Winter
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I hope as you are reading this Newsletter that you are sitting with a mince pie and a glass of good cheer in hand– and have a little Christmas time to relax and enjoy the pages within! Our Christmas Newsletter tells the story of school life in the Junior School in 2016 – and what a happy, joyful and learning-filled picture the stories and photos conjure up for us! It makes it all the more interesting then to read Mrs. Deirdre Carlos’ and Ms. Catrina Rodgers’ pieces below! Deirdre – who is teaching Standard 1 this year – is the longest-serving member on our staff and has taught in our Junior School for 36 years! I know you will agree that her reminiscences on days
gone by on in St. Gerard’s are quite simply fascinating! And then to Catrina, who teaches Standard 6 this year, and who - in just her fourth year in St. Gerard’s – is the youngest member of our staff team! She shares her thoughts on teaching in St. Gerard’s and some Christmas memories! For me, Christmas is a time for family and friends, for long walks on crisp Winter days and for tucking up afterwards with good food, good wine, good company or a good book! It is a time to relax and recharge......a time to unwind and to make resolutions. But most of all – it is a time to pause and to be thankful for all the good things in our lives and to look forward with joy to the year ahead. I wish all of our families in the Junior School blessings in abundance during this holy season and happy times aplenty with your wonderful girls and boys! I look forward to seeing you all again in 2017!
Deirdre Carlos recalls St. Gerard’s in the 1980s............. 1980 – the era of blackboards and chalk! Coloured chalk was reserved for special occasions as it was considered an extravagance! Many teachers, mainly the men, wore gowns to protect their clothing from the chalk-dust. A typical punishment for misdemeanours was 100 lines! Junior and Senior school teachers shared a communal staffroom. It was located where the front office is now in Thornhill House. The upstairs of Thornhill House was where the boarders – boys only at the time – resided. Many staff, both teaching and other, lived on the school premises – one big happy family! There was an outdoor swimming pool beside the tennis courts. All PE lessons in
Thank You I want to take this corner to say a very special thank you to Stephanie – who not only runs our extremely busy Junior School Office with efficiency, effectiveness and kindness – but also heads up our Newsletter Team of Standard 6 pupils. They have, in the early mornings and late evenings, written and produced this wonderful chronicle of the past term. So thank you to Ben Havenga, Ally Finnegan Quirke, Christian Higgins, Adah Lynch, Jack Loughran, Sarah Murphy, Laura McCarney, Victor Cullen, Ben Malone, Keeley O’Brien and Peter Catterson from Std. 6 - budding journalists one and all!
the Summer Term took place in the pool – no matter what the weather! There were lunch time swims too – I’m sure Julie would approve! The green hand-sewn blazer was “de rigour” for all Junior School pupils. Only the First Communion boys wear it now – and just for the day. How times change. Cricket was played at the front of the House, where the car-park is now. All whites at all times! There was a small theatre/gym and dining room where the Atrium is now located. The Art Room was located in the older part of the school too. All pupils had lunch at school. There was a choice – you ate what you were given! - soup, main and old-fashioned pudding (usually drowning in custard!). Lunch “slops” were collected by a local farmer who arrived in his tractor to collect each day. I am not sure what the school got from the deal – probably had something to do with “fry ups” from the wellfattened farmer’s pigs! There was a full-time Chaplain living in the school. During Lent, Mass was celebrated in the school Chapel every morning at 8am for boarders and parents and day pupils who wished to attend. Christmas Eve Mass was celebrated at MIDNIGHT, followed by mince pies in the Georgian Room. Too much to say – not enough space but hopefully you get the picture! Happy days indeed!
The newsletter team sat down for a chat with Ms. Catrina Rodgers and this is what she had to say...... Why did you decide to be a teacher and was there somebody who influenced you? I have always wanted to be a teacher! When I was three, my granny bought me a blackboard teacher set and ever since, I have dreamed of working with children. My mum has been my biggest influence! Even though she is not a teacher, she has always been there to encourage me!
What is the best thing about working in St. Gerard’s?
