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A Review of Term 1

Sixth Year Term 1 Review – Taylor Macken

A Year In Review

It’s been a year full of nonsensical shenanigans from every year group. Let’s do a deep dive into what the sixth years got up to, aside from the stresses of the overbearing Leaving Cert dawning upon them all.

Just recently, sixth years took part in the amazing winter concert organised by Dave, Andrew and Sinead. What a wonderful way to bring the school term to a festive close. Going further back into December, the sixth years made some absolutely gorgeous jam in their Leaving Cert Home Ec class – what a great way to practically remember jam if it was to come up in the exam, we can’t make assumptions after all, it’s the SEC. A sixth year table tennis tournament went into full swing from lunch on the 2nd of December and a winner is yet to be provided. 

In November, the sixth years held a sleep out in the school in return to raise money for MSF Ireland (Doctors without Borders) following their whole school campaign during assembly about how they were fundraising. Further back, the sixth years also attended a hilarious workshop from ‘Caith Amach É’ where they visually acted out the sraith pictiúirs, personally – this would be a great way to remember them in the oral exam.

Rolling back to October, Andrew and his sixth year crew went off to Farmaphobia where there were lots of memories to make, where it was also stated ‘great role models, hopefully we will hear this again at your graduation.’. Reversing further back up the track to September, the sixth years also attended higher options at the RDS organised by Andrew, following that – sixth year geography also completed their Geography GI field trip up at Powerscourt where the special thanks goes to Lucy & Rachel for organising it all.

A former student had also attended to provide the sixth years his study tips & tricks – it was a truly inspiring talk and that advice will definitely pay off. Aside from what’s happened this year, the sixth years have been hard at work – completing their coursework, studying and revising and doing everything in preparation for the mock exams leading up to the actual exam next year in June, their dedication will surely pay off at the end of the hurdle.

Fifth Year Term 1 Review – Daniel Klyuss

Things we did this year –

Trip to Leinster house

Trip to a theatre

Trip to Farmaphobia 

Winter concert

Basketball team won final

Breakfast club 

This year, 5th years did some exciting and thrilling things such as the political and society class visited Leinster house in the city centre. The 5th years really enjoyed the experience being inside one of Ireland’s famous courts. We also went to Farmaphobia which is a horror attraction and escape room. The winter concert was a beautiful display of our school’s amazing instrumental talent. We also had a breakfast club where we got to socialise with other classes and got to eat food, drink coffee and tea.

Third Year Term 1 Review – Vitalina Bogorevich

On Saturday the 13th of December students from Teenturn participated in Scifest. From our school Lily, Nadya and Freya from 3rd year participated. A lot of hard work was put into these projects and Nadya and Freya came 4th place in the behavioural science category with their project “BeaBoxd”, which was a game box designed to encourage teamwork in children, specifically for children in Beavers. Lily presented her project “Meals made simple”. They enjoyed the experience and learned about some of the other amazing projects their peers had made. Thanks to Claire Kennedy for helping organise this event!

The winter concert – Nadezhda Barteneva

The third years did amazing participating, singing and playing instruments at the winter concert. A huge shout out to Lucy Regan, Zara Heary, Méabh Nolan, Chloe O’Reilly, Andrew Leslie and Lily Hennessy. The effort put in was incredible and the show was a great success!

Second Year Term 1 Review – Sam Myler

The 2nd year STEAM showcase has happened on 17th of December, we have presented houses with lights, operation, marble slides, pinball machine, scribble bots, water bottle rockets, cardboard space stations, stop motion presentations and posters about everything 

Many 2nd year STEAM classes took part in the showcase, 5 groups at the GP area, the 2 judges were Ian and Ashling who were looking at all of the projects and spoke to each of the students They have said that they seen how much good work 2nd year was doing.

Here’s a few photos of projects from the STEAM showcase.

Scribble bots:


Here’s a water bottle rocket:


Example poster from the showcase:


Operation game that was presented:


Cardboard house:


Marble roller coaster:

First Year Term 1 Review – Sean Lee

First years at the start of the year did a ping pong tournament against all the other first years. Then they had math week followed by science week. After that we had our Halloween break, then the November assessments right after. We did a study skills workshop to help us prepare.

Then at the end of December they did their steam showcase. The 1st year steam showcase was great! All the first years were just sitting around talking and listening to the music as Ian, Ashling, and some teachers, were looking around at the steam things the first years made. Then that night the school had a winter concert.

The first years read the book ‘A Kind Of Spark’ by Elle McNicoll. Reviews were… varying. In class Mata for example, almost everyone hated the main character, Addie, and very few liked Addie. That was unexpected!

