took part in a library RNLI talk earlier this week.

TY students applied their knowledge of the salad formula as well as their culinary and creative skills by planning and preparing a range of hot and cold salad dishes in Culinary Arts with Mr. Geraghty this week. Photos of their work can be found on our social media accounts!

Ms. Curtin announced the winners of the House Reading Challenge earlier this week. Well done to all of our staff and students who took part in the House Reading Challenge. Our teams collectively read 59,651 pages! What an achievement! Congratulations to Tahiti who were our overall winners. The winning House had a mini party in the library on Tuesday to celebrate. Thank you to all who took part.

We would like to wish Ms. Torpey and her 2Y science class the very best of luck in the Budding competition. They collected data over the last 2 months on budding and the effect of climate change. They submitted their entry this week to the Globe program.

That is all for this week! We hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend. And remember, here at Cluny, we believe, we belong and we become!

Friday 21 April 2023

Welcome back to all of our staff and students. We hope you all have a restful Easter break and are excited for the weeks to come here at Cluny.

Well done to our third-year music students who completed their junior certificate practical exams yesterday.

We were delighted to welcome the parents and guardians of our first-year students to Cluny yesterday evening for our first-year parents evening. We hope you enjoyed your time here with us! Many thanks to all who attended.

Students in second year, as part of their guidance class, visited IADT yesterday with Ms. Lambert and Ms. McFarland. They were brought on a tour of the campus and even had a chance to see the student art studios. Thank you to the IADT team for facilitating our visit.

This week, TY students took part in several workshops and talks including topics such as aquaculture, women in leadership and medicine, and a photography walking tour in the city centre.

We were delighted to welcome members of St. Joseph's Dementia Care Center, our sixth-year students' chosen charity for this year, to Cluny earlier this week. They spoke to TY students about dementia and dementia care. It was an informative talk about an important topic.

Students in TY are collecting food, toiletries and baby products for the homeless. This is a community action project part of the Dermot Early Leadership course. Donations are welcomed. All donations can be brought to the oratory. A suggestions list can be found on our school Instagram page.

We would also like to wish 2Y the very best of luck with their entry into the Budding Competition next week after months of data collection.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, here at Cluny, we dream of the days to come.

Friday 31 March 2023

Congratulations to our UCD Entrance Scholars who all received over 560 points. Well done to Emer Bolger, Naoise Curry, Ella Jones, Amy Kelly, Caoimhe Brady and Anna Healy. We are proud of you all.

This week we highlighted Autism Awareness Week here at Cluny. Each day, a different event took place to raise awareness on this important topic. On Tuesday, teachers made the effort to reduce the use of projectors in classrooms and on Wednesday, the school bell was not used in between classes. On Thursday, at lunchtime, a fundraiser "Tuck shop" took place to raise money for our sensory room. Finally, today all students took part in a silent disco. Thank you to all who took part and to those involved in organising each event.

Students in first year presented their findings from the Globe Program Project on how to keep the school cool during a heat wave this week. This was part of an international science research project competition. Congratulations and well done to all involved!

Congratulations to our third year Home Economics students who did fantastic work in their practical cookery exam on Monday and Tuesday. Their teachers, Mr. Geraghty and Mrs. Wolahan, are very proud of them.

Congratulations as well to our sixth-year music students who also completed their practical examinations on Monday and Tuesday this week.

Today we said goodbye to our French exchange students who are returning to Nantes, France. Students in TY held a farewell party for them during the week. We really hope they enjoyed their time here with us at Cluny.

Our past pupil Caoimhe Dempsey featured in the Independent recently for her success on winning the women’s Boat Race with Cambridge. This is her third successive win. For more information and to read the article, please see: https://buff.ly/3ZfGTDH

The latest edition of our school newsletter is now available to view on our website. Please see the following to access the newsletter: https://buff.ly/3PNQI8Y

That is it for this week, we hope you all have a lovely Easter break. We are looking forward to seeing you all again shortly. And remember, at Cluny, we dream of the days to come.

Friday 24 March 2023

Today we have an extended edition of Good News Friday to catch up on school news from the last three weeks. We hope you are looking forward to hearing what has been happening in Cluny.

Today we welcomed 100 Danish students from Mellerup Musikefterskole to Cluny. These students are currently touring and performing around Europe with Cluny being one of their Irish stops. This was a wonderful concert that all enjoyed. Well done to our own students who also performed during this concert. Thank you to all involved!

On Wednesday, to mark World Water Day, 1W ran an awareness campaign about how to save water. They created posters which featured key tips including by not running taps and taking shorter showers. In CSPE, they created a handy list of tips which is available on our website for all to access: https://buff.ly/3LJFL8p

It was Enterprise and Business Week at Cluny. Students across each year group enjoyed a multitude of themed activities and guest speakers. We welcomed journalist John O’Shea to Cluny who spoke to TY students about social entrepreneurship. Yesterday, we welcomed author John Lowe who spoke to students about his book Money Doctor and provided them with tips on financial management. Students in fifth year attended an online talk about fraud. First and second year students attended an online junior financial literacy talk. Fifth year students enjoyed a Business Breakfast today. A busy week of events! Thank you to our business department for organizing this week of fun events.

Fifth year students visited UCD earlier this week for a campus tour and information session. We would like to thank UCD for facilitating our visit.

Congratulations to sixth year music student Ellen who came second in the song-writing competition at the Wesley Inter-schools Music Festival. She was commended for the originality of the song. We are delighted with your success Ellen.

On Wednesday the 8th of March, we celebrated International Women’s Day. TY students took part in a women in STEM webinar in the morning. Later, they welcomed relatives of current students to Cluny library where they learned about their different careers and career paths which included animation, HR, music and banking. Thank you to all who joined us for this day. Ms. Marren also invited all students to a celebratory singalong session before we finished the day.

We were delighted to hold an international student festival in the school foyer. Our international students set up stalls representing their home countries which included information on their histories and cultures. Students also prepared fun activities, games and made snacks for all to enjoy. Countries represented included Ukraine, Germany, Japan, France and Spain. Well done to all involved.

We recently celebrated Harry Potter week at the library. A collection of themed displays, raffles, activities and quizzes were available to students to take part in. We were delighted to welcome students from Johnstown and The Harold to Cluny library to take part in these events. Well done to our TY students who were their buddies throughout their time here. A shout out to Laura in second year and Lucy in TY who won the two raffles as part of Harry Potter Week. We hope you all enjoyed the week’s activities.

We were delighted to welcome Simone and Nigel to Cluny to run a sound bath meditation session with our first-year students. Featuring Tibetan bowls, this was a relaxing and peaceful event which all thoroughly enjoyed.

Fifth- and sixth-year students recently enjoyed a biology trip to Dublin Zoo.

Well played Cluny first- and second-year basketball teams split matches with Teresians. Minor team came up short and the junior team won their match. Win or Loss we are proud of you girls!

Fifth year students with Ms. Keenan and Mr. Geraghty attended the Le Chéile Student Symposium in Knock a few weeks ago. Well done to all involved.

We are delighted to have featured in the 1st of March edition of the Southside People. To read more and see the photos taken from the day, please visit: https://buff.ly/3YpZ2y7

That is all for this week. We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember at Cluny, we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 03 March 2023

Today we welcomed parents and families of current, past and incoming students to Cluny for our sixth-year coffee morning and book sale. All donations received will be donated to St. Joseph’s Shankill, the sixth years chosen charity. We were delighted to welcome you all to Cluny and we hope you enjoyed your time with us here.

Yesterday we celebrated World Book Day with lots of different themed events. A fundraiser dress up as your favourite book character event was held with funds being collected for St. Joseph’s Shankill. A literature themed Kahoot and a visit from the Cluny Book Fairy also took place! Well done to all who took part.

Our Leaving Cert students Susan, Eimear and Naomi have been awarded the Entrance Exhibition this year at Trinity College Dublin. Well done girls, a fantastic achievement!

Students in first year raised €450 for the Syria and Turkey Earthquake appeal last week during their bake sale. An absolutely fantastic initiative! Well done to all involved.

Our senior hockey team is through to the semi-final of Leinster schoolgirls Hockey League and our minor hockey squad through to the Quarter final of Leinster Schoolgirls Hockey League. Go, Cluny, go!

Junior Cycle Home Economics students are practicing in earnest for their practical exams coming up in March. Best of luck to all!

We are starting our Globe Program Research project here at Cluny. We will be examining how to keep our school cool during a heatwave. This involves real life data collection which we will be doing throughout March.

We were delighted to welcome ceramic artist Orla Kaminska to Cluny. Orla will be designing an artwork in the Cluny grounds. She met with TY students to explore her creative design processes with an interactive drawing workshop in the library. We are looking to seeing Orla again shortly.

Students in second year enjoyed a trip to the national art gallery this week with Ms. Egan and Ms. O’Keeffe. They saw the Zurich portrait prize and then went to Merrion Square for some fresh air! We hope you had a fantastic day.

On Wednesday, students in TY took part in an energetic drumming workshop in the study hall. Students also completed first aid training this week. Well done to all of our TYs.

That is all for this week. We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, here in Cluny we learn and we grow together.

Friday 24 February 2023

Welcome back to all of our staff and students! We hope you all had an enjoyable midterm break.

On Wednesday, we were visited by Minister for Education Norma Foley and TD Cormac Devlin. Minister Foley spoke to our whole school community in the concert hall. Afterwards she held a questions and answers session with our students. After meeting with students, Minister Foley was brought on a school tour. We would like to say thank you to Minister Foley and TD Cormac Devlin for visiting us.

Well done to our first-year students who organised a bake sale today. All funds raised will be donated to the Turkey and Syria earthquake appeal.

Today, we did a Drop Everything and Read event as part of Ireland Reads. All students and staff read for 15 minutes from books of their choices. Ms. Curtin, school librarian, also held a pop-up library to facilitate book borrowing and reading awareness as part of this DEAR event. We hope you all enjoyed this reading time!

Congratulations to our first year Under-14 Badminton players who became Dublin Champions this week! Well done to Tifera, Gala, Patricia and Sarah.

Senior history students enjoyed a trip to Belfast this week with Ms. Byrne and Ms. Joy. Students had a chance to visit historical landmarks around Belfast city and visit Stormont. We hope you all enjoyed this trip.

Well done to our Senior Hockey team who played a very successful Leinster League Hockey Match today. Go, Cluny, go!

Well done to TY students Grace Groarke and Emma-Jane Hughes who presented Cluny last Saturday at the PhilSpeaks Schools Mace Debating Competition in TCD where they competed with students from all over the country.

