Published: Wednesday, 6th January, 2010 4:44pm

St Fintina's on RTE

St Fintina's principal Tom Stack is interviewed on RTE about the school's virtual classroom for chemistry students.

St Fintina's Post-Primary School, Longwood, which is the first school in the country to have a virtual classroom, recently featured on RTE news.

School prinicpal Tom Stack was interviewed and explained that, with cutbacks, the school could not afford a chemistry teacher for three students since it was such a small class. The answer was to attend Chemistry classes in Dunshaughlin Community College without moving anywhere thanks to video conferencing in the classroom.

Students get to see the teacher, follow the class and ask and answer questions, while the teacher in Dunshaughlin also sees the students. The students email their homework.

This is the first class of its type in the country. Dell, Microsoft and County Meath VEC teamed up to make it possible. Now they plan to see if this technology can be used in other schools in Meath VEC.

Meanwhile, the arama club in St Fintina's, under the guidance of Ms Shine, put on the production 'A Haunting We Will Go' by Tim Kelly. It tells the story of Norma Corwin, a hotshot TV presenter who wants to spend the night alone in a hotel where things go bump in the night. Norma finds herself surrounded by several shady characters which provide amusement, mayhem and mystery.

The same night of the production, projects from students involved in mini companies and artwork were displayed. There were also Christmas carols by the school's choir to get everyone in the festive mood. An entertaining night was had by all.