What could be better than outdoor games with your friends, sunshine, ice-cream and fun? 

Have a great summer holiday everyone!

Looking forward to meeting you all again on Thursday 29th August!

Our school reports are near completion. In advance of that I want to remind you of our new system for you to receive those reports. You have received a text some weeks ago about the Aladdin Connect system which also linked to 
this post on this blog.

Aladdin Connect will give you secure access to messages from the school and to details of your child’s attendance, test results, reports cards etc  via secure login from your internet browser or Aladdin Connect App
 
Aladdin Connect is a fantastic way to enhance a school's communication with  parents. It enables parents to stay connected and informed about their child's education by:
- Ensuring that the school has their most up to date contact information
- Keeping parents apprised of their child's attendance
- Keeping parents up to date on school and classroom news via noticeboard messages
- Allowing parents view their child's approved report card

 ng with strengthening our home/school partnership, we also envisage Aladdin Connect helping the school from September 2019 by:
- Helping to improve attendance by allowing parents to keep track of any school days their child may have currently missed, along with late arrival and early leaving information.
- Helping to reduce the amount of class/school notes being sent home
- Helping the school/ teachers communicate with parents when the need arises
- Keeping parents up to date on what library book their child is currently reading and if it is due/overdue to be returned
- Reducing costs by eliminating the need to send school report cards by post
- Reducing costs by reducing the number of text messages that need to be sent
 
You can rest reassured that Aladdin Schools uses state-of-the-art security to safeguard information entered by the school and data is stored and processed in strict compliance with Irish and European data protection laws.
 
In the next few days, you will receive a text/email message containing your registration link.  There will be one link per parent which will allow the parent to access information for all their children in the school from one user account. Please do not forward this text/email or share this link as this is a unique registration code for each parent for your child/children in this school. During registration you will choose a password that will be used in conjunction with your email address to securely access the Aladdin Connect going forward.

Once you are registered you will be sent an email with links to download the Aladdin Connect App for your mobile device. The main advantage of using the App is to receive immediate alerts for app messages sent by your school. Downloading the App is essential to enhance both the parent and school's Connect experience. 
By default both parents will have access to view their child’s contact information. If for any reason you do NOT wish to share your own personal contact information within the family circle or if you have any concerns regarding your particular family setup please contact the school in confidence to discuss or have this facility restricted.
In preparation for this please let the school know if your email address or phone number has changed recently.
 
We hope that you enjoy using Aladdin Connect. Please welcome any queries you may have via email to our office on office@donacarneyschool.ie.

Yesterday was a day of mixed emotions for our Sixth Classes as they bade farewell to their primary school years, to one another and to our school.  

But, thanks to a merry band of volunteer parents, they had a great party enjoy and lots of fun.

And, of course, there is much for them to look forward to: a long summer holiday, starting off their post primary education and making lots of new friends along the way.

Here`s a lovely memory of all of those primary school years for the boys. With thanks to Ms Gerrard and Ms Mullen for putting it together.

Treasure those years!

Representatives from our Board of Management, our Parents`Association, our former principal Mr Ó Conghaile and several of our classes, all gathered around our new handball wall for one very special match.

The handball wall was gifted to us by the Parents Association. And it`s been the scene of many a long match, a great Sixth class handball league and a whole lot of fun already. Thank you, PA!

The handball league itself was the brainchild of teacher and handball coach Ms Smith. She worked through her lunch breaks with the boys of Sixth Class, honing skills and encouraging their sportsmanship this term. 

And it all culminated in yesterday`s final.

Cormac and Dino were the competitors and boy, could they compete! They thrilled the assembled audience with their ambidexterity, their flexibility and their athleticism. The match was very closely fought, right up to the end. But end, it had to and with Dino declared the winner.

But well done to both boys! We hope they will be encouraged to continue with this fantastic sport. 

And we hope to bring more boys to the sport in the future. Let`s start this summer boys, with a blank wall and a ball. Have fun and build you fitness and skills!

Our whole school gathered for our final assembly of the year today.  Boys in every class were awarded for being most improved, for making their best effort and for being the class student of the year. 

The boys were also reminded of the wonderful achievements they had all made in their various clubs and class groups throughout the year-Discover Science and Maths Award, the Garden Level Five award, and of course taking home the Breagha Cup and Cooney Cup for hurling and Gaelic football. Along with that the work of the Students Council, Erasmus Club and Creative Arts Group was noted.

In fact, its been a bumper year for awards at Bunscoil Buachaillí Réalt na Mara! What a talented bunch of pupils we have!

fThere were jubilant scenes in Páirc Tailteann on Friday last, marking the two-in-a-row Cooney Cup victory for Réalt na Mara.