Three Third Year students succeeded in reaching the Octo-finals of the Junior Leinster Schools debates and competed last night in UCD. Well done to Aimee Walsh, Layla Gavigan and Ellen Kearns in reaching this stage of the competition and a special congratulations to Ellen who has made it through to the quarter finals!

Well done to our Amber Flag Committee who made pancakes on Pancake Tuesday for all of our second year cohort to recognise all of their hard work on their CBAs.

The very best of luck to our three Second Year students, Eimear Keogh, Lilith Fitzgerald and Ciara Fitzpatrick who are representing Cluny at The Irish Federation of University Women Public Speaking Competition on Saturday in Trinity.

Next week we will celebrate World Book Day! On Thursday 02 March, all students are invited to take part in a school-wide dress as a book character day. €2 donations for St. Joseph’s Shankill will also be collected.

Next Friday, our sixth years are looking forward to welcoming you all to Cluny for a coffee morning and book drive, in aid of St. Joseph’s of Shankill.

That is all for this week! Wishing you all a fantastic weekend. And remember, here at Cluny we dream of the days ahead.

Friday 10 February 2023

We are finishing today for our midterm break. Well done to all of our junior and senior students who completed their final mock exams today. We hope you have a lovely and well deserved break.

TYs were away on work experience this week. We are looking forward to hearing about your experiences and placements.

Fifth year students enjoyed a trip to Berlin with Ms. O’Keeffe, Mr. Moore and Ms. Wolahan this week. They explored many of the city's historic landmarks and tourist attractions. We hope you all have a fantastic time.

Second year students enjoyed a trip to the DLR Lexicon Library in Dún Laoghaire today for a library tour. Many thanks to librarian Emma for showing us around the fantastic facilities in the Lexicon. There was even time for ice cream at Teddys afterwards! The second years thoroughly enjoyed this day out.

Our Chairperson Ms. Margaret O'Donoghue, Alison and Abigail in TY and our Principal Mr. Ben Healy attended the Le Chéile conference last week in Mullingar. The theme was harmony of hearts, hands and mind in Catholic Education.

All that are taking part in the House Reading Challenge are reminded to record their total number of read pages in their team reading logs. The deadline for entry is the 17th of March. If anyone is unsure on how to record their read pages, let Ms. Curtin know.

On Friday the 24th of February, we will have a Drop Everything and Read event as part of Ireland Reads, Ireland’s National Day of Reading. Be sure to bring something to read on Friday or call into the library to pick up something to read!

We hope you all have a fantastic midterm break. And remember, here in Cluny, we dream of the days to come.

Friday 03 February 2023

On Tuesday, our sixth year students started their mock exams. They were shortly followed by our third year students who started their mocks on Thursday. We continue to wish them all the very best of luck.

The Ember Team and The Cluny Chaplaincy Team created small gifts for each student doing their mock exams which included a prayer, sweets and pen. Thank you to the fifth year students and members of the Ember Team for putting together these thoughtful gifts.

First year buddies were also thinking of their sixth years as they created good luck cards to attach to their buddies lockers. Well done to all.

This week we celebrated St. Brigid’s Day - Lá Fhéile Bríde - and welcomed in the start of spring here at Cluny. St. Brigid’s Day is a day of hope, strength and remembrance for one of our patron saints. Students made St. Brigid’s Crosses from a variety of materials, even pipe cleaners. Well done to all who took part.

Amber Flag practised making pancakes in preparation for pancake Tuesday after the midterm when we will surprise a year group with a treat!

TYs had a busy week that included a sushi making workshop and a talk from marine zoologist Danielle Crowley. We hope you enjoyed these events!

TYs will celebrate their successful School of Rock musical performances today.

Congratulations to the under-14 Badminton players who are through to the Dublin League semi-finals! We wish you the best of luck. Well done to our under-16s badminton players who came in second place as part of the Dublin League this week.

On Tuesday 07 February, as part of Internet Safety Day, there is a free online talk for parents, guardians and educators on the topic of internet safety for tweens and teens. For more information, please visit: https://buff.ly/3Jwb99j

We would like to wish all of our TY students who are completing work experience next week the very best of luck. We are looking forward to hearing about how your work placements are.

Our fifth year students will be on a school trip next week to Berlin. We hope you have a fantastic time.

That is it for this week. We hope you all have a relaxing weekend. And remember, here at Cluny, we dream of the days to come.

Friday 27 January 2023

This week we celebrated Catholic Schools Weeks and held multiple performances of our TY school musical The School of Rock. We were delighted to welcome so many people to Cluny to celebrate these events with us.

To mark the beginning of Catholic Schools Week 2023, we were delighted to welcome Sr. Maeve, former principal of Cluny. Sr. Maeve spoke at a whole school assembly to students about the important work of the Cluny Sisters, inspired by the life and work of Blessed Anne-Marie Javouhey.

On Wednesday, we held grandparents and person of commitment day at Cluny Library. Students were asked to invite someone important to them, a person of commitment or a grandparent to join us for some refreshments and a chance to get to know one another. This was a fantastic event. Thank you to all who attended and many thanks to our Chapliancy Team for their hard work in organising it.

From Tuesday night until tonight, our TY students, as well as students from Blackrock College, were busy rehearsing and putting on performances of our school musical The School of Rock. This was a massive success which was met with overwhelming positivity. Students received standing ovations after their performances and some members of the crowd even got up to dance along during the encores! To see photos and clips from the performances, be sure to visit our social media accounts. Well done to all of our students, Ms. Masterson and Ms. O’Dwyer for putting together this unforgettable show.

We were delighted to welcome our 60+ incoming first year students to Cluny this week for an information evening. We look forward to welcoming you as our new first years in the new term.

TY students who are taking part in Junk Kouture had their photos taken this week of their final costumes. Well done for all of your creativity and hard work on putting these costumes together.

Congratulations to our Under 19 A badminton team who came in second place this week in the Leinster Finals. Well done as well to our Under 19 B badminton team who came in first place in Dublin. We are proud of you all.

House Captains and Vice Captains are recruiting students and staff for their reading teams in the return of the House Reading Challenge. Teams are tasked with reading the most number of pages from now until the 17th of March. Whichever team reads the most pages will win a prize! If you are interested in taking part, let your House Captain or Vice-Captain know or you can email your House and name to library@clunykilliney.ie and Ms. Curtin will add you to the team.

In conjunction with the sixth-year coffee morning event in March, we will be holding a book drive to raise funds for St. Joseph's of Shankhill. For this, we are looking for donations from staff and students. If you have any second hand books that you would like to donate, you can drop them into the oratory where there are donation boxes set up. Thank you to all who have donated so far.

That is it for this week! Students will be starting their mock exams here next week and we would like to wish them all the very best of luck. And remember, here at Cluny, we dream of the days to come.

Friday 20 January 2023

Another week over here at Cluny and it has been a busy one! With final rehearsals underway ahead of our TY musical production of the School of Rock, in conjunction with Blackrock College, we are excited for the week to come.

If you haven’t gotten your ticket yet for the School of Rock, tickets are on sale for the 25, 26 and 27 from our Eventbrite. Tickets are available for shows on Thursday night. Please visit our Eventbrite for more information.

Congratulations to second year student Emma Mooney who was selected for the Dublin Ladies Basketball Board Under-14 Girls Team. Well done, Emma!

Students in sixth year were presented with their certificates and medals of accomplishment for their success with the Silver Gaisce. Congratulations and well done to all! We are proud of each of you. Thank you to Ger for visiting us today to present these medals to our students.

The House Reading Challenge is back! Teams are challenged to read as much as they can between now and 17 of March. Teams record the number of pages they have read to the team reading log. At the end of the challenge, all pages are added together for the team's total score. Whoever reads the most, wins! Let's get reading!

Our first horse riding lessons took place last Wednesday. Students were delighted to visit Brennanstown Riding School. Horse riding lessons will now take place every Wednesday for the next 10 weeks. Well done to all involved!

Students in TY enjoyed a trip to see a Spanish film at the Mermaid Arts Theatre in Bray. This was followed by Tapas in Greystones. We hope you all had a great time! Thank you to Mr. Moore for organising this trip.

On Wednesday the 25th of January, as part of Catholic School's Week, students are invited to ask their Grandparent and or a person of commitment in their lives for a tea and coffee morning in Cluny library. See here for more information: https://buff.ly/3w6WdGH

Religious sisters and Sierra Leone featured in this week's Irish Times. This letter features the important work done by the Sisters of Cluny, including that of Sr. Teresa. To read the full letter, please visit: https://buff.ly/3QLRZhm

That is all for this week, we are looking forward to welcoming you all to Cluny next week as part of Catholic Schools Week and for our TY production of the School of Rock. We hope you all have lovely weekends. And remember, here at Cluny, we dream of the days to come.

Friday 13 January 2023

Welcome back to our first edition of Good News Friday for 2023. We hope you all had a lovely festive period and would like to wish you all a very happy new year.

Our students took part in a fantastic talent show before we finished for our Christmas break. Students from every year took part. Acts included singing, dancing and even some water aerobics. Thank you to Ms. Marren and our judges for their help in organising this event.

We are proud to present our TY Show, in association with Blackrock College, The School of Rock The Musical. This show will take place on the 25, 26 and 27 of January. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours today from our Eventbrite: https://buff.ly/3Qu5Usb

Congratulations to first year student Alannah O'Neill Byrne who recently became a champion ballroom dancer. She has returned from Blackpool after competing in a final Champions of Tomorrow where she won a trophy.

First year students enjoyed a trip to the BT Young Scientist exhibition yesterday with the science department. We hope you had an enjoyable day out.

On the 6th of January, we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany. This feast commemorates the visit of the wise men to worship the baby Jesus. As a school we marked this day by adding the Three Wise Men to the crib and with prayers led by Mr. Healy, Mr. Geraghty and Ms. Keenan.

Congratulations to our Senior A Hockey Team who won their game against St Raphaela's in the Senior Plate Cup Match at Cluny on Wednesday. Go, Cluny, go! Thank you to St Raphaela's for a great game.

TYs had a talk from Breast Cancer Ireland on Tuesday. They raised €288 for the charity during their Christmas Fair. They presented the cheque to Olivia Carpenter from Breast Cancer Ireland. Thank you to Olivia for coming to talk to us on this important subject.

A huge thank you as well to Hannah Collins-Rigney, author of The Bee Bops, for her informative talk to our TY students.

