Author Archives: scoilmhuirebelcruit

Introducing the newest additions to our senior classroom – The Grassheads.

Ms Houston’s class had a great time creating these fun characters and at the same time learning a bit about how things grow –

a good start on the road to our bio-diversity Green Flag.

On Thursday 12th May a delegation from our school attended the Green Flag Awards Ceremony in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Letterkenny. Shauna, Odhran and Erin went with Ms Houston to receive our newest Green Flag. After the presentation they were treated to a delicious lunch. A big thank you to An Taisce for a lovely day.

As part of Clean Coasts Week 2016 the children from 3rd to 6th class took part in a Marram Grass Planting Day which was facilitated by Olivia Crossan from An Taisce. Ms Houston, Mrs Sweeney and the students joined members of the local community at Trá Dhearg on Cruit Island where they were taught how to remove and replant Marram Grass as an effort to slow down the effects of erosion.  Some of our students also helped out with the Big Beach Clean on Sunday 8th of May.  Not only were they helping to keep our coastline as it should be so that it can be enjoyed by everyone but it will also form part of our application for our next Green Flag which will be based on the theme of Bio-Diversity. (More photos in our gallery)

As part of our work on our recently awarded Green Flag for Travel we actively encouraged the children to cycle to school as often as possible and due to the success of this we then applied to An Taisce for help with the installation of bicycle parking. We are extremely grateful to An Taisce who not only funded the entire project but also arranged the installation of our new bicycle shelter. As is evident from the photographs it is already being put to very good use.

We are delighted to have been awarded our fourth Green Flag from An Taisce. We have worked hard over the last two years investigating how we travel and trying to reduce the amount of cars coming to the school on a daily basis. Throughout the project we have actively encouraged the children to walk or cycle to school and promoted the idea of carpooling. We carried out travel surveys at regular intervals  and the results show a large increase in the number of students cycling and walking to school. The school will be presented with our new Green Flag at a presentation ceremony in Letterkenny on the 12th of May.

We are very proud here at Scoil Mhuire of our senior quiz team who represented us at the All Ireland Final of the Credit Union Schools Quiz. Holly, Jamie, Owen and Zach came 7th in the final which took place at the RDS in Dublin on Sunday 1oth of April.

We had great fun on the day we got our Easter holidays. We all went for a walk and had to look out for Bunnies along our way, we had to collect as much information as possible about each and when we got back to school we held a quiz with special prizes for the winning team but of course everyone got some chocolate treats for taking part. After the quiz the Parents Association held their annual egg hunt and we even had a couple of special visitors.

Tuesday 15th March 2016 was Proclamation Day, a day when every school in the country raised our National Flag in commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising. We were joined for the occasion by parents and family members. Tristan, Ella, Elisha and Jimmie Joe had the responsibility of officially raising the Tricolour. Miss Comack and Ms Houston then read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from 1916. The children in 6th class then read the school’s proclamation that was written by the students to reflect their wishes and hopes in 2016.  You can read our proclamation by clicking on this link: Scoil mhuire proclamation

Once the flag was flying the  Holly, Katie, Eve, Fionn and Ella played a beautiful rendition of ‘Faith of our Fathers’ on their fifes. All the children then sang our national anthem – Amhrán na bhFiann.

The flag raising ceremony was followed by a short drama which was centred around the Rosses in 1916.

There are lots more photographs of this special occasion in our gallery.

On Monday 8th of March we spent the day with the StreetSmart team in St. Columbas community centre

StreetSmart is an exciting initiative set up by the Road Safety Authority which aims to bring issues of road safety to life for young school children.  StreetSmart is designed for three distinct age groups: 4-5, 5-8 and 8-12 years. There is a combination of interactive activities available for each age group.

StreetSmart also involves a streetscape mat which invites children to carry out typical, everyday cycling or pedestrian tasks. They can dress up and adopt various roles such as a nurse, doctor, fire officer or ambulance driver. The Road Safety Authority representatives are on hand to coordinate the activities with the help of teachers at the school. It is an action packed, fun filled day that enhances the student’s knowledge of the rules of the road.

Topics covered were; Road Safety, Cycle Safety, Travelling safely in a car/bus. As part of the programme all students received a personalised safety license as a reward for completing their road safety activities.

We are delighted to say a huge congratulations to our Senior Quiz Team of Holly, Jamie, Owen and Zach who were second in the Chapter final of the Credit Union Quiz in Letterkenny on Sunday 28th February. They have qualified for the All Ireland final which takes place in the RDS in Dublin on April 10th. We are all very proud of their fantastic achievement and wish them the best of luck in the final.