The Creative Schools programme  aims to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children and young people’s lives.

It gives children and young people a central role in the process.   Back in June 2018,  we were selected as one of 150 schools nationally to take part in this pilot initiative which will help us understand, develop and celebrate the arts and creativity in our school.

We have been assigned a Creative Associate, Jojo Hynes, who will support our school to develop a Creative School Plan for the year ahead. Jojo will assist in creating and developing links between schools and artists/ art and cultural organisations at local and national level along with challenging us to think in new and different ways.

Meet our Creative Schools Team – a representative group who will lead the Creative School process here at Gortskehy.

We are looking forward to working with the Arts Council and Jojo on this exciting initiative this year.

“Being active, staying fit, Gortskehy always does its bit!”, Cathal Tierney, 5th Class

We have been very active in Gortskehy recently for our @activeflag.

We held a competition during November for the children to come up with our active school slogan. The children came up with fantastic ideas. Congratulations to Cathal Tierney, fifth class for coming up with the winning catchy slogan! We had a competition for the infants to draw and colour an active picture. They really enjoyed it and had great pictures!

Great slogan Cathal – WELL DONE from @activeflag👍

— Active School Flag (@ActiveFlag) January 8, 2019

On November 19th we started taking part in the ‘Active Break Every Day Challenge’. Each class had an active break every day. We had a running break, a dance break or an exercise break each day. It really helped us to energise ourselves and concentrate and focus better on our work. We had so much fun during these breaks that we have an active break every day at school now. It helps us to stay healthy!

On the day of our Christmas Holidays we had a Christmas Disco. Each class got to perform a dance in the dance off! It was a really active way to end the term at school and we had a fantastic time dressed up in our Christmas jumpers.

We are going to be taking part in the Operation Transformation 10@10 initiative in January at school and we are looking forward to the challenge!

Fourth Class (2018/19)

(F) Sadhbh, Aoibhínn, Diane, Ryan, Senan (B) Lily, Dayna, Fiona, Niamh, Ella, Caylum

Well done to everyone who kindly contributed to the Team Hope Shoebox Appeal. Such a kind and generous act, this will bring so much joy to the children who open their special delivery from the boys and girls of Gortskehy this Christmas. This appeal is such a worthy cause as Team Hope give your Christmas Shoebox gifts right into the hands of some of the world’s most vulnerable children – many of whom will receive no other gift this Christmas. For some it’s the first gift they’ve ever received. Thanks also to Veronica for distributing the pamphlets and collecting the shoeboxes from our school.

“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving” Mother Teresa

Thank you to all our pupils who entered the Credit Union Art Competition this year and to the class teachers for helping them with their creativity.   As usual, the standard was very high and we were delighted that a number of our pupils were recognised for their wonderful art & talent.

The winners in each category from our school were as follows:

7 years & under – 1st: Alaois Doherty, 2nd: Ciara Hession, 3rd: Caitlín Ryan

8-10 years – 1st: Fiona Ryan, 2nd: Ella McManus, 3rd: Dayna Jordan

11-13 years – 1st: Kellyann Walsh, 2nd: Aoife Heaney, 3rd: Josh Wilkins

Parents were invited to a presentation ceremony on Saturday, November 10th, at the Town Hall Claremorris.

Well done to all involved!

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!

Here in Gortskehy N.S., we are delighted to announce our involvement with the Digital Schools Excellence programme. We are part of a three school cluster which includes St. Pats BNS, Castlebar and Meelickmore N.S.. We made an application to be involved in this project to the Department of Education and Skills last year and were successful. We will be working as a team over the next 3 years to enhance our teaching and your children’s learning using digital technologies. Each family will receive a copy of our first newsletter below. We are in the process of developing our own website where you will be able to view our ongoing progress throughout the year.

The middle room visited the Pure Skill Sports Centre in Galway last Friday the 15^th of June for their annual school tour. The children took part in many activities including hurling, soccer, golf, rugby, basketball, Gaelic football, cricket and tennis.   We had a great day out followed by some lovely lunch.

In addition to our tour we have really enjoyed the summer weather over the last few weeks. We raised four little caterpillars to help them become beautiful butterflies. We observed them closely each day, and made sure they had enough food. When they were strong enough we released them beside our bug hotel. This was a really interesting process to see and helped us fully understand the life-cycle of the butterfly. Seeing this come to life was a really fun experience. We also made time to take in a local nature walk. Here we spotted many plants and animals.

Thank you everyone for a great year. We hope you all have a brilliant summer!

A sincere thank you to all who supported our Pupil Art Exhibition which took place on Thursday 24th May.  It was a great success!