Year: 2020

-  General School Information

First Holy Communion Saturday May 9th

Tomorrow, Saturday May 9th was planned as a very special day in the lives of the girls and boys of Mr.Rushe’s and Ms Colson’s Second Class’ as they received their First Holy Communion. Unfortunately, as a result of the current restrictions it is now not to be.

However, our wonderful Second Class pupils and their families will be very much in our thoughts and prayers. Fr Johnston will remember each of the students individually at his morning mass at 10am. This mass will be available on the St James’ Church webcam at https://www.mcnmedia.tv/camera/charlestown.

A very special word of thanks to Helen and Joseph McCafferty for the beautiful card to mark this important date. We all look forward to a time in the very near future when we can celebrate this special occasion together.

Finally, please keep in touch with our social media channels for a very special message to our students. Míle buíochas to Michael and Siobhán for their thoughtfulness with this.

-  19-20

An Cumann Scoildramaíochta: Féile Chonnacht

Our wonderful 2nd and 4th Class students took part in the Connacht Finals of the Féile Scoldramaíocht competition earlier sna Dramaí An Gréasaí agus na Síoga agus Fear Draíochta Oz. D’eirigh go hiontach leo.

The children worked extremely hard to prepare for the big day and were a credit to their parents and teachers.
There are over 30 schools competing in the Connacht finals and the adjudicator gave special mention to the excellent behaviour and overall politeness of our students. She also gave special mention to our music and costumes and art work. A huge thank you from us all must go to Mrs McCafferty and her son Joseph for all their work as always in the background.

The standard of Gaeilge is very high and competing against Irish speaking schools is a challenge but one that we have embraced. Tomorrow is the final day of the competition. We will post the results on our school website as soon as we receive them. Fingers crossed we may get through to the All-Ireland finals!

Finally a very special thank you and well done to Mr. Rushe and Ms Henry who as always put so much into the children’s performances. We thank them both sincerely for their hard work interest and enthusiasm.
Thank you also to Esther and Ms.Sweeney for all their help in the build up and of course today.

Last but not least a special míle buíochas to our parents who travelled to Galway. We really appreciate the effort you made to be there. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.

-  19-20

Students of the Week Friday March 6th

Today in assembly we were amazed by all that is happening in our school in the different classes. From science experiments, to engineers’ week to world book day. to drama, we are always busy and learning new skills. Assembly is a lovely time where we gather and hear about the learning that is going on in all the classes. Our teachers today talked about our positivity and our pride in our work and presentation. They talked about children who represent our school so well at outside events and show their pride in their work and performance.

Our pupils were described as hardworking, diligent and conscientious. To have any of these attributes is fabulous, but to hear all three being used is amazing. We heard of pupils applying themselves to any task set before them, focused on their work while still paying attention to how others are feeling around them. Our teachers spoke of children who have adapted to change easily and readily and are open to new things as a result. We have had a number of visitors to the school this week and the manners shown to them has been commented on. It’s a lovely thing to hear being praised in our children. Maith sibh go léir. Have a great weekend.

-  19-20

The pyramids have stood the test of time but are skyscrapers built to last?

Today marked the end of our science exploration “The pyramids have stood the test of time but are skyscrapers built to last?”. We packed up our presentation and excitedly made our way to the RDS for Science Blast!

The study has brought together our thematic units of Ancient Egypt and Buildings allowing the children to apply acquired knowledge to further learning potential. They have researched, investigated, questioned, designed and built throughout their study. It allowed us to incorporate Engineers week through Lego building projects of pyramids, skyscrapers and earthquake simulating shake tables. STEM is so important in our school and the children showcased their project brilliantly today.
We were so proud to see how confident and capable they are in explaining their work to others. As always, they did us proud with excellent manners and behaviour throughout the day. They enjoyed the interactive exploration area, science shows based on circus tricks and the invisible world, as well as visiting projects by other schools from all the country. We were privileged to take part in this event and delighted with the glowing praise given by the judges in our feedback with our Science Blast award.

Well done to each and every one of these students and indeed all our students throughout the school. They have set a wonderful example for all our younger students and proved that with hard work, determination, enthusiasm and confidence in their own abilities anything is possible.

We look forward to what the rest of the school year brings!

Finally to conclude a very special word of thanks to Ms.McDonagh for all her hard work with Rang a Cúig agus a Sé with this project. We sincerely appreciate her hard work, enthusiasm and interest.

-  19-20

Students of the Week Friday February 28th

Bhí bronnadh mar is gnáth ar daltaí na seachtaine níos luaithe. Chuile seachtain tá daltaí ann a bhfuil a dúis tuilte aige/aici. Ní raibh aon difríocht ann inniú.
Chuala muid cur síos den scoth ar daltaí atá ag déanamh a leithéid a bheith díograsach sna ranganna agus lasmuigh de na seomraí ranganna freisin. Bhí moladh ann do leanaí atá cineálta í gcónaí do daoine eile agus tá sé iontach le chloisteál. Maith sibh go léir.
This week at assembly we awarded our pupils of the week following on from a very busy week not least the participation of many of our classes in the Féile Dramaíochta Cill Moibhí, developing our new whole school theme alongside our Senior Classes busy preparing for the Primary Science Blast in the RDS on Wednesday.

