What an awesome afternoon with @KanDoArts ! We learned so much about recycling through puppetry, tricks and comedy! Many thanks to Cliona from @wexfordcoco for providing this lovely treat!
We learned about landfills, reusing glass bottles and about the excess of paper that is dumped when it could be recycled! We will think twice in future! As we are a green school, we are committed to consciously recycling in our school.
We are immensely proud of our Mini 7s boys team who emerged victorious from a pool of 78 schools! They played a valiant Glynn side in the final and we thank Glynn for a great match. We will hold a civic reception in honour of our players next Friday and look forward to inviting parents and local club members.
Here is a report from one of our players, Mikey Kinsella:
It was a great match with Fionn and Conor flying up the midfield. When the high ball went up everyone was relieved when Fionn caught it. The ball went to Joseph but was intercepted by a player from the Glynn team. The first half score was 1-2 to 1 goal, in favour of Glynn. As we jogged off of the pitch we got a roaring from Mr Breen and Mick Kavanagh! In the second half the ball was down at the Castletown half but it was no match for Kyle Fegan, Mikey Kinsella and Diarmuid Brady in the backs. In the last five minutes we knew what we had to do. Mikey caught the ball and booted it up to Joseph, who crossed it to Dylan Bealin, who put it in the back of the net. Castletown were in the lead by one point. Glynn had hit it to their forward but it was no match for Fionn and Mikey who quickly shut him down.The final whistle blew and there were celebrations from everyone supporting Castletown!
Discover Primary Science
We are delighted to announce that we are embarking on the Discover Primary Science award this coming year. As such, teachers will be engaging in continuous professional development to support this initiative. We have purchased new STEM boxes with resources for lessons and we have field trips planned for classes over the year. As part of Maths week, 1st and 2nd class visited Gorey Library where they engaged in a Lego engineering workshop. Junior and Senior infants will go on a field trip to Wexford Wildfowl Reserve on December 6th. We will post photos of this tour later.
Science Fair
Ms. Whittle coordinated a super science fair once again this year. Representatives from each class demonstrated experiments that the whole class had investigated and ably recounted the rationale behind each. Parents were welcomed to visit the fair. Click the link to view an experiment from Ms. ní Shuilleabháin’s class. They had to create a contraption that would prevent an egg from cracking when it was dropped from a height. Here we see one that has had a balloon attached to slow down the fall. The egg was cushioned in a cosy box which was lined with lots of different material. Well done!
Pictured is our team of playground leaders who recently completed training with Ms. D’Arcy and are now active leaders on yard! Leadership takes many forms in our school and we are delighted to see it in our students!
Playground leadership is part of our Active Flag portfolio of activities. It has been warmly received by teachers, students and leaders!
We are tremendously proud of our inaugural debating team who were victorious in a closely contested debate in Bunscoil Loreto, Gorey. They opposed the motion that non-voters should have a fine imposed on them and were hugely convincing. The debate was ably adjudicated by Theresa Hughes who congratulated both sides saying that it was the most difficult debate that she had adjudicated.
Next debate takes place in St. Kevin’s, Tara Hill on Nov 27th! Thanks to Ms. ní Shuilleabháin for leading and coordinating, Ms Byrne and Ms D’Arcy and Carmel for their coaching and support and to Ms. Gilmartin Ryan for her adjudication in the dress rehearsal.
We welcome debating as an exciting new initiative in our school and see already that it has an all encompassing effect on our wider student population who are learning about civics, oral language and SESE through the process
Pictured: Síofra, Rachel, Dylan, Erin (captain), Aedín and Joseph
A message from our Student Council:
We would like to thank everyone who brought in a shoebox this year. In total we got 85 boxes! We would like to thank everyone for supporting Team Hope and helping children in Eastern Europe and Africa. The children who receive your shoebox will be delighted with it! It is very important to look after the children who are less fortunate than we are, especially at Christmas time because they deserve a nice Christmas too. We are delighted to have sent all the shoeboxes over and we hope to do it all again next year!
Jennifer Allen and Sophia White
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!