That’s a tough one!...I know how blessed I am as there are so many amazing things about working in St. Gerard’s. Firstly, our sense of community spirit is phenomenal! I love the way that everybody knows each other and really cares about one another. Also, it is fantastic that every class has something to look forward to from Christmas plays and the robotics competition to the ski trip and the communion or confirmation, we are always kept busy! But, of course, the best thing has to be getting to work with such fabulous children every day!
What is your favourite Christmas memory?
My favourite Christmas memory has to be when I was eight. My dad, brother, uncle and I built an igloo! We packed snow into basins and stacked them like bricks. We even had a porch and everything! It was the best day!
What is your favourite thing to do at Christmas time?
On Christmas Eve, my dad and I spend the day delivering presents and buying last minute gifts. It is such a special day for me as I get to spend quality time with my dad who is so much fun! After we are finished, we meet my mum and the rest of my family in Westport to soak up the festivities and magic of Christmas!
Montessori
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The Montessori pupils have had a great first term. At the beginning of term they learned all about the six continents. They found them very interesting and exciting. They learned all about Africa, Asia and lots of different countries and did their very own project on them. They are now settled into their new class with their wonderful teachers Louise and Rachel.
Christmas seasonal, the amazing Talking about being ber. The cem De h Thursday 15t Nativity took place on ing to com ily Fam ly of the Ho children told the story Ch e ristmas en finished with som Bethlehem. The childr at actors gre ards. They were Carols and songs afterw ts who ren -pa nd parents and gra and all the children’s indeed. ud pro y ver re we rmance came to see the perfo
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On Friday 16th December, the class took a trip to the Puppet Theatre in Monkstown to see their annual Christmas puppet show which is Cinderella this year. They found this very funny and enjoyable to see how live puppets build their story.
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Junior Infants
M s. Fla na ga n ~ & Sa ra h
It has been a very exciting year so far here in Junior Infants. Zeb decided to take a trip all around the world and sent lots of postcards from all the places he visited. When he arrived in the classroom the children were all very excited to see him back where he belongs! Every weekend someone brings Zeb home to have fun with him and take lots of photos. Zeb even took a trip to the dentist! All the students have completed the “Zeb and Danny” books which is a total of 10 books – what an achievement!
l e Treadwel sit from Dal vi l. a o o as h w sc e term und the hlight of th re walk aro u at s. n g a in b n b o Another hig ren bark ru ht the child prints and who broug about leaf l al ed n ar n le The childre
Junior Infants have done so much already this year. They learn a new nursery rhyme each week and are also learning their 3 letter words. They have taken part in a Halloween broomstick relay race, made play-dough monsters, took a spooky nature walk, and did lots of Christmas artwork including snowmen, reindeers and clay Christmas trees. The icing on the cake this year was definitely taking to the stage for the first time in their Christmas Play The Nativity. Well done to all of our new boys and girls in Junior Infants – they have had an amazing r orte first term! Rep nch
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Senior In
fants ~ Ms. McCabe
Senior Infants are having a great year and there is so much to talk about. We will start with the all-time favourite “Welly Wednesday”. This is a great time when the class don their wellies - which come in all shapes and sizes and many different designs and colours! The children’s wonderful teacher Ms. McCabe adores nature so they go for lovely walks in our beautiful school grounds and get to learn so much about the environment in a very fun and enjoyable way. This brings us to our next topic “Playful Learning”. This is where students play games and have fun while learning everything they need to know. Ms. McCabe describes this as a great way to help our students learn in a fun way as they grow throughout the years. Senior Infants have also completed their first Spelling Test! They have been working hard on their sounds and tricky words all term – keep up the great work Senior Infants! Senior Infants also love doing art with Ms. McCabe. For Halloween they created some amazing “hand print witches” and for advent they created some rs orte Rep different hand prints except ullen C r Victo y O'Brien this time they were put up on le the classroom wall in the shape & Kee of a circle showing that we are all one big circle of friends in the St. Gerard’s Community.
Standard 1 ~ Ms. Carlo s Standard 1 were very privileged to go to the FIS Film Festival where our Junior School Digital Movie Club won
the comedy award for their movie “Nursery Crime”. The plot was that the Muffin Man ran out of eggs and pushed Humpty Dumpty over the wall so he can make more muffins! The children in Standard 1 were the stars of the Movie and made it all come to life!
xxxxx
The Standard 1 class teacher this year is Ms. Carlos. She has given a big welcome this year to two new pupils - let’s give a warm welcome to Paresia and Bella! They are lucky to have such a great teacher for their first year in St. Gerards.
