Junior School
It is hard to believe that once again we are celebrating the passing of another successful school year. The long and carefree days of Summer beckon us forth and now it is time for us pause and to take pride in our wonderful children and to give thanks for all of the good times we have shared as a school community. What a wonderful year it has been! In the Summer term alone – •
Our Green Schools’ Committee brought home our fourth green flag from An Taisce for action on travel and the environment. And in the process we were nominated “Carpooling School of the Year”;
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We won the DunLaoghaire Rathdown Tidy Schools’ Competition (having been runners-up for two years in a row!);
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Our amazing Senior Infant pupil Harry Kane won the national Doodle for Google competition winning the Junior School €10,000 of ICT equipment;
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We shared sacramental moments of First Communion and Confirmation;
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We had a Spelling Bee and a Science Fair,
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Our pupils in Standards 4 and 5 enjoyed an overnight at the Dunmore East Outdoor Education Centre;
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We celebrated Sports and Prize Day;
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Our Junior School Athletics Team were nominated Overall Winner at the AIJS Athletics meet;
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Our Student Council organised a Staff vs Std. 6 Rounders Match – what fun!
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Standards 4 and 5 showed off their amazing gifts in the annual Talent Show, while Standard 6 rounded off the year with a truly wonderful performance of a show called “Honk” which was full of colour, song and wonderful acting.
We were conscious of others and raised funds for Moldova, Nepal and Crumlin Children’s Hospital;
And all of this against the backdrop of classes, teaching, learning and growing. There is never a dull moment in the Junior School – that’s for sure!
As I said on Sports and Prize Day, in my role as Principal, and thanks to our enlightened Board of Governors, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to visit schools worldwide from the paperless ICT-savvy schools of Boston to the front runners of the OECD global academic league tables in Finland, and from the independent “School of the Year” in England to mud classrooms in Africa. And yes - we can learn from all of them. But I can also honestly say that in St. Gerard’s our school’s wonderful tradition of caring Catholic education combined with academic excellence which is futures-oriented, makes us truly a school of the 21st century – a school which aims to influence not only what our students know and can do but also the kind of people they will become. I am very proud to be Principal in this amazing school community and I would like to take this opportunity to offer a heart-felt thank you to all those who make St. Gerard’s the special place that it is: Firstly, I thank you the parents for your constant support of all of our endeavours. From sewing costume hems to brewing coffee on Winter sidelines and from running our Library to weekly gardening with the children. Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm and, in particular, for your kindness and care which I personally experienced this year. Above all thank you for entrusting your child to our care and your faith in us as educators. I also thank the amazing Junior School staff team who set a learning environment and an emotional environment which makes our school a vibrant, caring and creative learning community. Finally, I say farewell and thank you to our wonderful Std. 6 pupils. At their Graduation Ceremony last week we celebrated the talents and uniqueness of this amazing group of young people – many of whom have been here since Montessori! I can honestly say that they are a most diligent, courteous, co-operative, and fun-loving class. I wish them every blessing and happiness on their journey through Senior School where I know they will make us proud! To all of the pupils of the Junior School I say – congratulations on a wonderful year. You have worked hard and played hard and now it’s time to relax – but don’t forget to read (and to do a few spellings and work on IXL) every single day! And, of course, always keep in mind our school motto “memor” – and be your very best self every single day. And so – as we go our separate ways and until we meet again in September DV, I wish you all a very happy and safe Summer holiday - enjoy each and every day!
A typical day in Montessori starts off with the children taking part in circle time. During circle time, the children learn new songs and games – all of this is preparing them for their big move to Junior Infants next year. In the afternoon the children slip on their coats, hats, scarves and wellie boots and head down to the fields for their afternoon walk.
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This term the children in Montessori have been very busy bees. They went to the Chocolate Factory at Easter and to Wooly Wards Farm for their Summer School Tour. They had a visit from a dentist to tell them all about their teeth and a visit from the Community Garda to tell them all about safety. The most famous visit of all was from the Easter Bunny who came in and put a smile on all the children’s faces!! The little ones in Montessori love to take part in our Junior School Charity Fundraisers. Their favourite this term was definitely the Ice Cream Day in aid of Downs Syndrome Ireland!!
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Jenny Mooney
Junior Infants have really been showing of their creativity, intelligence and most of all their artistic skills this term. They have all progressed so much in their writing and reading. This term they really stepped it up a notch by taking part in the Write-aBook, the Spelling Bee and also happily exploring new stories every day in class. The group have had such a busy term and you can see how much they have been relishing it from their happy expressions as they run and skip right into class each morning. Well who wouldn’t if you were in their shoes and got to learn about Noah’s Ark, enjoy gymnastics, ball skills, tennis, ballet recitals, special visits from a fairy, Easter egg hunts and making humpty dumpty relics. The fun doesn’t stop there as each day a pupil from the class takes home a very special friend Zeb and takes him on a little adventure. Despite all these fun activities the pupils said the best thing about being in Junior Infants was making wonderful new friends and making each other laugh every day.
