This year we are putting a big focus on the pupil voice and pupil leadership in our school. As part of this initiative, students will be encouraged to regularly reflect and comment on their work.

We have established a Student Council which is comprised of the 6th class pupils. They will take suggestions  of reasonable changes from all pupils that they would like to see happen in the school. So far, they have brought forward some excellent changes that we have already implemented, including purchasing new P.E equipment and also ‘Time-Out Thursdays’ where pupils receive no written homework on Thursday evenings and instead spend some extra quality time with family.

We will also be holding a ‘Golden Assembly’ each month where each child will individually, or as a group, showcase a piece of work/song/poem/art work that they are proud of and would like to share with the rest of the school. During this assembly will we announce our new ‘Student of The Month’.

Today, we held our first ‘Golden Assembly’ and all of our pupils presented excellent pieces of work and told us all what they have been learning about during the month of October.

We also awarded our new student of the month for November to Sophie. Well done Sophie on all your hard work and for always being so kind and helpful to everyone.

Have a look at pictures of us all dressed up for Halloween during our ‘Golden Assembly’ this morning!

On Monday, the 2nd to 6th class pupils went on a ‘Seashore Safari’ to Grattan Beach in Salthill.

In groups, we explored the seashore using nets and buckets to see what we could find. We found some amazing things including lots of different types of crabs, butter fish, shells, dogwhelk seasnails, rockling fish and blenny fish.

We learned all about sea life and the effects of pollution on the beach. We also played some fun and interesting games to show us how long it takes for certain types of rubbish to decompose. Did you know that an apple takes two months to decompose while glass bottles never decompose and remain in our sea for ever?

We had a great day out. Have a look at some pictures from our trip.

This week was ‘Maths Week 2018’ throughout Ireland.

As part of this initiative, both the junior and senior room took part in lots of different maths activities.

On Wednesday, the senior class went on a maths trail around our school which included measuring trees, counting fence posts, finding different shapes and looking for the prime numbers in our playground snakes and ladders.

On Thursday, the student council organised a maths trail for our junior and senior infants. They had to measure their tables with pencils, count the windows in their classroom and count the number of cars in the carpark.

As part of maths week, the 2nd to 6th class pupils have signed up to Khan Academy, where they have the opportunity to practise their maths skills in a fun and exciting way. We hope to continue this wonderful program throughout the school year.

The senior room also completed some lovely tessellating fish pictures for art.

Have a look at some photos from our maths week.

This year, we have introduced Aistear themed play for our junior and senior infants.

Aistear is a curriculum framework for young children. Our aim is to provide enjoyable and challenging play and learning experiences so that all of our junior pupils can develop as confident and competent learners.

Each morning, the junior and senior infants learn through a mix of play stations including construction, play dough, role play, junk art, water and exploring. These stations provide our pupils with opportunities to be actively engaged in their own learning while using a variety of skills including; the use of their senses, imagination, creativity and motor skills while also developing their knowledge and language skills.

We follow a different theme each month. This allows the children to really engage with the world around them. In September we were working under the theme of ‘Myself’.

As you can see from our pictures we have had a wonderful time building robots, exploring the things we find in our houses, pretending to be doctors and nurses and also painting self portraits.

Congratulations to our new student of the month for October – Eleanor.

Well done to Eleanor on all her hard work and for always being so kind and helpful to everyone!