Back in 2018, we decided to undertake a project to develop and create a Sensory & Biodiversity Garden for our school.

A sensory garden is an interactive space that is accessed by all children in the school and wider school community.  It is a garden environment that it designed with the purpose of stimulating the senses – sight, hearing, taste, smell & touch. This stimulation occurs courtesy of plants, herbs and the use of other materials such as wind chimes, tactile panels and different textured surfaces.

Our vision was to create a space that was colourful, interactive and engaging for all our pupils at Gortskehy.

We would like to thank a number of people who helped us achieve this vision –

Thank you to our parents –  PJ Commins, Pat Hession, Fintan Forde and Andrew Heaney along with Justin Commins and Kieran Varley for the removal of the hedging and installation of the fencing posts back in September.

Thanks to Christine Mannion and members of the Rural Social Scheme for their assistance with the installation and painting of our fence railing & gate. To Martin McHale for rotavating the soil in preparation for the raised beds and walkways.  To Brian Naughton for his help with building the raised beds, tactile board and painting.  Thank you to Jamie Hession for his assistance with garden painting and freshening up our Buddy Bench. Thank you also to Melissa Walsh of MW Design, Print & Signs for her enthusiasm and creativity in designing and supplying our vibrant garden signage.

It is wonderful to have the support of our pupils, past pupils,  parents and the wider community in developing this worthwhile project.

The next stage of the project is for our pupils to plant our garden with a variety of plants to appeal to our senses and to enjoy this wonderful space for many years to come.

We have created a short video which gives a snapshot of the transformation of this space  – we hope you enjoy!

Before Easter, we went to the Odeon cinema in Limerick. Our film (League of Skeletons) was shortlisted from 400 entries for the Fresh Film Festival. Only 38 were shown in the cinema. We left at 7:15am on a bus. The journey took approximately 2 hours but we were delayed because of road works. On the way, we saw Thomond Park, the home of Munster rugby, and the River Shannon. When we got to the cinema we bought sweets and went to the toilet. We sat down in the cinema. We missed 3 or 4 movies because of the road works. There were many great films and two breaks. We won an award for best CGI effects (computer generated images). We got a plaque and our photo taken. On the way home we went to Supermacs to eat. We had a great day out. Watch our film below:

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Clíona, Ellen, Amy, Megan and Jamie took part in the Instrumental Music section of Scór. Here is a video of the tunes we played – The Hills of Tara and the Deers’ March. We represented South Mayo in the County Final at Breaffy. Congrats to Tavrane NS, Kilkelly who were the overall winners.

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Djembe drums originated in Africa. They are made with a wooden shell and a head made from animal hide, usually it belongs to a goat.  Lukasz came to our school to teach us about the djembe and others drums. We played the drums and sang songs. We had lots of fun. We made the video in school.  Evan from fourth class is speaking as Mr. Turtle and the presenter is me, Clíona, from sixth class.

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An bhlian seo caite thosaíomar club Gaeilge sa scoil. Bhí sé ar siúl ar feadh uair a chloig taréis am scoile. Rinneamar go leor cluichí, ceoil agus dráma. I mbliana beidh sé ag tosnú arís gach Déardaoin. Tosóidh sé ar an 12ú Márta ag 2:30 go 3:30. Siúlfaidh an bus ag 3:30.  🙂