Wednesday, 20 May 2020

Activity Week at The High School


These events that have been organised are an opportunity to be part of The High School community and join in some activities together. They have been designed so that we can feel that we are not alone, but, rather, that we celebrate what is good within the school community. The themes for the activities focus on friendship, coming together, and celebrating those around us, during a time of distance. Below is an outline of the activities that we will be launched during HSD Activity Week. These activities can be done alone, or in contact with friends in pairs, groups, or with your family. Maybe you could even do some of these activities outdoors, still staying appropriately physically distant, with your friends!


Monday, 25th May: Activity Day
· A Form Class will go through some of these events and allow you to plan your week!
· The Sports and Activity Day has 21 different activities to do. Record on Microsoft Forms and submit. Compete against your year group, other Form groups, and even the teachers!
· Videos will be posted on the Activity Day Channel on Stream with professionals giving specific tutorials on Strength and Conditioning, Yoga, Boxercise, Mobility Routine, Latin Dance !
· The Student Council will be organising a film that the student body can watch together.

Tuesday, 26th May: Summer Concert
· Despite our inability to have our usual Summer Concert, we will be having a remote Summer Concert. Being brought together virtually, we will have students perform live from their homes to ours. Hosted and organised by the students, this will be a concert that should be full of wonderful music and connectivity. Information about how to watch will be provided during the week, so please keep an eye on all our different media!
· Record a lip-sync or Tic-Tok of your favourite song and send it in. Best one wins a prize!

Wednesday, 27th May: Library and Literacy Day
· The day begins with a Drop Everything And Read (DEAR), where students stop doing everything and become enthralled in the activity of reading.
· They will be encouraged to record what they are reading and to send in images of themselves in ‘Extreme Reading’ locations!
· Create poems using the spines and titles of books at home and send them in.
· As part of HSD150- find a book, turn to page 150 and find word 150- send it in and the library will make a composition using the words.
· In the evening, there will be a gaming competition organised by the Student Council.

Thursday, 28th May: Art and Culture Day
· We launch the inaugural HSD Virtual Art-exhibition. The whole community can come and view the students’ work. We are particularly delighted to be exhibiting the work of our Form 6 students one last time before they leave. Parents, friends, teachers and students can visit the exhibition site online. A link to the site will be provided during the week.
· Former students and artists will post interviews and videos detailing some of the work that they are doing and what it is like being an artist.
· Students and families are encouraged to re-enact a famous painting or image and send it in to win a prize.
· There will be number of art competitions in which to get involved.
· The winner of the school journal cover will be announced (deadline for submissions is Monday 25th 09:00)
· The Student Council are organising a junior and senior school quiz.

Friday, 29th May: The Premiere of the Class of 2020’s Final Farewell film
· The last day of school will see the premiere of the Class of 2020 Final Farewell film. A celebration of the last 6 years of their time together within The High School. It will be broadcast first on the Activity Week 2020 Stream that morning and all are welcome to revisit many of the best times with the Class of 2020, listen to some of their music and hear the speeches of the Head Girl and Head Boy as they bid a farewell to the school.
· The Principal will mark the end of the 2019-2020 academic year with a video on Stream.

Please note:
Many of these activities have opportunities to win prizes when photographs are sent in. Please send any photographs, artwork, poems, or contributions to activity2020@highschool.ie
Be aware that a lot of the video content will be located on the Activity Week 2020 Channel of The High School’s Microsoft Stream https://tinyurl.com/hsdactivityweek . You may need to download this application, but it is available on the highschool.ie domain Microsoft suite.

It is hoped that these activities (and other events that will be added over this week) will provide a positive end to, what has been, an incredibly challenging and demanding year. They are an opportunity to remind ourselves, during these times of distance and isolation, that The High School is more than just computers, homework and schoolwork, but it is a community of people experiencing challenges and successes together.

Kind regards,

The Activity Week 2020 Team