Manor House School

The students of 3^rd year class ‘Paris’, carried out an Action Project for their Junior Certificate CSPE, under the guidance of their teacher Mr Montgomery. The idea of the project was to raise awareness of homelessness and to fundraise in order to help families in Ireland struggling with this problem. Gemma, a representative from Focus Ireland visited the school and spoke to students from 3^rd Year about homelessness in Ireland today. Our students were informed that there are currently 1,709 families accessing emergency accommodation. This figure includes 3,725 children. After the talk, the 3^rd years took part in a quiz. In total they raised €200 for Focus Ireland. Many thanks to the subject teachers for allowing the girls to miss some class time and to Mr Beirne for supervising the event. (Report: Mr Montgomery.)

"This year for our action project, our class decided to base it on homelessness. The research committee found out about a few different homeless charities in Dublin and created a presentation for the class. After the presentation we all voted on which charity to support for the project. In the end we decided on Focus Ireland. We decided to hold a cake sale to fundraise in aid of them. The fundraising team prepared some cakes, treats and popcorn to sell. Other classmates brought in things to sell too. The cake sale was held outside the library at break time and lunch time where many of the students and teachers passed by. The cake sale was very successful. We raised €92.82 altogether. On 14 April Fay from Focus Ireland kindly came into us to talk about homelessness in Ireland. She talked about the effect it has on many people in Ireland and told us that we should "see the person first not the problem". After the talk we felt very grateful for everything we have because there are people without roofs over their heads. When the talk was finished we told the speaker that we had raised money for the organisation and she was delighted and very grateful. We then sent the cheque on to Focus Ireland. Overall the project was a great success. We, as a class, learnt a lot about the issue of homelessness and how it can affect so many people in Ireland. We were very happy to raise the money for focus Ireland and we hope that they use it to continue doing great work!" (Report by 2Q)

"One of the 2nd year CSPE classes went to the Dáil on 25 April. This trip was part of our Action Project. We were accompanied by Ms O'Riordan and Mr Biggane.We first witnessed an "An Poist" debate, about post office closer issues, with the Minister of Communication - Denis Naughten and his opposition. It was interesting to see the huge court room and to listen to their incredibly well-written and focused speeches. Another debate that caught our attention took place in the temporary Seanad Room. (The actual one is in Leinster house, which is being reconstructed until 2020). This important debate was about building a police station in a small town. The highlight of the trip was meeting our local TD, Seán Haughey. He is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who is a Teachta Dála for the Dublin Bay North constituency. He was very kind and explained some topics such as life of TD, the Dáil and Fianna Fáil. Mr. Haughey answered all our questions very well. He said the reason why he liked the job so much is because it allows him to help people and to improve the way we live. Overall, everyone loved the trip. It taught us democracy, which includes debating and passing new laws (bills). It was incredibly fascinating to see the inside daily life of the Government.  Thank you Ms O'Riordan and Mr Biggane for organising this event for us." (Report written by Patricia Shevel-Bleikss, on behalf of  the Recording Team.)

For our CSPE action project we decided to go to the  Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, (DSPCA). We decide to go there as we wanted to learn and see how our actions can jeopardise the life of other things like animals. We found that our trip fell under the concept of stewardship as we need to look after animals even though we do not own them.

Animals have rights, like humans they are a living species and deserve to be treated right. They can't talk and some can't function like humans but they have feelings. One of the main things we learned at the DSPCA is that all animals have feelings and they can be hurt emotionally as well as physically and sometimes to be hurt emotionally can be worse than being hurt physically.

When we arrived at the facility we could see that it was a place of happiness. We were greeted by our tour guide Lisa. She told us about the DSPCA and how it functions. She told us that the facility was founded in 1840 by the Risk Society and was inspired by the book 'Black Beauty'. The book shows that animals can feel pain both physically and emotionally. It takes two and a half million euro each year to run the facility and much of the money is raised by donations.

The DSPCA is run by the five R's - rescue, rehabilitation, rehoming, reuniting and release. People who work at the DSPCA will go out dressed in protective clothing to rescue animals in need of help. The animals would then come back to the rehabilitation centre to be inspected to see if they are sick or have an injury. If the animal is microchipped the owner, if found, would be contacted and told to collect the animal. If no owner is found the animal would be put up for adoption (- adoption fee is €165). Wildlife would be released back into the wild to enjoy the life that they were meant to live. All of these steps are run by the staff of the DSPCA. There are only 34 full time staff working. The others are volunteers.