That is all for this week. We hope you all have a wonderful week. And remember, at Cluny, we succeed and grow together.

Friday 16 December 2022

We are approaching the Christmas break here at Cluny. We hope you all had a wonderful week.

This week we celebrated our annual Christmas Carol Service. This was the first time we have been able to celebrate in person in three years. We were delighted to welcome you all to Cluny for this festive occasion. Congratulations and well done to our students who performed fantastically at the event last night. A big thank you to Ms. Masterson and members of the religion department for helping make this event the success that it was.

The TY Christmas Cheer committee commenced their events to bring Christmas Cheer to Cluny. They are running events for each year group as well as whole school events. There will be lots of surprises, treats and fun over the next week. Fifth years had a surprise hot chocolate and treats class organised by Christmas Cheer Committee this week. Second and third year students enjoyed a movie as well as part of Christmas Cheer.

TYs had an inspiring talk and kick boxing workshop from past pupil Aoife Byrne who is a personal trainer and stunt performer. Thank you to Aoife for visiting us and for running this fantastic event.

The library has released a Christmas Reading Guide today. This guide includes book recommendations based on library recommendations, what is popular in the library, BookTok and books that have recently been adapted to film and TV. This reading guide is available here on the website.

Today was the deadline for donations to the Saint Vincent de Paul Christmas hampers. Members of the VDP team will be on site tomorrow to create the final hampers. Well done to our Ember Team for their hard work in organising and collecting for this initiative.

Next week, students have the opportunity to participate in our annual talent show. Auditions will take place on Monday.

Green Schools will be running a Christmas Upcycling Workshop at the TY Christmas Fair next week. Students are reminded to donate materials for this to the donation box. Gentle reminder, students will need to bring the material they would like to upstyle with them to school on Monday for this workshop.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny, we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 09 December 2022

Well done to all our students who completed their Christmas tests this week. We are proud of you all. Yesterday, we celebrated the feast day of the Immaculate Conception.

Our Ember Team started their collection for the VDP hamper collection on Wednesday. All donations should be brought to the oratory. This collection is taking place until the 16th of December. The Ember Team created a helpful list on what can or should be included in hampers which is available at the following link: https://buff.ly/3P7kOUs

Sports fixtures for December and January are now available to view on our website. Visit the following news article for more information. Please note, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council have issued a closure notice for all pitches from Monday 12 December until 15 January 2023. Therefore, soccer matches scheduled for Monday 12 December and Tuesday 13 December are postponed until the new year.

We are delighted to share that our Carol Service will return next week here at Cluny. This event will take place on Thursday, 15 of December from 19:30 until 21:00 and include 60 students. Tickets are selling fast! For more information on this event and to purchase tickets, please visit out Eventbrite page.

Our sixth-year students are selling Christmas cards to fundraise for Saint Joseph’s Shankill, this year's chosen charity. A packet of 5 cards costs €10 and all proceeds will go towards this worthy cause.

The TY library committee were busy decorating the library for Christmas this week. Well done for all of your hard work!

On Monday, we launched a survey for our past pupils. This survey investigates how our past pupils prefer to stay in contact with classmates and up to date on Cluny news. This survey is specifically examining your thoughts on our Facebook and past pupils' website. If you are a past pupil and you would like to take part, please visit our Microsoft Forms survey here.

That is it for this week! We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. And remember, in Cluny, we succeed and grow together.

Friday 02 December 2022

Christmas tests began this week in Cluny and we welcomed in the start of the festive period. We hope you are excited for today’s edition of Good News Friday.

We would like to wish all of our students who started their tests this week the best of luck.

Advent is a reminder that our life on earth is a preparation for the life of eternity in heaven; and that we wait for the coming of Christ to take us home. Thank you to our Chaplaincy Team who set up out advent space in our school foyer.

Congratulations to our first-year student Amelie Hetherington who won the confined championship for Under-13s at feile Rince Corpus Christi last weekend.

We are delighted to have held a themed week in the library this week on Inspiring Women from Irish History. The TY library committee created posters on Irish women who inspire them. They made posters on Vicky Phelan, Rosie Hackett, Grace O’Malley, Mary Robinson, Constance Markievicz and Dr. Kathleen Lynn. There was also display boards featuring activities and biographies from inspiring Irish women. Well done to students in 3Y who completed a Kahoot quiz on inspiring women during the week.

Congratulations to our first-year students Gemma McAteer, Lily O Gara, Sadie Grant and Isabella Högger for their recent nominations to Leinster Under-14s Hockey Development. If successful, they may be selected for a Regional or National Hockey festival in the new year. Best of luck!

Sixth years tried building clay heads for the first time this term and produced some amazing results. Well done everyone involved! You can see photos of their artwork on our Twitter feed.

We had a celebration for TY students on Tuesday to celebrate their fantastic Junior Cert Results. TY students also had a very engaging CSI Workshop on Wednesday.

That is it for this week! We hope you enjoy your weekends. And remember, in Cluny, we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 25 November 2022

It is hard to believe that we are almost into December! With exams starting for some students next week, we are sure to have a few busy weeks ahead!

Congratulations to our current TY students who received their Junior Certificate results on Wednesday. We are so proud of each and every one of you.

Today we said goodbye to Ms. Trish Shanley who has been with us for 18 years. We held a whole school assembly to say farewell to Trish. We will miss her here at Cluny but wish her all the very best in her new role.

We celebrated Science Week here at Cluny. Thank you to our science department for running a week filled with fun activities. Thank you to marine biologist Aidan Long who spoke to students about conservation of fish and jellyfish populations. Well done to first years Abigail, Isabella, Doireann and Sarah who won the first-year measurement relay. Congratulations to third year students Sara, Aitana and Christina who won the bridge construction challenge. On Wednesday, we had a deadly dinners session in the lab with fifth years. Yesterday the whole school took part in a big science quiz with all years taking part at the same time. Today, we also had the riddle race. A massive well done to all and we hope you all enjoyed the week!

This week, we also highlighted College Awareness Week. Thank you to Ms. McFarland for organising a range of educational events and outreach sessions for our students. Past pupils Emma Nolan and Grace Power returned to Cluny to talk to our fifth and sixth years about their college experience. Thank you to Emma and Grace, we were delighted to welcome you back to Cluny.

Thank you to Dr. Emily Mark-Fitzgerald who spoke to our senior students today about UCD’s new BA programme in Creative and Cultural Industries.

Well done to Emma Jane and Grace in TY who represented Cluny last Saturday at the Soroptimists Dublin heats. Emma Jane spoke about how our prosperity should be measured by our health, rather than wealth, and Grace spoke about the role social media plays in promoting peace and democracy in our world. Well done, girls!

Our sixth-year students held a fundraiser pub quiz in aid of Saint Joseph's Shankill, a dementia care centre. This quiz took place in Brady’s Pub, Shankhill, last night. Well done to our sixth-year students for organising this fantastic event and thank you to all our teams who took part.

The library launched its Winter Readathon this week. Students are invited to read as much as they can and whatever they’d like between the 23rd of November and the 9th of January. Whoever reads the most from each year will receive a prize in January. All who are interested in taking part should let Ms. Curtin know.

Last Friday, our students attended an event at the Harold School. The Harold were attempting to break a record for the most Christmas crackers pulled at the same time. This was a lovely event that we all thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you to the Harold for hosting this fun day.

That is it for this week! We hope you all enjoy your weekends. And remember, in Cluny, we succeed and grow together.

Friday 18 November 2022

It was Anti-Bullying Week here at Cluny. This week, students learned about inclusion and awareness for others and the effects bullying has on those who are exposed to it. Inclusion was a central theme for the week. As part of this week, we also celebrated Stand Up Awareness week. Throughout the week, Ms. O’Keeffe organised an excellent week of activities for all students. Thank you to Ms. O’Keeffe and the LGBTQIA+ group for all your hardwork.

Our junior students attended a talk from As I Am today as part of our anti-bullying week. Students were taught about autism awareness and understanding during this interactive workshop. Thank you to Finbarr for coming to talk to us on this important topic.

We are looking forward to welcoming our Class of 2010 back to Cluny tonight for their school reunion.

Our school foyer was decorated by student made rainbow umbrellas and decorations. They also created an informative display board highlighting some inspirational Irish members of the LGBTQIA+ community and famous quotes from them.

Our Rainbow Bake Off featured fantastic work of our students on Monday. Ms. O'Keeffe, Ms. Wolahan and Mr. Geraghty had a tough choice to select our winner! Congratulations to Sinead Finkielman in first year who won today. Well done to all of our students for their fantastic entries!

Yesterday we held our rainbow flag colours day. All years were invited to wear their assigned rainbow colour. At lunchtime, we then recreated a rainbow flag in the school car park. Well done to all!

Last night, we held our Parents’ Council AGM. We were delighted to welcome Joanna Fortune to this event. We would like to thank Joanna for talking to and for her Q&A session afterwards. It was incredibly interesting and insightful. For more information on Joanna and her work, please visit her website: www.solamh.com

On Tuesday, we welcomed Emer O’Neill who spoke to students about her experiences growing up with racism and bullying. She discussed with our students the racism that she has faced both in the past and in recent times. This was an eye-opening and impactful talk. Thank you from all here at Cluny to Emer.

Students took part in a bracelet making workshop on lunchtime on Tuesday in the art room. They made some lovely bracelets which can be seen on our social media accounts.

Well done to our Senior Concern team debaters who competed against Clonturk Community School in the second round of the Concern debates.

Cluny TYs recorded their own radio show for Blackrock College Radio which goes live this week. Well done to all involved, particularly to our student producers who made it all happen.

Our first-year students enjoyed a trip to the National Art Gallery this week. Ms. Egan led students in discussing and analyzing paintings through exploring their five senses. Thank you to Ms. Egan and Ms. O'Keeffe for organising this fun day out!

Well done to TY students Ava Mulcahy, Grace Larkin and Keela Murphy who represented Cluny at the annual Comhairle na nÓg at the Talbot Hotel this week. The focus of this year’s AGM was Seldom Heard Voices.

Some fantastic sporting events took place in the last week. Our Hockey Senior 1 had a great win over Lucan Community College, 6-0 win for Cluny as part of the Leinster League. Our Hockey Senior 2 also had a great win over Mount Anville at the final whistle 2-1 in their first Leinster League match. Our Under 19 A Badminton players defeated Maryfield, 6-0, in the Dublin South League.

Next week is science week here at Cluny. Keep an eye out for all of our fantastic themed events. It is also College Awareness Week (CAW) and we will have a plethora of educational and informational resources available to our students in relation to this.

