Aoibhe de Burca (far left), won Meilleure Oratrice – overall best speaker – of this year’s Alliance Française Joutes Oratoires French debating competition. Also pictured at the final are members of this year’s French debate team: Ruby Porter, Fionn Munnelly, Louis Butler Lynch (standing) and Oscar Kilbride Condon. Ella McGill (not pictured) was representing the school at the Holqa Student Theatre Festival in Malta.
Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Co. Tipperary was conceived in the mid1990s. Since then it has developed into a pioneering community which serves as a model for sustainable living into the 21st century and acts as an education, research and enterprise centre for all.
On Wednesday, 7 March, Mount Temple was delighted to welcome six members of Cloughjordan to share their experiences with us. Mr Wegimont, Ms Byrne and many students, teachers and special needs assistants were in attendance in addition to grounds staff, technical support staff and members of the student council.
The talks covered many different aspects of developing, living and working in the Ecovillage. This included how the 53 houses were built with special attention paid to the use of renewable sources of energy and minimal impact on the natural environment. We also heard how the Ecovillage employs its own farmers with subscriptions of community members. On their community farm they grow crops (in a biodynamic way) all year round with the use of polytunnels. Crops are harvested twice a week and members take what they need each day from a central collection point.
With an Ecological Footprint of 2 global hectares, less than half that of many Irish communities, Cloughjordan is continuing to work toward reaching a Footprint of 1.8 global hectares thus enabling it to live within the earth’s capacity.
Mount Temple is delighted to have formed an alliance with Cloughjordan in which we will learn from their experiences as we move forward with making our own community as sustainable as possible. To articulate this vision the school’s Sustainability Plan was also outlined at the meeting. With a focus on a Carbon Neutral Building, Sustainable Food Production, Waste Prevention, Sustainable Waste Management and Increasing Biodiversity the plan sets out how our school community will work toward decreasing its own Ecological Footprint.
With a shared vision of a sustainable future the communities of Mount Temple and Cloughjordan look forward to many years of working together toward our common goal.
Click on the link below for a PDF of the powerpoint on the project.
Tuesday 13th June 2017
Venue | Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College Dublin
Time | 6.30pm The event explores how to tackle controversial topics in the classroom and incorporates a piece of original theatre by Laura Doak and students at Mount Temple Comprehensive School RSVP | Valerie.kelly@tcd.ie by Tuesday 6th June
Programme
6.30pm Setting the context: Dr Ann Devitt, School of Education, Trinity College Dublin; Deirdre Hogan, the Ubuntu Network.
6.45pm Dealing with difficult topics in the classroom: Mary-Elaine Tynan (TCD Module Co-ordinator) and Professional Master of Education student teachers from TCD and NCAD showcase their work and discuss key learning.
7.15pm “Éire: Land of a hundred thousand welcomes” by Laura Doak and cast.
8pm Audience discussion with performers and practitioners.
*The Ubuntu Network supports the integration of Development Education into post primary Initial Teacher Education. It is funded by Irish Aid. The ideas, opinions and comments therein are entirely the responsibility of its author(s) and do not necessarily represent or reflect Irish Aid policy.
Donal Cotter from 4th year won the prestigious award of ‘Young Animator of the Year’ at the International Dingle Film Festival for his excellent short film “The Illusion of Life”. It was an amazing achievement to be selected from such a rich pool of young animators from across the country.
Donal Cotter from 4th year won the prestigious award of ‘Young Animator of the Year’ at the International Dingle Film Festival for his excellent short film “The Illusion of Life”. It was an amazing achievement to be selected from such a rich pool of young animators from across the country.
First years,Hayden Carroll, Lana McLoughlin, Roisin NicGabhann, and James O’Connor took part in Cover to Cover radio show on Near FM. Follow the link below to hear them discuss the novel, Private Peaceful, by Michael Morpurgo.
Pupils, parents and teachers involved in the Mount Temple Craft Club decorated the school in colourful bunting in October 2016. For more photos check out the Gallery section of the website.
The next meeting of the Learning Parent Support Group will take place on Wednesday April 13th at 7:45pm in the Library. The meeting will cover Assistive Technology and other matters and will be presented by:
James Northridge Bio:
James experiences the challenges that come with a specific learning difficulty on a daily basis and knows its impact on education and life all too well. Having struggled during school and dropping out from University, he turned his career around when a second shot of college came his way. He grabbed it with both hands and never looked back! He tacked the Dragon’s on RTE’s and ended up winning investment for his business UrAbility, which supply’s assistive technology training and software to schools and businesses around Ireland and the UK.
Topics to include:
Succeeding with Assistive Technology
Technology is all around us, however are we using it in the right way? Is it being used effectively to ensure that learners that most need help are getting the support they need to succeed in the classroom? James will draw on both his personal, work and academic experiences to enlighten the group as to how we can use technology to empower all students. Parents will walk away from the session with practical solutions to current issues and insights on how best to use some common technology for their children.
James will review software that can be used both in the classroom and at home to aid struggling learners, showing how to use them and of course when they are best used. James will give his personal success story on what worked best for him in education and some techniques that should make life a bit easier for your children. He might even give a few tips on dealing with investors from his successful appearance on Dragon’s Den.