On Thursday the 8th of November as part of our Digital Schools Cluster Project the senior room visited Claremorris for a local history tour led by Colmán Ó Raghallaigh. The tour began in Claremorris Train Station where the children had a very informative tour and were lucky enough to walk over the footbridge. Following this we walked a short distance to view the monument erected in memory of many famine victims. Next we returned to the bus and headed to another part of the railway line. Colmán pointed out the railway line to Galway that is no longer in service. It is hoped this line will open again in the future. We then headed off to view the old famine workhouse. Many of the children were surprised to learn this was an old workhouse. The Famine is a topic we have covered in a lot of depth over the last view months and we are currently reading some novels based on this time in Ireland. Our previous knowledge on this topic helped the children understand the significance of the workhouse and having one located so near. Following the closure of the workhouse we learned the building was then used as a bacon factory. We returned to the bus again and headed back towards the town centre. Colmán gave us with a very informative talk on the history of the current library building used as a church in olden days. The children were fascinated to learn this was a building that was hit by lightning twice in the past. This information suggests that the old saying may be something of a myth. Our final visit was just across the road to the stunning St Colemans Church. As a special treat Colmán organised for the children to visit the gallery which is used by the church choir. Here the children were treated to a stunning view of the church and alter. The children got a close up view of the organ, one of the largest organs in Ireland. The final part of our tour included a look at the stunning stain glass windows and a description of the images that appear on them. Colmán was extremely knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. It was a very enjoyable day.

“80% of children, currently, are not active enough”

(Children’s Sport Participation Study and Physical Education Study 2010).

This year, we are working towards getting an Active Schools Flag for our school. The aim of the Active Schools Flag is to encourage schools to be more active, more often. It links in with all of the work we are doing throughout the year on Healthy Living – being active, getting exercise, and mindfulness.

We had great fun launching our Active Schools Initiative today. We had an active Halloween fun day!

All the children came to school dressed up in their Halloween costumes to take part in our ‘Spooky Walk’. We walked for 1 km and we really enjoyed it and felt energized afterwards. We walked mindfully and took great notice of the nature and sounds around us.

All Set!

The whole school got moving together in our ‘Active lines’ at 10 am.

We lined up class by class and we did jumping jacks, frog hops, bunny hops, windmills, high knees, running on the spot, etc. It was great fun to get the whole school moving together!

We will be engaging in many activities throughout the year and we look forward to becoming more active and having great fun along the way!

Happy Halloween!

On Wednesday the 3^rd of October the senior room took part in the mini 7’s. We travelled to The Connacht GAA Centre in Bekan where we teamed up with Meelickmore National School. We had a very successful day with both teams winning all their matches. Both teams are progressing to the next stage scheduled for Tuesday the 9^th of October. We will keep you all posted.

On June 21st, we went to Horizon adventure centre in Westport. We arrived at 10 o’clock and had great fun playing laser tag, archery and tackling the climbing wall and high ropes. Aeroball was fantastic and we competed against each other for points. We also played night-line which meant we had to go into the forest blindfolded and holding onto a rope. We completed obstacles and had to crawl through tunnels and climb through ropes to reach our destination. It was a brilliant day and we enjoyed it so much!

The Grow in Love programme is the new religious education series from Veritas. It is a colourful and fun way for children and families to learn about faith, both in school and at home. It will replace the Alive-O programme in every Catholic primary school in the country.

It includes illustrations to accompany every story with online videos and weblinks for further study. Our school was chosen to dramatise the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. The following video is the result of much practice and will form part of the Grow in Love national video database.

The pupils in the senior room performed their roles extremely well and we are very proud that their achievement will be viewed in schools nationwide for many years to come.

