Ms. Atkinson’s class recently looked at the paintings of Henry Fraser. Fraser is a former rugby player who, after a tragic accident, was left paralysed from the neck down. Fraser decided to take something positive from the experience and is now a very famous artist – what an inspiration!
Ms Atkinson’s class earned 30 minutes golden time as a result of their good behaviour this week. The children chose to use this time to play board games with their classmates after another hard week of work in 4th, 5th and 6th class.
St. Michael’s N.S. are holding an enrolment night on Tuesday 5th February 2019 at 7.30pm. Parents wishing to enrol their children for September 2019 or 2020 are invited on the night.
Please come along to see our school and some of the exciting changes that are happening in St. Michael’s N.S., including our new fully-equipped Special Education classroom. A short informative talk will be given on the night by our Infants teacher Mrs Campbell. Our principal Ms Whelan will also be available to answer any queries that you may have.
Light refreshments will be served on the night. This is a brilliant opportunity to meet and socialise with other parents in our school. Parents will receive enrolment packs on the night which will include an enrolment form.
We look forward to seeing you on the night!
If you have any questions regarding enrolment for 2019 or 2020, please do not hesitate to contact the school office on 042 9662284.
Our Parent’s Association have taken on the task of organising this weekly event in Donaghmoyne in 2019. This is the first year St. Michael’s National School and the people of Donaghmoyne have taken part in this initiative.
The first weekly event took place on Tuesday 15th January with over fifty people turning up on the day. The campaign will take place for eight weeks, occurring every Tuesday at 7pm. This is a great opportunity for people in this rural area to meet socially, while being active at the same time.
We look forward to seeing you all every Tuesday!
Ms Atkinson’s class have recently started studying the book ‘FArTHER’ by Grahame Baker-Smith. The children used paints to depict what they predicted the book to be about.
Well done to the Green School Committee, teachers, staff and guest speakers for all of their hard word for helping to organise, and for partaking in the action day. It was a huge success and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it!
At last the long awaited Water Action Day arrived on Friday 7th December 2018 which was filled with fun activities. The day began with a Guest Speaker from Lough na Garnaman who discussed in-depth where water to the school in addition to most of the pupils’ houses locally actually comes from and the treatment process involved. She explained to the pupils how water pumps are used to monitor water bursts & water wastage. She showed the pupils samples of water meters used to measure water usage together with samples of raw water & treated water. The pupils were very intrigued!
The day proceeded with storytime using the ever popular story ‘The Drip’ by Gordon Green. The children rotated from classroom to classroom chanting water rhymes, poems and songs. Part of the day was focused on engaging in water experiments such as investigating floating & sinking, waterproof or non-waterproof, absorbent or non-absorbent objects and materials.
Finally we had another two Guest Speakers from our local Celtic Pure water company who spoke at length on the foundation of the company and the formation of bottled water in their plant. They also delved into recycling and what the plastic bottles make once recycled which was very interesting e.g. 1 bottle makes 2 pens, 48 bottles makes a quilt etc. The children found it all very interesting. We all learned about how a bottle is formed and how these bottles are filled, capped, labelled and shrink wrapped and ready for sale.
All the teachers and pupils throughout the school worked hard in learning about Water topics which integrated well with a variety of curricular subjects. For example Junior and Senior Infants learned about water sources, uses of water and The Water Cycle. They even experimented with making a cloud which was quite interesting! 1st to 6th classes engaged in valuable learning about Weather elements in particular investigating hurricanes, flooding and they experimented with freezing and melting. Lots of rhymes/poems and songs about water were learned in all classes and some of the senior classes did a great job on devising water acrostic poems.
St.Michael’s N.S. began their journey of learning about Water and Water Conservation in September 2017. The Green School Committees worked tirelessly over the last year beginning with conducting an initial environmental review throughout all classes in an effort to establish pupils’ knowledge of the following:
Initial findings were positive but what was interesting was the lack of knowledge on the true source of the schools’ water i.e. Lough na Garnaman and so the committee used the findings to educate the school as to the correct answers to the above questions. From that we felt that it would be beneficial for all students to learn more about where our water comes from and the treatment process involved before it enters our school and our homes, a project we saved for our action day.
The Green School committee proceeded to gather, share and discuss lots of interesting facts about water together with a selection of Water Wise tips for saving water. They also organised a Water Slogan Competition for the whole school, the winner of which was Lauren McGahon with the very intriguing slogan: ‘SLOW THE FLOW, SAVE H2O’!
Everyone has been working hard in our classroom with Christmas activities. We have been singing ‘Tá an Nollaig Buailte Linn’, doing Christmas themed Irish role-plays, and making Christmas Cards ‘as Gaeilge’. In religion we learned about Advent and the Nativity Story. Everyday we participate in an active Advent Calendar as part of our Active School’s Campaign. At maths time, we begun lessons by answering Christmas themed riddles. We also learned about Christmas traditions around the world and about the importance of fire safety at Christmas time. We have created some lovely art work around the theme of Advent and Christmas. Some of these can be viewed below!