We were told about a vulgar issue that goes on and is very hard to be stopped - puppy farming. Puppy farming is when female dogs are kept in horrific living conditions such as a small box with no sunlight only holes for air and a bowl of water. Male dogs are brought in and the two dogs are forced to breed even if they don’t want to. The mother dogs would give birth to the puppies and as soon as the next week would be forced to breed again, even though a female dog should only have one litter per year. The process would keep continuing until the inhuman people behind it stop. The puppies would be shipped over to other countries such as England in awful conditions. Many would die and sold at high prices - as much as six hundred pounds.

The police have now brought in something to try stop this - puppy passports. Each dog needs a passport which cost money to travel beyond the border. This has decreased the amount of puppy farming going on but it is still a huge issue in our society today.

During our time at the DSPCA we heard some stories about how animals are mistreated such as  Oscar. A call came in from a man who saw some type of animal hardly moving in a field. The DSPCA team got to the field shortly after the call and found some type of animal hardly moving. The animal was so badly hurt that they couldn’t make out what animal it was. The animal was tied to a pole and his collar was so tight that the skin on his neck was broken and the fur had fallen off. The animal was rushed into the rehabilitation centre. The remaining fur was shaved off and he was put on a drip. The vets had no hope as he was so badly hurt they didn’t think he would make it. However he made a full recovery. All his fur grew back and Oscar is a beautiful looking shih tzu who now has a home with his new family and has started the better part of his life, the one he should have always had.

After our time talking to Lisa we went on a tour around the grounds. We saw pigs, dogs, cats, goats and donkeys. We all had an amazing time on our trip and we learned a lot of things, the main one being that all living things have feelings and deserve to be treated equally and to be treated correctly.

(by the 2R Reporting Committee - Alex Goggins, Robyn Malone, Aimee Moore)   

On 4 April 2017, the 2nd year class 2Q (Kairos) visited St Gabriel's Senior Citizens Club in Clontarf for our CSPE Action Project. We are learning about the rights of the elderly and we wanted to hear the opinions of our local Senior Citizens. We were very interested to hear if any of their rights had been denied. Before our visit, we made a video (which we starred in) to show how we thought a senior citizen living alone felt. We showed this to the club and they were very impressed. We had an amazing time chatting with the club and have gained a better understanding about how they live and how they feel about society today. Many thanks to Eleanor and Frances for helping to organise our visit and of course to the Seniors Club for hosting us! We are also grateful to Mr Montgomery who brought us to the club.

by Joyce Awo and Emma Costigan (2Q Kairos) 

On Wednesday 29 March, Deborah Sheeran, the founder of the 'Lámha Suas' charity visited the students of 2S (Maryfield) as part of their CSPE Action Project. Deborah, who is a Primary School Teacher in Killester and a former student of Manor House, began this organisation in 2010. Its main aim is to further educate the children of remote parts of Uganda. Since 2010 her Lámha Suas group have used funds raised by volunteers to build school buildings and sustainable projects like rain harvesting systems.The girls were informed about the importance of education to the lives of young women in particular. At the end of her talk with the girls, Deborah accepted a cheque of €164 from the class. Earlier in March, the students of Maryfield had raised this money by collecting donations as they celebrated International Women’s Day.Many thanks to Deborah and good luck with your very worthy campaign! Thanks also to Mr Montgomery who helped us to organise this outing (by Anally Guci & Erika Shlionchyk).

On Wednesday 8 March, Mr Montgomery's 2nd year CSPE students from 2S (Maryfield) celebrated International Women's Day. To raise awareness, the girls handed out ribbons, took part in face painting and even surprised their fellow 2nd years with a Beyoncé-inspired flash mob! A huge thanks to all staff and students who kindly donated money to 'Lámha Suas' -  a local charity that is dedicated to supporting the education of girls and young women in Uganda. Over €150 was raised on the day. Thank you to all involved!  

2nd years (2P) visited Irish Aid.

On Wednesday 13 April 2016, our CSPE Kutui 2P went on our Action Project with our CSPE teacher Mr.Biggane to Irish Aid. Our class was split into 6 committees to make this trip possible.

