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The joy of school is June was evident this week as some classes enjoyed a local school tour. Senior Infants had a wonderful day in Loughtagalla Park with their classmates and teachers. It’s hard to beat a picnic is the sun with your friends!

This week the girls in 6th class enjoyed a visit from Gabrielle Jim who is a Presentation Novice. Gabrielle, who is from China, is based in Portlaoise with the Presentation Order, but has recently been staying in the convent here in Thurles. She spoke to the class about her life journey and her decision to join the Presentation Order.

Ms. Gleeson’s Second Class have been busy preparing for their First Holy Communion. This week we found out that Communion will take place on Thursday, 8th July. To celebrate Fiona Connors generously made each child a communion queen cake for each girl in the class.

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This week we said a fond farwell to our dear friends Zuzanna and Igor who returned to Poland with their family after 16 happy years in Ireland. Applause and cheers greeted Igor as he walked through a Guard of Honour, formed by his class mates, on his final walk through the school gate. We wish Zuzanna, Igor and his family every happiness as they return home to Poland.

This week the children were surprised to find a giant Jenga and giant Connect 4 in the play ground. These classic borad games proved to be a great hit with all classes. Playing games like these promote teamwork, strategy, good social skills and communication.

The children in Senior Infants have been observing 5 caterpillars, as they have grown from a tiny size over the past three weeks, to finally become ‘chubby caterpillars’ recently. This week the caterpillars formed into chrsyalis and were transported into a netted enclosure. We now wait for a few days for the caterpillars to emerge as Princess Butterflies.

Ms. Walsh’s class have been working hard on a healthy eating and agri-aware project called Incredible Edibles. Having finished the project, the girls enjoyed some healthy treats in the sunshine to mark the occasion.

This week’s alternative homework was to ‘Make or Bake’ something at home. We say a very big thank you to all the mums, dads and guardians who helped the boys and girls to do this on Thursday night. There were great photos of smooties, cakes and snacks sent in on Seesaw. Well done all!

Here is this week’s photo gallery! With only 14 days left in school until the summer holidays, we can look forward to some great fun experiences before we finish.

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This month our focus for Star Pupil was Organistaion and Readiness. We encourgaed children to take responsibility for their own possesions, homework and desk. We also asked pupils to be ready for teacher when needed. This life skill is something that pupils can learn from a young age and they can feel a tremendous sense of independence when it is acknowledged.

Next month our award will be for Handwriting. Handwriting has been the focus of our School Self Evaluation process for the past two years and we will be encouraging all pupils to have the correct pencil grip as well as to make an extra special effort to improve their cursive handwriting.

This month’s Aistear theme was the Safari. All four infant classes learned about the various animals that you would see on Safari. They created little Zoos in the small world station and went ‘On Safari’ during role play. The children also did lots of art inspired by the animals with Ms. Bohan’s class making clay models of the animals.

The children are really enjoying our Alternative Homework initiative each Thursday night. This week in particular was an activity that seemed to get special attention from many pupils and families as pupils were challenged to make a parachute. We were delighted to see on our parent’s survey recently that over 90% of parents are very satisfied with Alternative Homework and we look forward to this initiative continuing next year. Here are some of the highlights of the parachute making!

One of the suggestions made on our parent’s survey was to share an image of the snacks available from the School Lunches Scheme. Due to Covid, our choices this year have been restricted slighty but Glanmore Foods hope to be back to full capacity next September. Here is a sample of the current snacks that are provided every day. We have also recently allowed children to change up their order. We have encouraged them to select more fuit and dairy from the menu. Over 92% of parents expressed satisfaction with the scheme and we were grateful for the suggestions that were made to help improve it.

Our Senior Infants classes have been learning about the life-cycle of the Butterfly. Both classes are enjoying watching 5 caterpillars as they grow from little eggs to nice chubby caterpillars. We are hoping that they will each begin to build their chrysalis shortly before transforming into a beautiful butterfly.