College Awareness Week 2024/2025

This week in our school we have College Awareness Week which raises awareness for people to go to college, build study habits and be more organised with homework. It’s important for students to build good study habits early on so that they will be prepared for the Junior Cycle and then later on for the Leaving Cert.

Throughout the week, the school will have some parents coming into classes to talk about their college experience and what degrees they did in college. The school has also organised University guest speakers for our Senior Cycle classes and there will be some fun quizzes too! Keep an eye on the school twitter for updates on College Awareness Week.

Thanks to the Guidance department for organising the week.

1st Year Reward Trip- Carlingford by Igor

On Thursday the 16th of May the first years took a bus to go to Carlingford adventure centre.They got divided into three groups and each group did a different activity. Group A did laser tag,group B did kayaking and group C did the aerial adventure. After lunch group A and B switched activities and group C did rock climbing.

Before dinner the 1st years got to see their dorms and after dinner they went on a blindfold walk,where they had to face obstacles to get to the end. 

The next morning group C did kayaking while the other two groups did either rock climbing or the aerial adventure.

They then headed back to the centre and the first bus left at 5 while the second group left at 5:30.The first group arrived at 6:30 while the second group arrived at around 7.

A lot of fun was had by all and big thanks to Jane,Emma,Shane,Connor and Stephen for taking them on the trip and to Ashling,Andrew and Ian for organising and planning the trip.

Dublin Footballer Medal Presentation by Igor


Our 2nd year boys GAA football team were very lucky to have a medal presentation by Dublin Footballer, Tom Lahiff. Tom offered words of encouragement to the students and praised them for winning their 2nd year League. Thanks to our teacher Dermot for organising this talk. We could definitely have some of the boys team following in Toms footsteps…. watch this space!

3rd Year Home Economics Practicals by Vitalina

After the Spring Break our 3rd year students in the school completed their Home Economics practical examinations. The students put their chef hats on and created some amazing dishes for their Junior Cycle. Some of the food made was reported to be absolutely delicious! Well done to all third year students and to Olwyn, Alan and our 5th year student who supported the 3rd years. 

Coding Classes in Belmayne ETSS by Vitalina Bogorevich 

During the month of April in Belmayne ETSS students from the Maynooth Digital Leadership programme came in to teach first year classes coding. The 1st years tried out a lot of new tools and applications in their coding classes like micro bits which can be coded so that you can play games on them! They also tried a wide range of different enigmas and puzzles. All first year students really enjoyed the lessons and learnt a lot of new information about the world of coding!

Diversity Day at Belmayne ETSS by Conor Hynes

On Friday the 28 of April we had an assembly about diversity. Diversity involves people from a range of different social backgrounds and different genders etc. 

At the assembly we heard from the Amber Flag Committee they gave the whole school many informative speeches about Polish, Algerian and Turkish cultures. The Amber committee is responsible for promoting diversity and inclusion for the whole school community. The committee presented information about the countries languages and food. They brought in different food from different cultures which Cillian shared at lunch time in his classroom for everyone to try in room 3!

Cross Country by Vitalina Bogorevich

Our Athletics coach Dan got all junior and senior athletics teams involved in a cross country event out in Swords in February. 

It was a very enjoyable day for all despite the weather! We had a lot of success throughout the day with our 5th year team coming 2nd overall and our 4th year team came 5th. 

The 1st year girls team also won!

A great day had by all and there was also a fundraiser on the day and all proceeds went to Laura Lynn Hospice.

Belmayne ETSS SciFest by Vitalina Bogorevich

Before our February Midterm-Term, Belmayne ETSS underwent Scifest. 

It was a day of fun and excitement for 1st, 2nd and Transition year groups in the school. Judges came into the school from SciFest4Stem to examine the projects all the students had completed. 

The winners for each category were announced at whole school assembly the following Friday and the overall winners were as follows:

Best TY: Polina, Max and Taylor, ‘Does a plant grow better in soil that had a tree growing in it’

Best 2nd Year: Sean, Charmaine and Katie, ‘Which sunglasses brand blocks UV best?

Best 1st Year: Ali, Tudor and Milana, ‘Do different alarms wake you up better’

Well done to all the winners and thanks to all the science teachers for a very exciting day!

First year Peter Pan trip by Igor Kaczanowski

All first year classes went to the Peter Pan show, on the 24th of November. It was the biggest trip from BETSS, with over a hundred students present. All first years were very excited.

The first year group got to the Dublin City Centre by the number 15 bus, then walked from the bus stop to the Gate Theatre. When the show started, everybody witnessed shining lights, wonderful special effects and even a slow motion battle scene.