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Ballyheigue School Pupils Win Overall Prize Of €2,000 In Film Competition

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The St Joseph’s NS Ballyheigue pupils who won the Overall award in the Trend Micro Film Competition.

THERE were great celebrations in St.Joseph’s NS Ballyheigue on Thursday when representatives from Trend Micro Ireland came to announce that Miss Donegan’s class were this year’s overall winners in the ‘What’s Your Story ‘ annual film competition, collecting a prize of €2,000.

Parents and students gathered to congratulate the winners and mark this wonderful achievement. TrendMicro, a leading Cyber Security firm, pose a question to Primary/ Secondary and youth groups on an annual basis and the challenge is to answer this question in a two minute film.

This year’s question was ‘How Might New Technology (or AI) Help You In The Future?’ The children of Miss Donegan’s class brainstormed for a number of weeks before putting their ideas to paper in Storyboard form.

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The children scripted, rehearsed, acted, procured costumes and with the help of Miss Blake (SNA) and Miss Donegan, the hair and make-up department was of extremely high standard.

Under the watchful eyes of Lily Mai Cashman and Michaela Lynch as Directors every shot was filmed with precision on various locations in Ballyheigue.

A number of people from the school community gave of their time and expertise to help bring the children’s vision to fruition.

The story tells of a young boy (played by Patrick Flahive) who tries to answer the question on Future Technology  with the help of his Granda (played by Jamie O’Brien).

Granda gives trusted advice and explains how technology can benefit us all. Unfortunately for Granda and Grandma (played by Lily Mai Cashman), Granda teleports them into the future  and it is up to the young boy to try and rescue them. (Click here to see the short film).

The judges highly commended the wonderful creativity and attention to detail down to the costumes. They said a strong message backed up by a well scripted story gave the film a worthy start, middle and end, where judges were left smiling.

The school is no stranger to success in the competition and last year won the Primary section of the competition. In fact, this is the school’s third time being named as overall winners having won in 2019 and 2016. St. Joseph’s N.S. has a long history in film making and hopes to continue with this important part of the childrens’ learning into the future.

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News, SCHOOLS

Ballyheigue School Wins Overall Award In Film Competition

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A still from ‘Super Shampoo’

ST Joseph’s NS in Ballyheigue is the Overall Primary School winner in this year’s Trend Micro ‘What’s Your Story?’ competition.

The school’s win will be formally announced on Safer Internet Day, next Tuesday, February 7, but celebrations are already underway at the school.

The school has won €500 in prize money as overall winners. This is not their first time winning in the Trend Micro “What’s Your Story ?” competition having won the Primary School section in 2016 and 2021. The school also were the overall winner in 2019.

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The competition has been running since 2012 with the aim of highlighting skills that can be learned to make the use of the internet safer for all. This year’s challenge was to produce a two minute film which answered the question; ‘How do you know what’s real or fake online?’

The students from Miss Donegan’s class focused on the idea of “fake advertising” and emphasised the basic guidelines that we sometimes forget i.e. if something seems too good to be true it probably is and alway check a story or advertisement to ascertain if it is factual.

The children came up with the idea of a ‘Super Shampoo’ which would answer all your hair woes. In the film, the product is purchased which leads to a hair disaster but we also see what main character (played by Jack Fay) could have done to ensure that the product was genuine.

The children scripted and devised the format for the film with Saoirse O Hanlon directing. The children were very creative with their delivery and the judges were effusive in their praise.

To celebrate our win this year the whole school has booked tickets for the upcoming ‘Fidget Feet’ performance in Siamsa Tîre.  This film is now entered for the Media Literacy Awards.

This year also saw the school win at the Gimpo International Film Festival in South Korea with their film ‘A Local History Story’ which is a short film telling the story of St. Daithleann’s Holy Well in Ballyheigue or Tobar Na Súl as it is known locally.

This film is now gaining recognition closer to home as it will screen in the First Cut! Youth Film Festival in Youghal Co. Cork on March 9.

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News, SCHOOLS

St Joseph’s Ballyheigue Pupils Win €1,000 For School In Film Competition

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The winning class from St Joseph’s NS Ballyheigue. Standing from left; Willem Stack, Saoirse O’Hanlon, Naomi Flaherty, Eric O’Sullivan, Holly Galloway.  Kneeling from left; Jack Fay, Jack Cashman and Fionn Guerin.

THE pupils from St Joseph’s NS in Ballyheigue are once again collecting filmmaking accolades as they have just taken the overall prize in the TrendMicro Film Competition for schools.

