Our school has a long association with Laytown and Bettystown Tennis Club.

​Thanks to the expertise of their coach, David Black, and to the vital support of parents, every pupil from 1st to 6th classes have six tennis lessons on our school grounds. You can see from these photos that the boys from Ms Smith`s First Class and Ms. Carragher`s class from Gliondar Mara are having a great time while learning the vital skills of co-ordination, movement, fitness and strength which tennis requires.

This is a vital element of our PE programme for all of our pupils. It also leads a lot of pupils to participating in tennis outside of school through the Laytown and Bettystown club and to the development of strong tennis teams in our school. 

Our Gaelic football team took on Gaelscoil An Bhradáin Feasa in Piltown yesterday. It was an exciting match, aided and abetted by a stiff westerly wind.

Wind and luck colluded to see our team in the lead in the first half. With the wind against us, the second half could have been a different matter entirely. The team from the Gaelscoil were exceptionally strong, displaying great passing skills and teamwork. They certainly had our boys running all over the pitch.

Fortunately, our lads fought back. With strong encouragement from team coaches Mr. Arthur and Mr. Culligan they gathered all the strength they could muster and went on score a solid victory. This marks their second win in the Cumann na mBunscol league. 

Will their luck hold out? Will they stay committed to their early morning training sessions? Will they continue to build a great team? Time will tell.

Local newspaper The Drogheda Leader sent a photographer out to our school today to take photos of two very special classes-our new Junior Infants. The boys were delighted to pose for the photographer, along with their class teachers, Mrs Martin and Ms. Rice.   You can check out the results for yourselves in either this week`s or next week`s Drogheda Leader!

​We have had a busy, but wonderful, start to a new term and new school year.  And lots of activities have started up already.

Football Coaching
Níall Kane, Simonstown`s GAA captain, and full time football coach with our local Colmcille`s GAA club, has started coaching football skills to our 3rd and 4th classes. He also takes extra coaching sessions on Mondays after school for 3rd class for four weeks, which will also be rolled out to 1st and 2nd classes later this term.

Meanwhile, our Senior Gaelic football team have had two 8a.m. training sessions coached by four of our teaching staff, Mr Arthur, Mr Lynch, Mr Culligan and Mr Duffy.  Lunchtime coaching for 3rd class is been delivered by Mr. Lynch and Mr Arthur.

Swimming
Ms Gerard and Ms Callan`s classes are attending swimming lessons every Thursday until Oct 4th.

Tennis
Laytown/Bettytowns Tennis Club`s Coach, David Black, has commenced tennis lessons with our 1st and 4th classes, along with Ms Colleran`s 2nd Class, Mr Lynch`s 3rd Class and Mr Arthur`s 5th class. This round of coaching takes place each Friday up to and including the 19th October. 

Homework Club
Our after school activities have also seen the start of our Homework Club. The Homework Club runs from 3.10-4.10 Monday to Thursday for pupils from 3rd -6th Class. Further details available from your child`s teacher or from our school office.

Cumann na mBunscol
This very popular Gaelic football league has started already and we have had our first win in a tightly contested match last week against Dunboyne.  Here`s to more fun and games in the weeks and months ahead!

Sligo native and Member of the European Parliament, Marian Harkin visited our school recently. She came to view our projects which formed part of our application for our Blue Star Programme award. 

The Blue Star Programme encourages us all to grow our knowledge and understanding of the European Union. Boys in various classes chose from a wide variety of themes from Ancient Rome. to the Flags of Europe, and the workings of the European Parliament.

Programme co-ordinator for the school was Ms. Orla Carragher. She represented us at the Blue Star seminar in Dublin recently and led the project presentations to Ms Harkin.

Boys from Ms Smith, Ms. Dunne, Mr Lynch, Ms Gerrard and Mr. Arthur`s classes presented on various aspects of the EU and afterwards engaged Ms Harkin in a lively question and answer session about her work and about the EU.

Ever the teacher, Marian delighted in engaging with the boys and was impressed by both their projects and by their questions. But, the demands of her hectic schedule meant she had to peel herself away and head to another round of meetings, another set of negotiations.

And in her wake, our EU flag flutters proudly in the Mornington sunlight,  symbol of unity, solidarity and harmony.

The boys in Sixth Class are thoroughly enjoying their final term in Bunscoil Buachaillí Réalt na Mara.  They are kept on their toes with their classwork but also, quite literally, out in our back yard at break time. Ms Smith has made sure of this by encouraging the boys to get involved in a summer handball league. 

We are lucky enough to have a fantastic handball wall in our yard. This, and a handball are all that's needed to ensure a half hour full of fun. Cheering classmates are an added bonus!

It's a wonderful game to watch and to play. And it's been especially good to see some new talent being unearthed as the boys get increasingly competitive. Keep up the work, and the games, boys!

Last Wednesday saw our soccer team emerge victorious after a thrilling of games at the Meath District League in Navan.

The boys played St Colmcille's Kells first and the game ended with a score of 5 goals to 3.

Afterwards, they took on St Joseph's Primary School, Navan. It was thrilling game. St Joseph's really tested our team but in the end there a couple of goals in the difference, with our team winning.

Whitecross were a tough team to beat. Both teams were on equal points but eventually, our team pulled away and finished with a score of 6 2 to claim the Meath championship in this league. The next round of this league sees us in the MDL on one more occasion for the North Leinster round of this championship.

Thanks to Jake from Sixth Class for all the inside information on the MDL series! Best of luck boys with the next round.

1. What word beginning with F is someone who makes arrows?
2. What word beginning with G do you use to describe a traffic situation where no-one can move?
3. Gary and Phil Neville played for which Premier League soccer team?

These were just some of the questions facing our two brave quiz teams in the Credit Union Chapter quiz in Athboy on Saturday.  The audience listened intently, as genial quizmaster, Tommy Weir, fired out the questions to the top teams in Meath's primary schools. 

The quiz would decide which teams from the Junior and Senior squads would qualify for the Leinster Quiz final. Our school were unique in having two teams to represent us. Seán, Lauchie, Daithi and Daniel represented us in the Junior section and Joe, Cormac, Jack and Conor were on our Senior team.

They battled manfully through ten rounds of questions, with an extra two rounds for the senior team. And, at the end of the evening, the Junior team came out with a very respectable fourth position, while the Senior team along with St Patrick's Primary School, Slane got through to the All-Ireland Final!

April 8th is the date, the RDS is the venue and our Seniors are on their way. Meanwhile, the Junior team have two more years of quiz fun and competitions lying ahead of them. 

And the answers to the above questions are:

1. Fletcher
2. Gridlock
3. Manchester United.

All roads lead to Athboy tomorrow, for the next round of the Credit Union Quiz! Our two teams beat all the schools in our local area to claim first place in both the senior and junior sections of Round One!

They`ve been chewing up the quiz books for the past few weeks, and bracing themselves for what is sure to be a hotly contested event  in the next round.

The very best of luck boys! See you tomorrow in Athboy Community School for a 2pm start!