Holy Family School for the Deaf Cabra

Creative Schools Collaboration

From December 13th to 14th, our Transition Year students joined students from Mid West School (Limerick) and Deaf and Bishoptown Community School (Cork) for a Creative Schools Collaboration at Bishoptown Community School. It was a truly enriching experience.

One of the highlights of the collaboration was our students working together to translate the song ‘Rest of our Days’ by Cian Ducrot and Ella Henderson into Irish Sign Language (ISL). They had a great time filming this ISL translation, showcasing their creativity and dedication.

After a delicious Apache pizza lunch, our students enjoyed some free time at the Wilton Shopping Center, soaking in the local atmosphere. Later, they were treated to a spectacular performance of High School Musical by Bishoptown Community School, which had full ISL access, providing an inclusive and memorable experience for all.

To further foster camaraderie, everyone gathered at Sheila Hostel, where students continued to bond and create lasting connections.

The following day, we visited the Cork Deaf Association, where Terence enlightened us about the invaluable services they provide to the Deaf community. Our excursion also included a visit to the Ferris Wheel and the famous English Market. We concluded our adventure with a delicious Christmas-themed lunch at the Marina Market.

The memorable collaboration wrapped up with a thrilling game of bowling, bringing everyone closer together and leaving us with unforgettable memories.

The Creative Schools Collaboration was not only about artistic experiences; it aimed to enhance the wellbeing, confidence, and communication skills of our students. Through shared experiences, our project sought to inspire a sense of community and belonging, foster personal growth and development, and ignite a lifelong passion for learning and self-discovery.

This collaboration was funded by Creative Schools Cluster funding and Education for Sustainability Development Grant. Special thanks to Denise Dowling and Breda Woods for from Bishoptown Community School for hosting this successful creative collaboration.

Overall, this collaboration was a resounding success, leaving a lasting impact on our students and reinforcing the importance of creativity, inclusivity, and the power of shared experiences. We look forward to future collaborations that will continue to enrich and empower our students.

Brazilian-Irish Lace Exhibition in the Mansion House

We were delighted to receive an invitation from Ambassador Marco Biato and Mrs. Marcel Biato to visit the Mansion House and explore the Brazilian-Irish Lace exhibition. The exhibition featured an exquisite collection of lace, including tablecloths, napkins, scarves, blouses, and more, all meticulously crafted with great skill and precision. Accompanied by our 5th-year students as part of their Arts Education subject in LCA, we were particularly intrigued to learn about lace making because there is also history of lace making within the deaf community. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Ambassador Marco Biato, Mrs. Marcel Biato, and Maria Fleming for their warm hospitality and for inviting us to experience their remarkable lace making exhibition. Our visit was truly enjoyable, and we appreciate the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the artistry and cultural exchange.

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Lions Peace Poster Competition Winners!

On Monday, November 13th, despite storm Debi, we held the judging ceremony for our Lions Peace Poster art competition. The goal of this competition is to promote peace in the world, with this year’s theme being ‘Dare to Dream.’ It was a pleasure to have Werner Schwanberg and Frank Donoghue as our special guests to present the winners with prizes, which were fully sponsored by the Lions Club. We had winners from the Primary school, the Post Primary school, a Special Prize winner, and winners from the International competition who will now proceed to the next stage of the competition. Congratulations to everyone who participated!”

CREATIVE DANCE

Well done to all our first, second and third years for participating in this creative dance workshop over 6 weeks and performing in front of the whole school in the DVI (Deaf Village Ireland) We are very proud of you all.

Special thanks to our creative schools mentor Seamus Moran & to our dance teacher Favour Odusola.

This was funded and supported by Creative Schools and JCSP.

Thank you to Jason for filming the performance – He did an amazing job in creating this short video. Enjoy!

Animation created by Holy Family Students

For Creative Schools project our students participated in an animation workshop with Pádraig from MatchBox Mountain Animations. The worked together using their imagination and being creative in story telling. Check out their amazing animations!

http://matchboxmountain.ie/

Special visit to HFSD by the Education Committee in the Oireachtas

We were delighted to welcome members of the Education committee in the Oireachtas to visit the three sections of our school today – Post Primary, Primary and Early Intervention. During the visit, the members of the Joint Committee were able to witness the challenges that our students and staff face on a daily basis due to the inadequate school building and impractical location. They saw first-hand the limited space and facilities that hinder our students’ learning experience.