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Ms Carlos has a reputation of bringing new toys into the class she is teaching each year. During my interview with Ms. Carlos, I could see the children loving their morning playtime with Lego, building blocks, teddies and lots more fantastic card games. Finally, the artwork in Std 1 is fantastic. They have made autumn trees with REAL leaves. It was like I was looking at multiple tree Mona Lisa’s! St . Ge rard’s Junior School
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Standard 2 ~ Ms. Byrne Std 2 adore the outdoors, and as St. Gerard’s has such amazing grounds and lovely fresh air it is a great opportunity to get out and go on a bug hunt during science class! Everyone was very brave with all of the creepy crawlies! They also met Dale, a special visitor who came to tell everyone about trees before they went back inside to write their very own acrostic poems about trees.
2 as it is the year portant year for Std This year is a very im a very enjoyable mmunion. They had of their First Holy Co sed to work hard mi ring which they pro Enrolment Service du ciliation and First Sacraments of Recon in preparation for the their new “Grow ey are also enjoying Holy Communion. Th their fabulous gramme and singing in Love” Religion Pro hymns and songs!
e comfy ! From th the library ve ey just lo th so ks Std 2 al erful boo d n o w e th eek! Every cushions to day each w ry ra lib r the l ti n u gs poems fo can’t wait een writin b vely e lo av e h th 2 week Std on Friday gets week, then em e o th p r f o poem and thei er n in w So a e. picks ne to se Ms. Byrne r for everyo o o y! d b e g n th si to u’re pas put up on k out if yo o lo ! !! to rk o et w d don’t forg up the goo Std 2, keep Well done
Std 2 love ar t! This year th ey have all cr for the Doodl eated some ex e for Google cellent pieces and many ot have also en her competit joyed paintin ions too. They g and drawin g on relaxing afternoons!
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In November the boys and girls in Std 2 presented an assembly for the whole school (and after school for their parents!) called “Don’t Jump to Conclusions!” In this they re-enacted the Indian folk tale “The Missing Camel”. It was an excellent assembly with a wonderful moral to the story! www.stgerards.ie
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3 d r a d Stan
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Std. 3 have had an exciting first term. Every class in St.Gerard’s are very creative and artistic and Std. 3 is no exception. Their first amazing art pieces of the year were fantastic clay pots which they painted and inscribed with their name. They also made fabulous creative pictures as well as doing multiple art competitions such as Doodle for Google where they were able to share their artistic abilities with everyone.
Mrs. Murphy encouraged her students to take part in all activities in Std. 3. They have jobs for half the children in class for two weeks before swapping over with other class members. The jobs include teacher assistant, class historian, class president, and the most favoured is chromebook managers. As well as that the pupils in Std. 3 take turns at writing the events of the day in the class diary so they can remember important information and events that have happened. St.Gerard’s loves outdoor activities and so do Std. 3. They planted acorns which they will be able to see grow over the years as they continue their journey in school. Everyone painted their pots in which they were going to put their acorns, they decorated them with beautiful pictures of trees and animals. Then with the help of Fiona and the gardening team they carefully potted with soil and watered them, so that the Std. 3 of 2016 can stay cherished by the other classes forever more.
In this day an d age, techno logy is consta Std. 3 has decid ntly advancin ed to up the g so ante with com help of Mr.Car puters with th aher. Every M e on da y chromebooks the students ta and are taught ke out the how to use go and a lot more. ogle docs, em It looks like St ail, d. 3 will be ke all the techno pt up to date logical advanc on es in the world !
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Std. 3 as well as a lot of other classes in St. Gerards love to read and learn and our library has a wide array of books to choose from. But now thanks to AR (Accelerated Reading) they can test themselves to see if they’re really learning and absorbing the information. It is also fun for them because A.R. reading suggests books and different levels of reading that are suited to you specifically. AR sets everyone’s goals such as reading a certain number of words or pass a number of book quizzes. Some people in Std. 3 want to try and read 1,000,000 words!!! What an accomplishment that would be.