Their film ‘The School Around The Corner’ won the overall prize in their age category and € 1,000 is on the way to the school from TrendMicro.

The Trend Micro judges praised the creativity of the children,” said Principal of St Joseph’s, Terence Dineen. “They loved the humour in the script and they felt that the children answered the question that was posed in a very unique and universal fashion.

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“We are delighted with the prize and have earmarked  some science  equipment  and perhaps a day out for the class when circumstances allow.”

And there was more good news when the film won an award for Best Creativity from FreshFilmFestival and their award arrived last week .

This film is also entered in the Nenagh Children’s Film Festival while Fionn Guerin from 4th class has entered a number of his animations in the Next Gen Animators competition.

Finally another of their films, ‘A Little Help’, will be screened in Venice this month. This film was Highly Commended by Freshfilmfestival in 2019 and went on to win a number of awards abroad. This film featured  as an example of good filmmaking in a recent episode of After School Hub on RTE.

News, SCHOOLS

Ballyheigue School Pupils Need Votes In Film Competition

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St Joseph’s NS Ballyheigue pupils making their film, top row; Naomi Flaherty, Fionn Guerin, Jack Fay , Willem Stack. Bottom row; Holly Galloway, Saoirse O’Hanlon , Eric O’Sullivan, Jack Cashman.

THE St Joseph’s NS Ballyheigue fourth class pupils have taken part in the ‘What’s Your Story’ film competition run by Trend Micro Ireland.

The film competition is run annually and each year there is an internet theme. This year the theme was ‘How Did The Internet Help You Get Through This Past Year?’

“It’s a nationwide competition and the winners stand to win €4000,” said Principal Terence Dineen. “Our school is in the final but we do need the public’s help. We need to get as many views as possible by May 4th. So, if everyone can watch our film which is titled “The School Around The Corner.”

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The link for our film is here
https://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.ie/entry/2-dc5c76/

“As our school was in lockdown and all teaching was through online classes, we decided to make our film using the Internet and Google Classroom,” said Mr Dineen.

“Through discussion with the class online the children came up with the ideas, wrote the script and suggested editing. Our film is a look at an online class that is not going too well for the teacher when suddenly the Inspector of Online Classes makes an appearance,” he said.

“I would ask that people click the red heart on the web page and comment .
Like all small schools funding is an issue and this opportunity to win one of the prizes could be a great boost for our school,” said Mr Dineen.

News, SCHOOLS

Inspirational Murals Celebrated At St Joseph’s NS In Ballyheigue

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Eugie Stack ensuring the Paintings are straight under the watchful eye of Lisa Harkin.

TWO murals were officially celebrated at St Joseph’s NS in Ballyheigue during the week.

The murals, painted by a former pupil, were inspired by two significant deaths over the past few months, that of George Floyd and John Hume, as principal of the school Terence Dineen explains.

“During the lockdown and the following months two events stood out for me.  When George Floyd was killed in America it raised a lot of issues both in the U.S. and here in Ireland. I was taken aback by the calls on national radio from people who have experienced racism or verbal/physical abuse because they are different in some way. Some people on the airwaves spoke of experiencing such bullying in our schools. This got me to thinking of how we could portray the image that our school aspires to and how we could remind ourselves of this message every day .

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“Then John Hume passed away. Here was a man whom we all admired and I am no different. John Hume was a man who believed that things could change, that differences were to be respected and when his funeral was to take place his family asked that a candle be lit as a sign of peace.”

“These two events stayed with me and with the help of the Parents’ Council we asked Lisa Harkin, a former student at this school, to encapsulate these ideas in picture form for the front of our school.

Jennifer Boyle & John Keane (Parent Council members) with Terence Dineen (Principal) and Lisa Harkin look on as Luke Boyle. George &Sam Keane admire Lisa’s painting with John Hume’s words ‘The answer to difference is to respect it’.

“Not  an easy undertaking but Lisa  surpassed our expectations. She produced two beautiful colourful lively and engaging pieces. One painting illustrates inclusion of every child in a very happy rainbow filled scene. The other bears the words of John Hume ‘The answer to difference is to respect it’  which was included in his Nobel Lecture in 1998.

“Eugie Stack suggested framing the paintings and set about making the frames and ensuring they were situated correctly on the school front wall.  To my mind these two paintings illustrate the ethos of our school,” concluded Terence.

Terence and the rest of the staff and pupils celebrated the addition of these paintings to the school during the week with rainbow iced cupcakes made by Ann Drury @ Ann’s Creative Cakes, while members of the Parents’ Council presented Lisa with a bouquet and voucher for her time and talent.

