Category: 18-19

-  18-19

Míle Buíochas : Mini Marathon and Golf Classic Fundraiser

As our school year draws to a close it is very important to acknowledge and thank our parent body for their wonderful support. Throughout the year our Parents Association have been to the forefront of school life, supporting and assisting in every way possible. For this we are as always so grateful. Many others are available at the end of the phone and again this means so much to have this support.

As alluded, we had two final fundraisers for this school year. Firstly a huge thank you to Amanda,Joanne, Laura, Nadine and all the parents of Sonas/Spraoi and Sásta who completed and supported the recent Women’s Mini Marathon Fundraiser to fund specialised resources for the aforementioned classes. We are so grateful for your interest and support.

On Saturday June 30th our Parents Association had their final fundraiser of the school year in Tubbercurry Golf Club. The Golf Classic was a fantastic success.
Firstly, thank you to all the teams that played on the day, it was a glorious day and we hope you enjoyed your round.
Thank you to the members and committee of Tubbercurry Golf Club who could not have been any more accommodating. Míle buíochas to our Parents Association and parent body who organised this event, ran it throughout the day and baked beautiful treats/prepared sandwiches etc. This was really appreciated and a great team effort.
Finally, a very sincere thank you to our generous sponsors for their continued support, in particular, to all who sponsored the individual holes. We are very grateful for this.

We hope you all have a lovely summer break!

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Storybox Creative Writing Competition 2019

Our annual Storybox competition winner was announced at our final assembly of the school year on Friday morning last. The Helena McDonagh Writing Competition is a firm favourite in our student’s calendar.

Mrs.McDonagh taught here in St. Attracta’s for many years before retiring in 2003. As a published author herself, Helena presented the school with a perpetual trophy to be used for creative writing. And so our storybox began. 

Ms. Connaghan who adjudicates the competition every year was very impressed with the number and calibre of this year’s entries. So many giving their all and making a huge effort while displaying their imaginative and creative sides.

This year’s story winner was Síofra McGuinness for her wonderful story entitled “The Two Explorers”. Well done also to Sophie Frizzell and Roisín Casey who were highly commended.

Comhghairdeachas Síofra and to all our wonderful pupils who entered this years competition. Maith sibh go léir

-  18-19

Green Schools / Active Flag Raising Ceremonies /Discover Primary Science and Maths Award

We had a wonderful afternoon at school on Thursday last celebrating our Seventh Green Flag renewal for Global Citizenship-Energy, our Active School Flag and our Discover Primary Science and Maths Award of Excellence.

Green School

This theme helped us discover how Green-Schools work has positively influenced people and environments worldwide while we revised our previous energy theme.

It was a great success. An afternoon of music and song with a few speeches thrown in along the way! Thankfully the weather was very kind to us. At the outset we must say a very special thank you to Ms.Delaney for all her hard work not alone on this renewal but indeed her commitment to the Green School programme over many years. She can be so proud of her hard-working and talented committee and indeed all the students in our school. Each of the children supported and worked so hard on this renewal. Fr Doherty had the honour of raising flag, we are very appreciative of all his support of our school and would like to congratulate and wish Fr John well on the recent Diamond Jubilee of his ordination.

Active Schools

We were thrilled recently to have been awarded Active School Status recognising our physically educated and active school community.Active schools programme has been hugely successful project this year in our school.We are very appreciative of our hard working committee, supporting parents and co-ordinating teachers Mrs Quinn, Ms.Sloyan, Ms.McDonagh and Ms.Durkin. We were also delighted to welcome past pupil Ella Brennan back to our school to raise our Active Flag. Ella is a member of the Mayo Senior Ladies panel preparing for their Connacht Senior Final replay.Ella is a great role model for the children in our school and county. We wish her every success for the Summer ahead!

Finally thank you also to all our wonderful teachers for their continued support as without them days like yesterday would not happen.Thank you also to our Parent Association who provided a lovely treat which everyone certainly enjoyed! We thank all the members sincerely for all their hard work today and throughout the year.

