Fundraising to resurface our School Yard

We need to resurface the school yard here in Shrone NS. Over time the yard has become cracked and damaged and the time has come to replace it. The cost of resurfacing the yard will be in the region of €13,000.


If you would like to make a donation to help resurface the school yard, you can do so here:

gofundme.com/x8g54us

Our Day of Achievement with Ultan Dillane

On Friday we celebrated A Day of Achievements. The day was to celebrate all of the achievements and awards that our school acquired during the 2104/2015 school year.

Our day began with a prayer service by Fr. Pat celebrating the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer holidays.  It was attended by the children and their parents, as well as the incoming junior infants for next September. 

This was followed by a flag raising and plaque unveiling ceremony. Connacht Rugby player Ultan Dillane was on hand to perform these important tasks.

During the year we achieved 3 awards for the school.

Discover Primary Science and Maths Plaque of Excellence

The whole school took part in a range of Activites invoking Science, Technolgy, Engineering and Maths thorough out the year. These were logged and documented throughout the year on our school blog. We did Activites at Tralee Bay Wetlands, the local bridge, on the Internet, our Biome project with Missouri, loads of science experiment and many others to achieve this award. It is our 10th year in a row that we earned this award.

Junior Entrepreneur Programme

We took part in the Junior Entrepreneur Programme. We had to set up our own company and sell a product to try and make a profit. We created a handy English tips book to help with our English writing called "Alphabandit". Our business was a huge success and after covering our costs, we made enough profit to pay for 25% of our school tour cost to Dublin.

Digital School of Dinstinction

Our school worked very hard to achieve this award. The teachers had to do some training courses, and work on the school policy documents. The students had to work hard on their ICT skills. We did projects with a school in Missouri, USA, we took part in #mysteryskype activities, we got our own @shronens.com logins for Google Drive and did plenty more activities as part of #techweekirl.

Mrs. Murphy and Ultan then cut a special Congratulations cake.

After his official duties were finished, Ultan joined all the children in a basketball game followed by a game of tag rugby. They got photographs, autographs and quizzed him about his life as a professional rugby player.

There was party treats for the children, tea and buns for the adults and a slice of cake for everybody! It was a great day. More photos can be seen by clicking here.

Senior Room School Tour to Dublin

Yesterday the Senior Room went on their school tour to Dublin.

They had an early start to the day boarding the train at Rathmore station at 7.57am. We hopped aboard full of excitement for the day ahead!

We arrived in Heuston Station, Dublin before 11am. We got off the train to bustling crowds of travelers and commuters all going about their day. We headed out the door and to the Luas and bus stops outside. We had our change ready for the bus and paid the driver by putting the change into the box and telling him that we were going to the city centre. We headed up the stairs of the double decker so that we could see the sights of the city as we drove through.

We arrived at Nassau street and made our way on foot to Kildare Street where we stopped at our first destination of the day - The National Archaeological Museum. We were very excited about our trip because we had learned about Bog Bodies, The Ardagh Chalice, The Tara Brooch, Egyptians, Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf, Celts, and much more! The museum is full of treasures  that are over 2000 years old!

After that, we walked up to St. Stephen's Green. It was a beautiful day so we stopped to sit on the grass and eat our picnic lunch and enjoy the sunshine.

We continued our day by returning to Kildare Street and Leinster House. We were met by Michael Healy-Rae at gate. He shook each of our hands in turn and welcomed us in.

He brought us to a lounge where he treated us all to a mineral and a chocolate bar. He told us some fantastic stories and kept us all entertained! After that we walked up a very impressive staircase and he showed us into the public gallery where we could see some ministers debating in the Dáil Chamber. The Ceann Comhairle sat at the top with his Clerks. At one point there was an argument, and  the Ceann Comhairle had to step in and bring order back to the Chamber. We spotted Michael Noonan and James Reilly in the Chamber.

Michael Healy-Rae left us there and we were joined by a guide from the Dáil called Brendan. He was from Dublin and nearly kicked some of us out for wearing Kerry jerseys!!

He brought us around the different places in the Dáil, showed us paintings of all the former Taisigh, a replica of the original proclamation paper - signed by President Sean T O'Kelly, the rooms of the Seanad (which had a very impressive ceiling) and a painting of Austin Stack.

We had a great time but it was time to return home. We went to SuperMacs where we had pizzas, or chips and burgers and then headed back to Heuston Station. We boarded the train for home at 5.05pm and were back in Rathmore Station at 8pm, exhausted but happy after our days adventures.

Junior Room School Tour - Inisfallen Island and Pony Tales

Yesterday, the Junior Room enjoyed an abundance of activities that Killarney had to offer.

First off, the Junior Room visited "Pony Tales" where they were introduced to all the horses and ponies that reside there. The children were given the opportunity to groom Jacko, one of the horses. The children thoroughly enjoyed the horse ride around the arena where they were each given 2 rounds and finished with a trick called, 'Around the World'. This involved performing a 360 degrees rotation on the saddle of the horse and every child masterfully completed the task!

By about 11:30am, we had arrived at the Outlet Centre where we were to meet the tourist train. We headed to Ross Castle where we fed the ducks and boarded a boat. It brought us out to Inisfallen Island.

 The boat ride was beautiful and therapeutic, the sight of O'Donoghue's Rock and the glinting water in the summer sun transported us back to Ireland's past where the boisterous individuals of Inisfallen Island were abandoned and punished as prisoners on this rock, never to escape.

Once we arrived at the island, we settled down at a picnic bench and dug into our lunches. The island was peaceful and is most definitely the gem to Killarney's beautiful treasures. Once we had eaten our fill, we had a game of soccer and then we decided to explore the island were we learned about the wild foxgloves and ferns that grew there. Once we reached the periphery of the lake, we turned back and packed our bags to return to the mainland.