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Senior Infants have had a very busy term indeed! Each and every one of them have been showing their creative skills in some way throughout the term.As we all know, Mr. Dwyer is a very big fan of Batman and has a toy like model of him in the classroom. Between March and May each pupil got the chance to take Batman home and were asked to take pictures of themselves on their adventure with Batman. The class then made a collage of these photos and the results were BATTASTIC!!!
After Christmas, the class began making their very own movie. They began by creating a simple storyboard and from there it became much more than just a story! They based their movie on a mixture of all the fairytale characters they know from Little Red Riding Hood to The Three Little Pigs. They also threw in some Superhero characters and Harry Potter! The movie took a lot of hard work and effort but when it was complete the results were outstanding. Mr. Dwyer invited all the Senior Infant parents in to see it on the last day of school and it is fair to say they were all amazed with the results! Check it out on Frog!!
On May 8th, Senior Infants went on their Summer School Tour to Dublin Zoo. Here they saw tigers at feeding time, peacocks, monkeys and managed to get a personal talk from the Zoo Keeper at the Elephants enclosure. It was a little wet on the day but you could tell by their happy smiling faces when they got back that they had a great time.
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For the past 2 years, the Junior School has entered the national Doodle for Google Art Competition. Each child has to design the “Google” logo based on a theme. This year the theme was “My Favourite Day” and for the 2nd year in a row, we were very lucky to have 2 semifinalists in the competition – Sarah Lily Lynch from Std 6 and Harry Kane from Senior Infants were shortlisted from a record 5,085 entries this year! Harry was then shortlisted again to the final 75 finalists and got to attend a party at the Google Headquarters with his Mum and Mr. Dwyer. They couldn’t believe their ears when Harry was announced, not only as his category winner, but also as the overall national winner!! Harry won a €5,000 college scholarship and a €10,000 technology grant for his school. Harry and his teacher, Mr. Dwyer, also received a Chromebook each. In addition to this, Harry’s winning doodle artwork was displayed on the Google Homepage on Friday 24th April for a full 24 hours! Dr. Farrell and the ICT Team can’t wait to buy fantastic new ICT equipment for everyone to enjoy. Congratulations to Harry on this simply incredible achievement!
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Em ili a Co nn ol ly
Diving in the Deep
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Phoebe Ferguso n
The children loved fundraising with Senior School Students for Downs Syndrome Ireland.
This term the class did some lovely paintings of the cherry blossom tree and of the very famous Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh. They also had loads of fun experimenting with colours and textures. Standard 1 did a project on Ireland and learned about Michael D Higgins and all of what Ireland has to offer. They also did a project on Scotland. The students loved learning about Scotland because they have two classmates in their class from Scotland! Every Wednesday, Ms. McCabe gets the students into their wellies to go outside exploring. This has been fondly named “Welly Wednesday” and the children look forward to it every week. They have a great time looking at all the different insects including ladybirds and woodlice.
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Standard 1 were very lucky this term and got to go on 2 School Tours! The first was to see “The Cat in the Hat” at the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire on 24th March. The children had a great time and loved seeing their favourite Dr. Suess book come to life on stage. On Friday the 22nd May, Standard 1 went on their annual Summer School Tour to Airfield in Dundrum with Standard 2. They had a great time going around the grounds and seeing all the animals. After their visit to Airfield, they went to Marlay Park for their lunch and a play about – the weather was lovely and the children had a fantastic time! St . Ge rard ’s J u n i o r S c h o ol
S P ELLI NG BEE
This year’s Spelling Bee took place on Thursday the 7th of May. The Event kicked off with Junior and Senior Infants sounding out and spelling their words superbly. Next was the Junior Competition with Standards 1 to 3. It was Ciara Carroll from Std 3 who claimed the top prize with Charlotte Finnegan Quirke coming second and narrowly missing out on the top prize. Next came the Senior Competition with Standards 4 to 6 taking part and after a long and hard battle, Ben Callan and Miguel Arrieta from Standard 6 were the two finalists with Ben coming out on top. It was a great day for all taking part and for all those spectating. Well done to everyone involved. Bring on next year!
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S CIEN CE FAI R
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Lots of very hard work went into the St. Gerards Junior School annual 6th class Science Fair this year. From early in the morning people arrived to put together and display their projects getting them ready for presentation. All the other classes came in to see what the 6th Class students had done and at the end of the day the parents came in to see them also.
