School Choir

The St. Joseph of Cluny School Choir is open to students from all years, and is an extra curricular activity. Membership of the choir is voluntary and open to students whether they study music or not.

The range of music varies from Sacred to Baroque to West End Musical and the girls sing at all major school events including the annual carol service and prize giving.

The choir regularly enters national choir competitions and has enjoyed much success over the years.

School Orchestra

The School Orchestra comprises students from all years, and students of all levels are welcome to join. The orchestra prepare each year for Department of Education and Science Examinations and perform regularly at events throughout the school year, including the annual Carol Service.

Public Speaking & Debating

Public speaking and debating play a major role in the co-curricular activities at St Joseph of Cluny. The objectives of the school in this area are:

• To help students appreciate and cherish the right to free expression which we enjoy and which we too often take for granted.
• To promote rational argument and discourse among our students and to promote the virtue of responding as opposed to reacting.

The public speaking and debating programme throughout the school includes the following:

• In-house debating: This gives the largest number of students the opportunity to participate in public discourse with their peers.
• Inter-school debating and public speaking competitions: Selected teams participate successfully in those competitions, consolidating Cluny’s position as a leader in the second level debating and public speaking arena. Cluny also hosts these competitions from time to time thus exposing our students to excellence in this area.

Competitions in which Cluny has participated and achieved success include:

• Concern Debates
• Leinster School Debates
• Model European Parliament
• Forum on Europe (Public Speaking for Transition Year)
• Soroptomists Public Speaking
• NUI Women’s Graduates Public Speaking

Green Schools

The Green Schools committee has been up and running for a number of years now and we already have three Green flags. They are the ‘Litter and Waste’ flag, the 'Energy’ flag and the 'Water'  flag. This year we are attempting to get our fourth flag, the 'Transport'  Flag. The committee has members from every year, first up to sixth years, and six teachers. We meet every Monday at 1.10 in the Geography room for around half an hour. All are welcome. We have a notice board on the school corridor which contains all new information and projects.

The Green Schools Committee for 2010-2011 are:
Aisling Scully, Chloe Langan and Orla Scully - first year
Aoife Nolan,Orlaith Meehan, Carmen Molloy, Sophie Walsh, Grace Hickey and Kate Doorley - second year
Gemma Moynihan, Gemma Harvey, Catherine Doherty, Jenny Moran, Heather Rainey and Caitriona Fay - fourth year
Jennifer Campbell, Hannah Rhattigan Walsh, Sophie Rose O'Reilly, Ciara Fitzgerald and Jane Rice - fifth year
Ciara Scully, Karen Bird, Vicki Walsh, Jessie Ennis, Aoife Plunkett, Zuzia Whelan and Zoe O'Reilly - sixth year

Our mission is:
‘To promote awareness within the school of what we can do to improve our school environment and that of the wider community, with particular emphasis on recycling and cutting down on waste.’

Current Aims:

• To increase the use of the recycling centre and green bins
• To promote proper use of ‘green buckets’ for disposal of plastic bottles
• To increase awareness of water usage in the school
• To reduce water usage in the toilets and other areas
• To reduce litter/waste in the school
• To reduce the cost of water and waste bills

 

Our recycling centre is inside the student entrance. Here you can recycle:

• Old inkjet cartridges
• Reading/distance glasses
• Old bus tickets (with refunds)
• Mobile phones
• Stamps
• Batteries

 

We have just introduced plastic bottle bins into all the classrooms. The green schools committee will undertake to empty, wash and squash these bottles and put them in the green bins. NO MORE BOTTLES IN THE WASTE BINS!

School Societies

The school societies are currently:

• St. Vincent de Paul
• Amnesty
• Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
• Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

School Societies in St Joseph of Cluny Secondary School are traditionally run by the Fifth Year students. The running and organisation of selected school Societies is encouraged in the school as it is viewed as an exercise in school leadership. It allows senior students to explore humanitarian and social issues affecting their own society and also to explore issues to do with injustice, poverty, the welfare of animals and human rights, among other concerns.

• Fifth Year Society leaders are asked to promote their School Societies during the year by involving and leading other students in the school who will undertake to assist in the promotion of the ideas and causes of each Society.
• The promotion of the Society is initially undertaken during the opening of the School Year specifically during ‘Freshers’ Week’ i.e. a promotion week designated by the school Societies. During this week students are given information about each Society and are asked to sign up and assist in the work of that Society and attend its meetings during the year.
• Each society aims to organise meetings every 3 to 4 weeks in a designated meeting place at lunchtime: a record of attendance and minutes of each meeting is kept and an agreed programme of work for the year is followed.
• Each society must have realisable aims and a practical plan which can be completed during the year. These are written and submitted to the teacher organiser at the beginning of the year. The aims should include some practical tasks to involve all students in that Society.
• A Society leader and a co-leader or secretary should be elected for the year. Ideally these two students should have had a past involvement with this Society.
• Each Society should initially evaluate the work of the Society the year before, strive to make improvements or take a new direction as appropriate. All written work should be accurate and kept in a secure place or a record book.
• The programme of work of each School Society annually should have measureable outcomes. Tasks undertaken can include:
  • An awareness raising day/week
  • An awareness raising day/week
  • A campaign
  • A guest speaker from the organisation or charity
  • A correspondence campaign
  • Fundraising through the proper channel
  • Promotion of the ideals of the organisation
• The School Society should seek out ways to promote itself during school life/ the school year, i.e.
  • Using Friday detention to ask students to write letters to designated governments according to the Amnesty campaign method
  • The Vincent de Paul Christmas Classroom appeal
  • Students to volunteer their own time in children’s centres etc
  • Assist in animal rescue centres on Saturdays etc
• The enthusiasm and support of other students, particularly younger students, needs to be nurtured by the society leaders through activities, tasks, subcommittee work, reports back etc at meetings
• Teachers/Deputy Principal/Principal should be invited to meetings at designated times to support the work of the Society
• In all cases the activities, tasks and assistance of Society members is more significant than fundraising.