At nine o’clock on the morning of the 1 December, Clare, Shane, Mr Flynn and I assembled in Dublin Airport for our trip to Taiwan to participate in the International Youth Culture Conference. About 26 hours later we finally arrived in Taiwan and were greeted by our host families, with whom we stayed for the next four nights. The first two days of our trip were spent attending the conference in Changhua Senior High School where we presented our papers and heard papers from students from America, Australia, Finland, Russia, Japan and Taiwan. The school was really interesting to see as it was so different from our High School. It was huge with over 3000 pupils, and the assembly was like a military operation with the students marching around, obeying commands and saluting the head boy. Classes also began at 7 and ended at 5! The first night we went to a welcoming party in the school where we saw performances from Taiwanese and international students and the Irish group performed some traditional Irish music. The following days were spend travelling around Taiwan visiting sights such as the Giant bike factory, Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the world), the presidential buildings, night markets, Buddhist temples and the National Palace museum.

The trip was an amazing experience as we had the chance to experience a totally different culture and try lots of new things. We also got to make loads of new friends from all over the world, buy lots of cheap electronics and try some exotic food. We would like to thank our Taiwanese hosts, and Mr Flynn for all his help and we hope he enjoyed the trip as much as we did.

A group of Guidance Counsellors from the locality recently came together to organise a careers fair for their senior secondary school students.

Students studying third level courses and college administrators were present to answer questions. The careers fair was presented by all the Leinster universities, colleges and PLCs as well as students who are currently studying a wide variety of career areas. It was attended by our 4th,5th and 6th year students and their parents.

The fair was held at St Killian's School, Clonskeagh, on Thursday 22 November from 7.30 p.m. until 9.00 p.m.

Congratulations to our first year pupils whose poetry is featuring in the Eurochild Anthology of Poetry and Art which was published last week. This was work which they completed when they were in Zion National School.

Science week

Every year the library committee organises a display in the library for science week Ireland. This year's display included a plasma ball, a magnetic flying earth and, with the help of some Science teachers, a quiz, in which you had to guess what each science instrument on display was. The display was thoroughly enjoyed by everybody.

Well done to the quiz winners - Romy Leith, Caoimhe Cassidy, Sara Buttanshaw, Beth Dakin, Ryan O'Malley, Rebecca Tully, Rebecca Dalton, Lizzy McGuinness, Conn Loane, Conor Sexton, Emma Feeley Rebecca Garland and Olivia O'Hora.

On Saturday 8 December our Under 16 team played Clongowes In the semi-final of the Under 16 league. The conditions were miserable. It was lashing rain and there were strong winds. In the first half High School dominated with Hugh O'Marcaigh and Simon Ludden scoring. The rain stopped in the second half and Clongowes scored first. We came back immediately with Adam Ryan scoring under the posts. Eoin Keenan scored our last try in the corner.