That’s it for another week! We hope you all enjoy your weekends. And remember, here at Cluny we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 11 November 2022

Welcome back to all our staff and students. We hope you have all settled back into school after the midterm break. We have an event-filled term ahead of us and we hope you are looking forward to it.

Congratulations to our class prefects, vice prefects and ABC committee members who received their badges this morning at a whole school assembly. We wish you the best in the weeks to come.

Last night we welcomed our third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year students as well as their parents and guardians to Cluny for a careers fair. A massive thank you to all speakers and third level institutions which came to discuss further education opportunities with our students. As part of this event, there was a CAO talk in the library at 20:00. We would like to especially thank our Parents Council and Ms. McFarland for all of their hard work which made this event possible.

Our Principal, Mr. Healy, wrote about our upcoming Anti Bullying week which will occur across all 700+ secondary schools in Ireland. He highlights the importance of inclusion in school alongside our planned events next week. To read this message, please visit: https://buff.ly/3hkFJXc

Yesterday, the ABC Committee held a free baking event called 'take-a-cake'. This event encouraged students to bring in cakes to share with their peers under the principles of it is nice to be nice. This event was a great success. Thank you to the ABC Committee and Ms. Marren for organising this lovely event.

Congratulations to our student Mia, who has been selected for Ireland's Under-16s 32 player basketball team for the 2022-23 season.

Leaving Cert music students enjoyed a trip to the IFI this week to see the Irish National Opera‘s screening of Alice’s Adventures Underground. This talk included a Q&A with Gerald Barry, who composed the music for the opera and is a composer of one of the pieces on the Leaving Cert course.

Congratulations to our Under-19s and Under-14s badminton players who had fantastic games recently. A win for our Under-19s against Holy Faith Clontarf and a draw for our Under-14s against Woodland Academy. Well done to Sofia, Grace, Aoife, Ally, Ava, Sophie, Seren and Lexi!

First year students recently visited the De La Salle Retreat Centre in Ballyfermot for their first annual retreat. The day focused on providing a space where all could explore their faith, who journey and search for meaning.

Well done to TY students who successfully participated in the Outdoor Pursuits Module this autumn. Special congratulations to both Lucy C. and Lucy W. who both finished in joint first place!

Congratulations and big shout out to TY students Holly Porter and Lucy Campbell for being awarded during the Dublin GAA Trials.

Well done to our Minor A hockey team who played against Our Lady's Terenure in their first Leinster League Hockey Match. They achieved a fantastic final score with a 0-0 draw.

Sporting fixtures for upcoming games and matches in November and December can now be viewed on our website! Visit the following page for more information: https://buff.ly/3A2Pb8k

Next week, we will welcome the class of 2010 back to Cluny for their school reunion. We look forward to seeing you all.

Our Parent Council AGM will take place next Thursday, November 17th from 19:30 until 20:30. We will be joined by special guest Joanna Fortune, Psychotherapist, Author and Parenting Consultant for Newstalk FM. We are looking forward to welcoming you all to Cluny.

That is it for this week. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend. And remember, here in Cluny we support and cheer for each other every day.

Friday 28 October

We finish for our midterm break today and what a busy week we have had! We hope you are looking forward to the latest edition of our Good News Friday!

Our sixth-year students are currently enjoying a trip to Paris! Students arrived in France on Wednesday and since then have been enjoying a variety of cultural pursuits including visiting the Eifel Tower and the Louvre, taking part in walking tours, doing a street art classes and today they have ventured to Disneyland Paris. We hope they are all having a fantastic time.

Our transition year students are away this week on their first work experience placements. We are looking forward to hearing about their experiences after the midterm break.

Students in first, third and sixth year all took part in Study Skills workshops this week. During these sessions, students were given tips on how to study in preparation for their upcoming exams.

Well done to our senior hockey team who played against St. Gerards last Saturday. While the score was 0-3, the loss does not deter us. We will fight on!

Students are reminded that our Team Hope Shoebox Collection is now open for donations. Completed boxes must be handed in after we return from midterm break on Monday the 7th of November. All boxes are being collected on Tuesday the 8th of November from the school.

Our Careers Evening for TYs, fifth and sixth year students will take place on Thursday 10th November 2022. Join us for 19:00 for a chance to meet career and college representatives. We are looking forward to seeing you all there.

Our Parent Council AGM will take place on Thursday, November 17 from 19:30 until 20:30. We will be joined by special guest Joanna Fortune, Psychotherapist, Author and Parenting Consultant for Newstalk FM. For more information, please visit: https://buff.ly/3TDhh16

That is it for this edition! We hope you all have a safe and relaxing Halloween break. We look forward to seeing you all back again in November. And remember, in Cluny we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 21 October

It is Maths Week at Cluny and to celebrate, we held a math treasure hunt around the school this morning for our first- and sixth-year buddies. Students had to solve all the maths puzzles around the school to reveal their next clue location. Well done to all! Congratulations to buddies Nina Tandy and Alannah O'Neill who came in third place, buddies Nicole Ryan and Sarah Merrigan and Aoife Mac Neill and Alice Fitzgerald who came in joint second, and to buddies Laura O'Leary and Niamh McGorrian who came in first place. Thank you to Ms. Davis and the maths department for organising this fun event.

Students in second year enjoyed an outing today to Wicklow Gaol and Bray Bowl. TY students also enjoyed a day out today as they went ziplining at ZipIt.

Our House Captains, Vice Captains, Mr. Randolph and Ms. Seymour were busy this week organising our Halloween Fundraiser on Wednesday. Students and staff wore their best Halloween costumes and entered our annual fashion show as part of our House System’s fundraiser. Well done to all.

Congratulations to Mimi Birchell, Isabelle White, Paula Wassondela, Shauna Brocklesby, Alison Wolahan, Abigail Byrne and Rebecca Nolan who received their Ember badges yesterday after their training with Sister Concepta Foley from the Ember Faith Development programme.

On Monday, students in TY attended a Q&A Zoom with the Chairperson of the Afghan Council of Ireland to learn more about the refugee crisis and the challenges girls are currently facing in Afghanistan. Thanks to Ms McNamara for organising this wonderful opportunity.

Also on Monday, students in first year took part in a creative writing workshop with Poetry Ireland. Students learned about writing haikus and went on a nature walk around the school grounds for inspiration. Several students then entered into a haiku competition being run by Poetry Ireland. Thank you to Maeve for delivering this workshop for us in the library.

Our Leaving Certificate English students attended a performance of The Gaiety School’s ‘Macbeth’ at the Clasac Theatre yesterday.

We are delighted to welcome our new Student Council for the 2022-2023 term. Well done to each of our students who were elected to the council by their peers: Grace Watson 6N, Roisin O'Connor 6L (Chairperson), Laura O'Leary 6C, Clodagh O'Donnell 6N, Saoirse Whelan 6C (Public Relations), Mimi Birchall 5C (Treasurer), Sarah Grumley 5N (Secretary), Ava Watts 4N, Grace Larkin 4C, Niamh Sheehan 3W, Corina Ng 3Y, Lexi O'Brien 2W, Emma Mooney 2Y, Tifera Newenya 1W and Hannah Byrne 1Y.

There are lots of new books available for students to borrow in the library ahead of the midterm break. Next week, students will also be able to collect reading bundles – a collection of books put together by Ms. Curtin on a theme or genre. These books will be available for collection from Monday onwards. Students are reminded they can borrow up to 4 books for 3 weeks.

Our Headstrong Committee placed chocolates and positive quotes on everyone's lockers on Tuesday morning. Thank you to all involved for the lovely surprise!

Our annual shoebox appeal is starting next week! Students can get leaflets from Ms. Keenan in room 2. The first day of collection for the shoeboxes is next Friday 28 of October and the final day for bringing your boxes is Monday the 07 of November.

Our senior hockey team will play against St. Gerards in the senior cup tomorrow morning here at Cluny. The match is due to start at 11:00 tomorrow morning. All are welcome and encouraged to come and support the team! Go, Cluny, go!

That is all for this week. We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny we celebrate our achievements and successes.

Friday 14 October

This week we highlighted Mental Health Awareness Week as well as Climate Action Week.

As part of Climate Action Week, we held several themed day activities including Meat Free Monday, No Trash Tuesday and Walk on Thursday. Well done to all our staff and students for taking part.

To celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week, we had live music every lunchtime as everyone was invited to play musical instruments, busk and sing karaoke in the school foyer. On Tuesday, students made bracelets in the labs. On Thursday, we had free hot chocolates and fresh fruit for all to enjoy. A massive thank you to the mental health committee for all of their hard work in organising each of these wonderful events.

On Wednesday, we welcomed pupils from the class of 2022 and their parents back to Cluny to celebrate a prizegiving ceremony. Alongside the class of 2022, our current fifth year students received their junior cert completion certificates and the senior prefects, deputy head girl and head girl received their badges. Students from the class of 2022 were nominated for subject awards for their leaving certificate exams. Students who achieved 625 points in their leaving certificate were also awarded during this ceremony. Congratulations to all! We would like to thank our wonderful choir for performing during this ceremony. Thank you as well to the Sisters for joining us in this celebration.

Cluny basketball teams continue to impress with two wins at Holy Child Killiney's home court. The under-19s team tipped off with a 34 to 43 points win. Then the under-16s team brought the curtain down on Holy Child Killiney's under-16s team with a 30 to 59 win! Congratulations to Mia McEntee, for being selected for the final round of the U/16 Irish basketball team selections. Well done, Mia, we wish you well going forward.

Great success as well for our soccer team who had a fantastic win this week.

TY students enjoyed a trip to visit the W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney exhibitions at the National Library of Ireland on Thursday. Afterwards they went to see My Fair Lady. Senior art students also went on a trip to Belfast to visit the MAC Gallery. We hope you all enjoyed your trips.

Well done to the Senior Concern Debate team who competed in the first round of the Concern debates against Tallaght Community School.

Well done to the following First Year students who designed lovely posters and took part in an SPHE class competition to promote Healthy Eating Week: first place Gala Pete, second place Faye Bennett, and third place Amy Dickson and Emily Woods.

TY students went to the Shine Festival on Wednesday. This was an excellent opportunity for students to hear from inspiring speakers on a diverse range of topics.

Fifth year students enjoyed a trip today to St. Andrews to see a play adaptation of the beloved classic “Le Petit Prince”.

That is it for this week! Another busy week here at Cluny. We hope you all have a good rest over the weekend and are ready for the week to come. And remember, here at Cluny we grow and succeed together.

