7th May 2020

We are delighted to inform you that our application for the renewal of your Green Flag has been successful. The team at Green-Schools were very impressed with our application, congratulations! So thanks to all the hard-working members of your Green-Schools committees: Charlotte, Micklas, Amelia, Kate, Matthew, Maja, Aoibhe, Síne, Charlie and Tomek and everyone in the school.

You all deserve a huge amount of credit for your efforts. The work that you are doing is really having a positive impact, and when the work of all schools is combined it’s truly amazing!

Unfortunately, due the current situation, they are not able to hold our Green-Schools Awards Ceremonies this year which is such a shame as we absolutely love to celebrate with everyone around the country. As soon as the schools re-open we will ensure we receive our Green Flag and certificate and hope that you can celebrate with a flag raising in the school when possible

5th May 2020

Unfortunately it was announced last week, that we will be unable to return to school for the rest of this academic year, due to COVID-19. This is quite upsetting, as we will be missing out on our School Tour, Sport’s Day and all of the other fun activities associated with the final term in school. We are grateful for all of the fun and trips that we had this year, prior to the school closing. Next year, we will just have to make these events bigger and better in order to make up for them being missed this year!!

Even though we are not in our physical school building, we are still a school community, working hard through this uncertain time. Teaching and learning, which is at the heart of each and every school, is still happening and we couldn’t be prouder of how hard our pupils and their families are working from home.

The children are using a mixture of Google Classroom and SeeSaw to communicate with their teachers. They are also using EPIC and Splashlearn to read and play Maths games online. Each classroom are video chatting on a weekly basis with Google Meet, so that the children and teacher can see each other and catch up. It is a great resource which enables the children and teacher feel like a community again.

We look forward to finishing out this academic year in an unusual manor and returning to our school building for the next year- 2020- 2021.

Monday 27th April 2020

We created a competition for the children in our school. They had to respond to the theme ‘Let’s Smile Together’ in any way they choose. Some children chose to make a video, others baked, some made pictures and others set up role play in their garden. Here are some of the entries. Well done to all of the students involved!

Next week, April 27th to May 3rd, we have decided to participate in Active Home Week. The aim of Active Home Week is to encourage our pupils, and their families, to keep active. Children need at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day.

To complete the challenge, we are asking our pupils to find 4 different ways of being active each day, totalling to 60 minutes or more.

We have set out some sample activities for each day that you might like to use, but you do not have to stick to these. We encourage you to create your own activities and try different activities.

In order to successfully complete the challenge, and step closer to getting the Active School Flag, we need EACH PUPIL to fill out the challenge sheet and return it to us. You can do this by downloading and editing the emailed sheet, and sending it back by email, SeeSaw or Google Classroom. If you have trouble downloading the sheet, you can draw your own chart and return a picture of it.

We hope you all have lots of fun being active with your families. Send us in some pictures and/or videos of what activities you get up to during the week.

Have fun!

Monday 30th March 2020

March was an expectantly short month in school. The Senior Room started the month off with a trip to EIR in CityWest. The children continued with their Hip Hop lessons each Monday with Nikki and Favio. The school photographer was in on Thursday 12th, along with the inspector for the Green School’s Flag. Both events went well. We hope to have positive news on the flag in the coming weeks.

On Thursday 12th, we got the news that we had to close for two weeks. This has now been extended to after the Easter Holidays. We are remaining positive here in St. Columba’s N.S and keeping in constant communication with our children and families. Teachers moved quickly from ‘face to face’ teaching in their classrooms, to online learning through apps.
Teachers are also enjoying the photographs that children are sharing of the activities that they are doing at home.

We hope that all of our family and friends are keeping well and staying safe during these uncertain times. The teachers are finding it very odd teaching from their sitting rooms and looking forward to seeing you all again soon.

Friday 6th March 2020

First to Third Class had a great time in the recycling center in Powerstown and Kilkenny Castle today. In the recycling centre, they learned about the different items that can be recycled there and organised different items into their correct recycling bin. The children then went to Kilkenny Castle and saw lots of beautiful paintings. To finish the day, they went to the park!

Thank you to all the staff in both the recycling centre and the castle for looking after the children so well!

Friday 6th March 2020

The Senior Room celebrated Engineering Week today by designing and making Slingshot Rockets. The children tested out their slingshots to see which one launched their rocket the furthest.

Monday 9th March 2020

The children performed for their peers, the teachers and a group of parents in the hall this morning. The performances were a huge success and it was great to see the children’s confidence as they performed routines, which they have been working on over the last five weeks.

A huge Thank you to Favio and Nikki for coming in each week and working with the children. The benefits of exercise was clearly seen by each of the teachers. After the session, the children were happier and able to concentrate better in class.

10th February 2020

We have begun doing Hip Hop classes in the school. They are running for six weeks from 10th February through to the end of March. We really enjoyed the first lesson and look forward to the rest of them!!

21st February 2020

We are collecting plastic bottle tops in school for a Tullow Community Project.