Congratulations to the children from 5th and 6th class who received the Sacrament of Confirmation on Friday the 15^th of March  2019. The mass was celebrated by Archbishop Michael Neary. A huge thank you to Fr Murphy and all involved for making it such an enjoyable day.

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.

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!