The Permission Committee sent out a permission slip to parents to let them know about the trip. The Transport Committee organised how we would travel to Irish Aid, how long it would take to get there and how much it was going to cost. When we arrived at Irish Aid we were brought in to our hour and a half workshop. We did lots of fun activities and learned a lot about the work of Irish Aid. During our workshop the Questions Committee asked questions questions they had prepared and the Photography / Reporting Committee used the school camera to capture memories of our trip. We all learned so much from our action project and we used our knowledge to answer questions from the questionnaire committee. The Thank You Committee have contacted Irish Aid  to thank them for our amazing workshop and a great day.

(Report by Ava, Susan, Kasey - Reporting Committee on behalf of 2P CSPE class).

Find out more about Irish Aid here.

2nd years (2R) had a Mock Election

During the process they learned about the proportional representation voting system. It was based around running for Student Council President. The election was decided by just one vote, the overall winner being Aoife O' Donovan. 

Photo 1 : Checking elegibility

Photo 2 : Voting isn't supposed to be this much fun!

Photo 3 : Democracy in action!

Our class 'Mwingi,' took part in the CSPE action project 2016.  We chose to focus on the subject of child homelessness. We visited the children's ombudsman, Niall Muldoon,with our teacher Ms Lafferty and he taught us more on the subject. 
 
The start of our project consisted of splitting our class into seven different committees. These were called Permission, IT and Research, Transport, Questions, Presentation, Media and the Catering Committees. Each committee had four members who worked equally hard to complete their tasks. Before we left to go on this trip the Research Committee presented a presentation of facts on homelessness to the class.
 
On the day, the Transport Committee planned the journey to and from the ombudsman office. When we first arrived there, we were greeted by two ladies who presented a PowerPoint to us on child homelessness. Shortly after this we were introduced to the children's ombudsman, Niall Muldoon. The Questions Committee had prepared suitable questions to ask Niall about child homelessness to ask him on the day. He happily answered them. Before we left the office on the day, the Presentation Committee presented a gift to Niall that our whole class had put money towards. He was delighted. 
 
As soon as we got back to school the Media Group began to create posters to raise awareness for child homelessness which were put up around our school. Then the Media Group also wrote an article to go into the school website.  The final committee, Catering, organised a get-together a few weeks after the event. They prepared food and drink.
 
From taking part in this project, we believe it was successful. We also learned how hard it must be to live without a home as a child or an adult. It lowers your chances of getting a good education and therefore lowers the chances of success and other opportunities in life. We really enjoyed taking part in this project and we've learned a lot about the subject of child homelessness.
(written on behalf of Class Mwingi by the Media Committee: Molly Keogh, Alex Mitchell, Zoey Kelly-Dunleavy, Zainab Osomoku)

On Tuesday afternoon 26 April 2017 our CSPE class assembled in our lecture theatre to greet Michael Thompson from the Peter McVerry Trust. He came in and explained and elaborated on what homelessness is and how it happens. We thankfully missed our normal three classes after lunch and we enjoyed learning more about homelessness and how homeless people are affected and treated and also how we can help and make a difference. 

We learnt that there are over 7000 homeless in Ireland and 4700  were helped in 2015 by Peter McVerry Trust. We realised that being homeless isn’t the worst part, it’s the feeling alone and that no one cares.

We learnt that people don’t just become homeless because they have no money. There are many reasons that can cause homelessness e.g. poverty, school exclusion and much more. Also, some celebrities have become homeless: Jim Carey, Hallie Berry and Jennifer Lopez.

The Peter McVerry Trust was set up by Father Peter Mc Verry. It was set up to reduce homelessness and harm by drug misuse. There are 30 centres and they have up to 700 people stay per night. It started off in a flat in Ballymun. Now thy have are over 130 flats. They provide the homeless with the support and guidance they need to get back on track and treat them like everybody else.

Homelessness is growing in Ireland and our CSPE class thought we’d do a cake sale to raise money for the Peter McVerry trust. We raised over €200 to give to Michael so he wouldn’t go back empty handed. We learnt so much and we were so grateful to have been given the chance to have the talk and help out in some way. It gave us all a new perspective on things and we really enjoyed it.

Valeria Borta, Kate Byrne, Rachel Murphy , Beth O’Connor (Display Reporting Team on behalf of Class 2S CSPE Class).