Our senior room have been lucky enough to pair up and become pen pals with pupils from 5^th & 6^th class in SS Peter & Paul Primary School near Wellington New Zealand. In preparation for this each child had to research New Zealand and create a presentation for this. Following completion of this project each class member shared their presentation. Last Wednesday the 28^th of November after a very exciting wait we received our letters and learned the name(s) of our new pen pals. Some of our class were lucky enough to get two pen pals. All of the senior room had the opportunity to share their letter with the class and prepare their replies. Following the sharing of our letters we learned that the schools in New Zealand are very similar to us in many ways and have a very similar school day. Some big differences we noted were the weather, seasons and school holidays. Our pen pals are approaching their summer holidays now and getting excited for the break. We were very excited to send our first reply today and really enjoyed learning new information about our pen pals and life in New Zealand.

We were delighted to welcome Dr. Niamh Shaw to our school today, 26th November 2018. She is one of Ireland’s leading science communicators and STEAM specialist (merging Science, technology, engineering, arts and maths).  She is passionate about space and has a life mission to get to space as an artist and an explorer.

Here at Gortskehy, we also have an interest in Space, having just completed our 2 year Erasmus project with the highlight being the launch of the helium near space balloon.  Niamh visited our school after the pupils in the Senior room submitted this video in June and Gortskehy NS was chosen as a winner in the ‘Inspired by Space’ competition hosted by Blackrock Observatory, Dublin.

She spent time in the middle room and senior room talking about her experience with space missions, particularly her simulated Mars mission in the Utah Desert in 2017.  She showed us pictures and videos of her time spent as an analog astronaut.  She also spent time in Russia where she experienced her first Zero gravity flight to explore weightlessness on Earth. Fascinating & inspiring stuff!

It was a privilege for our school and pupils to have Niamh visit Gortskehy NS.  For more information on Niamh’s story check out: http://www.niamhshaw.ie

As part of our @ActiveFlag initiative we have introduced playground leaders to our yard at break time.

Children from the senior room are taking turns and working as the leaders and play games with each of the younger classes. The leaders had a meeting and they came up with the games and rota.

The children are really enjoying playing yard games such as tag, chocolate chip cookie, stuck in the mud, relays etc. It gives each child an opportunity to get involved in a game and helps to keep break times active and fun!