Many thanks to our parents, staff and students who were involved in the consultation process for the drafting of our Mobile Phone and Electronic Device policy. We are committed to positive mental health and the creation of a bully free zone. We invite parents to review the final draft before ratification at our board meeting on Monday 12th November.
Thank you for your continued interest in our school and the welfare of our students.
Click the link to view the final draft: mobile phone policy
We had a great morning on the last day of our first half term. Everyone came to school dressed up and we had a Hallowe’en Wake up Shake up on yard to get the juices flowing! We love being an active school!! Those who moved really well were tapped on the shoulder to indicate that they had won a homework pass!
We also had the pleasure of awarding our literacy narrative story writing competition winners. The standard was so high which reflected all the work the teachers had done around the genre. Ms. Gilmartin Ryan and Ms. D’Arcy had tough decisions to make when adjudicating! We will run another writing competition before Christmas with regard to our new literacy genre.
Many thanks to our PA who organised a brilliant disco at The Golden Anchor. It was a really active fundraiser and there were some really great dancers there!
The winners of our Literacy Narrative story writing competition! Well done all!!
Boys GAA:
Straight from the first week back our football teams were right in the thick ofit. The Mini 7s team got through their first round with great wins over Loreto, Gorey and Gaelscoil, Gorey. They are now hoping to go a step further in the second round of the competition.
The Rackard League team is also progressing very well with fantastic wins
over St. Josephs of Gorey and Bunclody. These wins put them through to an A
quarter final against Ballindaggin. The Teams are showing great interest, discipline,
work rate and team work during each and every day they take to the field.
The school also ran our own All Ireland series during lunch, which proved very
popular and served up some very exciting games. A lot of credit must go to both
5th and 6th class who helped run the competition. Well done to all the boys and
girls who took part from 3rd to 6th class. A special congratulations to Dublin who
came out on top after a hard fought final game against Wexford. A boys and girls team also attended the Creagh College annual football blitz. It was a very enjoyable day with both
teams representing the school superbly. Finally I would like to thank all who help
out with the GAA, especially the parents for their great support, Carmel, Ms. Russell,
Kevin Morris and Michael Kavanagh for all the organising, training and support
throughout the term. We are looking forward to what the GAA will bring after the mid-term break. Niall Breen
Girls GAA:
The girls Rackard league football team have been super! Having played 4
matches, they won 3 out of 4 games, beating Crannford, Monageer and Oulart.
Our Mini 7s team had one enjoyable day out. They played Tara Hill and
Ballythomas in the blitz. Both tough games. We overcame Tara Hill but
Ballythomas were in a league of their own having lost only two players from
last year and being defending County champions. Maith thú cailiní.
Huge thanks to Berney White for giving his time and help with Rackard league
and Mini 7s.
The girls had great success at the Creagh college blitz as well. They reached the
final and played magnificently against a strong Monamolin team. Usha and Julie
made the cross bar challenge final also with Usha taking the title. Both girls were
super. Paula D’Arcy
Pictured: Our wonderful Rackard League Girls’ Team who made the finals! 
Today was such a fun and memorable day for our students as they got to experience a bird workshop with Colin Travis. We saw owls and hawks and even got to hold them using a special bird glove! Colin was so patient and kind towards our pupils, giving each one enough time to enjoy their experience. One reminded us of Hedwig from Harry Potter!
This experience falls under the SESE umbrella as we investigate the habits and lifestyles of these beautiful birds. It also comes under the Green Flag heading as it is part of biodiversity.
It’s a thumbs up from Cian!
Autumn fun!
We are loving the abundance of crunchy autumn leaves in all their shades of crimson, brown and gold! Children were making ‘leaf angels’ – a warmer, drier version of snow angles!! They also loved making leaf men and throwing leaves at one another!
There is a buzz about school this week with lots of activities being planned for Maths Week.
* 6th class are out in the fresh air this morning using the ipads to uncover QR codes which set Maths challenges for them! We love this integration of Maths and Digital Literacy!
* 1st and 2nd class will take a trip to Gorey library for their Mathsweek Lego event. On the way, they will complete Maths surveys about what they see
* There will be Maths trails around school this week
* There will be a lunchtime activity each day
Thank you to Ms. Carroll for all her hard work!
