Over the last few weeks the best secondary school debaters in Ireland have been competing for selection on the Irish World Schools Debating Team.  The lucky five students will represent Team Ireland in Stuttgart this July.  We are delighted to announce that three of the five places have been taken by students from Loreto College.  Niamh Ryan and Sarah Duffy have been selected once again having been on the team for the last two years and one year respectively.  This year they will also be joined by Aishling Kinsella.  This is a great achievement for all three girls who have put so much time and effort into debating over the last few years.  We wish them the best of  luck as they take on the best debaters in the world next July.  Come on Ireland!!!

Well done to Anna Sexton, Aoife O'Flynn and Eve Golden who represented the school in the WGA Public Speaking competition in Trinity College.  They made three interesting speeches and kept the audience engaged as they discussed whether homework was a necessary evil, how the ipad can help us learn and whether school students should be allowed get piercings.  This was their first speaking competition and they performed excellently.  Well done girls.

Well done to Aishling Kinsella, Ella McLoughlin, Sarah Duffy, Grace Given, Julie O'Brien and Elizabeth Bolger who have qualified for the semi-finals of the Leinster Schools Debating Competition.  To have three teams make the semi-finals is a fantastic achievement.  Good luck to the girls in their semis this week.

The top eighty junior debaters in Leinster took part in the Leinster Junior Debating Mace Finals day in Holy Child Killiney.  We had a school record, thirteen students taking part and they all spoke well throughout the day as they dealt with challenging motions on healthcare, trade with dictators and racial bias in the Oscars.  The top forty students in Leinster will now progress to the national final in two weeks time and we are delighted to announce that nine students from Loreto College have qualified.  This is more than any other school in Leinster and is a great achievement by the students involved so well done to Adrianne Ward, Caoilainn Carey, Ellen McKimm, Hana Gallagher, Isabelle Healy, Sophie Bannon, Aoileann Ní Mhurchú, Aoife Paul and Nora Wyer.