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We had a number of different fundraising events in the Junior School in the run up to Christmas. Once again the St. Vincent de Paul Christmas Toy Appeal was a huge success. Parents and students left a huge range of toys under our Junior School Christmas tree and all of these toys will be distributed to less fortunate families in our local community. There was a huge selection of toys from teddy bears to dolls, roller skates to jigsaws. The Christmas Bazaar took place on
the 15th December and it was a blast! Everyone contributed in so many different ways; whether it was setting up, manning the stalls or helping to tidy up afterwards. Standard 6 did a superb job with their very own Treasure Trove in the Senior School Halla Nua and raised €2100 in the process which will be donated to various local charities in the Bray Community. The Student Council Christmas Raffle has become a firm favourite in the past
couple of years and was a huge success again this year. The queues to buy raffle tickets were out the door! We raised €700 the Student Council will decide on a worthy charity in the new year. And not to forget all of those fabulous prizes – lucky you if your ticket was picked out! A great big thank you to all those rter Repo y whoselflessly donated Murph h Sara to make all of these events so successful.
St. Vincent de Paul Toy Appeal
Christmas in the Junior School
Student Council Raffle
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l a ys P s a m Christ Although the start of Christmas was quite cold, the annual Christmas Plays really warmed us up! The fabulous productions “The Nativity” performed by Junior Infants, Senior Infants & Standard 1, and the outstanding “The Fourth Princess” performed by Standards 2 and 3 really put us in a jolly Christmas mood. Of course these plays could not have taken place without the support of our amazing parents who painted the backdrop, designed and sewed costumes, and created incredible make-up looks on all of our performers. Our super teachers Ms. Flanagan, Ms. McCabe, Ms. Carlos, Ms. Byrne, Mrs. Murphy, Sarah and Cathy worked tirelessly with the students making sure they knew all of their lines and songs. And last but certainly not least, our genius producers Ms. Jackie Olohan and Ms. Eithne Carney – brought magic to the stage with the pupils’ beautiful singing, music, imagination and direction! Well done to all of our amazing students who took to the stage on December 16th and made our Christmas Plays so magical! Merry Christmas!!
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4 Standard
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This year Standard 4 has started off amazingly from their spectacular research on biodiversity to their fantastic Irish myths and legends projects. They have done a lot of research on biodiversity because biodiversity is what they’re going to be doing for their RDS Young Scientist project. As part of this project, they found five different habitats in the school and over the course of the first term they have looked closely to see small mini-beasts and other creatures that live in these habitats. Then they compare to see which is the better habitat. For Standard 4 Myths and Legends project, the children picked an Irish myth or legend to write about. Then when the project was complete, they presented it to the class. All the projects looked spectacular as you can see from the pictures!
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yer Standard 5 have been working very hard so far this year. They performed a fantastic assembly about the history of our school, from our humble beginnings in 1918, to where we stand now, in 2016. It was inspiring to think how far we’ve come in that time. Standard 5 have been working on some very interesting projects, especially the Robotics Project which will take place in Galway on 21st January. The Robotics project incorporates programming, challenging construction, and project work, which they all excel at with the help of Mr. Dwyer.
