Author Archives: scoilmhuirebelcruit

The children in the senior room have participated in the CraftEd programme this year,  working with local artist Kim Sharkey.

CRAFTed is a nationwide, primary level programme, which supports the delivery of the visual arts curriculum. CRAFTed works with teachers, craftspeople and students. The programme aims to provide all those engage with it with skills for life through positive, collaborative engagement. CRAFTed is a process led programme which focuses on creativity. The programme supports the wider aims of the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland by placing value on the skills of Irish makers, promoting the insightful and innovative contributions they have to offer to the development of art, craft and design education.

The chosen medium for the programme in our school was clay. The children worked with Kim to produce pieces that reflected different aspects of life in Ireland, including sport, culture, food and wildlife. They worked in groups to design and create clay sculptures featuring different symbols and figures that represented their chosen theme. The students also had a chance to throw pots using a pottery wheel, which they subsequently decorated and glazed.

Having been fired in the kiln it was time to view the finished products. The clay masterpieces formed part of the CraftEd Exhibition in the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny.

The exhibition included a presentation by the students explaining the background to their project and the various processes used in carrying their concepts to completion. The central piece of the presentation was a video that the Kim helped the children to produce. The children spent a day learning about computer animation and wrote the voice over pieces to go with the visual display. You can watch their video by pasting the following link into your browser seachbar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANHkKtgs11s

Bhí am ar doigh againn anseo i Scoil Mhuire le linn Seachtain na Gaeilge. Rinne gach duine iarracht mór an Ghaeilge a labhairt an t-am ar fad agus tá sé soléir go bhfuil an-suim ag na paistí in ar dteanga dhuchais.  Tugadh duaiseanna do na daltaí i rith na seachtaine a rinne an iarracht is mo An Ghaeilge a labhairt. D’obair siad go crua le Ms O Donnell ag foghlaim amhrán, dantaí agus ag cur dramaí beaga le chéile. Ar An Aoine bhí ‘Lá Glas againn’, bhí gach duine gléasta in eadaí glas o bun go barr agus chaith muid an lá ag ceiliúradh ar gcúltur agus ceoil. Ar dtús bhí ceilí againn agus san iar-nóin bhí siamsaíocht den scoth ann agus na paistí ag ceoil agus ag damhsa don seó talún. Bhí meascán deas de amhrán traidisiúnta agus nua aimsire. Rinne na naíonáin ‘Báidín Fheilimí’, chuala muid An Haka o rang 1 & 2 agus chan siad Mollaí Malone, chan rang 3 & 4 Praghas Tag agus ag deireadh by rang 5 & 6 le Riptide agus an dán ‘Labhair An Teanga Gaeilge Liom’. Bhí duais don grúpa is fearr agus is iad Na Naíonáin buaiteoirí an chorn don chéad uair riamh.

Bhí comórtas aonair againn fosta agus bhain beagnach gach dalta pairt ann. Bhí dhá roinn sa comórtas seo; Sa Roinn Soisear bhí an bua ag Laila, le Odhrán sa dara áit agus Evan sa triú áit. Sa Roinn Sinsear bronnadh an chead duais ar Eve, bhí Shauna sa dara áit agus Odhran sa triú ait.  Is aoibheann an lá a bhí againn uilig agus tá muid iontach sásta leis na paistí agus chreideann muid gur is fíor an rud a duirt Padraig Mac Piarais: Tír gan teanga, tír gan ainm.

Bhí aoí speisialta ar an lá fosta mar tháinig Mamie Ní Laodhóg ar cuairt. Freastal Mamie ar scoil i mBeal na Cruite nuair a bhí sí ina girseach óg ach deir sí go bhfuil difear mor tagtha ar scoil ón t-am sin! Bhí luachair uirthi bualadh leis na paistí go speilialta a garnia Odhran agus beirt garneacht Nia & Ellie.

We love the opportunity to dress up in Scoil Mhuire and so World Book Day was the perfect opportunity to let our imagination run wild. The children were asked to dress as a character from a book or as an author and they did not disappoint. Go on over to our gallery to see some more of their wonderful costumes.

A big thank you to our Parents Association for hosting our annual Pancake Party. The children enjoyed a feast of pancakes of all different shapes and sizes which were topped all sorts of sweet and sticky treats!! 

As part of Catholic Schools Week we invited our families and members of the community to join us in a celebration of ‘Families of the Faith- Year of the Family’. We began by praying The Rosary together followed by some time spent making St. Bridget’s crosses and we finished off a very enjoyable afternoon with some tea and home baking.

We had two teams representing the school at the local Credit Union Quiz in Dungloe on Monday 29th of January. The senior team, Erin, Dylan, Tristan and Fionn came third in a very keenly contested section and just missed out on qualification for the next round.

Big congratulations to Elisha, Lewis, Odhran and Fionn who came first in their section and who will go on to represent us at chapter level in the coming weeks. Well done and good luck.

We are all immensely proud of Ella, a 5th class student, who won the 2017 Donegal Sports Star Award for Gymnastics. Ella was presented with her medal by Ken Doherty at the Donegal Sports Star Awards night in the Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny on Friday the 26th of January. Ella’s hard work and dedication to her sport has certainly paid off. She had a very successful year in 2017 when as well as winning several individual medals at club and national level Ella also represented Ireland with Finesse Gymnastics Display team, Winners of bronze medal at World Gym for Life Challenge in  Norway. Congratulations Ella.

It was all systems go on our return to school after the Christmas holidays as we continued our work on our next Green Flag. The theme of this flag is Biodiversity.

Biodiversity is our life support system. It is the variety of all life forms on Earth, from the tiniest bugs living in the soil to the butterflies in your garden, the plants they feed from and the biggest whales in the sea. Biodiversity includes the diversity of individuals within a species (genetic diversity), diversity of species within the ecosystem or habitat and the diversity of ecosystems or habitats.

Over the last 2 years the children have been learning about the subject through workshops with Aengus Kennedy and Dale Treadwell as well as working with their teachers in class. We also visited Glenveagh National Park to learn about the different plants, trees and animals that are native to our area. We also got involved with the local community by helping with beach clean ups and a Marram grass planting day as part of the Clean Coasts initiative.

The children took part in the The Great Plant Hunt which was a project to help them identify plants, trees and birds in their local area.

On Friday 12th January we had our Biodiversity Action Day. We made some bird feeders by threading breakfast cereal on to wire and twisting them into shapes which we then tied to the fences around our yard. We planted flower bulbs and seeds – some of them are in pots indoors and other we have in ‘bottle planters’ which we attached to the fencing. We look forward to seeing all our beautiful flowers in bloom in the Springtime. We also installed our ‘Bug Hotel’ in the yard.

On Monday 20th of November we had a visit from the Bricks4Kidz team as part of Science Week. Bricks4Kidz is an international educational company which teaches the principles of science, technology, engineering and maths to primary school children, using Lego.

Lego based edcuation programmes have proven to be a very effective method of reinforcing scientific concepts to school age children and the Bricks4Kidz workshop provides children of all ages with a fun and educational way to appreciate how science is a fundamental part of our everyday lives.

The children thoroughly enjoyed working with the team to build motorised models. See our gallery page for more photographs full of happy smiling students!

Congratulations to Joey, Erin and Dylan who were winners in the Credit Union Poster Competition.