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Mr. Reidy, the Senior School Science Master, was judging the projects and everyone was very nervous presenting to him. Well done to the very deserved winner Emilia Connolly with her project “How does weather impact vegetation?” and runners up Rossa Byrne and Roisin Farrell! Even though we were all very tired at the end of the day, we had a great time!
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Caterpillars ~ Standard 2 had some very
special guests in the classroom this term. Ms. Rodgers brought in 5 hairy caterpillars for her very excited pupils. Std 2 learned all about the life cycle of a caterpillar from egg to beautiful butterfly. Each table picked their own caterpillar’s name – they were named Joe, Jeff, Munchy, Marco and Transformer. They arrived into Std 2 classroom as 5 tiny little caterpillars in a plastic container and were then set free into nature as 5 beautiful butterflies.
Maths Problem of the Week ~ Each week, Ms. Rodgers gives the pupils in Standard 2 some challenging Maths problems. The pupils who figure out the correct answer win a goal for their table. If they get enough goals, they win a prize. This has taught the children to love maths time.
Mini Games ~ Once a week, on Thursdays, the children go outside to do
mini-games. The boys play tag rugby while the girls enjoy playing hockey. The boys and girls are coached by Sarah and Wesley. These fun games will have our Standard 2 boys and girls well prepared for next year’s sports!
School Tour ~ This year, Standard 2 went to Airfield in Dundrum on
their School Tour. They had lots of fun and enjoyed the day feeding hens, catching water spiders and observing all the farm animals. After the cows were milked, Standard 2 finished their school tour with a game of football in Marlay Park – a great day was had by all!
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On Saturday 9th May in St. Peter’s Church, the entire class came together to celebrate the Sacrament of First Holy Communion. Standard 2 were all beautifully prepared for this special moment thanks to all the practice and help from Ms. Rodgers. Afterwards, the class celebrated at a reception in the Junior School Hall where they all got some lunch, biscuits and a delicious slice of Communion cake before heading off to celebrate with their families. What a fabulous day it turned out to be....and the sun actually shone all day!!
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Std 3 had a fun packed Summer term this year. The boys and girls did amazing projects on Ancient Egypt in March and presented these beautifully outside their class room for us all to admire. The display was dripping with gold cloths and images of Pharoahs and Ancient Gods. Well done boys and girls!
On May 26th, Std 3 went surfing on their school tour in Brittas Bay. It was a beautiful day and they had the whole beach to themselves. With all the fresh sea air and exercise their packed lunches never tasted so good!
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GR E E NSCHO O LS This year our Green School Committee put a huge amount of hard work in to win big on all fronts! This term the Junior School won Tidy School of The Year due to a big effort from all of the pupils, staff and groundsmen to keep the school and the grounds spotless. We have come in 2nd place for the last 2 years so there was great excitement when we finally won 1st place this year. We received a trophy and a cheque for â‚Ź500!
The Officers of the Green School Committee were: Emilia Connolly (Chairperson), Jack Egan (Senior Representative) Emily Barrett (Secretary), Hannah Carney (Vice Chairperson)
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In February this year, all 48 students from Standard 6 and 8 Junior School Teachers headed off on our annual Ski Trip to Laverone, Italy. Expertly piloting our plane was Captain Mark Treacy, our very own Roisin Treacy’s Dad! Everyday we would ski, then return to our hotel for dinner, followed by an exciting activity, such as tobogganing, swimming, disco and much more. On Tuesday we went to visit Venice, where we had lunch in McDonalds and enjoyed a shopping trip in St Mark’s square. It was Carnival season so we saw lots of people dressed up in colourful Venetian costumes. Everyone in Standard 6 would like to thank all the teachers that came with us, we all had a fantastic time and I’m confident we can all agree that it was a trip of a lifetime. Ski Trip 2015 FOREVER!!!
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Standard 5 Robotics This year, Std 5 participated in the Lego Robotics Competition. The class travelled down to the Radison Hotel in Galway with their families, where this hard working competition takes place every year. The boys and girls had lots of fun programming robots and building them, doing project work and describing their research to the judges! The day had its ups and downs, but the class were very happy with the result! The class had two groups, the “Spelling” group, and the “Tables” group, with two different robots, (as St Gerard’s do every year.) In the morning, they had to present their project to the judges. Both groups did a wonderful presentation, and the spelling group did so well that they won that part of the competition! The programming ran all day, and the 5th class were working on the programming for a large section of the day. Every year everyone agrees that the programming was the most thrilling part of the competition. Unfortunately, the Tables Group’s robot ran out of battery during the robotic performance! The children said it was so annoying considering how much effort they had put in. The Spelling Group’s robot unfortunately did not do what it was told! But everybody had lots of fun at the programming table supporting their amazing hard working programmers! It was a great day overall and St Gerard’s came back with big smiles on their faces and a trophy!