Here are all the photos from the week gone by. We now have only 19 school days remaining before the summer holidays!! There is lots to look forward to over the next month as we prepare for Active Week and Sports Day. We also hope to be in a position to organise local school tours and virtual graduation ceremonies. It certainly has been a very different school year but the joy of teaching and learning continues each school day.

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There are many things which we have greatly missed over the past ‘Covid Year’! Hugs and high fives, whole school assemblies and activities, Grandparents Day and of course GAA. Today we were delighted to get back to playing Gaelic Football in the sunshine!

Over 50 girls from 3rd to 6th class took part in a training session, after school, on a beautiful astro turf facility. In groups, the girls were coached in the skills of the game in preparation for our upcoming School League. The School League will take place on Wednesday, 16th June where six teams will enjoy putting those skills into practice.

Cumann na mBunscol have launched a campaign to get schools playing GAA in May and we are thrilled to be part of this initiative. We look forward to enjoying some more football over the next few weeks – hopefully the sun will continue to shine for us.

This week also say Ms. Ryan and and Ms. Walsh’s class tune in to hear an inspirational talk from the amazing Rachel Blackmore. Her every word was absorbed by the pupils who could only be inspired to reach for the stars having listened to the pride of Tipperary.

Here are some photos from this week including images of Ms. Ryan’s class doing some Real-Life Maths outside, our GAA Training and Rachel Blackmore’s talk.

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This month the boys and girls were making an extra special effort with their Maths as this was the focus of our Star Pupil Awards. The awards recognise those who excel in Maths as well as those who make great strides to improve in the subject. We are delighted to congratulate the following winners for this month!

This month has also seen our lots of planting and environmental awareness work. This is part of our Green Flag Programme as we strive towards receiving the Biodiversity Flag. We say a big thank you to our Green Schools Committee which is led by Ms. Mary Everard and Ms. Laura Ralph. Part of the process is to design a poster with a slogan promoting biodiversity and care for our natural environment.

This week’s Alternative Homework was to design and make a paper airplane. The children had great fun testing their planes against the rest of the class. Here are some photos of the Paper Airplane Competition!

We hope all our pupils and families enjoy the mid-term break. We look forward to welcoming you back on Monday, 10th May as we enter the final half term of the year. Here are over 150 photos for you to enjoy.

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Thankfully we are now well settled back into school routine and Term 3 has gotten off to a flying start. The brighter days have certainly lifted the spirits and the children are doing great.

The weather has been lovely and many of the classes have been enjoying working and playing outside. This week we opened our new seated area which is just amazing. We say a big thank you to our talented caretaker Kieran Britton who made the benches and prepared the area for us.

Here are some of the lovely images from this week.

All of the images from this week are in our gallery below. We wish you all well and hope you and your family are keeping safe. We are nearing the end of this pandemic and we thank each and every one of our pupils, parents and staff for continuously striving to keep our pupils happy and safe during this time.

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Term two came to an end on Friday with chocolate smiles! The children enjoyed Easter Egg Hunts and a visit from our wonderful Parents’ Council chairperson Fiona, who delivered an egg to every child and a voucher for Bookworm to one lucky winner in each class.

Our thoughts on the day were also with our friends from Ms. Walsh’s class who unfortunately could not be in school with us. In fact they only managed 4 days in school since Christmas which we understand has been very difficult for them and their families. We can only hope that term three brings brighter days for all of us.

There are dozens of photos in the gallery below and here are some highlights from the week.

We wish you and your family a very Happy Easter and we look forward to seeing you all return to school on Monday, 12th April.

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Today our Second Class girls celebrated the Sacrament of First Confession with Fr. Jim and Fr. Gerry. The intimate service was live-streamed on YouTube so parents could share in this special event.

We thank Ms. Gleeson and Lorraine for all their hard work and effort to prepare the girls for this sacrament. We say well done to the girls for being so dedicated and thoughtful in their preparation for First Confession. We now look forward to First Holy Communion which we hope can take place sometime before the summer holidays.

Here are some images from today and you can watch the service back by following the link below..

https://youtu.be/XECTd_mRvgo

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