Principal Terence Dineen with Parents’ Council members Jennifer Boyle & John Keane present a bouquet and a card signed by all the pupils to Lisa Harkin.

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News, SCHOOLS

Ballyheigue Girl Wins Acting Award At Georgian Film Festival

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Andrea Lynch with her Best Actress Award.

A PUPIL from a school in Ballyheigue has won an award for acting at a film festival in Georgia.

Andrea Lynch won the Best Female Actress in the Tbilisi International Children and Youth Film Festival “Oqros Pepela” (“Golden Butterfly”) in Georgia for her role the short film ‘A Little Help’ made by her schoolmates in St. Joseph’s N.S. Bouleenshere.

The film had already received a ‘Highly Commended Award’ in the Fresh Film Festival earlier this year and has been entered in a number of international film festivals.

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Andrea’s award arrived to the school today and she and her classmates were delighted to receive it, considering that this is the first time such an award has been won by an Irish film at the festival.

The film ‘A Little Help’ tells the story of a doll who helps Andrea’s character to find real friends. and has the important message of being kind to each other .

Andrea Lynch (right) with some of the cast from the film ” A Little Help”, from left; Saoirse Hanlon. Sarah Mia Garcia Leen, Shannon Drury (Director) holding The Doll from the film.

The school  also got news this week that the film has qualified for the 36th edition of the International Film Festival ‘Up to 21’ in Poland and will be screened in the city of Warsaw at the end of September.  The film also made it to the final of the Charlie Chaplin Film Festival in Waterville last August. You can watch it by clicking on this link https://youtu.be/FtcKsae9ozo

News, SCHOOLS

Ballyheigue School Wins Overall Award In National Short Film Competition

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The cast of the winning video with Principal of St Joseph’s NS Ballyheigue, Terence Dineen. Back row, from left;(l-r) Sam Keane ,Cai Ó Fuaráin, Andrea Lynch, Sarah Mia Leen. Front row, from left; Saoirse O’Hanlon, Shannon Drury, Holly Galloway, Max Fitzgerald (missing from photograph Naomi Flaherty) Photo: Ciara O’Donnell

THE pupils and staff at St. Josephs National School in Ballyheigue were celebrating again last week as they won first prize in the TrendMicro ‘What’s Your Story’ competition.

This is the second time that the school has won the overall prize in this competition after also taking the top prize in 2016.

There was great excitement at the school when representatives from TrendMicro came to the school to announce that 2nd/3rd class  had won the overall award of €2,000 for their film ‘I Got The Power’.

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Children from second and third class in St Joseph’s NS were asked to create a two minute video answering the question: ‘If you had one special power to make life online better, what would it be?’

The pupils at St Joseph’s created ‘I Got The Power’ and said “we all have the power to make life online better. Sometimes it is just a matter of taking a break from the internet and mixing with our friends so we can get a better perspective and not be too influenced by what is online. Just switch off for a break’.

The Judges praised the children’s grasp of the theme and complimented the calibre of acting from all the children. The judges also said that the film was suitable for audiences of all ages and carried a message for all internet users.

The Parents’ Council accepted the cheque from Avril Ronan of TrendMicro in front of a large audience of parents and students. Refreshments were then provided for the large attendance with home baked goods from parents and children .

Principal Terence Dineen thanked the parents for their continued support of the arts and filmmaking in the school and praised the hard work out in by the students in making films in the school over the last decade.

TrendMicro, a multinational cyber security and defence company, run the film competition to promote Internet safety amongst children and teenagers. The competition is open to all primary and secondary schools plus individuals and groups.

News, SCHOOLS

Ballyheigue School Needs Views And Votes In Short Film Competition

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A still from the St Joseph’s NS ‘I Got The Power’ video.

A BALLYHEIGUE school needs views and votes to win a short film competition.

Children from second and third class in St Joseph’s NS have entered the Trend Micro ‘What’s Your Story’ competition. They were asked to create a two minute video answering the question: ‘If you had one special power to make life online better, what would it be?’

The pupils at St Joseph’s created ‘I Got The Power’ and said “we all have the power to make life online better. Sometimes it is just a matter of taking a break from the internet and mixing with our friends so we can get a better perspective and not be too influenced by what is online. Just switch off for a break’.

They need you to 1. Click on this link https://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.ie/ then register, log in, view ‘I’ve Got The Power’, rate it and leave a comment.

They need as many views and comments as possible. Video entries with the highest views get shortlisted by the judges who decide the winners. You must be registered on the site to view and comment on each entry (once only per entry).

The overall winner will receive €2,000 and each category winner will receive €1,000. The winners will be announced at the end of May.