Throughout all this work, however, Standard 5 do manage to get a little downtime. They played an intense quidditch match on the astro-turf recently. Everyone one was in high spirits, whether they were Chasers, Beatersor Seekers! r All in all, Standard 5 have worked very hard so orte n Rep ghra far, ploughing through work, enjoying school u o L k Jac life in Rang a Cúig and definitely earning their Christmas break! Pag e 10
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Fis Film Festival This year’s FIS Film Awards was held in the Helix Theatre in DCU. The awards were very exciting. St. Gerard’s Digital Movie Club was nominated twice – in the categories for outstanding in Cinematography and in Directing. We groaned when we didn’t win! Then, we then couldn’t believe it when the third nomination came AND WE WON!!! The award was for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy” for our movie called “The Nursery Crime”. Mr. Dwyer was the brains behind the making of the Nursery Crime and as he was the teacher of Senior Infants at the time, they were really lucky to feature as the stars of the movie. Sean Tracey’s (now in First Year) amazing cinematography helped us out so much. He was such a great director! The plot of the movie was the Muffin Man ran out of eggs and pushed Humpty Dumpty over the wall so that he can make more muffins. It was hilarious! In the Helix, we saw short clips of the other schools’ movies, and ours of course. It was a bit like going to a student version of the Oscars (but it was in Ireland). Adah Lynch and Sean Tracey went up to receive the award and to have their picture taken. They represented our school very well. The awards were streamed live so some of the staff and students and parents back in the Junior School were able to watch online and keep up with all the action and excitement. Overall, it was a great achievement for St. Gerards Digital Movie Club. Especially as it was r orte n our first year entering Rep erso t Ca t r the awards. e t e
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Standard 6 Assembly
Standard 6
P . Mc r M ~
hillips
This year started with a bang in Standard 6 because we had 26 new students!! All our new class mates have settled in very well and we have all enjoyed getting to know each other. We have enjoyed Mr. McPhillips’ class so much. From our class novel “Goodnight Mr. Tom” and fun in class while doing our work to our project work - like our “Feasts and Festival” project.
really Our novel is all e w good and , but it d en m recom some it does take read it. maturity to
-For the “Feasts and Festivals” project we had to choose a feast or a festival and write about it, then we presented it to our class mates. Everyone loved it and made very good projects. We were also learning about the Celts and their settlements in history class so Mr. McPhillips assigned us the project of making one of the Celts settlements out of cardboard and other household objects. All of the projects turned out really well. Roll on next term!
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St . Ge rard’s Junior School
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e m l u Cheadle H
On Saturday 19th November the Std 6 pupils headed off on their overnight trip to England to play Hockey and Rugby against Cheadle Hulme School in Manchester.
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It was a very exciting weekend for everyone as we got to do so much! We met at St. Gerard’s at 6.30am and took a bus to the Ferry and then we were all on our very hyper way! We watched movies on the 3 hour ferry trip and then took the 2 hour bus trip to Cheadle Hulme where we met up with our host families who we would be spending 3 hours with doing fun activities and making new friends. When we were all dropped back to our hotel we had some dinner and played a quiz. Since it had been a very long day most of us were tired and went straight to bed. The next morning we headed off to play our matches against Cheadle Hulme. The teams were very strong and skilful. We all tried our best but Cheadle Hume managed to come out on top. The final score in the Hockey Matches were 3-0 and 1-1. The Rugby result was 6-5 which was very disappointing as everyone worked so hard. The Captains speeches were very good and it was great to hear all the work that went into the organisation of the
trip. On the way home we stopped at Cheshire Oaks Shopping Centre to do a little bit of shopping for our family and friends. We then had a nice treat of McDonalds before boarding the ferry and heading back to Ireland. It was such a great trip. I would recommend doing it if you could. It is great fun and you make new friends. I would like to thank Julie and everyone who helped organise it.
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Standard 6
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Std 6 have had a hectic term. At the start of the year we made fantastic paper silhouettes of each other using paper and a flashlight. As well as that Std 6 have made many more art pieces from our Halloween themed monsters using coat hangers and old shirts, to building amazingly realistic castles and forts that the Celts would have built a thousand years ago. We have also made it halfway through our incredible class novel called “Goodnight Mr. Tom” - a tale about a young evacuee who is sent away from a war torn London to live with a kindly old man called Tom Oakley who changes the boy and himself for the better. The class is thoroughly enjoying this captivating and heartwarming novel and we can’t wait to find out the ending of this beautiful and rapturing book. Ms. Rodgers also encouraged her students to write spine tingling horror stories for the month of October. The stories turned out amazingly well and everyone put in a lot of effort to make their story as good as they possibly could. Not only did they write these terrifying tales they also designed covers and blurbs to make sure their short stories had an element of art and fun!