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On May 21st, the students of Std 4 and 5 departed St. Gerard’s at 7.30am for their long anticipated overnight trip to Dunmore East Outdoor Education Centre. They took part in lots of activities including team challenges, rock climbing and canoeing to name a few! That night they stayed in a lovely hotel in Wexford where they did more activities and swimming in the evening. The next day the 2 classes visited the Ferrycarrig National Heritage Park before setting off on the road to return to St. Gerard’s. Everyone was exhausted when they got back from all the excitement. They boys and girls in Std 4 and 5 said it was one of the best trips they had ever been on!
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winners of the easter egg competition
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The Medal of Merit winners Emilia Connolly & Sam Lynch
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sports day
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sports day
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MUSIC AL ~
OUR SUPERB SUMMER NEWSLETTER TEAM
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G am es
AIJS Athletics Meeting ~ On 7th May the AIJS Athletics Meeting took place in Greystones. Students from Std 4 - 6 who were selected for the team competed in the event. The School won 20 medals in total - 8 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze medals! Max Hodgins from Std 5 won two gold medals and a silver while Roisin Treacy from Std 6 won one gold and one silver. Another medal winner was Alan Gordon who is also in Std 6. He who won four gold medals including a brilliant relay where he brought the team home for the win. The team for that relay was made up of Sam Lynch, Daniel O Donohoe, Harry Dunne and Alan Gordon. At the end of the day the Junior School were delighted to be presented with the trophy for the overall winner of the event.
AIJS Swimming Gala:~
On 29th April the AIJS Swimming Gala was held in Castlepark. Six teams from Std 4-6 represented the school in the races. Rossa Byrne and Roisin Treacy, both from Std 6, won their individual galas while Sean Kearney came second in his. Another part of the event was the relays with all the teams having medal winning performances.
AIJS Golf Outing ~ On 1st May, three teams from Std 6 played in the AIJS Golf Outing at Delgany Golf Club.The two boys teams played well but the winners of the day were the girls team who won the tournament!The girls team was made up of Jemima Ramsay, Jordan Fahy, Jenny Mooney and Orla Wilson. A bonus of being there was meeting the professional golfer Padraig Harrington!
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2015 - 2016 ST. GERARD’S JUNIOR SCHOOL AUG 2015
SEP 2015
OCT 2015
NOV 2015
DEC 2015 jan 2016 FEB 2016 MAR 2016 APRIL 2016 may 2016 june 2016
DAY Wed - Fri Friday Monday, Monday, Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Friday Monday Monday Saturday Tuesday Wednesday Saturday Friday Monday Wednesday Monday Mon & Tues Sunday Thursday Friday
DATE 26th – 28th Aug 28th August 31st August 31st August 2nd September 9th September 16th September 14th October 23rd October 2nd November 9th November 21st November 22nd December 6th January 16th January 12th February 22nd February 16th March 4th April 2nd & 3rd May 22nd May 2nd June 3rd June
EVENT Staff Inservice Training Standard 6 Induction School re-opens for all pupils Junior and Senior Infants Games and Prep commence Parent Information Meeting - Standards 5 and 6 GAMES meeting for new parents Parent Information Meeting - Standards 3 and 4 GAMES meeting for Standard 3 parents Parent Information Evening Junior & Senior Infants and Standards 1 & 2 Celebration of St. Gerard’s Day - School ends Mass for pupils and parents - Standards 2 - 6 Half-term commences School re-opens. Mass for deceased members of the school community St. Gerard’s Ball – Powerscourt Hotel Christmas Carol Service Term ends Easter Term commences Junior School Parent-Teacher Meetings Half-term commences School re-opens Term Ends - Easter Holidays Summer Term commences School closed for May Bank Holiday Prize and Sports Day School ends for all Standard 6 pupils • Standards 6 Play Summer Holidays Junior School closes
TIME 10.00am to 1.00pm 8.45am to 2.45pm 8.45am to 12 noon 7.15pm 6.45pm 7.15pm 6.45pm 7.30pm 12 noon 7.00pm 2.45pm
11am 12 noon
2.45pm 2.45pm
7.30pm 12 noon
Pupils should not miss school outside of the holiday periods outlined above and we earnestly ask for parents co-operation in this regard.
www.stgerards.ie St. Gerard’s Junior School, Thornhill Road, Bray, Co.Wicklow Tel 2393445 Fax 2393446 Email: jsprincipal@stgerards.ie