Discover Primary Science and Maths Award of Excellence

Huge congrats and thank you to Ms.Ruane and Mr.Clarke who successfully coordinated our Discover Primary Science and Maths Award submission. We received lovely feedback on our whole school efforts to promote STEM throughout our school involving young and old. This is the third year in succession that we have received this award. It is a fantastic initiative having a significant impact in all of our classrooms!

-  18-19

Graduation in St.Attracta’s

Yesterday, Thursday was a momentous day in St. Attracta’s, where we saw the the passing of students from one class to the next, and some onto new schools!

Our graduation ceremonies revealed the talents and skills of all of our pupils, through the fantastic displays of drama, poetry, music and song on our school hall stage. A special word of thanks must go to our teachers for all their hard work in preparation.

From Sonas/ Spraoi / Sásta / Infants up to Sixth Class, we were delighted to see everyone participating and performing poetry and song. It really was a lovely end to the school year.

All of the children were presented with Certificates of Completion upon their transition to their new classes. We were very impressed with the hard work that every child has put in this year and hope to see them all back working hard after their Summer break!

Finally last evening, we had our 6th Class Graduation Mass. It was a very special evening for everyone involved. Fr. Johnston and Fr. Doherty concelebrated the mass in the open air outside and we had great attendance from family, friends and staff members. The theme of the mass was gratitude and hope, both very appropriate in giving thanks for the children’s time in St. Attracta’s and instilling hope in them for their future successes in Secondary School.

It was a lovely evening and a fitting end to a wonderful year. The 6th Class students have been fantastic representatives of our school, we wish them every success in the future. They will always be part of the St. Attracta’s family!

Finally thank you to Joe for all his support with the sound system, it really added to our day.

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Junior and Senior Infants School Tour: Tullyboy Farm

Junior and Senior Infants travelled to Tullyboy Farm in Boyle earlier for their school tour.

They had a tour of the working farm, where they saw cows, sheep, llamas, goats & kids, horses & foals, emus, deers, puppies, kittens, birds, pigs and lots more. They got to hold and pet the smaller puppies and kids and to handfeed most of the animals.

They had a tractor trailer ride down the bumpy fields and a train ride which was lots of fun also! They had a sweet hunt in the straw shed.

After a delicious hot lunch, they had some time in the playground and on the go-karts. The bus home was a time to talk about our best moments. It was a lovely day out with our school friends.

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Good Luck Girls!

All that remains this evening is to wish our team the very best tomorrow evening in their County Final in McHale Park at 3.15pm. We are so proud of the girls and hope they each enjoy this very special occasion.

All support would be greatly appreciated. Go n-éirí libh!

-  18-19

Students of the Week Friday June 7th

At our assembly today we remembered all our past pupils who are completing their Junior and Leaving Certificates at the moment. We really hope all their hard work is paying off and the remaining exams go well.

While this week was a short week it was again very busy as we prepared for our class and end of year graduations. We also continued with our GAA Coaching and prepared for Sports Day. The highlight for many this week was of course our swimming lessons. It really was magical to see all the boys and girls walking from our school to their local pool despite the inclement weather conditions.
We were also delighted to welcome our incoming Junior Infant Class 19/20 and their parents back to school earlier.The girls and boys received their booklists, school calendar, ordered their school uniforms and met with their teacher. Big steps in preparation for the great adventure of our next school year.

Three recurring adjectives were used to describe the children who were awarded students of the week. These were consistent, conscientious and kind. These are wonderful descriptions of children examples of all that we strive to achieve with our students. Each week our children are role models for the rest of our school and we as teachers are always thrilled to hear the reasons for their success. At times it can be a challenge, especially as we head towards the end of term, but our children are always doing their best. It really is great to see this progress and that development can occur at all times throughout the year. These students progress only highlights the belief that your teachers have in you! Well done to you all. Maith sibh go léir. 

