The Phil

This Friday and Saturday, Juliette and I competed in the PhilSpeaks Senior Schools Mace Debate competition in Trinity College. The competition (commonly known as 'The Phil' ), is an unprepared debating competition with 5 rounds where teams accumulate points and the top 8 teams break to the semi-finals (I think I wrote about this in an earlier post, read it here).
  The weekend started off on an uncertain note, as when I got off the bus into Dublin City Centre, I felt the onset of a migraine. Juliette and I quickly headed for a pharmacy to try and pick up some neurofen to try and delay the migraine, and luckily, despite a pounding headache and some blurred vision, I recovered quickly enough and was able to compete! What a relief that was!
  My teammate and I prepared motions such as 'Homeschooling Should Be Banned' and 'This House Believes All Catholics Should Elect the Pope'. Over the course of the 5 rounds, we came 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, and 3rd, which meant that we broke as the 3rd team to the semi-finals.
  We were given an extremely tricky motion for the semi: 'This House Would Take A Pill That Stops You From Falling In Love', and we have to oppose this motion. After a great debate and a close call, we unfortunately didn't make the final, but nonetheless we had a great weekend.
  The competition was so well-run and organised, and I really had a fantastic time. Between silly games, eating popcorn and candyfloss, meeting new people and of course, debating, the weekend was jam-packed with fun activities and the society running the competition really made a huge effort so that it ran smoothly.
  One further highlight of the competition, was that I came overall 6th on the speaker tab, and as a relatively inexperience debater, I was so delighted with that outcome!

  To anyone that is thinking of taking up debating, I would highly recommend it - it is an extremely valuable skill to have, and aside from it helping so much with English and other subjects, it's just so much fun!!!
  Until next time, as someone once said; 

"Keep Calm and Think Critically"

Fashion Show!!

So guys, for the past week or so I have been unwell, so this on top of busyness has meant that I haven't really been updating this blog... Sorry!
  So, to update you on the activities that the Transition Years in St. Wolstan's have been up to this week: Junk Kouture!
  For weeks in Home Economics class we have been designing and creating our own dresses out of recycled materials. 
  My group decided to make a dress with a Vintage theme. We collected bubble wrap and old bed sheets for the skirt, and made a corset of film negatives. We also made flowers out of lace and attached these to the corset and to a vine to wrap around the corset, which was made of wire and green tape.
  Our inspiration for the dress came from this 50s Dior dress.
  On Thursday, the dresses were modeled in a fashion shoot, and we should find out soon which outfits will be entered further into the competition.
  
I'll try to be better about updating, but until then, I hope everyone is doing well!

Melissa :)

ZUMBA!

For the past few weeks in P.E. the Transition Years have had the opportunity to do Zumba classes!
  Zumba is a form of dance and fitness classes combined, with set dance routines put to Latin American and popular music.
  A lovely lady called Gráinne came into the school to teach us some moves, and I think it's fair to say that most every student really enjoyed it, particularly me!
  I was mildly surprised at how tiring I found it - zumba really is great exercise!!!
  I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to get in shape, or just looking for a good time!
  Here's a video that might give you an idea of the kind of dancing we were doing, and what Zumba is like!