Transition Year students from TY3 group are participating in a Young Social Innovators (YSI) action plan. The topic the TY3’s have chosen is to raise awareness about positive mental health. Due to the popularity of social media among teenagers, they will be using this media to promote their message.

Each week, the TY’s will have a quote for the week which will be posted on the school website but also tweeted on the school twitter account @stannescck. Their message will also be on their Instagram account #time2talk_ysi.

Google have created a great interactive your to explain 1916. Full of images, video clip and sound bites this is an excellent informative resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the 1916 Rising.

Dublin Rising  with Google 1916

There will be a Careers Information Evening on Monday 18th January at 7pm in St. Anne’s. This night is mainly for the Leaving Certificate Parents but parents of 4th Year students are also welcome.

Well done to Joseph McEvoy, 3rd year student, on winning the U17 Munster Pentathlon.

Monday night saw the highly anticipated launch of the ‘Les Miserables’ DVD. The red carpet was rolled out for all the talented cast and crew and their parents to celebrate the culmination of St . Anne’s Les Mis journey, and a great evening was had by all.

The DVD was filmed and edited by Vanessa O’Brien with cover art and images from Charlie McGeever, and truly captures the atmosphere of this amazing production.

DVDs are priced at €10 and are available to purchase from the school as well as the following shops; Supervalu, The Forge, Heaney’s and Whelan’s in Killaloe and TJ’s and McKeogh’s in Ballina.

For more pictures check out the gallery.

St. Anne’s was wrapped up critical thinking as the Christmas term came to a close this morning. The race was on with scenes of students frantically working on Christmas anagrams and dingbats.

Students had to organise themselves into groups to solve sets of problems with speed and efficiency and then race to the final destination for their prize.

Competition was high as St. Anne’s top critical thinkers vied for pole position with the 3^rd years winning top prize for their speed, co-ordinated efforts and strategic approach.

Well done to all the students and teachers involved for being part of the spirit of Critical Thinking.

A special thank you to Ms. Hartigan and all her TY elves.

Friday 18th of December, Christmas came early fro the transition year students involved with the Bank of Ireland school bank. The ten members of the school bank along with ten other members of transition year travelled to the Bank of Ireland branch in Castletroy where they entertained the customers with a wide selection of Christmas carols. The music filled the bank and created a heart warming Christmas spirit to all who came into the branch and for all the people working. A big thank you to the Bank of Ireland for affording us the chance to fundraise for the transition year charities and in particular for the Missionvale project.

Thank you to Ms. Hartigan and to Ms. Ryan for preparing the students so well and accompanying them.

The St. Anne’s AIB build a bank team together with the St. Anne’s Trad group performed for the customers today in the Killaloe Branch of AIB for the annual AIB Customer Day. The day was a great success with the music flowing out into the street encouraging all to come into the bank. The trad group played a mixture of both Christmas carols and traditional Irish music which went down a treat while the transition year students worked as customer support.

Thank you to Ms. Shortt for preparing the Trad group and Mr. O’Brien for helping the Build a Bank team.

Pupils and Teachers at St. Anne’s donned their finest Christmas jumpers in aid of the Missionvale project. The school was a wash with colour with plenty of different jumpers and Christmas hats. The Missionvale Ireland Trust was established in late 2008 as the Irish support arm to the Missionvale Trust in South Africa. Students are currently raising money for this very worthy project in which 4 students along with Mr. O’Brien will travel to South Africa to work with Missionvale. Click for more information about the school’s involvement with Missionvale.

See gallery for more pictures.

It takes a very brave person to step into a boxing ring for 3 rounds.

Tanya O’Flynn (Leaving Cert) and Seamus Boyle (3rd Year) were boxing Thursday night at St. Francis Boxing Club home to world champion boxer Andy Lee.

2 thrilling fights ended with the boxers according each other the respect they each deserve for their enthusiasm and tenacity.

Tanya fought a skilled performance using a very stylish technique. Despite having dominated the final round it was not enough to sway the judges opinion away from an opponent to whom she was conceding an 11Kg weight advantage.

Seamus’ bout was top of the card. He fought with an excellent tight technique putting together many combinations and defending well. He dominated in the 3rd round during which a stunning left hook almost unseated his opponent. He narrowly lost out to the 2 times Irish title holder, 2 years his superior, although many who attended on the night believed a draw would be a fairer result.

Thank you to Ms. E Corbett for her ringside report.