But first, there was the big battle. The Cooney Cup is coveted by schools across East Meath and played by pupils from Fifth and Sixth Classes. And this was the final in Páirc Táilteann, Navan.

​A fine team from Gaelscoil Bradáin Feasa provided the opposition. And what a superb team they were! They used every weapon in their armoury displaying fine hand passing, high fielding after passing, and superb teamwork.

Indeed, the score reflected as much.  Réalt na Mara were ahead by only one point after seventeen minutes of play and just about held on to that one point lead by half time. The sides drew level after half time, but we pulled away by a margin of four points at one stage, only to slip back  down to the one point lead with six minutes to go. 

There wasn`t an unchewed nail left on among the spectators by the time the match was drawing to a close. 

To chants of "Réalt na Mara" from a merry band of supporters, the team pulled a couple more points out of the bag before the referee called time on one great battle. 

Heavy rain could not dampen the joy and delight of the winning team. It marked the end not only of the match, but a year of solid development of both skills and character, under the steady guidance of Mr Arthur and Mr Culligan. 

But an Gaelscoil were mighty opponents. Gracious in defeat, we have no doubt that they will put it up to Réalt na Mara again and again. For now, however, the Cooney Cup is ours!

A fitting end to a great season on the pitch, and indeed, off it.

Kieran Gallagher and his eager samba fans from the Junior and Senior Infant classes, got together for a very special gig recently. After a few weeks of practice in our school, they were looking forward to having some fun!

Perfect rhythm on a host of percussion instruments followed, to the amazement and amusement of the audience. At one point Kieran abandoned his conductor`s position to go hunting for a whistle and the boys just rocked on with the samba sounds!

Kieran and his big collection of instruments have been regular features of our music curriculum here in Donacarney Boys school. We`re looking forward to having him back again soon!

Colmcille`s was the venue, St Mary`s Primary Parish School were the opposition, and a place in the Cooney Cup Final was the prize, as our brave footballers had their mettle tested on Friday.

St. Mary`s pulled it all out of our lads with their skills, speed and determination.  Our lads led 10 6 by half time but met plenty of fire in the second half, particularly in mid field.  Some superb goal keeping on our part, and defence put paid to their plans. In addition, we had plenty of support on the sidelines with our faithful band of parents and Mr O Conghaile. 

We`re glad they`ll have another day again, this time in Pairc Tailteann. And this time with a bigger battle for a bigger prize-the Cooney Cup!

It`s time to roll out the blue and white and sing out our support for "Réalt na Mara!" as we take our place, once more, in the stand at Páirc Tailteann on Friday 14th June.

Best of luck, lads!

The Road Safety Authority delivered some important road safety presentations to all of our pupils last week. Presenters Seán Phelan and Ellen Foley tackled a range of issues including cycle and pedestrian safety and safety on school buses. The Senior Infants pictured here particularly enjoyed hearing about Buster and practising how to belt up safely in cars and buses.

The RSA are running Check If It Fits events around the country. Child car seats can be check and fitted for free by experts at these events. They're running one in Louth in Sept 2019 and in Lusk in July. Check them out here.

We were delighted to host a visit this week from Niamh Bean Uí Loinsigh from the Meath Co Council Pride of Place Scheme. Niamh was greeted by our Garden Club who were eager to show her the work we had done in our school garden this year.

Wildflowers featured highly in our presentation. Our club had followed the misfortunes of our bee population as presented on the wonderful website pollinators.ie. And had also encountered bees and other happy bugs in our garden. This interest in encouraging insects led us to giving nature a chance to bloom around our garden. Sixth class planted wild flower seeds and the gardening club took a particular interest in finding buttercups, poppies, ox eye daisies, hawksbeard, scarlet pimpernel and other floral treasures all around our school.

We also hosted our former principal and ornithology  expert Seán Ó Conghaile visited third and fourth classes to share his expertise and we are looking forward to another visit from Mornington Playgroup to take them down our garden path.

Meanwhile, back in the garden, every class has grown something. There's potatoes, onions, cabbage, brussel sprouts and a variety of berries.  All watched over by Freddie the Scarecrow and, our newest addition, glorious seashell windchimes.

Niamh was impressed. She presented our Garden Club with the top award-Level 5!-for all our green fingered and eco friendly efforts. 

Congrats to our super supportive parents, to Brian Mullen our caretaker, to the eager teachers on our Garden Committee. And a special word of thanks to our super Garden Committee!