We have had a lovely first few days back at school! A very special welcome to our new Junior Infants pupils and others who joined us this year. We are looking forward to a great year of learning, growing and having fun together!
We were very fortunate to win a fabulous climbing wall as part of the Active School Flag Participation Awards at the very end of last term, and this was installed over the hoildays. It is a wonderul addition to our yard – we have so much space to play together!
Today we said “Farewell!” to our Class of 2024 as we had a special assembly to celebrate their time in Killeshandra N.S.
6th Class chose some of their favourite songs and shared a few memories of their years in the school. Rev. Sam spoke about how, even though there are lots of unknowns in the days ahead for 6th Class, they can be assured that God will be with them. He also presented them each with a book called ‘It’s Your Move’ from Killeshandra Church as they prepare to move on to secondary school.
6th Class also recieved some gifts from the school – a Bible, a t-shirt signed by everyone in the school, a certificate, a framed picture and a copy of all their self portraits from Junior Infants right up to 6th Class.
We finished off with some delicious ice-cream and a slideshow of photographs of 6th Class through the years, before the rest of the school cheered 6th Class home.
Everyone at Killeshandra N.S. wishes all of 6th Class the very best as they move on to the next chapter of their lives. We will miss you all and hope you come back to visit us!
Today was a real treat as we were able to visit the Ice Cream Treats factory here in Killeshandra for a tour. It was fascinating to see all the different areas of the factory – the board room, the stores, the production area and even inside the freezers! We also had a look at the new pasteurization area that is still under development. It is wonderful to see this business here in Killeshandra – maybe some of us will work here in the future!
Thank you so much to the staff in Ice Cream Treats for making us so welcome and showing us around the factory. Thanks also for the delicious ice cream we enjoyed before we left!
Today was Sports’ Day in Killeshandra – we had a great day! We started off this morning with a few warm-up exercises, then we had our races – a running race, the sack race, the egg and spoon race and the 3-legged race.
After break, we went to the playground for a while. Everyone then had the choice of playing a game of rounders or playing soccer on the big pitch – we had lots of fun!
After lunch, we got the tug-of-war rope out – there were lots of very close matches!
We had time for a few relays before the infants went home, then we showed off our wellie throwing skills!
To finish off the day, we had great fun with some giant sack races – it was not as easy as it looked!
Everyone was presented with a medal before they went home as a reward for all their efforts – well done everyone!
Last Saturday was our Folklore Exhibition as part of Cruinniú na nÓg and Creative Schools. We were busy on Friday putting the finishing touches on our projects and getting them all displayed in the hall.
On Saturday afternoon, we welcomed parents, grandparents and friends in to look at our work – we really enjoyed talking about all we had learned.
Ultan also showed us the Hidden Gems video he had produced using the videos, photographs, voice recording and sound effects we had been working on over the last few months. Thank you so much for all your work Ultan, is is an amazing showcase of all we have learned. Click on the link below to watch the video again.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ECup2HuXVlSZSEW1SESpRWXfMcJPARdj/view?usp=drive_web
To finish off the afternoon, we performed the two dances that Edwina had taught us, The Schottische and Stack of Barley, as Ultan accompanied us on the fiddle.
The afternoon was a wonderful celebration of all our work, as well as the stories and folklore we collected. Thank you so much to everyone who came to see our projects and performances on Saturday, as well as all those who helped us collects artefacts and folklore. Thanks also to Ultan and Mrs McGuigan for all their work in organising the day. Well done everyone!
Each year, 6th Class look forward to the presentation of the Leila Beattie award to a pupil who has made a special contribution to life in Killeshandra N.S. It is always a very difficult decision, as everyone is deserving of the award in some way. In line with our SSE focus on wellbeing withing the school, we decided to make a change this year. Today, we were joined by Leila who presented EVERY 6th Class pupil with a special award, recognising their positive attributes and the valuable contributions they have all made to our school over the years.
Congratulations to our Outstanding Organiser, Passionate Performer, Excellent Engineer, Valued Volunteer, Constantly Caring, Talented Techy, Super Sportsman and Fantastic Friend award winners – we are so proud of you all!
Our 6th Class have been wearing their Class of 2024 hoodies for a couple of weeks now – they look fantastic!
Well done to our Reader of the Month, Handwriter of the Month and Excellent Effort winners for May who were presented with their trophies in assembly this morning – congratulations to you all!
One of our 6th Class pupils won a competition organised by Nearby (one of the shops here in Killeshandra) earlier in the year, and the school was presented with €150 as part of her prize. Today, that money was spent on a lovely treat for everyone – we had a visit from the ice-cream van! Everyone got to choose a slushie or an ice-cream (with all the toppings!) to enjoy in the sunshine. It was only right that the first cone went to the girl who made it all possible – thank you very much!
We have been busy getting ready for our Cruinniú na nÓg event this Saturday. Ultan, our Creative Schools Associate, has been working with us to prepare for the Folklore Exhibition. Last week, the Senior Room took lots of photographs around Killeshandra. We have also helped Ultan to make audio and video recordings which will be shown on Saturday – it has been really interesting to get involved in some of the techincal, behind the scenes aspects of putting the exhibition together. We can’t wait to see it all come together on Saturday!
Today, we were joined by Edwina Guckian who taught us a couple of dances that we will be performing on Saturday. We also really enjoyed listening to Edwina’s stories about dances in the past!
We are really looking forward to sharing everything we have been working so hard on at our Folklore Exhibition. Please come and join us in the Martin Memorial Hall in Killeshandra this Saturday, 15th June at 3 p.m. It will be a great showcase of stories, artefacts, recordings and dance as we celebrate Cruinniú na nÓg and show off everything we have learned!
The children in the Junior Room have enjoyed a busy year in Aistear – there has been so much learning through play! The classroom has been transformed into everything from a Pizzeria to a Doctor’s surgery, a Travel Agent and a construction site over the year. Aistear is always one of our favourite times of the week – have a look at some of the things we got up to!
