VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 HALLOWEEN 2016 EDITION TRANSITION YEAR NEWSLETTER NEWS Junior Cert Results By Lauren Fitzmaurice, Carolyn Hulbert, Sarah Yeates, & Chloe Bissett September 14th 2016 finally came ones causing the most worry for students, around. This was the day that all the one saying “ Irish and Maths were ridicu- current Transition Years were antici- lously hard, I'm just hoping for a pass.” pating. The Junior Cert results were However, students were feeling “hopeful” being released, and all the Transition about Geography and Science, saying Years gathered together in the P.E them exams were fair.” hall to share this experience to- gether. There was a 0.6% increase in the number A week before the results were re- of A’s in higher level Irish nationally, leased, we decided to interview a There was an increase in the amount of couple of students about how they A’s and B’s in ordinary level maths, how- were feeling. One student said they ever there was also an increase in the were “worried about Irish, especially amount of fails. paper two” but said they were The languages also saw an increase in “feeling good” about French, and the amount of A grades in both levels. would advise current third year stu- Science saw one of the biggest falls, with dents to “study from the start”. An- 9.6% of students receiving an A grade, other student described the music compared to 10.3% last year. exam as being “quite erratic” and ad- Overall students were saying the Junior vises music students to “not treat Cert was a ‘challenging but rewarding ex- music as a doss.” Overall, the higher perience’ that took ‘ a lot of hard work’ but level maths paper and the higher ‘that it ‘was worth it in the end’. level Irish paper seemed to be the INSIDE THIS ISSUE: News Features Sports Creative Corner Photos NEWS Transition Year News By Jason Kennedy and Scott McCabe September: On Monday the 10th, Tuesday the 11th, Thursday the 13th, Friday the 14th and Monday the 17th we had a Matrix Work-shop all about life choices and thinking outside the box with a man called Malcolm. We learned all about how to decide what paths we should take and how to be happy for life. On Friday 16th at 11:30am-12:30am the TY students had a Mental Health Talk with Childline. The talk consisted of advice and points on how to sustain a healthy mind and body and how to enjoy life more. On Thursday the 22nd the TY students had a talk about Road Safety from a Garda that lasted from 2pm-4pm. The garda told us about how dangerous the road can be if you don't know what you're doing and how to deal with different situations involving the road. On Monday 26th at 9am we had a talk from the ISPCC about Child- line and how not to prank call them as they are always very busy. October: On the 6th and 7th of October there was a Movie Making Module where students learnt skills about cameras and cinematography and a little bit on how to act. Also on the 7th we had a Scuba Diving Talk from Ralph and Gearoid about the PADI diving course that's taking place throughout the year for 4th years. We were shown all the equipment and told what we would be doping if we did the course and how it is a course for life. NEWS Movie Making By Joey Yeap, Chloe Bissett and Aoife Carthy On the 6th and 7th of September 24 fourth year stu- dents took part in a movie making course. Kevin and David were in C2 waiting for us in the morning of the 6th of September. We introduced ourselves and they asked us what our favourite movies were. David showed us how to make a trailer. We were split into 3 groups and we were asked to make a trailer. We all chose a horror theme. In our three groups we chose a movie idea. -Group 1: A boy and a girl swap bodies due to a book of curses. -Group 2 :1920’s crime detective case. -Group 3: a boy went to get a bottle of water and gets stuck in the vending machine. We voted for the best two movies. Then we were split into two groups and made a movie each. We spent the whole 6th of September making the movie we chose. We continued on with the making on the 7th until lunch time. After lunch time we edited the movie and showed the movies to the 24 people. Kevin was a contestant in the X-Factor in 2015 and David showed us the video of X-Factor. The video was really funny. If you want to see it type ‘Rock and Rose X-Factor’ on YouTube. NEWS Trump or Hillary? A Divided America By Robert Richmond As President Obama wraps up his presidency after 8 years, the time has come for America to elect its next president, and this had led to quite possibly the strangest election in Ameri- can history. To call Obama divisive would be an understatement. He won over a lot of people with his charisma, natural likeability and promises for equal rights for everyone but lost a lot of sup- port with some of his more questionable policies like Obamacare and for him being accused of being a cowardly puppet. Thus, America was thrust into a choice for their next president. The election would take place in 2016 and two likely frontrunners emerged early on. Feel the Bern Democratic senator of Vermont Bernie Sanders entered the race as an opposition to Clinton. Despite being the oldest candidate in the race, he was a hit with the young vot- ers, thanks to his spotless past, progressive ideals and promises on college and mari- juana. Hillary’s guaranteed win soon became less likely as her and Sanders were soon in a virtual tie in the polls, however Sander’s radical ideas drew some criticism as some claimed they were not democratic and were communist. Clinton vs. Bush… again Long rumoured to be running in 2016, Hillary Clinton entered the Race very early on and with her And thus, Americans were expecting name, experience and backing, a Clinton vs Bush matchup once again, as she soon became the favourite to it was rare for an election to not feature a win the whole thing and a certainty member of either family. to win the Democratic nomination. However, two wildcard candidates en- However, where there is a Clinton there tered the race and the seemingly straight- must be a Bush and soon Jeb Bush, forward election soon became unpredict- brother of George Jr and son of George able.... Sr, announced his run. Because of his family’s name and pull he became the ... likely Republican Nominee. NEWS 5 Make America Great Again Businessman and multi-billionaire Donald Trump entered the race in June 2015 and his campaign was widely seen as a joke by many. His criticism of illegal immigrants was seen as racist and his policies (like building a wall) ridicu- lous. Many comedians laughed that they were so happy he ran because he gave them so much material to make fun of. He was dismissed as a racist bigot and essentially no-one took him seriously. But little did the media know that he was actually saying what has been building up in many American’s heads un- der the 7 and a half years of Obama... The Debates Republican The Republican debates were very crowded with over 18 candidates running. The presence of Donald Trump was interesting to many as the people wanted to see how he would do in the field as he was new to politics, going up against professionals who’ve been doing this for years. But, unexpectedly, Trump absolutely annihilated his opposition. Despite some very questionable comments and statements, he undoubtedly won every debate he took part in. Despite a lack of a clear plan, his tactics in tearing down his opponents were unlike anything the public had ever seen in politics. His branding of oppo- nents proved to be very popular tactic (‘Lyin’ Ted’, ‘Weak Jeb’, ‘Little Marco’ and, perhaps most famously, ‘Crooked Hillary’). At first Trump focused his attacks on Jeb Bush, the presumptive nominee as he was Trump’s biggest threat. He called him ‘low energy’ and a ‘puppet’ for his donors. Despite attempting to fight back, Jeb was destroyed by Trump and soon dropped out due to low polling numbers. The race was now all over the place as the assumed winner was quickly dispatched. They shifted attention to Marco Rubio but he was tag teamed by Trump and another debater, Chris Christie. Trump became the likely winner, to the surprise of everyone (including the Republican party). Despite some states lost to Ted Cruz, he easily dispatched of his other opponents as, in a crazy turn of events, the man who had absolutely no political experience single handedly tore down 17 of the country’s top Republicans. Democrat The Democratic debates where a much more straightforward affair with far less candidates and only 2 candidates people actually cared about, Sanders and Clinton. No one paid the ot her candidates any attention and they soon dropped out. These were now all about Clinton vs Sanders. They often swapped places in the lead and in terms of who won the debates, but despite a massive movement with Sanders, Hillary was still expected to take the nomination without much hassle due to her winning more states.