School News Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Laurel Hill Secondary School Limerick

Leaving Cert Results 2017

Congratulations to our Leaving Certificate 2017 class on receiving their Leaving Certificate results. Yet again, the results produced by the school were of a very high standard.

At the beginning of the year, we decided to take part in the Certified Angus Beef Schools Competition. The aim of the project was to come up with an idea to promote Irish Angus Beef. Two groups from Transition Year took part in the project. Our idea was to make an education programme for primary school children to teach them about Irish Angus Beef called ’From Wellies to Bellies’. The other groups project was creating mascots for angus meat.

The first stage of the project was to make a short 3 minute video explaining our idea as well as our general knowledge about the breed. Both groups were lucky enough to qualify for the second stage which required us to travel to Mullingar for an interview with key leaders of the projects sponsors. We then had a break over Christmas to develop the project ideas in preparation of the final stage. Hundreds of projects entered the competition and our two groups were in the top thirty who qualified for the last stage. As part of the final stage, we had to go to Croke Park on the 15th of March and we set up a stand to present our project to more judges and members of the public. It was an early start of 5:30am that morning as we had to be up in Dublin by 8:00am.

In Croke Park, five finalist projects would be selected to win 5 Angus calves at the Ploughing Championships this year. These 5 finalists would complete a project and one overall winner would be chosen to receive €2000 in November 2019.

Croke Park was an amazing experience and both groups really enjoyed it. On the 27th of March, three organisers of the project came to the school and we were delighted to discover one of our groups had been successful in becoming one of the five finalists and winning the 5 Angus Calves. We will receive our 5 calves in September at the Ploughing Championships and rear them for 2 years. We are really looking forward to the challenge and cannot wait to get started!

Overall, we really enjoyed participating in this project and it really helped us develop our confidence and our interest in the subject. We want to thank Ms Condon Gaffney for all her help and support with the project. Since Agricultural Science is a new subject in our school it was great that both groups got so far in the competition and did so well. We would all love to see more students taking part in the competition in the future as it is a fun and exciting opportunity. For many of us who wouldn’t have considered studying Ag Science for the Leaving Cert, it was an eye opener and now all who took part in the competition will study Ag Science.

– Jane Mc Namara V4

Golf Classic 2017

Golf Classis 2017

It is hard to believe that another school year has come to a close. We would like to sincerely thank Kieran Walsh from Ivans who was our main sponsor. Our annual golf classic, which was held on the 20th and 21st of April in Castletroy Golf Club, was a huge success. With over 100 teams playing over the two days, it was great fun and a privilege as always to be involved in the event. It is also a great pleasure to meet many of our sponsors to thank them in person. Again, a huge thank you to Ivans who were our main sponsor this year and have been over the past few years. It was great to see so many students and teachers from both schools playing in the Classic. We would appreciate if all staff, students and parents would support Ivans in the coming year. We are looking forward to seeing everybody again next year.

Team Limerick Clean-up 2017

Equestrian

Equestrian Team Abigail O’Neill, Emma O’Neill & Aoife Gorman.

5th Year Camino Trip 2017

Irish School Regatta 2017

Schools Regatta took place on the 23^rd of April. There was a record entry of over 77 schools competing from all around the country. We arrived early that morning. The water looked like glass and we were all excited for the day ahead.

There was over 15 crews, both from Laurel Hill and Laurel Hill Coláiste racing together. Each of our clubs (St. Michael’s, Shannon and Castleconnell) were very hands on in organising all our crews. Throughout the day there was a continuous flow of rowers competing for our school.

Each race we competed in earned us points for our school, depending on our positions. In the middle of the day, we all realised we were currently sitting in third place. This inspired us all to race harder as the prospect of winning was now within reach.

Our battle for first continued to the very last race, achieving first place tied with St. Coleman’s of Fermoy due to crews placing extremely well in the last few races, not to mention the ones throughout the day.

Through our hard work and determination, Laurel Hill won the hearts of the crowd. The screams were deafening for every Laurel Hill crew as they glided past the finish line. Even more so when they announced us as joint winners over the speakers. We all jumped for joy, hugging each other. This was the first time in history a Limerick school had won the annual Schools Regatta. As an all-girls school this was a great achievement and really united all the rowers within the school regardless of their club.

We would like to thank Mr. Cregan and Ms. Lenihan for coming out to support us and giving us the opportunity to race for our school. We took home the Victor Ludlum Trophy which is now displayed proudly in our school. Next year we hope to be the only name inscribed on the trophy!