They enjoyed meeting the staff and students in our school and commented we have a wonderful ‘vibe’ friendly atmosphere.  It was great to have the opportunity to showcase our schools and demonstrate the pressing need for improvement. With the support of the Joint Committee and TDs, we are hopeful that our dream of a new, purpose-built building will become a reality in the near future. This would not only benefit our current students but also future generations of deaf students, ensuring they have equal access to excellent quality deaf education. 

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Lions Peace Poster Competition 2023

We were thrilled to have a successful Lions Peace Poster competition despite the weather conditions today.
The judging took place as scheduled, and we were delighted to have Lions representatives Hilary Moylan and Werner Schwanberg in attendance. We also had the pleasure of welcoming representatives from Holy Family School: John Canning, Lorraine Creed, Ray Watson, and June.

The competition consisted of three categories.
Firstly, the International category, where the first-place winner will progress to the next stage.
Secondly, we had the Internal category for Post Primary seniors and juniors.
And finally, we had the Internal category for Primary seniors and juniors, along with a special commendation award.

We are grateful to all the participants and supporters who made the event a success, and we look forward to sharing the results and celebrating the talented artists who participated in the competition.

Thank you to everyone involved for their contribution and enthusiasm.

TY competes in F1 in Schools National Finals

Well done to both Fire Dragon and Speed Eagle teams in the F1 in Schools IRL National Final competition in Galway, where they planned, designed, created and analysed a miniature F1 Car. It was brilliant watching the two teams race against each other. The students done brilliantly in the F1 in Schools this year.

Both teams performed outstanding on the day selling their Teams brand. Team Speed Eagles car ran flawlessly all day and was one of the fastest cars on the day! Unfortunately team Fire Dragon suffered an axel breakage on its third race knocking it out of competition, but, it didn’t hold them back as they done brilliant presentations explaining the whole story of how they got to the National Finals.

We are so proud of both Fire Dragon and Speed Eagles, Both teams really impressed the judges at the verbal presentation and enterprise and engineering interview. They really showed their skills and knowledge on the day, making our School very proud!

Speed Eagle was placed 19th place out of the top 42 teams and Fire Dragon was placed 30th place out of the top 42 teams.


Special thanks to all the organisations that helped us with our project, Lions Club Ireland, Lions International, Irish Deaf Society, Chime, Deaf Sports Ireland and Holy Family School for the Deaf.

#STEM#STEMeducation#transitionyear@FireDragon_F1@IrishDeafSoc@ChimeFor@DeafSportsIre@lionsclubs

Frank O Donoghue sees students progress in F1 in Schools project

We were delighted to welcome Frank O Donoghue from Lions Club Ireland to our school. When the Lions International visited our school they organised a whip around for our TY F1 in Schools teams – FireDragon and SpeedEagle.
Frank called at the perfect time because the frame of our CAD F1 car arrived that day! Frank got to see our students progress in their project, and to see the 3D printer in action printing wheels and axles. Thank you Frank and to all in Lions International – This support will help us go to the National Finals in Galway in 2 weeks! #STEM

Visit to the National Gallery of Ireland and KPMG Children’s Book Awards

We were delighted to be invited to the KPMG Children’s book awards in Merrion Park today. Congratulations to all the nominees and to the winners! This was a wonderful event with amazing synopsis of each books by young people and we got to meet amazing Irish authors and illustrators. Thank you to all involved in the organising for making us feel welcome and for providing an ISL Interpreter for us making this event fully inclusive. We look forward to reading some of these wonderful books @KidsBooksIrel@KPMG#ReadingHeroes

Some of our students visited the National Gallery of Ireland today to see the new Cezanne painting ‘Life in the Fields’. We were delighted to have deaf tour guide Susan Whelan. Susan brought us on a fantastic tour of Picasso, Monet, Cezanne, Paul Coleman and, we even got to see deaf artist Avercamp. Thank you Susan for giving this tour and for inspiring our students. You never know? Maybe one day one of the students will become an Art tour guide! @NGIreland@susiewoosie77