Swimming continues next week in Charlestown Swimming Pool. Our remaining Swimming dates are as follows Monday June 10th, Wednesday June 12th and for Sonas, Spraoi and Sásta on Thursday June 13th.

Dates for Diary

Junior/Senior Infants: June 12th : Tullyboy Farm
Rang 1/2: June 19th Achill Aquarium .
Rang 3/4 :June 25th Lough Key Forest Park

June 21st: Sports Day Weather permitting .
June 27th : Class Graduations for all classes : details will follow / Flag Raising Ceremony @1.15pm
June 27th: Sixth Class Graduation Mass at 7.30 pm details will follow.

Finally all that remains this week is to wish our Girls the very best on Monday evening in their County Final in McHale Park. We are so proud of our girls and hope they each enjoy this very special occasion.

-  18-19

Sonas,Spraoi and Sásta School Tour

Sonas, Spraoi and Sásta had a fantastic day in Maghu’s Castle in Kilimagh on Thursday the 30th of May. We arrived at 10am and the children showed great excitement as they delved into their indoor play. The children explored indoor mazes, a rope bridge, large ball pit, a fun booster cannon game and a large slide. We also had access to a newly opened state of the art sensory room including light projectors, fibre optic strands, mirrors, music, a colour changing fish tank and bean bags.

Afterwards we headed to their party room where the children had a feast of chicken nuggets, sausages, chips and ice-cream. After much energetic play and a delicious lunch we headed to the Town Theatre and watched the animated movie ‘Moana’.

We had a wonderful day overall and everybody behaved brilliantly and enjoyed themselves. We want to thank Mrs Colson, Ms Munnelly, Ms Ruane, Margaret, Lorraine, Fiona, Yvonne, Michelle, Esther and Claire for taking care of us today.

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5th and 6th Class School Tour

What a day Rang 5/6 had in Dublin for their school tour. From start to finish the day offered us lots of fantastic experiences. The weather forecast hadn’t been great, but the sun came out to welcome us to the capital on many occasions!

We had an early start at 8.30am but the excitement on everyone’s faces was a sign of all the great times ahead we would have. Our first stop in Dublin brought us to the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman, Niall Muldoon. We learned all about the Children’s Charter of Rights, had a cinema experience, group workshops and chill-out time on their fabulous buddha bags. As ever our students were a joy to have with us and were very impressive in their input into the session. Our facilitators Aoife and Stephen were very impressed by the children’s knowledge and interesting questions regarding children’s rights, and commented on the excellent levels of manners and enthusiasm.

We then headed off to our second destination St. Patrick’s Cathedral to board the hilarious, exciting and informative Viking Splash Tour. Sitting in the open-topped 1940’s amphibious vehicles used first in the D-Day landings in Normandy, our tour guides imparted vast knowledge on some of the most famous historical sites around the city. With the Bórd Gáis theatre in sight, we parked at the Grand Canal Basin and our guides passed out the life jackets for the next treat of the day…our buses took to the water and we continued our sightseeing of Dublin, all the time entertained by our guides. Back at base in Christchurch, we all agreed on one thing for sure…that this was so much fun!

Croke Park is a familiar stop for many, however we rarely get to look behind the scenes. The children were treated to a tour of the grounds and facilities. We got to see the player’s lounge, dressing rooms, warm up area and we even got to climb the hallowed steps to collect Sam! Once we had raised the famous cup, we took on the vertigo inducing Skyline tour. After climbing 140 steps, we were led on a bird’s eye tour of some more famous sights of the city, with lots of informative facts and tales from our tour guides. We saw Mountjoy Prison, Poolbeg, Christchurch, The Four Courts, Glasnevin Cemetary, the Olympic torch sculpture and much more. At 44 metres in the air we had an amazing view of the city and the grounds, along with the added excitement of the sky-high walk.

All that was left was our journey home with a yummy treat along the way! We got back to school at 10.00pm and were still all full of beans as we could not have asked for a better day, and as always our children made us so proud with their good humour, manners and sense of fun.

This certainly was a day to remember!