Thank You FAI

Fantastic 3 Days FAI Camp to be had by all our Primary Students and Junior Post Primary Students. The camp came to a conclusion today with speeches by our Principal Eimear O Rourke who thanked everyone involved, and Oisin Jordan (FAI National Coordinator) who said that the 40 coaches from Carlow IT over the three days were exceptional and the Holy Family School Transition Years Students who also did an amazing job coaching all the juniors. Special thanks also went to teachers Geoffrey McCormack and Sean Herlihy. All of the juniors got an FAI football kit, an FAI backpack and also their very own football complementary to FAI. We are looking forward to FAI Camp 2020 already!

FAI CAMP

Transiiton Years Students and Students from Carlow IT College kick started the FAI (Football Association of Ireland) Camp, with 80 young boys and girls from Holy Family Primary school and junior Post Primary School. The atmosphere was buzzing with excitement and enthusiasm as all involved got to learn the challenges and skills of football. Our Transition Year students also created a colourful animated leaflet of basic ISL signs to give to the Carlow IT students, to help with communication during the camp. Special thank you to FAI National Coordinator Oisín Jordan and to FAI for the amazing football kit they have generously given to all of our players.

Active Week 2019

We kick-started our Active School Week 2019 with a million steps to the Phoenix Park. Students and staff that took part in clocking up a million steps as they embarked on a 5k route this morning. The rain held out for the first leg of the walk but a welcome fresh shower came down in the second leg. Well done to all and remember it doesn’t cost anything to walk!
You can do it ANYwhere, ANYtime with ANYone!
Sarah Jane O Regan (PE Co-Coordinator)

Transition Years become qualified FAI Coaches (level 1)

Special Thanks to Jamie Wilson and Oisin Jordan National Co-ordinator (FAI) for training Transition Years students in becoming a certified level 1 football coach. Transition Years will put their newly acquired skills to use next week when they will be coaching up to 80 youths in the FAI Camp.
Well Done to all involved, including their teachers Sean Herlihy and Geoffrey McCormack.

Flipping Pancakes at Holy Family School!

3A Class and their teacher Mr.Brian Fitzpatrick organised a Pancake Sale morning as part of their CBA (Classroom Based Assessment ) in Business Studies. They purchased ingredients from the local supermarket, made the pancake mix and cooked many layers of pancakes for the sale.
The pancakes costs €1 each and toppings such as lemon & sugar, Maple Syrup and Nutella was extra. The pancakes were absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS!

Its a Hat Trick for Holy Family School for the Deaf Senior Students!

Its a Hat Trick for Holy Family School for the Deaf Senior Students!

Holy Family School for the Deaf received three MAJOR awards for this month of March. Two weeks ago Fifth years students won an award at the PE Xpo competition with their PE project ‘Actions Speak Louder Than Words’.
Yesterday Transition Years Students brought home a Golden Star award for the ‘Best Props’ at the Young Social Innovator (YSI) Speak Out, where they gave a presentation on ‘Deafness and Mental Health’.  Today another feather in the cap for Transition Years students, as they won the ‘Senior Category Runner Up’ prize for Best Enterprise Programme for their business on creating cool and trendy Hoodies.  Congratulations to all the students and teachers involved. What great achievements for our school.

Daffodil Day

Daffodil Day 2019 is on the 22nd of March 2019. The Irish Cancer Society encourage people around Ireland to get involved by buying a bunch of the sunny bright yellow daffodils or any of the fundraising daffodil merchandises such as key rings, brooches, flowers and pens. Our Transition Year C students are delighted to be involved with this fundraising campaign and they have raised just over €150 for the Irish Cancer Society. Well done to Siocha, Cheyanne, Gabrielle, Diana and Bryan.

An Garda Síochána Art Competition

Check out the amazing artwork by our art students! An Garda Síochána are headlining an art competition celebrating ISL and Deaf Awareness. Here are some of our creative students’ entries for the Art competition.

First Ever ISL STEM Glossary

Recently Dr. Elizabeth Matthews from Dublin City University School of Inclusive and Special Education coordinated an ISL Glossary project. We are honoured that our teachers Maggie Owens, Sean Herilihy and Liz McLafferty are involved in this innovative project with Dr Elizabeth Matthew and her team.  On the 12^th of February 2019 DCU launched the first phase of a newly developed Irish Sign Language (ISL) STEM Glossary project at the Deaf Heritage Centre in Cabra. It is funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) the project aims to create the first ever open-access online glossary of maths terms in Irish Sign Language. This first phase glossary has over 200 videos of Maths Glossary in ISL. Some new signs are developed such as ‘Prime Number’, in Statistics we have Mean, Mode, Median, Range, Standard Deviation. This online resource is a very valuable tool for Deaf and Hard of Hearing learners at primary school, post-primary school and for their parents and teachers. Guests to the launch had fun at the interactive Mathematics stations which was prepared by Maggie Owens and Holy Family School for the Deaf Transition Year Students. Many thanks to Dr.Elizabeth Matthews for making this possible.

You can enter STEM ISL by clicking HERE

Best of Luck to Mr.John Murphy

Holy Family School for the Deaf are delighted to welcome Senior Inspector John Murphy to our school for Tea/Coffee & Cakes to celebrate the occasion of his retirement. Our principal Eimear O Rourke made a lovely speech on behalf of all the staff past and present thanking Mr.John Murphy for his never ending support, encouragement and hard work with our school. He was also presented with a 3D mixed media artwork which was created by one of our 3rd year students. John thanked all  the staff for their courtesy, kindness and friendliness during his inspecting years. He tells us that he always wanted to see ISL take prominent in the school and to see St.Mary’s and St Joseph’s amalgamated. He is now delighted that both of these dreams have come true with ISL becoming a 3rd official language of Ireland on the 24th of December 2017 and St.Mary’s and St.Joseph’s amalgamating into the prestigious Holy Family School for the Deaf. Best of Luck on your Retirement, Mr.John Murphy.