ed and built She design 6. d St ic n o pression y of fantast uite the im win an arra q e to ad in m sp as n sh quired we ca Ms. Rodger une” that earn the re heel of Fort marbles. To “W ty ughout t ro en an th tw lli s ri d ab good dee s has earned e iv as cl ct with a r lle u o co er came up as to do prizes once our class h ntive teach s ve le good in b o d ar d n m ki f to one-of-ach other amount o is ea th st , n at ai th ag ass is pete ot only sure this cl eek we com the term. N you can be that each w so , so k” em ee st W sy points able of the er to win “T likely find deeds in ord class you’ll iour! g n av ti eh ci b ex t is es its b into th ell as a big always on acher as w e to venture te id g ec n d ili o d sm er , and a So if you ev tive stories and old. twork, crea ar l udents new fu st ti u m o ea fr b s as cl r u me to o warm welco
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St . Ge rard’s Junior School
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Fiddle
Roof e h t r on
This year I was lucky enough to be asked to perform in “Fiddler on the Roof” as “The Fiddler” in the Rathgar and Rathmines Musical Society Production. The production ran for 6 shows over 5 nights in the National Concert Hall. We started rehearsals in October with the Director Gary Montane who was also the lead - Tevye. Gary has been in many shows before and even on the TV show Game of Thrones. Ms. Olohan was also a director and starred in a main role. The Musical Director was Geroid Grant who conducts the National Youth Orchestra. I am hoping to audition for the National Youth Orchestra this December – no pressure! The choreographer Marina Healy had a hard time teaching me to dance as it is clear that I definitely have 2 left feet! Before opening night came around I did some green screen filming where I had to jump from box to box and later it was superimposed so it looked like I was jumping from chimney to chimney in the show. Opening night was amazing. I was nervous going on stage the first time but very soon I was having great fun and it was really exciting. The finale was great as I got to take part in the big group dance. Playing in Fiddler on the Roof was a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget. I would like to thank everybody involved in the production especially r orte Rep Ms. Olohan for giving me this Ally Quirke wonderful opportunity. egan
Finn
Newsletter Team
Compe
tition Winners
dren Darby Con in the
Winner Dun Laoghaire . Rathdown Co. Co t n Ar io us cl In al ci So Competition
Aoibhe Hoey Grace Callag and han W Ben Havenga, Ally Finnegan Quirke, Christian Higgins, Adah Lynch, Jack Loughran, Sarah Murphy, Laura McCarney, Victor Cullen, Ben Malone, Keeley O’Brien, Peter Catterson
www.stgerards.ie
inners in the Bray Dru g Awareness A rt Competition
S E M GA
Ru gby
S tan da rd 3 R u gby
Sallins V’s Gerards
On Thursday the 24th November the St. Gerard’s boys played Sallins. We were nervous but excited. All the teams from Standard 4, 5 & 6 were playing. I was playing for Std 6 and we knew we had a strong chance of winning. The first half of the match didn’t go too well. We were losing by 15 points and were disappointed at half-time. Our coaches Jason and Mr. Caraher told us to stay positive. They told us we needed to get stuck in and keep our heads up. We played much better in the second half. We played well in the rucks and our defence was strong but unfortunately after a long hard match the whistle blew and we had lost the game. We were very disappointed but really enjoyed the match.
I interviewed Dylan Glass from Standard 3 recently to talk about Rugby. This is his first year doing after-school games and playing for St. Gerard’s each Saturday morning. Dylan’s favourite part of the game is the tackling, and the match which he enjoyed most was the one against Willow. Their coach Phil is a great coach and is really motivating. So far this season Std 3 have won or drawn all of their matches. I asked Dylan what does he like most about the rugby and he said “I love playing on a team with all my friends”.
A IJS So cc e r It was a mild October day and the clouds looked like rain. The girls’ team was really excited and ready for the challenges that lay ahead. St. Gerard’s AIJS soccer team was made up of Abby Tuthill (Captain), Ally Finnegan Quirke, Indie O’ Donohoe, Anna Wall, Louise O’Riordan, Olivia Kissane and Ava Ledwidge. The girls got off to a great start winning their first match and continued to win all their games and they made it to the semi final.
