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Drama, maths, Art, oral language, cooking...the Hallowe’en theme has inspired lots of learning all around our wonderful school this week.
It’s been a special week for our chaplain Fr Joseph Apust too, as he celebrated his birthday with a special Mass in our parish church. Happy Birthday from us all, Father Joseph! Especially wishing all our pupils and their families a lovely, safe, fun midterm break! Our work on building comprehension skills has got off to a flying start this year. Led by Assistant Principal, Ms Caitriona Campbell, only have to step into our classrooms to see the great work teachers and students have been doing. Our motto is ‘every class, every teacher, every day’. This together with our pupil reading survey conducted last May confirms that our boys are becoming very comfortable and competent at predicting, visualising and making connections.
Since September, we have been engaging in more Book Talk focusing on asking questions. While continuing to practise and embed these strategies, we will work on two more between now and the remainder of the term: Clarifying and Declunking. New information about these strategies has been added to our School Self-Evaluation page. Don’t forget to ask your child to demonstrate the hand signals that go with each strategy-they’ll be delighted to show you! With thanks to Ms Colleran for her fantastic posters!  The boys in fifth class are delighted with our new ukeleles! Ms McWeeney and Ms Milne report great interest in practising with some boys practising for thirty minutes a day or more at home!
Of course keeping the ukeleles in tune can be an issue so the teachers recommend the free version of the app Guitar Tuna-just make sure to select ukelele when the app opens! Alternatively, you can access tuning on youtube Thank you to our great Parents' Association for keeping us in tune! Congrats to our boys who ran in St Joseph`s annual athletic event last week. Cheered on by Ms Brennan and Mrs Quinn, they romped home with to gain a silver for their team event. And also caught up with past pupil Jack on the day!
Keep up the great running boys! Futsal is a team ball sport, very similar to soccer. Today, our futsal team travelled to the MDL all weather pitch in Navan to participate. They had put in a lot of lunch time training session with their coaches Mr Ryan and Mr Arthur and are a competitive, determined bunch.
Luckily, all the work paid off. With stamina, grit and skill they took on their opposing teams and ended up facing Whitecross Primary School in the final. They put up a spirited performance but, coming to the end of the match, Whitecross seemed to be likely winners. However, a goal levelled up the teams and, in the closing minutes, a fine goal delivered the killer blow to the Julianstown team and the Donacarney lads were declared winners! Well done lads! Well done to your parents and coaches too! The skies cleared and the sun even shone for our Parents' Association's Annual Beach Walk today! This is an important fundraiser for the association but, it's also a terrific community event, drawing all elements-including the canine variety-to the beach for the afternoon. There was a superb turn out for the occasion. And the PA were perfectly organized with refreshments for all at the mid way point and homework passes at the end for those who completed the course. A reminder to all to collect their sponsorship money over the coming week and drop it to the teachers in school. Even if you haven't been able to participate in today's walk, you can still contribute, with every single euro guaranteed to help our school. Our thanks to Chairperson Eimear Donnelly and her merry band in the PA committee who were out in force today to keep us all on our toes! Ms Gerrard’s Fifth Class and Mr Lynch’s Third Class are learning how to play the ukelele and tin whistle, respectively.The boys are really enthusiastic, as are their music teachers Ms Milne, Ms McWeeney and Mrs Quinn. Practice makes perfect, boys! Did you know that just 9% of our plastics are recycled? Or that sea creatures such as dolphins and turtles injest microscopic plastics as well as larger pieces of plastic that fill our oceans? These, and other facts, motivated Ms McBride's Sixth class to collaborate on their own projects on the subject. After all their hard work, the boys are really happy to discuss their findings. Crucially, they report that they are more careful now to recycle, to avoid single use plastic containers and straws. We are looking forward to their project presentations at our next assembly!
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