Education « Thurles Information

Ursuline Students Promote Thurles Worldwide In Three Minutes

The Bank of Ireland, in collaboration with the Gathering Ireland 2013 and the Department of Education and Skills, have given 2nd Level Transition year students an opportunity to “Put their town on the map.”

Raising the banner, “Res Non Verba,” (Loosely translated “Deeds rather than words.”) four young ladies, all Transition Year students from the Ursuline Secondary School here in Thurles, have taken the lead, to positively promote Thurles as a definite and alternative tourist destination.

Public Representatives and Development Organisation members please observe video, learn and take special note. This is a story of how four young ladies, Rebecca Chute (Thurles), Mary Claire Fitzgerald (Golden), Treise Gleeson (Urlingford) and Tanya Moore (Thurles), sold Thurles to the world in just less than three minutes.

Recently, these four young ladies have qualified for the National Finals of ‘The Gathering Transition Year (TY) Film Competition.’

This competition required these four students to make a film, of strictly three minutes duration, to promote their town, Thurles, as a venue for “The Gathering.” As our readers are aware, communities throughout Ireland are showcasing and sharing the very best of Irish culture, tradition, business, sport, fighting spirit and the uniquely Irish sense of fun. Over 70 million people worldwide claim Irish ancestry. The Gathering Ireland 2013 provides the perfect excuse to reach out to those who have moved away, their relatives, friends and descendants, and invite them home. The Gathering is the people’s party and kicked off in spectacular style for the first time on New Year’s Eve 2012.

These four TY students had previously attended a workshop under the Young Irish Film Makers initiative and with this knowledge gleaned now met under the watchful eye of TY and Ursuline school co-ordinator Miss Anette Flanagan, to write a script and during just one day’s filming, visited some of the town’s renowned food producers, an arts centre, sport facility and visitor attraction, such as Thurles Co-Op Creamery (Food Producer), The Source Theatre (Arts), Semple Stadium (Thurles European town of Sport) and St Mary’s Famine Museum (Heritage & Culture).

Their finished work has now been selected from a host of similar projects at the Regional Finals of the competition, held in Kilkenny, just last week, where their film was presented for the scrutiny of an elite judging panel. These young ladies also were required to give a two minute verbal presentation of their work, prior to the viewing of their film. With the standard very high and despite being pitted against “traditional” tourist destinations such as Kilkenny and Waterford, theirs was selected as the Regional winner.

For the National Final, these Tipperary girls will now challenge three other film and presentation projects, submitted by schools from Clonakilty, Dún Laoghaire and Donegal Town.

On Thursday next they will present their project in The House of Lords, Bank of Ireland, Dublin. Some 50% of the final result will depend on the judges’ decision with the other 50% based on the number of votes received on their film.

If you truly love your home town of Thurles, please give them the support they rightly deserve and here is how to help.

To vote & support the super effort by these girls – Click HERE – watch film No 2 & simply ‘LIKE‘ on YouTube. (Note: You will need a YouTube/Gmail account to vote, but that only takes about 2 minutes to set up).

Note: Voting closes this coming Thursday at 1.00pm & these ladies really do need your votes, so exercise your mouse.

Nice one girls & BO, well done and thanks for your real leadership.

Army Bomb Disposal Team Called To Thurles School

The unstable chemical, Picric Acid, has been made safe by an Army Bomb Disposal Team in Thurles, Co Tipperary.

The chemical was uncovered in a laboratory at the Christen Brothers School (CBS), north of the town centre.

The school was immediately and safely evacuated and a nearby road was closed off to traffic as a precaution, at around 7.00pm, when the substance was discovered.

Following a controlled explosion being carried out on the offending substance, the scene was declared safe at around 8.30pm.

Picric Acid, possibly more commonly known as “2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP),” in the chemical trade, is a re-agent routinely used in laboratories around the country and can become unstable over a long period of time.

Picric Acid has, in the past, been stocked in pharmacies as an antiseptic and as a treatment for burns and was most notably used for the treatment of burns suffered by victims of the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.

Picric acid emits a high-pitched whine during combustion in air and this has led to its widespread use in modern fireworks.

In June of last year an Army Bomb Disposal Team was called to a chemist shop here in Thurles, also due to unstable Picric Acid.

Bullying Awareness Launch Directed At Tipperary Schools

Being bullied, particularly as a teenager, can quite literally last the lifetime of any affected individual, through their sense of not belonging, their self-esteem and even their future mental health.

This week the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) have launched their second anti-bullying awareness campaign, highlighting the full effects of bullying, and in particular the more modern concept experienced via users of social media sites like Facebook.

This ISPCC awareness campaign offers a new ‘Text Service,‘ available to children who experience this kind of cowardly & unacceptable behaviour, usually carried out by anonymous individuals or groups. This awareness campaign is part of ISPCC’s now annual ‘Shield Campaign,’ to raise full awareness and indeed funding around this ever increasing problem which reveals that 1-in-4 young people, to-date, have either experienced or know someone who is the present target of such anti-social media behaviour.

