We`re always proud to see our pupils doing well, and so we were delighted to welcome back Endy and Cian, when they arrived at our school this week.

Keen to talk to our boys about their latest successes in Gaelic football, Endy and Cian were accompanied by Oisín, David, and Sam, their team mates from the U16 Meath squad. Their trophy haul was impressive: Cian showed the Gerry Reilly cup from their U16 win against Cavan, David spoke about the Leinster Minor Championship trophy and Endy talked about the Cilles victory in the  U15 division 1 Meath Championship.

The five lads answered a range of questions from our boys about their approach to training, fitness and proper nutrition. They spoke about what it was like stepping out onto the pitch at Croke Park and facing their toughest teams.

Coach, Níall Kane hammered home the important message of the day: Our pupils today can be champions on the pitch in a very short time. They need to keep good fitness, training and health habits now!

Looking forward to seeing future champs return to us with more victories!

Our Erasmus Club are working very hard on the International Project. We have teamed up with four other European schools to explore the UNESCO sites of Lithuania, Sicily, Poland and the Czech Republic. 

And we are so lucky to have a magnificent UNESCO site on our doorstep! Ancient burial site of the Neolithic people, Brú na Boinne is at the heart of Ireland`s Ancient East and deeply important to the generations of people who lived along the bend of the Boyne right up to the present day.

Our Third Classes are still full of tales of their recent trip to Newgrange. Accompanied by their teachers, Mrs Lohan, Mr Lynch and Mr Martin, and by our Erasmus Club, they had done a lot of preparation for the trip. They had learnt all about the the construction of the ancient burial site. They know how Wicklow quartz had been brought along the east coast and upriver to the site. And marvel at the methods used to haul boulders from Clogherhead to become a vital part of the tomb's construction.

Met by guides at the Visitor Centre, they were excited to see the reconstructed interior of the monument within the centre. But the biggest thrill of the day was to arrive at the tomb itself, to stand inside the darkened 5,000 year old tomb and watch the first beams of light illuminating the ancient stone carvings, just as the sunlight does at Solstice.

Newgrange Visitor Centre is open all year around and is a terrific place for family outings. We are so lucky to have it on our doorstep!

Fifth Class hurlers did us proud yesterday in Curragha. For many of them, it was their very first hurling match and, although the ground was heavy going at times, they battled with great sportsmanship.

The Curragha team played with great spirit too. A small school, they fielded some of their junior players on the day and gave a great display of hurling skills and of fair play.

Our lads were ahead by a couple of points by half time. But Curragha pulled away in the second half, gaining some ground over Donacarney. Our boys kept their nerve, however, and, with a steady clash of the ash, they fought back to bring the sides to a draw before the ref blew the final whistle. 

Ms Smith`s First Class had a great time trying out our new Handball Wall on Friday! This is our indoor wall. It was expertly constructed by Martin O'Donnell using reclaimed timber. Our wonderful parents and school community paid for it through the fundraising efforts of our Parents' Association. And we are just thrilled with it!

This will be a great addition to our PE programme. Our PA are also funding our new outdoor handball wall which should be in place over the coming weeks.

Our Internet Safety Day was a success with pupils from Second to Sixth classes very engaged with our Cyber Safety presentations from Zeeko. Thank you to all those parents who attended the presentation yesterday evening! The report on our boys`internet usage raised some interesting statistics and discussion!

As teachers, we too are concerned at the amount of time some of our pupils are devoting to online gaming. Spending hours on games on their devices can have a negative impact on their health, their relationships, their families and on their education.  Parents are encouraged to communicate and engage with their children about their online activities.

Zeeko describe parents and guardians as the digital leaders of their children and to...
​

• Check what apps your child uses.
• Make sure they are set on private mode.
• Ensure the location setting is off.
• Know your child`s passwords.
• Keep security updated.
• Consider turning off wifi at night.
• Put away devices at meal times.