Friday 07 October 2022

The first week of October has already ended and what a busy week it was!

Yesterday, we held a lunchtime club sign up day to allow students a chance to see the array of clubs and activities available to them. Lunchtime clubs this year include debating, green schools, boards games club, unique minds, dungeons and dragons, LGBTIQA+, mental health and lots more.

Third Year Cluny Debating teams competed in the 1st Round of the Junior Leinster Schools Debates in UCD yesterday. Well done, girls!

We celebrated World Teacher Day this week. We would like to say a massive thank you to all of our teachers here at Cluny who do so much for us every day.

Well done to our basketball teams who played two fantastic games against Temple Carrig College this week.

TY students enjoyed a trip to the Mermaid Center in Bray yesterday to participate in a creative writing workshop with Fighting Words. Earlier this week, students also took part in a movie making workshop with Movie Magic. Students were given the opportunity to film their own short films, learning about the editing process as well as using special effects with a green screen. We hope you all enjoyed this experience.

Third years enjoyed a trip to the Botanical Gardens this week. First years also went on a trip this week to Active Outside, Killruddery House, Bray, Co. Wicklow. We hope you all enjoyed your trips!

The library launched a new reading initiative this week with the Cluny Community Reading Tree. This 3D printed tree reflects the number of books borrowed throughout the year at Cluny. For every five books borrowed, a leaf is added to the tree.

Next week, we will celebrate Positive Mental Health Week and Green Schools Week.

We hope you all enjoyed the weeks activities and are excited for the weeks to come. And remember, at Cluny we believe in achieving our full potential every day.

Friday 30 September 2022

We hope you are all looking forward to another edition of our Good News Friday!

TY students had a very busy and eventful week as they enjoyed their trip to Achill. Students took part in outdoor pursuits and lots of fun activities including surfing. They thoroughly enjoyed their time in Achill. Thank you to all who made this trip possible.

Congratulations to the Senior A Under 19's and Under 16's A basketball teams as they were run away winners with both opening league matches against Rathdown Under 19's (32-44) and Under 16's (16-37). Well played everyone!

Congratulations to our sixth-year music student Ellen Donnelly on the release of her single ‘Everything Pales’. If you would like to listen to Ellen’s song, please visit the following YouTube link: https://buff.ly/3LPuMIB

Well done to our first-year students who played in their very first hockey matches this week against the Teresians. They also played St. Andrews in recent days. Well done!

Blue visited us this week as part of ABC Wellbeing Wednesday. Thank you to Ms. Marren for bringing Blue to see us!

Last week our TY French students started a new creative activity to help their oral French skills. "Sounds like French - noise, sounds and poetry" is a series of workshops led by writer Juliette Saumande and is part of our BLAST cultural programme, allowing students to work closely with established artists and develop vital creative and critical thinking skills. The first session already proved a great success, with tongue twisters and rhymes. Over the coming weeks, students will begin to create their own poems in French.

One of our coaches, Emma Meir, wrote a fantastic article that has been featured in the Irish Times. This inspiring article can be read at the following page: https://buff.ly/3fAEtyA

Lots of books have been borrowed and returned from the library this week. More than 35 books were borrowed this week alone! Happy reading to all. A new reading initiative will also be launched in the library in the coming days. For every five books borrowed, a leaf will be added to the new Cluny Reading Tree on Ms. Curtin's desk.

We hope you have a nice weekend. And remember, in Cluny we dream of the days to come.

Friday 23 September 2022

Welcome to our newest edition of Good News Friday! We would like to say a massive thank you to all parents, guardians and primary school students who visited us yesterday during our open night. We hope you all had an enjoyable tour and experience. Well done to all involved in organising this wonderful event.

First year students enjoyed a trip to the DLR Lexicon library in Dún Laoghaire on Monday morning. They went on a tour and learned about the services offered by the library including how to borrow and return books, study facilities and navigating the library space. Afterwards, students were brought to Teddys for ice cream before returning to school.

Congratulations to our first year students who played their very first hockey game this week against Teresians. Go, Cluny, go!

It was healthy eating week in Cluny. Students were encouraged to make and select healthier foods this week for their lunches. On Thursday, students enjoyed freshly made smoothies and a selection of freshly cut fruit at lunchtime.

All fifth and sixth year students attended Higher Options 2022 on Wednesday. A great opportunity for students to research third level options. Our next event will be our own Cluny Careers Evening on Thursday 10th November!

TY and fifth year students also enjoyed a trip to the ploughing match this week. Fifth year students also enjoyed their retreat on Monday.

Next week, we will have a photographer visiting the school to take photos of our year groups and sports teams. All students are reminded to have their full school uniforms, sports gear and uniforms ready for next Friday.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 16 September 2022

Congratulations to our class of 2022 who celebrated their Debs last night. They had their reception at Fitzpatrick’s Castle Hotel. A big thank you to Suzanne MacNeill, Catherine Meehan Doyle, Deirdre Kelly and Annette Holly from the Parents’ Association for all of their help and preperations for this event. We hope all our past pupils had a fantastic night.

The elections for our House Captains and Vice Captains took place this morning. Best of luck to all who entered and very well done on your excellent speeches.

The deadline for the library summer reading challenge readings lists was today. Congratulations to Ava Daly, Niamh Sheehan and Grace Watson for completing each reading prompt and creating their own unique reading lists. Each student will receive a prize in the coming days.

The deadline for applications for the TY library committee was today. Thank you to all who applied! The new committee will be announced next week.

After-school choir returned this week! Choir takes place every Tuesday from 4-5 p.m. in the concert hall. Well done to all involved! All are welcome to join.

It is Climate Action Week in Dublin from the 12-17 of September. The library held a special themed display of books on climate change, our world, weather systems, geography and more here to help guide students in their reading of this important topic.

All here at Cluny would like to wish the very best of luck to Alannah O'Neill who is taking part in the All Ireland Championship this coming weekend. Go, Alannah, go!

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. At Cluny, we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 09 September 2022

Welcome back to our Good News Friday series! For those new to Good News Friday, every Friday we record the news and events from the week to share directly with you. This includes special events, achievements, news and more from Cluny. We hope you enjoy it!

Welcome back to all our staff and students. We hope you are all excited for the new term and are settling into your new timetable. A massive welcome as well to all of our new students who have joined us this term. Welcome to Cluny.

A massive congratulations to our class of 2022 who received their leaving certificate results last week. We are so proud of every one of you. All here at Cluny would like to wish you all the best in your future endeavours and careers. Our students achieved fantastic results with 16% receiving 625 points, 51% receiving 500+, 19% receiving 400+ and 14% receiving 300+. We are extremely proud of each and every one of our class of 2022.

We celebrated Mass yesterday to mark the beginning of the school year. We would like to thank Fr. Peter McVerry for his wonderful sermon and for talking to our sixth-year students about the work of the Peter McVerry Trust. Congratulations to our chaplaincy team for organising this wonderful morning of prayer and well done to our choir who performed beautifully.

The library is now accepting applications from transition year students who would like to be part of this year’s TY library committee. Call into the library for a copy of the application form. Deadline for applications is Friday the 16th of September.

Board games club started back at the library on Tuesday. We were delighted to see so many tables full with students playing jenga, cards, chess and lots more! Board game clubs will take place every Tuesday and Wednesday at lunchtime. All are welcome.

We hope you all have a restful weekend and are excited for the week to come. And remember, here at Cluny we strive, we believe, we become.

Friday 27 May 2022

It is the second last week of term here at Cluny. Yesterday, we said goodbye to our graduating class of 2022. We would like to wish them the very best of luck in their Leaving Certificate exams in June and our best wishes for the future. We are proud of you all.

Congratulations to Aoife Whelan for receiving the Solas award and to Ella Jones for receiving the Mary White Outstanding Senior Student Award last night at our sixth-year graduation.

Exams have started today with our fifth-year students. We would like to wish all our students sitting their exams the absolute best of luck in the coming days.

Sixth year computer science students sat their Leaving Certificate exam this week. Well done to each of you.

Dominique Boizeau from Lycée Lorient in Britanny, France joined us for three days this week as part of her Erasmus. She visited our school to participate in classes and observe the Irish educational system. Thank you for visiting us Dominique, we hope you enjoyed your time here.

Fiona Clancy and Emma Jane Hughes in third year completed The Neighbourhood Time Machine Project and raised €100 for Carmona House. Well done girls!

Our first-year students had a short story they wrote, as part of workshops with Fighting Words, published in an anthology this week. This anthology was created in connection with the DLR Libraries who ran a project for schools in their catchment area to take part in this creative opportunity. Our students wrote a historical fiction piece entitled “1941”. Well done to all!

First years also held a play this week in the library with Ms. O’Dwyer. They performed “Into The Woods” after weeks of rehearsals. Last week, first years enjoyed an end of year retreat to Jump Zone and Go Quest Junior. We hope you all enjoyed it.

We hope you enjoy the weekend and are ready for next week’s activities! And remember, at Cluny we support one another in every endeavor.

Friday 20 May 2022

We have had an eventful week here at Cluny. We are reaching the end of our term, but our wonderful events continue!

Yesterday, our annual sports day returned here at Cluny. Students enjoyed the lovely sunshine with a variety of outdoor pursuits and activities. In the morning, all years took part in a 5K marathon after a Zumba warmup. On their return, they took part in their House teams to earn points for the House Cup. This was a fantastic event. A big thank you to everyone involved in making this day the success it was.

This week, students in first, second, third and fifth year had their end of year assemblies. These assemblies are a chance for us to give thanks to all for a wonderful year here at Cluny. This year, the recipients of our annual awards were:

• In first year, the recipient of the Cairdeas award was Lilith Fitzgerald.
• In second year, congratulations to Lucy Burns for winning the Léargas prize.
• In third year, the winner of the outstanding junior student award was Keela Murphy.
• In fifth year, the winner of the Sister Dolores Memorial Award is Grace Watson.

On Wednesday, we held an international students fair. Students from Spain, Ukraine, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany and France set up decorated tables in our Foyer. Students were invited to come chat to them about their home countries and take part in fun activities including an international themed quiz. This event was a wonderful platform for students to learn about different cultures and explore their fellow classmates home countries.

Congratulations to the Amber Flag Committee on their success on achieving their Amber Flag for the first time this year. Throughout the whole academic year, they had a meeting every Tuesday at lunch and devised ways in which to encourage Positive Mental Health within our school community. In celebration, we raised our amber flag today.

