Halloween is always great fun and this year was no different - amazing costumes, snap apple, peanut races, barm brack and lots more! Past pupil Laura Deasy spent a week doing work experience with us after Easter. Laura is in Transition Year, all grown up now and she was a great help during the week. On one of the days, classmate Lisa O'Donovan also called and it was lovely to have both girls back to visit - we really missed those visits during Covid. Laura and Lisa brought us two cups they had won with Drinagh Rangers soccer, Under 16 Girls Premier League and Cup Winners 2022 - a great achievement! Well done, girls!!
Back to school in September and we were delighted to welcome four new pupils - Olive and Finn in Juniors, Oliver in Seniors and Miriam in Sixth.
The sun shone for us in September and we enjoyed many outdoor activities including playing in the playground, blackberry picking and harvesting the vegetables in our school garden. As is now traditional we made soup and cooked dinner with the produce from our garden. We have a super picnic table and seats and in fine weather we had lunch and even classes outside. We also enjoyed Yoga classes each week which were very pleasant. Our last week of school in the 2021-22 year was packed! We had our Sports Day and a a trip to The Treehouse in Skibbereen. Then the Senior Class made a 3 course meal all by themselves- Nettle soup starter, beef lasagna for mains, and finished off with a delicious fruit sponge cake!
The mural in our sensory garden was finished, and on the final day, we had lovely treats. CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GRADUANDS! GO CLASS OF 22! We have just completed the Incredible Edibles Project from Agriaware and we are really hoping to achieve Gold Status as an Incredible Edible School. We completed 5 tasks and we really enjoyed it from start to finish. We got seeds, strawberries and potatoes fro Agriaware as part of the project, these are now growing in our school garden. There were many links between the project and the curriculum and we also did a lot of work in the classroom, learning about where our food comes from, the food pyramid and so much more. We were particularly impressed with how much food is produced locally in West Cork and in Cork County. We enjoyed making potato cakes fruit skewers and smoothies, really tasty ways of eating fruit and veg and we also did a 7-a-day challenge. The project made us aware of eating seasonal food and buying local where possible. We have some avid gardeners in our school! HOW IS ELECTRICITY GENERATED AND CAN WE GENERATE ELECTRICITY FROM WATER? Children in the Senior Classes took part in the ESB Science Blast project recently. As part of our Science Class we did practical experiments building various circuits with batteries, bulbs, motors, wires and switches. Children really enjoyed this and it provided the inspiration for the project. We then did a lot of research into the generation of electricity and came up with some fascinating facts. We discovered that almost 40% of Ireland's electricity is generated by renewable sources, mostly wind. Only 2.5% is generated by water. We built two models and got a lot of help from Serena's Dad which we greatly appreciated. After a lot of trial and error and moving on to Plan B, C (and maybe even D!) we finally succeeded in our aim of generating electricity. We had a Zoom call with our Science Blast judge, Fionn, who works in the area of generating electricity from renewable sources. He told us that by 2030 Ireland aims to have 80% of its electricity from renewable sources and by 2040 this will be up to 100% We are getting very busy in our garden as Spring is finally here. We are taking part in AgriAware's Incredible Edibles programme, Woodie's Budding gardeners and Save the Bees initiative with SuperValu. We were delighted to get a €75 voucher from Woodie's to buy bulbs, seeds, pots and compost to help us on our way. We decorated pots and so far we have planted dahlias, strawberries and potatoes. We have cleared our raised beds in preparation for the new season and we can't wait for the last frosts to disappear so we can plant things outside. We celebrated World Book Day on Friday March 4th and enjoyed having some interesting characters in our school for the day. The children made book marks and engaged in lots of Literacy activities during the day. It is always lovely to see younger children engrossed in a story read for them by an older child, Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday, fell on March 1st and of course pancakes had to be on the menu that day! Pancakes and a variety of toppings were thoroughly enjoyed by all! We've had a busy few weeks since Christmas! On February 1st we made a traditional St Brigid's cross, a sure sign that Spring has arrived. It is also lovely to see the daffodils blooming around the school again - always a cheerful sight. These pictures capture some of the activities we have got up to - Art work, Boogie Bounce at the Sports Centre in Skibbereen, Weaving, Baking and much more. |
Archives
July 2023
|