* I am running a Maths Eyes competition which I spoke to the classes about. Your child will use their Maths eyes to observe real life Maths in their home environment. This could be a clock that is circle shaped for a junior infant to a half eaten pizza (180 degrees,semi-circle) for middle classes and senior classes might spot more complex angles, shapes and numbers in their homes.
These entries can be emailed to me at the school address cns.iaswx@gmail.com. Please put Maths Eyes in the subject box. I will upload entries and give prizes to the winners on Friday. Good luck!
Here are some of our early Maths Eyes entries!
Henri: How many different shapes can you name? What patterns can you see?
Isabelle: what fraction of the total number of blocks is each colour? How many blocks are there in total?
Robyn: What 3-d shape can you identify in my computer game? 
Fiadh: How many squares can you see? There may be more than you think!
We are beyond proud of our students today. They sang beautifully, Aaron and Joseph played wonderfully. Their behaviour was excellent and they all looked so smart! I am very grateful to Ms. ní Shuilleabháin and Ms. Byrne for all the work and to Ms. McDevitt and Mr. Breen for their help. Enjoy!
Happy #WorldMentalHealthDay to all! Today we will have an extra mindfulness session. Our 3rd-6th class students will be looking at the Headbomz programme by @ISPCCChildline They will also perform at The Big Sing for Mental Health on Friday. #itsgoodtotalk
We are delighted to launch the new Students’ Council for the coming academic year. I know that those elected will do great justice in representing the voice of our most important people, our students!
The Council will be involved in fundraising, book swap ventures and many other initiatives! Many thanks to Ms. Whittle for organising and supporting our council.
It is with great heart and enthusiasm that we embark on the renewal process for our Active Flag. Here at Scoil Ghormáin Naofa, we extol the importance of healthy minds and healthy bodies. If we have both, then we will have the tools to be great learners!
Our Active Flag coordinator, Ms. D’Arcy has a wonderful programme of events planned for the coming year. We kicked off this morning with Scooter day! What a fun Friday we are having! It was a joy to see our students whizz around the laps we had set up. Well done to all for remembering your helmets!
d90f25ce-f5ba-4ad3-89fa-8b286e2ca6c6 – Check out our Scooter video by clicking the link!
We had a fantastic lunchtime league with a valiant Dublin side emerging victorious! It was brilliant to see our own 6th class students referee in such an efficient and respectful way! Many thanks to Mr. Breen for coordinating and thanks to Anthony Masterson for popping by. Best of luck in the next stage!
Rackard League and Mini 7s: Our girls and boys have had a super start to the Rackard League and Mini 7s tournaments. Our girls are playing particularly well this season! We are delighted to have Berney White on board this year to coach. Thanks to Ms Carroll, Mr Breen, Ms D’Arcy, Ms McDevitt, Siobhan and Carmel for their involvement and encouragement.
Our Parents’ Association are extremely supportive of our Active efforts and have a Hallowe’en disco planned for the last day of term. We will also work with them to plan another Croghan walk, based on our hugely successful walk last year.
Many thanks to the staff and students of Creagh College for facilitating the GAA blitz that we attended last week. Our girls reached the finals to a tough Monamolin side. Our boys were runner up in the tug of war and Usha and Julie came 1st and 2nd respectively in the crossbar challenge. Thanks to Mick Kavanagh for supporting us!
SSE – We have reengaged with the School Self Evaluation process and have selected Physical Literacy as our area of focus. Ms D’Arcy and Mr. Breen are rolling out the project and our teachers are all on board. We will evaluate the progress of our junior infants specifically as they learn the fundamental skills of movement through the Move Well, Move Often programme. We hope that this will motivate them to be active in their whole lives!
Keep tuned for updates!
We had a really interesting visit from Castletown resident, Lena Leonard, who came to talk to our students about lifestyles from generations past. Lena has maintained traditional customs and lives a life without technology. Our children were fascinated and I was impressed by their recall when I asked them the next day! We were also delighted to welcome Ms. Byrne’s Mum too!
Many thanks to Lena and to Ms. Byrne for organising this very interesting event!