Everybody here has become so excited about space. This is our short video which shows the different space activities we took part in over the past two years. First, we made a lego replica of the ExoMars Rover. We took it to Portugal and showed children from our other European partner schools how to make it. You can learn more and view videos of our trip to Portugal here. Then we had a star-gazing party where we looked at some constellations. Fifth class pupils visited Mount Etna in Sicily where lunar robots have been put to the test. They took part in various science experiments, games and activities related to space. You can view videos from the trip to Sicily here.

The infants performed an experiment to learn how craters were made on the moon. We read the classroom edition of The Martian by Andy Weir and also launched a helium space balloon which travelled 28km into the stratosphere before returning to Earth and landing in Athboy Co Meath. You can view a 360 degree video of the space balloon journey by clicking here. This is our video to show why we think space is amazing!

Everyone welcome to Tierney’s, Foxhall for our end-of-year quiz on Friday next, June 22nd, at 8.30pm. €40 per team. Cash prizes and great raffle.

Best of luck to past pupil Enda Hession Garrymore GAA who captains the Mayo minor footballers in the Connacht championship this season. Enda leads the team out for the first time this evening (Wednesday) against Leitrim at MacHale Park, Castlebar at 8pm. Here are some photos from 2012 of Enda in action.

Junior Infants, Senior Infants, 4th, 5th and 6th Classes set off on the bus to explore the natural habitat along ‘The Land of the Giants’ around Clare Lake.. Before we set off, we discussed water safety and the children discussed how we stay safe around a body of water. Even with the damp weather the children were very excited.

We found some minibeasts, lots of natural vegetation and birds! We saw ducks, geese and dogs out for their walk! We found lots of snails. We saw bees and flies particularly near the water’s edge. We found Marsh Marigolds, Daisies, Daffodils, Dandelions, Bullrushes, Yellow Iris, Ivy and many trees including Fir, Birch, Ash and Scots Pine.

The children worked in groups and had fun filling out their Eco Safari journals. The whole experience was again very enjoyable and educational, the children are all great ‘Guardians of the Land’. Please take a minute to view a short video of our Eco Safari below, thanks.

Here is a video of our space balloon flight which was launched on Thursday, June 22nd, 2017 from Frank and Mary Clarke’s farm. It reached an altitude of 28km. There are five layers to our atmosphere – Troposphere (up to 20km high), Stratosphere (20-50km), Mesosphere (50-85km), Thermosphere (85-600km), Exosphere (600-10,000km). Our balloon reached the Stratosphere.

Around 20km high ice-crystals are visible and the temperature drops to -51°C. In the Stratosphere the temperature actually increased with altitude to -40°C  as ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun is absorbed by the ozone layer. Had our balloon reached the top of the stratosphere the temperature would have risen to about -15°C  before falling sharply again in the Mesosphere. It landed 125km away between Castlepollard and Athboy on the farm of Eamon and Margureite Kelly.

Thanks to Frank and Mary Clarke, our sponsors CMS Distribution and DeCare Dental and chase car drivers Mary Lydon, Jan Wilkins and Angela Walshe.

The video of the flight is 360° so view it fullscreen to pan around. Control the 360 degree fullscreen video on your phone or tablet by moving your device.  To view it on a VR headset visit https://youtu.be/XPfoCtv5NSA or search for “Gortskehy in Space” using your VR YouTube app.

Video: Space balloon flight https://t.co/G0CPxSR6Ss via @gortskehy. So proud of my old N. S. Congrats to all involved.

— Andy Tierney (@Jamesatierney) July 14, 2017

CMS expansion now reaches space! Courtesy of sponsorship of the @gortskehy #space balloon flight. We have video > https://t.co/u3lWRMhBpm pic.twitter.com/CeWIUJcBGL

— CMS Distribution (@CMSDistribution) July 25, 2017

3D prediction of the flight path.

Some of the towns the balloon flew over.

This intrepid school from Hollymount lauched a space balloon! https://t.co/BuFA61KSbq @AllThingsMayo @gortskehy pic.twitter.com/88kCl4EPuF

— Mayo.ie (@MayoDotIE) July 15, 2017