The girls knew they could make it to the final if they went into their next match with a positive attitude. After a tense match, St. Gerard’s came out victorious with a score of 3:0. The easy part was over and now the true challenge awaited the girls. They were playing the current champions of the last two years, Mount Anville. But the girls were determined to take home the shield. They had a tough 1st half and were losing at halftime. Their coach, Mr McPhillips gave a great talk and told them where they could improve and advised a few changes to their play but most of all he told them to go out there and “have fun!”. This was great for the girl’s confidence. The second half started really well with a goal from Gerard’s which evened the score (1:1). They were back in the game. Their form was back with the girls playing much better and going on to score 3 more goals. The final score was 4:1 with Abby scoring 3 of the goals. The girls were jumping for joy when the final whistle was blown. They had won. They were delighted to be taking home the trophy. It was a super team effort and the girls had done far better than they ever expected, Rep Christ orter making the whole ian Hig gins school really proud. Well done girls!! St . Ge rard’s Junior School
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Da s ’ d r a r St. Ge
y
St. Gerard’s Day was great. It started out like any other day, until we boarded the buses heading for the Sugarloaf. The walk was tough but fun and it was worth it for the amazing view of the surrounding countryside that greeted us when we reached the top. The teachers congratulated us
and took some photos, and then we were heading down the mountain again. Once we arrived back at the school, we got lots of treats and ate until we could eat no more. That evening we came back to the Sports Hall for St. Gerard’s Day Mass which was wonderful with truly amazing performances from all of the choir, the singers, and the readers. At the end of the Mass Std 6 took part in a Ceilí which was super fun and Standards 2, 3, 4, and 5 took part in fun games on the Astro turf while our parents enjoyed a reception in the Dining Hall. A great day and everyone went home happy!
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s n e Gre
s l o o ch The Greenschool Committee and our Junior School Gardening Team planted hundreds of crocus bulbs in November in aid of the “Purple4Polio” campaign. By planting the purple crocus corms, it will remind people of the anti-polio campaign which has led to the virtual eradication of polio. The Committee planted the corns along the entrance to the Junior School so keep an eye out next February for a beautiful crocus-lined purple pathway leading up to our school entrance!
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y el e , Ke e n a alo se, Ben M ord u , Hugo Wy ’Ri t O t eB e mi rre , Indie O’Donohoe, Louis a J a Ben B ey et rray, en er Crow w Mu e, Christian Higgins, B cCarn Ca Calv Quirke, Matthe n tte a M in O’ eg r rso ura Sulliva inn l, Amy Roche, Isabella O’Conno n, I n, Adah Lynch, La te F l t sabe o e l r nn lle Lyn C ha cGo ch, Ketelyn Glass, ia M M , e l Juliette Duffy, Eva Doy
The members of the Greenschool Committe are (L-R) :
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Lily Curley Overall Junior School Winner of the Recycled Christmas Tree Decoration Competition St . Ge rard’s Junior School
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G r ee n sch ool s
B i o di versi ty Bo n a n za The Greenschools annual Fashion Show was a roaring success. This year the theme was Biodiversity Bonanza! Every class participated in making posters, hats, costumes and lots of other items from recycled material. As we were focusing on Biodiversity again this year, there was a common theme which included fish, insects, plants and much more. Many posters illustrated what biodiversity means, how it works and how it affects our planet. Everyone had a great day modelling their creations to the rest of the Junior School. Thank you to Ms. Flanagan and the Greenschool Committee because without them, it just would not have been possible!
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Repo
Laura
www.stgerards.ie
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McCa
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Literacy Co r n e r
Literacy Corner Re ad a t h on The Readathon this year was a fun experience with an engaging competitive aspect. Pupils were given a month to read five books, and at the end of the month all pupils brought in five euro to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. It provided an exciting challenge for pupils, and there was a definite feeling of pride when you handed in your card with the five books you had strived so hard to read neatly written on it. Well done everyone. We raised €830.00 for MS Ireland – such an excellent cause.
Ro al d D a h l D a y Roald Dahl Day proved to be an engaging and interesting day for all pupils. To honour the late author, pupils were encouraged to wear something yellow along with their usual uniform, since it was the author’s favourite colour. There was a joyous atmosphere when everyone came in wearing something yellow. Also during the day, amazing storyteller Mr. Mansfield joined our Assembly and read an extract from one of Roald Dahl’s fantastic books – “George’s Marvellous Medicine”. Everyone (even the teachers!) were enraptured by his performance.
Jack
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