Fifth and Sixth class went on a Confirmation retreat to Ballintubber Abbey. We had great fun! We met with pupils from Cloghans Hill, Lehinch and Robeen national schools. Our parish priest Fr. Murphy went with us.
On Wednesday, February 28th we had a party at the school for Mrs. Roche. We had this party because it was her last day in Gortskehy School. We all made cards and bought her a gift which made her very happy. Mrs. Roche invited a clown who performed magic tricks and painted our faces. She was very good and we all had great fun.
On Friday evening we had a Mass at Carras Church for Mrs. Roche and her family. Everyone took part in the ceremony and then we went to Tierney’s of Foxhall where we had a party. A band played music and we had sandwiches, cake and lemonade. It was great fun. We will all miss Mrs. Roche and we wish her good luck in the future.

On Wednesday the 21st of March Gortskehy N.S joined with Meelickmore N.S for the Cumann na mBunscol Mini 7’s football competition. It was a lovely day and everyone was excited to play. The matches were played on Claremorris pitch and each game lasted for twenty minutes – ten minutes a half. Our first game was at 12:30 against Taugheen/Lehinch. The team was made up of Niamh from Meelickmore in goal, Amy (Gortskehy) and Olivia (Meelickmore) on the backline, Nicola and Diane from Gortskehy in midfield with Ann-Marie (Meelickmore) and Marie (Gortskehy) in forward. Gortskehy/Meelickmore took the lead in the first half and continued to lead in the second half. They won the game and now faced Aghamore.
Rebecca came on in the second half of both games while Rachel and Orla also played a part as did the other girls from Meelickmore. The match against Aghamore was tough but Gortskehy/Meelickmore stood their ground and won the game. The next game was the toughest. It was against Irishtown/Logboy. Irishtown/Logboy were leading at half-time by a point but Gortskehy/Meelickmore bounced back and won the game by six points!
The next game was to be played on Friday, 23rd of March. We played Ballyhaunis and won the game by 1 goal and 7 points. We are now the Claremorris Area Champions and were presented with a cup and medals. A video of the presentation can be viewed below. Our teacher Mr. Ó Beirn brought us to Supermacs to celebrate. We were excited to hear that our next game was on Monday the 26th of March against Kilmaine. Kilmaine were a very good team and we narrowly beat them. We are now through to the county semi-final which will be played on March 28th in McHale Park, Castlebar at 11:30am. If we win we will play in the county final which will also take place tomorrow at 12.30pm. This is the first time our school has reached this stage of the competition and we are very proud. All support would be appreciated.

Best of luck to Davitts GAA club who take on Milltown-Castlemaine in the Intermediate All-Ireland Final next Sunday (12th) in Croke Park. We hope our past pupils Alan, Séamus and Colm Roche get to lift the cup.
Colm has made the number 2 jersey his own this season. He is an excellent reader of the game who is currently playing the football of his life.
Alan was coaxed out of retirement by Peter Warren. He has made the full back position his own in the absence of Frankie Barrett.
Séamus is the third member of the Roche family in the squad – a tough forward with a very accurate left foot.
Here is a video of our trip to the RDS for the 2012 BT Young Scientist Exhibition. We were the only primary school from Mayo selected to perform an experiment at the exhibition. We discovered that every liquid you see will probably be either acidic or basic. Water is neutral. Scientists use something called the pH scale to measure how acidic or basic a liquid is. Our experiment investigates the qualities of acids and bases in liquids. Furthermore, how acidic or basic our soils are determines what we can grow in our gardens. We built and programmed a robot to help with our experiment. It uses colour and ultrasonic sensors. Watch the video to find out more!

Well done to @Gortskehy who flew primary schools' flag for Mayo at BT Young Scientist Exhibition. http://t.co/Sm7mA9NV
— Mayo People & Places (@Mayo2Day) January 26, 2012