We are delighted to welcome exchange students Rose, Jeanne and Louise from La Blanche de Castille school in Nantes, France to Cluny as part of our successful Erasmus+ programme with this partner school. Students have made a video about their time here: https://buff.ly/3LsSgBy

It was UNESCO Eco Week this week here at Cluny. Second year students participated in an Eventbrite fast fashion event during the week to learn more about this important topic.

And that is it for this week! We hope you enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next edition. And remember, here in Cluny, we do fun!

Friday 13 May 2022

We are approaching the final weeks of term here at Cluny. With exams coming up and closing activities being ran, it has been a busy time!

Students in fifth year are on their outdoor pursuits retreat this weekend in Achill. Our TY students are also enjoying a trip to cycle the Waterford Greenway. We hope they all enjoy their activities.

Well done to the third years who raised €400 for the Ukrainian Saturday Art Therapy classes through their Vintage Clothes sale. Fantastic work!! Neila in TY also presented Art Supplies for the Ukrainian children at the Saturday Art Therapy Class bought by TYs.

Our Spirit of Sports Day returns next Thursday, May 19th, with a fun day of sports and friendly competition through the Cluny House System. We are also proud to fundraise for St. John of God's Carmona School to help them to build a sensory garden.

Ms. Torpey and Ms. Carroll's classes were learning about gravity today with some fun activities! Students played tug-of-war and other games to learn about force, thrust and gravity.

Our library summer reading challenge is now available! Over the summer, try and read books that match the reading prompts below. Students should compile a list of the books they read that match them. The prompt list can be found here: https://buff.ly/3sdaznq

Thank you to the Literacy Trust for hosting the Women in Leadership series. Our TY students joined on Thursday in the Library to watch this insightful and informative talk which included roles in publishing and campaigns.

Our P.E. teacher and basketball coach, Ed Randolph, has been selected for the FIMBA Irish team! Well done, Ed!

Second years demonstrated the skills they have acquired in their end of year practical cookery exam this week. Students created an excellent array of main course dishes suitable for specific dietary needs including osteoporosis, obesity, and anaemia.

Our fifth-year student Clodagh had great success at the Irish Orienteering Championship in Kerry recently, placing third in three of the events - the sprint, the middle distance, and the long distance. Well done, Clodagh!

TY students held a tuc shop on Thursday at lunchtime to fundraise money for Safehouses for teenage girls in Zambia. Thank you to all involved in this important fundraising event.

That is it for this week! We hope you all have a relaxing weekend. And remember, here at Cluny we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 06 May 2022

The first week of May is over! We hope you all had a lovely May bank holiday weekend.

Sixth years held a fundraiser coffee morning today, welcoming parents to the school in aid of Carmona House, their chosen charity. Over the morning students, staff and parents visited the bake sale. Well done to the sixth years!

Also today at lunchtime, to celebrate our time with Artist in Residency Claire Garvey, we held a fashion show at lunchtime. We will highlight creations from our students alongside Margaret Aylward Community College and St Joseph's CBS students where Claire also worked. Claire also brought some of her own creations and designs to this show. This was a wonderful event for all!

Over the bank holiday weekend, we featured on Virgin Media News at 17:30. Reporter Tania Reut visited our Ukrainian art therapy class last Saturday. Art therapy classes for Ukrainian children runs every Saturday in our art room. Thank you to all who made this initiative possible. To access the playback of this report, please see the following link (coverage starts at 08:10): https://buff.ly/3LB6C3m

Our library summer reading challenge is now available! Over the summer, try and read books that match the reading prompts below. Students should compile a list of the books they read that match them. The prompt list can be found here: https://buff.ly/3sdaznq

The Chaplaincy Team is changing into an Ember Team from September. This is an exciting development in our school life. Several Senior students will receive training in September and application forms for current 3rd Year/TYs are available. Those interested should speak to Mr. White for more information.

On Wednesday, fifth year students visited Trinity college and enjoyed the sunshine. We hope you all enjoyed the tour!

TY students took part in a first aid training course this week and are now certified in it! Also on Wednesday, TY students received a talk on careers in law. Barristers spoke about their career paths and experiences in their roles.

A big thank you to Bord Iascaigh Mhara for visiting TY and 5th year students with their Aquaculture Remote Classroom on Thursday morning. The students thoroughly enjoyed this experience.

Congratulations to Anna, TY, for another Gold medal at the 1500 meters Under-17s at East Leinster Championships on Tuesday. Congratulations from all here at Cluny!

That’s it for this week, we hope you all have a relaxing weekend. And remember, here in Cluny we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 29 April 2022

We had lovely weather this week and we made the most of it! Students in third year enjoyed a retreat this week with Anita from I Am Retreats as they walked the pilgrim’s path here in Dublin to visit four beautiful cathedrals and churches.

We would like to welcome our three French exchange students Rose, Jeanne and Louise who have joined TY for the next 6 weeks. We hope you enjoy your time here with us at Cluny!

Well done and congratulations to our third-year students who completed their Food Literacy Cookery Practical exams this week.

Congratulations to Anna Watson, TY, for winning the East Leinster Championship for under-17 girls!

All of our first-year students participated in a skipping workshop on Monday.

TY students had a busy week! They enjoyed a trip to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre to see the stage production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Students thoroughly enjoyed the show. On Thursday, TY students attended an online conference hosted by the GAA on leadership, learning and overcoming challenges. Today, students took part in a first aid training course.

It was Poetry Day Ireland on Thursday. To highlight the day, a selection of poems were displayed in the library alongside a poetry book display featuring famous works including T.S. Elliot’s The Wasteland, William Shakespeare’s sonnets, poetry by William Wordsworth, Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney.

We would like to highlight that Pieta House's Darkness into Light will take place on Saturday May 7th. This important event raises awareness and gives hope to people impacted by suicide and self-harm. Details for the Darkness into Light at Kilboggert Park, Cabinteely can be seen below. Registration is now open.

We hope you all enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend. And remember, here at Cluny we dream, we believe, we become.

Friday 08 April 2022

Today is the last day before the Easter break. We hope you all have a lovely day before some well deserved time off. We would like to wish all our students and staff a lovely break. Students enjoyed a school wide Easter egg hunt today at lunchtime.

The Cluny Staff Chaplaincy Team and some 5^th year helpers were busy this morning preparing for Le Chéile Day before students came into school. Every student received a positive or inspiring message and a treat on their locker. Thanks to Ms. Keenan, Ms. Keenaghan, Ms. O'Brien, Ursula, Mr. White, Neysa Mates Dunne, Aoife MacNeill and all our helpers that made this possible!

Leaving certificate practical exams and orals will take place over the Easter break. We would like to wish the very best of luck to all students in their language orals and subject practical exams.

This week our TY students, joined by students from Clonkeen Secondary School, put on a wonderful musical production of the beloved classic Grease. Shows took place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. It was wonderful to welcome you all to Cluny. The show was a stunning success. Well done to all members of the cast and crew involved in this production. All here at Cluny are proud of you.

Fourteen Ukrainian children took part in the first art therapy session here at Cluny on Saturday. Thank you to Olga Vnukova and all else involved. Thank you to all who donated and made these art classes possible.

Fifth years visited Sisk Construction joinery workshop yesterday. Students gained an insight into the world of creativity and engineering. A massive thank you to Victor O'Shea, Ronan Murphy and their team at Sisk Construction for welcoming us yesterday.

This week we celebrated Autism Acceptance Week. All students attended a webinar from As I Am on autism. A themed book display featuring characters with autism was available in the library. Thank you to all involved in organising this important week of events.

Congratulations to our TY Enterprise students who participated in the Student Enterprise County Finals last Friday. Well done to Lea and Jessica who placed 4th with their mini enterprise Beauty Sleep and Mimi who received 3rd place for her mini enterprise Toteally Tote Bags.

Fifteen of our former Cluny students received Entrance Scholars Awards at a ceremony in UCD yesterday. These students were from the classes of 2020 and 2021 and are currently studying in various disciplines in UCD. Well done to: Ella Cautley, Yael Dunne Camacho, Sinead Kelly, Rachel Kenny, Kate McAteer, Aisling McGloin, Emma Nolan, Ella O'Keeffe, Lily O'Mahony, Astrid Pettersen, Elizabeth Pettitt, Emma Power, Grace Power and Ava Walker.

The library has lots of new materials available to staff and students. This new library stock are on display just inside the library doors and includes popular fiction and non-fiction titles. Students are reminded they can borrow up to four titles for three weeks!

First years added their fairy doors to our new wellbeing garden initiative. Lovely to see them!

We ran an anti-bullying poster competition here in Cluny. Congratulations to Emily Cotter (2Y) who won with her poster entry. Well done Emily and well done to all who entered!

On Tuesday, TY students took a break from musical rehearsals and went for a lovely walk to Killiney Hill.

The students of St. Lucia, who won the house reading challenge by reading a fantastic 23,000 pages, celebrated in the library on Thursday with a pizza party! Well done again to all teams who took part and we hope you enjoyed reading!

Reminder there will Athletic training days the second week of Easter break holidays. If any student is interested, please contact Mr. Randolph through Teams.

TYs had an amazing opportunity last Thursday to work alongside a professional makeup artist and witness a professional photoshoot with costume designer Claire Garvey and her wonderful team. Here are some behind the scenes footage of the day!

That is all for this week. We hope you all have a wonderful Easter. We look forward to welcoming you back to Cluny in the weeks to come. And remember, in Cluny we stride and grow together.

Friday 01 April 2022

April has arrived! The months are flying by. We are looking forward to the long evenings and bright mornings ahead. We have had a busy week here at Cluny and are looking forward to sharing it with you!

We are delighted to welcome Anna, Iryna and Karina our Ukrainian students to Cluny. We hope that they will be very happy in our school.

Many thanks to everybody who contributed to our Ukrainian Art School appeal. We are delighted to announce that fourteen Ukrainian students will have Art therapy classes starting from tomorrow Saturday April 2nd at 11a.m

This weekend we celebrate World Autism Day, a designated UN awareness day to celebrate autistic people and promote inclusion within society.

The TY production of Grease starts next week! On Wednesday 06 and Thursday 07 of April at 19:00 we look forward to welcoming you all to Cluny. Our cast this year is joined as well by students from Clonkeen College. Tickets are still on sale if you haven’t gotten yours yet! Tickets cost €15 each and are available on our Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/grease-tickets-300884382287

Dr Carroll's TY STEM class visited UCD Science Centre to analyse and present results of their sustainability projects. Student teachers from the UCD School of Education have been mentoring the TYs for the past few weeks. They also treated TYs to goodies and a UCD campus tour after their science was done!

