Author Archives: heather

Events

STEAM

Both fifth classes are currently involved in a 10 week programme with STEAM in conjunction with Teleflex, Athlone.

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths. Its mission is to inspire children to love STEAM subjects for the future! Pupils really love the hands-on programme, and their interaction with scientists and engineers opens up a whole new world of opportunities for them. It greatly encourages the children and young people to consider STEM careers and to progress to second and third-level education. The programme is an investment in the future as it gives each child, regardless of their ability, an equal opportunity to participate, question & offer opinions.

Grandparents Day 2023

As part of Catholic Schools Week , 5th class invited their grandparents in for a visit. They held a short prayer service, some questions and answers and a little dancing! Afterwards, grandparents enjoyed refreshments and a chat in the hall.

Heritage in Schools

Martin Curley investigating our local surroundings on a recent field trip.

STEAM lessons with Esdras

Maths Week 2022

The children in all the classes had a very busy Maths Week! They explored many different stands of the maths curriculum. They did maths trails, played board games, games online and senior classes even designed their very own games for the junior and senior infants. They also used plenty of concrete materials and enjoyed using their “Maths Eyes” to see the endless world of mathematics that we encounter on a daily basis.

Amber Flag -Term 2 2023

The Amber Flag Committee are currently selling tickets for their Amazing Easter Raffle, which will take place on April 23rd. Prizes include hampers, Easter eggs, vouchers for lots of local businesses and many more. Funds raised will go towards providing Wellbeing Spaces for more classrooms. Thank you for your support. 

Amber Flag-Term 1 2022

The Amber Flag Programme will run from November 2022 to April 2023. Children from 4th to 6th classes will be invited to nominate themselves and make a speech about why they would like to join the Amber Flag Committee after the midterm break. Mrs Cronolly will announce further details nearer to the time. 

Junior Infants-Term 2 2023

Junior Infants have been very busy this term. They have enjoyed learning about ‘The Adventures of Tom Crean’ , ‘The Weather’ and ‘St. Patrick’ in Aistear. As part of our weather theme, the children learned about weather instruments such as the thermometer and rain gauge and they even engaged in role play where they reported as weather presenters. In SESE they have been learning about the signs of spring and can identify spring flowers that can be found around Cloonakilla N.S.  Ms Shine and Ms McDermott brought in some colourful flowers and the children sketched beautiful drawings of  daffodils and tulips.  In English they have been learning about different writing genres and the focus this term has been on procedural writing – this gave us a great excuse to make delicious Rice Krispie buns! 

In February, we really enjoyed Gaelic sessions with Alan from Clann na nGael as well as learning ‘Skip to my Lou’ and ‘A bird flew into the woods’ folk dances under the Dance strand in P.E. 

At the beginning of March we celebrated World Book Day at Cloonakilla N.S. The children created colourful bookmarks, went on a scavenger hunt looking for the characters in The Gingerbread Man and Ms Kelly read them the story of The Hungry Caterpillar. To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day they created Seán the shamrock, Larry the leprechaun and striking rainbow artwork.

Junior Infants-Term 1 2022

Junior Infants have worked very hard since they started in Cloonakilla! In Aistear, they had lots of fun learning about The Doctor’s Surgery, Autumn and Halloween. In September, we had an exciting visit from Dr Lynam. He showed us some of the doctor’s equipment we had learned about in Aistear and we got to ask him lots of questions too!

The Junior Infants did lots of activities when learning about Autumn. They made leaf rubbings; finger painted autumn leaves and had fun painting and colouring hedgehog pictures in Art. They are fantastic at saying their poem, ‘The Hedgehog’. For Maths Week, Junior Infants had great fun playing the maths games that 5th Class made for them.  Last week, we really enjoyed going upstairs for the 6th Class performances of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Beauty and the Beast in Irish.

Senior Infants-Term 2 2023

Senior Infants enjoyed the Aistear themes of the Zoo and Sea Creatures.  They created beautiful ‘Under the Sea’ paintings by using oil pastels and blue paint. The children made yellow submarines and loved singing the song ‘The Yellow Submarine.’ 

They made scary drawings of lion’s faces using chalk pastels! 

The children enjoyed painting rainbows as part of their St. Patrick’s Day activities.  They created beautiful cards for Mother’s Day. 

In SESE we looked for signs of Spring.  The pupils enjoyed looking at different Spring flowers.  They painted lovely bluebells.  

The children enjoyed ‘Dance’ in PE.  They had great fun taking part in the dances – ‘Skip to My Lou’ and ‘Wind the Bobbin Up’.

Senior Infants-Term 1 2022

Senior Infants had great fun working on their Aistear themes of The Birthday Party, Autumn and Hallowe’en.  They enjoyed creating lovely artwork for Halloween and Autumn. 

They loved learning about Autumn and created an Autumn nature table in the classroom.  They looked at sycamore leaves, helicopters, fir cones, acorns etc.  Well done to all the children for bringing in items for our nature table.  

Maths Week was a great success.  We used our maths eyes and had great fun taking part in an outdoor maths trail.  The highlight of the week was playing maths games with 6th class.  Sixth class made wonderful maths games for us to enjoy.  Thank you!

Active School Flag 2022/23

All classes are currently completing the ‘Run Around Ireland’ challenge. Each day, students will run laps around the school and calculate what famous Irish landmark they have run to.This month we are focussing on the fundamental movement of running. We have been given teaching tips to improve our running skills and have seen a huge improvement in students’ technique since we started.We will reintroduce Funky Fridays in the coming weeks. Students have chosen their favourite songs to be added to a playlist and these will be played at lunchtime on Fridays for students to sing and dance along to. Both 6th classes are currently taking part in the ‘Cycle Right’ campaign which is organised by Roscommon Sports Partnership. Each class completes a 4 week programme where they are learning new skills regarding cycling safety and bicycle care.Coaching in Gaelic football and Tag Rugby continues each Wednesday and Friday. A huge thank you to all the coaches involved.

Active Flag News

European Sports Day was held in September this year. We joined together as a whole school to participate in a “Take on the Teachers” Challenge. Various pupils from 6th class first took on a group of teachers in a “Basketball Hoop Challenge” . The teachers were victorious on this occasion. However, the students after a long battle managed to redeem themselves during a “Penalty Shootout” to claim victory! It meant the whole school got a night off homework so there was great excitement!
3rd-6th classes have been very busy and involved in lots of training for cross country competitions. We had lots of success in the local derby hosted by Summerhill NS. We then participated in the county competition held at Roscommon Racecourse. The children were successful in lots of categories. We were especially touched by the warm welcome and guard of honour provided by the whole school body on our arrival back to school. It was a moment to treasure for all athletes. A large group of children qualified for the Cross Country Connaught Final in Moyne, Longford. It was a challenging course but the pupils all did fantastic and represented their school so well. To coincide with all this running, we are now signed up to the Daily Challenge. We as a school are committing to running for ten minute slots at least three times a week. We encourage all pupils to be active and to move as much as possible.