We always hear that there are children in our classes who earn this award every week because of their hard work and diligence and today was no different. Today we heard of pupils who are trying their hardest both inside the classroom and outside of it, students willing to go the extra mile at home and in school and of new students who have made a hugely positive impression on us all.
There was widespread praise for children who are kind to others, which is a wonderful attribute to have. Well done all, keep up this great work! We are proud of each of you and your individual endeavours to be more than you can be.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Dates for your Diary.

We have our World Book Day celebrations on Thursday next March 5th here in school. All students are encouraged to come to school dressed as a character of their choice from their favourite book. Further details will follow on Monday.

-  19-20

Máirt na hInide / Pancake Tuesday

We had pancakes for everyone in school yesterday. A very special thank you to Susan O’Connor for all her hard work and kindness preparing the batter, Conor and his team in Delaney’s Mace for kindly presenting us with Nutella and Syrup and finally to Fiona, Miriam and Sarah from our Parents Association for cooking beautiful pancakes. These were delicious!

All students enjoyed special tasty deliveries to their classrooms and had great fun before learning of the background to this important date and its significance. Finally mile buíochas to Ms.Sweeney for all her help coordinating this special morning.

-  19-20

Students of the Week Friday February 14th

Our week and half term concluded as always with a very positive and uplifting assembly this afternoon as we celebrated the many achievements, deeds, hard work and effort of our wonderful students.

We spoke of the wonderful work over the past number of weeks in all classes as we explored the theme of Buildings. It has been a learning experience and a joy to visit our rooms and see this at first hand. A special word of thanks to Rang a Cuig/Sé who concluded our project/theme with lovely poetry.

We also learned of excellent spikeballer’s,kind deed, maturity, leadership, wellbeing and of the trojan work ongoing in our classrooms. Well done we are very grateful to you all.

To conclude, well done to all our students but in particular to those chosen as Students of the Week. We hope you all have a lovely rest over your mid-term break and come back refreshed for a busy conclusion to our term.

Dates for your Diaries:

Féile Drámaíochta will take place on Wednesday February 26th for Rang 2 & 4/5 in Kilmovee Community Centre. We are still awaiting details of the arrangements. However we will inform all parents once we have these to hand. We hope the children enjoy participating in the Féile Drámaíochta and we thank them for all their hard work and effort in preparation. Maith sibh go léir.

5th and 6th Class will present a project at the RDS Primary Science Blast in Dublin on March 4th. We look forward to learning all about this.

World Book Day: On Thursday March 5th we will all celebrate World Book Day here in school. All students are encouraged to come to school dressed as a character of their choice from their favourite book. Further details will follow.

St.Patrick’s Day: We look forward to participating in the town’s Parade on St. Patrick’s Day March 17th . Further details will follow after our mid-Term break.

Mid Term Break: Finally we hope you all have a lovely mid- term break! We are closed as per our school calendar next week (Monday 17th – Friday 21st ) and will reopen on Monday 20th of February at the usual time.

Finally a very sincere thank you to all who supported our Parents Associations non uniform fundraiser for the Kilbeagh Community First Responder Group. It was a great success with all proceeds going to the purchase and installation of the defibrillator at our school.

Bainigí taitneamh as as sos!

-  19-20

Defibrillator Installed in School

As you may all be aware last Friday saw the installation of a defibrillator and outdoor heated AED cabinet here in school. A very special thank you to the Kilbeagh Community Alert/First Responders Group for recommending the placement of the defibrillator here in St.Attracta’s NS. Our school was selected alongside a number of new locations in our town/community. (Cassidy’s Garage / Supermacs / Grady’s Joinery / Bushfield Church) in addition to existing devices at Tavneena NS / Egool Water Tower and Glann Church. These are also supported by three mobiles debribrillator’s.

A defibrillator is a device that gives a high energy electric shock to the heart through the chest wall to someone who is in cardiac arrest. This high energy shock is called defibrillation, and it’s an essential life saving step in the chain of survival. Having an onsite defibrillator in school could potentially save a life.

With this in mind, our Parents Association will run a non uniform day this Friday as we approach our Mid-Term break. We ask each child to bring in €2 and to a maximum €5 per family on the day. All monies raised will help offset some of the costs involved with the purchase and installation of the defibrillator.

Again, a very sincere thank you to the First Responder group and we wish all members well with their selfless community work.

Finally, a short reminder we will close on Friday next at the usual times 2.05pm/3.05pm for our Mid Term Break (Monday February 17th through to Friday 21st). School will reopen on Monday 24th at 9.25am.

-  19-20

Students of the Week Friday February 7th

Another extremely busy week here in St.Attracta’s. It really has flown by! We had our Cumann na mBunscol Quiz,Enrolment Day and we are working very hard towards the end of our Building whole school theme. This afternoon it was also lovely to welcome our new Junior Infant Class 20/21 to our school and we very much look forward to having them back with us in September.

As always it was a very difficult choice for all the teachers to select their ‘Students of the Week’ with so many students working so well. However this afternoon we learned as always of students working so hard whilst being helpful, kind, reliable and eager to take part in all class activities. It was great to hear of Senior students who are very mature and are a positive influence on their classmates, setting a great example throughout the school while learning of others who have made significant strides in recent times particularly in areas that may have been challenging.

Maith sibh go léir, Bainigí taitneamh as an deireadh seachtaine!