TY students had Gender Diversity and Ethical Consumerism Workshops from Hope Foundation on Wednesday. Thank you to the Hope Foundation for delivering these important workshops to our students.

Our Under-16 and Under-19 Badminton Teams won the Dublin League Competition 2022 in Division 2. U16's won by 2 points and U19's won by 1 point against top schools Holy Faith Clontarf and St. Marys, Naas. Well done to all! Go, Cluny, go!

Our student Ella Jenkins played in the Under-14s County football Leinster final against Westmeath on Saturday. Dublin beat Westmeath with Ella scoring the first Dublin goal of the game, winning 8:7 to 2:6. Ella scored 2 goals in the game. Well done Ella!

Congratulations to the Monkstown Under 18 Girls Team who won this week as part of the Under 18s Leinster Cup run by Leinster Hockey! Our students Roisin, Aoife and Emily were part of the winning team. Well done!!

As part of our Amber Flag Initiative, the wellbeing garden has started here on school grounds. Martin was busy putting up fairy doors today. Thank you to Martin and the Amber Flag Committee!

The library has updated their recommended reading guides. These guides include lists for first, second, third and senior students. An additional guide on books that have been adapted to TV/film is also available. Please visit the following news post for more information and to access the reading guides.

TY students have been busy rehearsing for the musical! They also enjoyed a women in leadership webinar where they heard women leaders in a range of industries success stories and career progression.

Our Inter Year Sports Championship is well under way! Students across every year group are taking part in sports events and challenges. Whichever team wins is in with the chance to win some lovely prizes including a picnic, mystery trip and ice cream!

Fifth Year members of the Headstrong Committee completed their first mental health awareness activity with First Years on Monday.

Students in third year held a clothing drive this Wednesday and Thursday. All profits from the clothing drive will be donated to Ukraine and Trocaire with the leftover clothing being donated to Trocaire. Well done!

Fifth years had a wonderful day visiting galleries and museums with Ms. O'Keeffe and Ms. Jennings last Friday. They went to the RHA gallery, the National gallery, and the National Museum of Ireland with a picnic in St Stephens Green!

As always, we hope you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the longer evenings. And remember, here at Cluny, we shine, we believe, we become.

Friday 25 March 2022

We hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day long weekend and are excited for the weeks to come here at Cluny. We have had another busy week!

Our TY students are excited to present Grease the Musical this April 5th to 7th (inclusive)! The show will run at 19:00 each evening. Tickets are now on sale and are selling fast! Be sure to book yours soon to avoid disappointment. Tickets cost €15 each. For more information on the show and to buy tickets, please visitour Eventbrite page.

The results of the House Reading Challenge are in! Wow! Collectively, we read 84,653 pages and 233 books! The winning house was.... St. Lucia who read a grand total of 23,762 pages as a team! Congratulations to St. Lucia. Well done to all teams who took part.

Last Wednesday, Cluny hosted local primary schools to take part in a hockey blitz. A total of four zones were held around the school grounds. Primary school students took part in lots of different hockey themed games including indoor hockey, skill zone and keeper skills.

Also in sports news, our provisional summer sports timetable is now available to view! Please see the following file to access it: Summer Sports 2021-2022.

Congratulations to our second-year basketball team who beat Woodlands Academy in a quarter-final thriller 24-22! Next, the team will play against Teresian's in the semi-final. Top scorer overall Mia McEntee with 21 points. Well done team. Go, Cluny, go!

On Thursday, science and maths undergraduate students welcomed our TY students to UCD. This on-going collaboration looks at sustainable materials and practices in the home.

A massive thank you to Patrick Cumisky, Krav Maga Self Defence, for his fantastic Mum / Daughter workshop in Cluny this week. It was very enjoyable. Patrick also donated his fee to Ukraine.

We were very lucky to welcome Professor Luke O'Neill to Cluny on Tuesday. Professor O'Neill delivered an insightful and educational talk to our TY students.

First Years were celebrated St Patrick’s Day by learning how to make traditional Irish Soda Bread in culinary arts class.

Well done to students 1Y who completed a SPHE project asking them to choose and research a female role model! Projects included Malala Yousafzai, Marie Curie and Cathy Freeman.

Students from 1W finished their creative writing workshop with Fighting Words this week in the library. Their short story will be published shortly alongside other stories written by schools in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown area. We are excited to see their finished pieces!

Some lovely origami work done was done last Wednesday at Art Club. This week, students made caricatures. Art club is every Wednesday after school, all are welcome to attend!

That’s it for this week. We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny we work and succeed together.

Friday 11 March 2022

It was Seachtainn na Gaeilge this week here at Cluny. Students got to participate in lots of exciting activities to celebrate! Each day, we posted a Focal agus Seanfhocal an lae! These can be found on our website and on social media. Students in TY, fifth and sixth year took part in a céilí during the week in the concert hall. Students learned popular songs as Gaeilge and lots more is yet to come!

Students contributed to a schoolwide supply drive for Ukraine. Donations included medical supplies, food, baby products, hygiene care and lots more. All contributions were brought to the collectors yesterday. A massive thank you to everyone who donated.

To support the Irish Ukrainian community and Ukrainian refugees arriving to Ireland, Cluny will offer space in the Art room for Art therapy sessions for young Ukrainian children across south Dublin. We are looking for material donations. Please visit: https://buff.ly/3vV4tuG

This week we also celebrated International Women’s Day 2022. MSD Leopardstown and Junior Achievement held a STEAM Webinar for TY and fifth years. The Shine Festival was also available online where students could hear from lots of excellent speakers.

TY students took part in a virtual work experience this week with the Irish Guide Dogs. They learned about how puppies are trained to become guide dogs and lots more. TYs also had a talk from the Hope Foundation on their work in Kolkata and a talk from Jennifer Carroll McNeill. What a busy week!

Fifth- and Sixth-year Economics classes attended the Chief Economist webinar with the Banking Payments Federation on Tuesday afternoon.

Our provisional summer sports timetable is now available to view! Please see the following file to access it: Summer Sports 2021-2022.

We are approaching the last days of the House Reading Challenge! We will be calculating which team read the most pages between January and March next week. Don’t forget to add your read pages to your House’s reading record!

That is it for this week! We hope you have a lovely weekend. And remember, we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 04 March 2022

Welcome back! We hope you all had a restful midterm break. March has arrived and we are delighted to start back into school activities here at Cluny.

Our fifth-year student, Sofiia Katasonova, has been reunited with her mother and brother who fled from Ukraine yesterday. We are doing a supply drive to help Ukraine. A Go Fund Me has been created to help Sofiia and her family by Sharon and Suzanne. To donate to this cause or for more information, please visit: buff.ly/3tvFvz6

Students are reminded to bring in the supplies as listed on social media for the support drive for Ukraine. For more information, please see the following post: https://bit.ly/3sIq9bn

On Wednesday, we celebrated Ash Wednesday and welcomed in the start of Lent. We also celebrated History Week. On Monday, first and second years watched the movie “Hidden Figures”.

Fifth- and Sixth-Year History and RE students visited Belfast on Tuesday. The students went on a West Belfast walking tour and later visited the amazing Crumlin Road Gaol. Beautiful weather and a beautiful city! The students were fantastic and many thanks to Ms McAnenly, Mr White and Mr McLaughlin for organising the trip.

On Thursday, TY students had a history bake-off! Well done to all who took part.

Well done to Mr. White and Mr. McLoughlin who won the Mr. & Mrs. competition held today by the Amber Flag Committee for Pieta House! Closely followed by Ms. McEvoy and Ms. Rooney, students thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. A big thank you to all who took part!

Students from UCD School of Education came to work with TY students on Thursday. Over the last few weeks, they have been working on STEM projects focused on sustainability in the home. They will present their finished projects in UCD next month.

On Thursday, we celebrated World Book Day! All students received their book tokens for €1.50 off any book or a free book from the 2022 longlist. We were also visited by the Cluny book fairy who hid two books around the school. Well done to the students who found them! They got to keep the books. There was also a world book day Kahoot quiz. Students and staff also did a school wide drop everything and read in the afternoon.

Mme Kavanagh's French classes celebrated World Book Day by looking at the classic Antoine de Saint-Exupery book, Le Petit Prince, published in 1943. Some students even tried to draw the elephant being eaten by the snake that is on the second page!

Our Past Pupil Kate P. Regan, Leaving Cert 2021, has been awarded the Trinity College Dublin Entrance Exhibition Award as the incoming student with the highest points from their Leaving Cert from 2021. Kate is studying Medicine in Trinity College. Well done, Kate!

Congratulations to Cluny First year and Second year basketball teams who split matches vs St. Andrews. First years played but lost and the seconds had a comfortable win led by Mia McEntee who scored 23 points, Èlodie Lambert 10 points, and Lucia Escalada Garcia 6 points. Well played girls!

Musical rehearsals are in full swing! TY students had a Sushi Workshop on Tuesday. They also started a 5-week online make up course this week which they are excited for!

Summer sports is returning! Leinster Tag Rugby Starting next Thursday 10th March after school - signup sheet in the Team "Sports". Tennis Starting Soon - signup sheet in Team "Sports". Athletics and Running Club starting soon - signup sheet in Team "Sports". Hockey, Rounders, Frisbee, Crazy Golf will all be available too.

At Cluny, we do summer, we do summer sports!

Friday 18 February 2022

Today we finish for our mid-term break. We would like to thank all of staff and students for their hard work over the past few weeks. Well done in particular to our sixth- and third-year students who finished their mock exams today and our TY students who have just finished their second week of work experience.

Fifth year students participated in a Model United Nations event today with other students from around the world.

On Monday, we celebrated St. Valentine’s Day here at Cluny. Fifth Year students spreading the love of their local area on St. Valentine’s Day! Students climbed Mullins Hill to collect rubbish with Ms. Lambert, Ms. Seymour and Ms. McEvoy. First and second years in Cluny Park also shared the love for their local environment by collecting rubbish.

For this week only and to celebrate St. Valentine's Day, the library featured a fun event called "Blind Date with a Book". Read a snippet of the mystery book and if they wanted to read more, students could then borrow the book from the library over midterm!Students in Green Schools collected wrapping paper from Christmas to create St. Valentine's Day decorations.

Fifth year French students enjoyed a trip to The Irish Film Institute on Tuesday to see 'Petit Pays' - An African Childhood. This beautiful film adapted from the book by Gael Faye and directed by Eric Barbier, won Best Film at the 2021 Barcelona International Film Festival.