The pupils have all been advised to
 

1. STOP, BLOCK, TELL-if a stranger tries to contact you on the internet.
2. Talk to a Chat Budi-that`s a trusted adult about your concerns
3. The T-shirt Rule-if you wouldn`t wear it on your t-shirt, don’t say it on the internet
4.  5:1 rule-for every hour spend on the internet, spent 5 hours on other activities
5. No screens in the bedrooms
6. No internet for an hour before bedtime
7. Ideally, the internet enabled devices should be in an open plan room
8. Only engage with people online whom you know in real life.
9. Never click on anything purporting to be free-if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

 
Remember the Three P`s for social media and gaming:
P-Your Profile should not show your real name
P-have a really good password and change it regularly
P-keep your settings private

The Zeeko presenter also recommended two websites for parents:
Internetmatters.org
Appyness.ie

and of course zeeko.ie
 

 

Our Students`Council had a very hands on meeting yesterday. Having raised €60.67 they were keen to spend it on some of their planned improvements around our school.

Planting flowers around the school was one of the top suggestions from our pupils so three boxes of polyanthus and lots of compost were purchased and, armed with trowels and gardening gloves, the entire Students' Council got stuck into planting them up.

They also refreshed two large pots of daffodils and tulips and are delighted with the finished results.

Today is Internet Safety Day. According to a recent survey from Cybersafe Ireland 3/4 of our 8 year olds access smart devices. 40% of 8 year olds talk to strangers online and 10% of eight year olds are online for four or more hours per day.

The internet safety company Zeeko, will giving presentations from 2nd-6th class in our school tomorrow. They have carried out a survey of our boys`internet usage and will present a report on that. They will also give the children-and you-tools to help them engage more safely online. 

Your son's internet usage concerns you. Finding ways to encourage him to engage in a safe way must be a priority.  Our Internet Safety talk tomorrow evening will entertain, surprise and enlighten you. It is for ALL parents/guardians of ALL classes and is free.

We encourage you to come along, bring a friend, a neighbour or relative. The presentation will be approximately fifty minutes long. And it will be fifty minutes well spent. Remember, it`s for adults only!

Internet Safety Talk 7:00 pm
Venue: Our School Library

Pic Credit: Zeeko Ireland

It has been another busy week in our Donacarney Boys School, with lots of great news to report. 

Thanks to our PA, and to the phenomenal carpentry skills of Martin O`Donnell, work has begun on constructing another handball wall for our school. This one in located indoors and will be followed, shortly,by the construction of a second outdoor one. 

Our soccer, Gaelic football and hurling sessions continued apace before and after school. Cooney Cup season is upon us again and this week saw our footballers coming home with their first win on Thursday.  Meanwhile, seven of our teachers are coaching the lunchtime soccer sessions and Colmcille's coach, Níall Kane teaching preliminary hurling skills to our younger classes.

Meanwhile, the all important focus on literacy skills continues this week. We are delighted with our new series of graded readers for the senior end of the school. We are using these books for our Guided Reading programmes in Fifth and Sixth classes.  

A similar programme, called Literacy Lift Off, is running in the Junior end of the school.

Wednesday saw the whole school gathered in our hall for our January assembly. The focus of this assembly was Healthy Eating. Pupils from each class spoke about their favourite healthy food and those who had made a great effort to eat healthy lunches received certificates.  

A representative from our Student Council reported on their next venture, with the planting of Spring flowers around the school in the coming days.

And, speaking of Spring, the first day of Spring is St. Brigid's Day. Lots of classes participated in making St. Brigid's crosses. This week is also Catholic School`s Week and so our school Mass on Friday was part of our Catholic Week celebrations and also honoured St. Brigid.

The week ended with two big wins. Our Gaelic football team are hunting down the Cooney Cup again and had their first win on Thursday! Not to be outdone, our two quiz teams put up sterling performances in the Credit Union quiz on Friday night. Our Junior team pipped St Mary's Primary Parish school by just one point to take back the winner's trophy! It was a thrilling night with all the top teams from the locality vying for that trophy. 

The battle continues though to get to the Credit Union Final in the RDS. Can we get there again? Let's have fun trying!