Newsletter Academic Year 2015-16 Issue 1

            

Left: Happy Halloween! First Year Students created character masks in Drama workshops. Above: World Mental Health Day at Hansfield . The students really enjoyed learning about positive mental health. 

World Mental Health Day at HETSS - A good start to 2015-16 Students took part in a number of activities in October to promote positive mental wellbeing in celebration of World Mental Health Day (10th October). At different points during the day the students were encouraged to be mindful, take five minutes to “STOP EVERYTHING AND RELAX”, participate in mindful art therapy and listen to relaxing music. Each class took part in lessons to promote awareness of positive mental health, based around the HSE’s #littlethings campaign. The day ended with a fun activity - a “Happy Disco” where students danced and listened to happy songs.

Green Schools at Hansfield HETSS has just set up a Green School’s committee made up first and second year

students ( shown above ) and Geography teacher - Hayley. (First years: Lukas, Elisha,

Garbhán, Saad, Claudio, Brandon and Hannah. Second years: Humam, Max, Hamzah

and Katri). During the second meeting we had a visit by Eoin from Neat Streets. Eoin

talked about how we can make the school a cleaner, more environmentally friendly

place so we can get our first Green Flag which is Litter and Waste. Neat Streets will

provide a €200 grant to help us to get our first Green Flag. With Eoin and Hayley we

came up with ideas about reducing the litter and waste in the school and we

conducted a litter and waste audit of the school. By Saad

Extra Curricular Activities soon to commence: Now that we have settled into our classes, we are ready to put in place a full programme of recreation and after-school

activities. Ideas teachers and students have put forward include sporting events (soccer, basketball and GAA football);

music club; board games during lunch time; creative writing and lots more. More details after mid-term. Ideas and help

from parents/guardians welcome!

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Homework Club and Supervised Study A Homework Club to assist students in managing their homework will be offered to some students after the mid-term

break. Supervised study will also be set up. More information will be provided in November.

Worldwise Global Schools’ Project Left: The students enjoyed a collaborative learning event with Ballymakenny College at

HETSS. On 20th October, HETSS held a shared learning and cross-curricular event. The event was inspired by the students' project on World Hunger. The focus was on highlighting how Hunger, like so many other global issues, is a stark reminder of the unequal world we live in. Students from Ballymakenny College ( looking forward to a disco and challenge match

soon!) were treated to a comprehensive and entertaining visual extravaganza followed by a delicious food banquet. In return they shared their fantastic Worldwise work with our students. The event was a great success and students learned and shared a great deal with each other.

Poetry Aloud October 2015 Congratulations to Aoife, Saad, Cian and Tomi from 1st Year, and to Aurora,

Narayana and Zoe from 2nd Year who all participated in Poetry Aloud this

week. Poetry Aloud is the national poetry speaking competition organised by

Poetry Ireland. Students had to learn two poems by heart - one was The

Fiddler of Dooney by WB Yeats - and recite both poems from memory in front

of an audience at the National Library of Ireland. This may be a daunting

experience for some, but our students rose to the challenge, remaining cool,

calm and collected despite the pressure. Well done to all of you! HETSS Student Council Congratulations to Hamza, Ci Qing, Katri,

Tom, Claire, Brandon and Aoife who won the Student Council class

elections and have just been elected to serve on the Student Council for

2015/16. Their first meeting will take place in the week after the

mid-term break.

Hansfield Parents’ Association AGM Thank you to all the parents and guardians who came to the Annual General

Meeting of the Parents’ Association on Thursday 15th October. It was great

to meet you, and we are delighted that so many people are interested in

joining the Executive Committee which will meet on Thursday 5 November at

6.30pm in Room 13. We look forward to seeing you there! Have a good mid-term break. HETSS Parents’ Association

Executive Committee.

Message from Bernie I am delighted to say students and teachers have settled in well and everybody is busy

working hard ( at least I hope they are!) The school building project is on target and there will be exciting

opportunities to shape it after christmas. Lots of fundraising needed. I hope you enjoyed the documentary on

setting up the school. If not it see it on RTE player. Second episode is showing Thursday 29th, take time to watch

it as it is a really positive representation of life at HETSS. I look forward to meeting you all during the year.

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