The High School  Zion Road  Rathgar  Dublin 6   Tel: 01-4922611   Fax: 01-4924427  office@highschooldublin.com

Website usage grows

Use of our website continues to grow. Last week, 1,215 unique visitors looked at the website! This figure has grown dramatically since last year. These people made almost 51,000 page hits on the site. Interestingly, far more people visit the site on Monday (when the newsletter is usually published in the evening), Tuesday and Wednesday and there are few visitors on the other days. This seems to indicate that the newsletter is being viewed by an increasing number of people online.

79% of visitors to the site used Microsoft Internet Explorer to view it, but an interesting statistic is that 8% used the new Firefox browser which is rapidly being adopted all over the world by internet users in the know. www.mozilla.org

A range of new art work and MTW projects by last year's Form 3 will be added to the site tonight. See if yours is there!

Trees

A couple of weeks ago there was a supplement in The Irish Times all about trees. So Mr Gill and 1G went up to Mrs King in the library to be enlightened in the way of the tree. Mr Gill lectured us about the various parts of a tree, how to measure a tree without having to climb up it and told us that the tallest tree in Ireland was in Waterford. However, Louis had discovered that another tree had recently passed that one out, so we all learned that the tallest one is now in Powerscourt. We enjoyed the class!

Andrew McKay hockey tournament

A tournament for boys and girls in aid of charity will take place on Wednesday 16 March at the lower pitches, €3 per person participating entry fee. Teams will be chosen randomly on the day. This is a fun event so please come and take part! Refreshments will be on sale during the event. The event is held annually in memory of Andrew McKay, a young teacher of Business and hockey at The High School, who died of cancer in 2002.

Poetry tree in the library

Pictured below are the organisers of the poetry tree for World Book Day in the library

Daffodil Day

Well done to those who collected for the Irish Cancer Society (some are pictured below with Mrs King) on Daffodil Day and raised €350. The daffodil above was painted by Amy Kenealy (5) and the ones below by Robert Bradish. (Images copyright to the artists)

Healthy corner - cannabis

There are many myths in existence about cannabis. Here are some facts from the Department of Health.

It contains over 400 different chemicals, the most important being Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which remains detectable in the body for about 30 days and which causes problems of toxicity in the body over long periods of usage.

Cannabis can trigger mental illness such as schizophrenia and depression.

Larger doses of cannabis or use of stronger forms can cause users to feel depressed, suffer panic and anxiety attacks, hallucinate and suffer from paranoia (the feeling that everyone is out to get you).

The smoke from cannabis has more cancer causing chemicals than the highest tar tobacco and therefore increases the risk of throat and lung cancer and causes damage to unborn babies if smoked by the mother.

Regular use of cannabis tends to lead to a drop in motivation which can cause users to drop out of study, school, activities or work.

Cannabis is an illegal drug with fines and jail terms up to 12 months for possession and up to life imprisonment for supplying.

(In summary - cannabis can kill, just like ordinary cigarettes, and also has other major health problems associated with it.)

Dates for your diary

School is closed on Thursday and Friday 17 and 18 March, open on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 21, 22, 23 March, closing at 11.55 on Wednesday 23 March.

Sport this week

U 14 A De la Salle Wed 16 Home 2.30

U 13 B Blackrock Tues 15 Home 4.00

Junior (L) Sutton Park Tues 15 Home 4.00

U 14 (L) Dundalk Tues 15 Home 2.30

Cadettes (L) Rockford Tues 15 Arena 3.30

Minor Ballinteer Wed 16 Away 11.00

Junior Muckross Wed 16 St Olaf's 4.00

Senior League Final vs Ballinteer Mon 21 Arena tbc

Congratulations to the 1st XI girls hockey team who won their 2 indoor matches in St Andrew's. They now qualify for the finals to be played on Wed 23 March.

Congratulations also to the 1st XI boys hockey team who won the B league! The Under 14 beat Kilkenny 5-2 to qualify for the semi-final of the league.

In girls basketball, the Minors beat Cluny 12-7.