In 2012, Child-line claim to have received over 2,000 calls every day, with many of these verbal communications solely related to bullying and with all distressed callers desperately seeking solutions on how to escape their tormentors.

A number of new initiatives on cyber bullying (shown hereunder) are highlighted in this year’s ISPCC campaign and all are to be welcomed, particularly by school Boards of Management members, principals and teachers.

Teenagers & Parents please Note:
(1) A new dedicated ‘Online Bullying Support Service,’ – By texting the word ‘bully’ to 50101, children and young people can access real-time support from 2:00pm -10:00pm, Monday to Sunday. The ISPCC have also announced the appointment of a full time ‘Bullying Co-ordinator,’ to support both schools and parents, in relation to bullying.

(2) ‘Shield My School Programme,’ – The charity has designed a comprehensive self evaluation tool to assist schools to understand and reflect on how effective they currently are in tackling bullying. Download School Toolkit HERE

ISPCC report that they are working on a joint project with Facebook. Ireland’s Facebook Policy Director Mr Simon Milner supports a culture of accountability, where people report bullying and stand up for each other. Mr Milner welcomes the ISPPC’s ‘I’m Standing up against bullying, are you?’ campaign and confirms the joint working project with ISPCC is to assist in developing an anti-bullying culture here in Ireland on Facebook. He further expects to announce news on this, their joint initiative, later this year.

Representatives from Twitter and Facebook have been defending themselves before an Oireachtas Committee today. The Communications Committee is examining the irresponsible use of social media and links to cyber bullying.

St. Patrick’s College Thurles To Host Symposium On Ethics

Dr. Mary Shanahan.

St. Patrick’s College, Thurles, in association with the Irish Philosophical Society, are due to host a one-day symposium entitled “An Ethics for/of the Future,” in the College on Friday 15th March from 09.30 am to 5.30 pm.

The event is being organised by Thurles native, Dr. Mary Shanahan, who lectures as part of the College’s Religious Studies Department.

Speakers at the symposium will ponder and speculate on evolving ethical values with an eye to the future. This topic will be examined from various perspectives incorporating areas such as philosophy, theology, education, politics, psychology, law, equality studies, disability studies and nursing studies. The symposium promises to be an exciting and enriching event for all those attending.

Speaking on the event, Dr. Shanahan commented that “the symposium presents an excellent opportunity for those who are interested in engaging in dialogue about ethics, about what it means to live as ethical individuals and, more importantly, about what it means to live as an ethical society. We have been incredibly lucky to secure Professor Gerard Casey of UCD as our keynote speaker. Professor Casey is a noted academic and well-known public figure who will be delivering what will undoubtedly be an engaging paper: ‘The Inescapability of Ethics‘. In addition, we are also very pleased to be collaborating with the Irish Philosophical Society on this project.”

College President, Fr. Tom Fogarty said that “as a College of Education with a vibrant Religious Studies department this symposium affords us a very welcome opportunity to invite academics and the public at large to the College to share in what promises to be a very enlightening and informative occasion.”

Booking enquiries should be directed to Dr. Mary Shanahan, St. Patrick’s College, Thurles, either by email (mshanahan@stpats.ie) or by telephone (0504 21201). Additional information can be found by visiting the College website, www.stpats.ie.

For information on St. Patrick’s College programmes please follow the link below: http://www.stpats.ie/index.php/courses/courses_overview.

R A I Spring Seminar At St. Patrick’s College Thurles

“…it is not the reading of stories on its own that leads children towards the reflective, disembedded thinking that is so necessary for success in school, but the total interaction in which the story is embedded. At first they need a competent adult to mediate, as reader and writer, between themselves and the text; but even when they can perform the decoding and encoding for themselves, they continue to need help in interpreting the stories they hear and read and in shaping those that they create for themselves.” (Wells, 1985 in Hassall, 1999, p. 1)

The Reading Association of Ireland, in association with Tipperary Education Centre and St. Patrick’s College Thurles, will hold a Spring Seminar in St Patrick’s College on Monday, March 4th 2013, from 7.00pm-9.00pm.

The workshop will be hosted by Dr. Mary Roche, St. Patrick’s College, Thurles, Co Tipperary, under the headings Critical Thinking and Book Talk & Critical Literacy using Picture Books.

This seminar is being offered free of charge to interested parents, primary teachers and other educationalists, but places are limited, so to book your place on this seminar, please email raitipperary@gmail.com (Use ‘RAI Seminar 2013‘ in the Email subject line) or book by phone with Michelle Percy (Tipperary Education Centre) on Telephone: 086 6008860.

SEMINAR INFORMATION:

Prospective Audience: This practical and interactive seminar is aimed at all parents, primary teachers and other educationalists working with young people from Junior Infants to Sixth Class.

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