A big thank you to Bread 41 who came in yesterday to do a bread baking demo with second years. They baked some fantastic loaves of bread and baguettes!

Well done to our first- and second-year basketball teams. Second years got a win and first years lost by just 3 points. Both games were very well played! On to the next round of matches after mid-term break.

Congratulations to Anna Watson (TY) for winning the Irish Life Health Inter 3,500 for St Joseph of Cluny.

The newest edition of our library newsletter, for January and February 2022, is now available to view on the library website.

Fifth years made fairies for the Cluny fairy garden as part of their wellbeing activities. We are all looking forward to the fairy garden!

The parent/guardian-daughter/ward book swap is still ongoing if anyone would like to join. Select a book that you enjoyed and swap a book with your daughter/ward that they enjoyed. Read the books and have a chat about what you read, how you enjoyed it and more. For more information please visit: https://buff.ly/3qKPtwe

We hope all of our staff and students enjoy their well-deserved week off. We will see you again soon! And remember, here at Cluny we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 11 February 2022

The mocks have begun here at Cluny. Best wishes to all our sixth-year students who started their mocks earlier this week and to our third years who started theirs today. We would like to wish our TY's all the best for their two weeks work experience.

A big thank you to our 1st Year students who left well wishes for their 6th Year Buddies ahead of their mock exams today. First years also made their buddies good luck books with Ms. Curtin in the library for their mocks.

This week was also online safety weeks. On Tuesday, we highlighted Safer Internet Day. This week, students took part in workshops and classes about how they can protect themselves and others online. Our librarian also ran workshops with years groups about finding reliable information online and how to identify false information and media.

On Monday, we welcomed Minister Simon Harris, Jennifer Carroll-MacNeill and Senator Barry Ward to Cluny. Minister Harris spoke to our sixth-year students about further education, university and apprenticeships as well as holding a Q&A session.

In sports news, our Under-14 Badminton team are in the Dublin Schools Badminton Semi Finals versus Holy Faith Clontarf on Monday 14 February. Best of luck to our team Ciara Fitzpatrick, Eimear Keogh, Sophie Lynch and Rosa Troughton!

Our Minor Soccer Team are in the Minor B Cup Semi Finals versus Mercy Inchicore next Friday, 18 February. Best of luck to all involved. Go, Cluny, go!!

Anna Watson in TY will be competing in the Irish Life Health Schools Cross Country Under-17s 3,500 meters race on Wednesday 16 February in Santry Stadium. All here at Cluny would like to wish her the best of luck.

Students in 1Y were busy making concrete poems in Ms. Regan's English class during the week. A snapshot of their work can be seen on our social media pages.

We were delighted to welcome the September 2022 cohort for aptitude tests and school visit last Saturday. Many thanks to Ms. McFarland for all her hard work and to our 5th years Laura, Saoirse and Eabha for giving up their morning to show the girls around.

Prior to Work Experience, TY's had a most enjoyable and fun Ski Lesson in the Kilternan Ski School. TY's enjoyed an excellent informative talk from John O'Shea on the issue of refugees / migrants.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend and are looking forward to the week to come. Remember, here in Cluny we study and succeed together.

Friday 04 February 2022

Our first week of February is finished!

We are delighted to have celebrated St. Brigid’s Day here at Cluny. Students took part in a making crosses workshop first thing on Tuesday. Members of the TY Chaplaincy Team attended a Showcase and Share Student Action event organised by Le Chéile Trust. They were asked to discuss opportunities for student leadership in school with other students throughout the country.

A huge thank you to Niall Hatch from Birds Watch Ireland who spoke to first year students and our Green Schools Committee on conservation and how we can protect our native bird species. Students got a chance to learn about our garden birds and what we can do to protect them.

Clodagh in fifth year won the library St. Brigid’s Day creative competition. Clodagh created a wonderful watercolour painting of a St. Brigid’s Cross.

A big thank you to Ronan Murphy and Victor O'Shea from Sisk Construction for visiting us. We look forward to the careers/apprenticeship presentation on March 7th that they will be delivering.

As part of their Textiles and Craft module, TY’s learned how to felt while using other skills such as Hand Embroidery. Well done to everyone!

Our Under-16 badminton team who are taking part in the Dublin Schools Badminton Tournament. They have won their section of the tournament and are through to the Leinster Finals! Well done to Lucy, Sofia, Grace, Aoife and coach Ms. Kelly who came fourth in the Leinster finals.

Our Senior 1 team are in the Senior Semi Cup Final next Monday against Our Lady's Grove. Best of luck to the team!

The gym reopens on Monday for fourth, fifth and sixth years. The gym opens at 07:30. Booking is essential on the booking form in Cluny Gym Teams.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, at Cluny, we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 28 January 2022

We have had another busy week here at Cluny!

Congratulations to Anna Watson in TY for coming second in the Leinster Schoolgirls Cross Country Championships 2022. Well done to all of our other students who also took part in this event.

It is Catholic Schools Week 2022, all week our Chapliancy Team have been busy creating thoughts of the day. All themes and topics were discussed throughout the week in religion classes. Well done to our Chapliancy Team for all their hard work.

Well done to our Under-15s soccer team who have successfully made it to the semi-finals after defeating Dunamase College this week! Go, Cluny, go!

Congratulations to our TY Enterprise students, Anna Watson and Heather McGowan on winning the Student Enterprise “Idea Generation” competition for their Haloskin Enterprise. Well done!

A huge thank you to Ms. O'Keeffe, Martin, The Blooms Project and the TY students for painting a wonderful mural in the music room.

First years were busy creating Acrostic Poems this week in Ms. Regan’s class. To see a selection of their wonderful work, have a look at our social media platforms. 1st years also made a selection of pastry dishes including apple tarts and sausage rolls. Well done to all.

It is Harry Potter week in the library! Themed decorations, competitions, activities and more were happening in the library. Students enjoyed movie screenings of the popular Harry Potter films and took part in a Harry Potter trivia quiz.

TY students participated in a barista training course this week and are now certified baristas! TY students were also busy knitting hats as part of the Innocent Smoothie Knitting Hats initiative to support older people.

Students were delighted by a surprise visit from Cluny Blue! Thank you to Ms. Marren for bringing Blue for a visit to the school.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend. And remember, here in Cluny we strive, we believe, we become.

Friday 21 January 2022

We have nearly reached the end of January! It has been another busy and eventful week here at Cluny.

We received a letter from SVP Sallynoggin thanking our Fifth Year SVP society for their donation of €1585 raised through their pajama day event. Well done and thank you to all involved!

Thank you for all donations to our raffle in aid of Carmona School. Congratulations to our winners; Lucy Mooney, Gerry Hughes, Andria O'Donovan, Maedbh Moore, Jo Sheehan, Collette O'Keeffe, Ailbhe Larkin, Lexi O'Brien, Sophie Maloney, Ava Mulcahy, Lauren Foley and Ava Daly.

The library and House Captains have launched a joint reading challenge for the school community. House Teams, consisting of students, captains, vice-captains and staff members, will compete to read the highest number of pages throughout this term. The first milestone is St. Patrick’s Day! Teams have been formed and now the reading begins! Best of luck to all.

Congratulations to our Senior Hockey Team who made it to Leinster Schoolgirls Hockey Semi Finals! They played against Drogheda Grammar yesterday and after a well fought game succeeded. Well done to Drogheda Grammar and thank you for a great game. Go, Cluny, Go!

In library news, Ms. Curtin and the TY Library committee have started a new reading initiative. Each week, they will recommend a book in the library for staff and students alike to read. These books are chosen by the TY library committee and Ms. Curtin. Keep an eye out on social media for weekly recommendations.

This week the library also launched a parent/guardian-daughter/ward book swap. Select a book that you enjoyed and swap a book with your daughter/ward that they enjoyed. Read the books and have a chat about what you read, how you enjoyed it and more. For more information please visit: https://buff.ly/3qKPtwe

The Amber Flag Committee are initiating the development of a Cluny Wellbeing/Fairy Garden! This will be a lovely addition to our school. We are looking forward to it.

TY's have been busy this week designing and painting the new mural on the Music Room Wall with The Bloom Art Project. TY students also had a talk on Dementia from St Joseph's Dementia Home in Shankill. Thank you to St. Joseph’s Dementia Home for giving this talk to our students.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend! Remember, here at Cluny, we celebrate the days to come.

Friday 14 January 2022

Our first full week back is now over here at Cluny. Welcome back and Happy New Year to all of our staff and students. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas break.

Musical rehearsals have resumed! We are all looking forward to seeing the full production soon.

Music students and the choir enjoyed a trip to see the Lion King at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. It was a fantastic show and a memorable day out!

We have launched a Cluny Past Pupil’s Facebook group! Take a look at our Facebook page to see how to access it. Past pupils interested in writing a blog about their academic paths and careers should email library@clunykilliney.ie.

Our library Christmas readathon has come to an end! Between the 06 December and 10 of January, we read 75 books. Well done all! Congratulations to Ava (1W), Jane (2Y), Sofia (3Y), Alice (4C), Clodagh (5N) and Jennifer (6C) for reading the most in their year groups!

Ms. Regan’s first years wrote some fantastic haikus which can be seen on our social media platforms! Be sure to have a look.

It was a busy week here at Cluny! TYs had a talk from John Lonergan, Former Governor of Mountjoy Prison, on Tuesday. This was an insightful and interesting talk, a big thank you from all here to John. On Wednesday, TYs took part in a hair workshop in the concert hall. Jackie Fenlon, Cocos Law, gave a talk to TYs on online bullying and harassment on Thursday. Thanks again to all of these wonderful speakers for coming in.

The Library and the Cluny House are launching a joint reading initiative this week to read as many pages as possible in two milestone events. The House’s will each form a reading team of 25 who will read as much as they can between Monday the 17th of January until the 17th of March, and then again from the 21st of March until the end of term. Whichever House team reads the most will be the winners! Best of luck and happy reading!

To celebrate St. Brigid's Day, the library is inviting students to be creative and do a piece of creative writing, artwork or craft something on the theme of St. Brigid and/or spring. All submissions will be displayed in the library throughout February.

Ms Torpey's 2nd year SPHE class practiced some mindfulness during class. They reflected on understanding the concept of gratitude, positive intentions and moving forward in this new year. Meanwhile, Ms. Torpey’s first years looked at density in different substances during science class!

And that is it for this week! We hope you have a nice weekend. And remember, here at Cluny we learn, we grow, we become.