We boarded the train and went for a tour of Killarney town. Music was playing, hands were clapping, feet were tapping and everyone on the streets looked in and smiled. It must have been some sight to behold!

The children really enjoyed the playground where they had a go on the zipline, the swings and conquered the climbing rocket. By now, we were all exhausted from our exciting adventure at Inisfallen Island so we decided to head home.

However, the day was much too hot to go home without ice-cream! One pitstop later, we were en route home to Shrone where mothers were waiting patiently for their children.

Everybody that attended the tour, students and teachers alike, had a wonderful day. 

Field Trip to Ross Castle

Yesterday the whole school went on a field trip to see a real castle! We had been learning all about castles for the last few weeks so it was a great treat to get a tour of a real one!

We headed for Ross Castle in Killarney. We started with a walk around the outside of the castle to look at the windows, parapets, turrets, arrow slit windows and even the block work.

The Junior Room were met by Marie and the Senior Room were met by Tom to guide us through the castle.

We were led into the soldiers' quarters. It was smaller than our classroom and they think that 15 - 20 soldiers used to eat, sleep and live there. There was also two cavities in each wall to store their weapons and belongings. There was a large open fire to cook on.

The door leading out to the spiral staircase looked like two doors stuck together. One door had vertical planks and the other door had horizontal planks. This was called a cross plank door. There were stuck together with iron studs. Long ago, these would have been spikes to defend the room. the spikes would have stopped attackers using battering rams and other weapons to get through the door. They wouldn't have been able to barge the door open with their shoulders without getting impaled on a spike. The cross planked door also meant that if one side splits along the grain, the other side would have a different grain and so the same would not happen.

When we got to the staircase we had to be very careful going up. It was a spiral staircase with trip steps or stumble steps. These were steps of different widths and heights. It meant that attacking soldiers would not be able to run quickly up the staircase. They had to be very careful. The spiral also went around in a clockwise direction. All soldiers at that time were taught to use their weapons with their right hand. This meant that the attackers weapon was on the narrow side of the stairs and did not allow them to get a good swing at the defenders. The defenders had their weapons on the wider side of the staircase allowing them to get a good swing at the attacker from above.


On the first floor there was another soldiers' room. This could sleep up to 20 soldiers. We saw arrow slit windows called loop windows. This were built so that 3 archers could should shoot in 3 directions at the attackers without being hit themselves. The opening had an arch with holes for 3 beams. These were putt log holes which were used as scaffolding while the castle was being built. There was a hole in the wall by the cross plank door called a musket hole. This was for shooting at attackers that were at the door.

There was a small dining room on this floor for the Lord and his family. There was a tapestry on the wall. This showed the wealth of the Lord and also keep the heat in.

On the second floor was the Lord's bedroom. This would have slept the Lord and Lady in a bed. There would have been curtains around the bed to keep the heat in, The children and servants would have slept on the floor of this room. There was weaving in the roof of this room. The roof was weaved using willow  like a basket to begin with. Then some stone and mortar was put on top and left to dry. Then they plastered over this to create an arched ceiling. The willow weaving was left there for decorative purposes. The bed was really short. This was because in medieval times people had terrible respiratory problems. This was caused by the limestone dust used to coat the walls. They mixed limestone dust, pigs blood, crushed shells and animal fur. The blood kept the mixture together and the animal fur stopped it from cracking.

There was a very old wooden trunk at the end of the bed. Most of the furniture had been sourced from the continent of Europe to decorate the castle to give us a good idea of how it used to look. This trunk was made in Ireland of Irish Oak back in the 1400's. Tom told us that Columbus discovered America 1492 and that the trunk was older than this! He said that Americans were always fascinated with this information.

We headed back towards the staircase and passed a small room called the Justice Room. This was were the Lord settled disputes between clan members, It was a small room so that he could keep everything under control easily.

The next room was our favourite room in the castle - the toilet! (Or the Garderobe) The word garderobe comes from French and means to guard your clothes. There was a narrow passageway which lead to the right. it was freezing. There was a 3 foot long ledge with a chute down to a hole. This was were medieval people did their business. :) The ledge was wide enough for 2 or even 3 people to use at the same time! Ewww! The waste dropped down to a cesspit below and a gong farmer had the worst job of all! His job was to clean out the cesspit. He left some waste to rot so that ammonia would travel back up the chute and clean the clothes. It killed fleas and lice that might have lived in the clothes. Clothes were hung in the narrow hallway to the garderobe.

The  next room was the servants quarters. This would sleep up to 20 servants and their families. There was a mezzanine level where the children would sleep. There was also a big hole in the ground. This was called a Murder Hole. In times of attack hot liquids or tar were poured through the hole onto the attackers.

On the top floor, we entered the Great Hall. There was a long table at the top of the room. There was one big chair were the Lord would sit. is guests and family would sit on stools around the table or other tables in the room. Food was served on pewter plates. These were polished to make them look shiny and expensive. Pewter is made of lead so they didn't know this but they were poisoning themselves by eating from these plates.

There was a room off the Great Hall for preparing food. This was cooked over an open fire in the hall. Fat from the meat would drip onto the rushes on the floor. These were gathered and used as candles.

There was also a gallery above the hall for musicians, singers, storytellers, poets and entertainment. The stairs up was really narrow and small. We sang a song.

Castles

Today the Junior pupils were learning all about castles because we are going on a field trip to Ross Castle tomorrow. We were learning about the different parts of a castle.

 In art and craft we made castles from cereal boxes. We all chose a flag from a different country and we put it on our castle. We are looking forward to visiting a real castle now. 

Baking

Today the pupils in the Junior made chocolate chip scones and plain scones with Marianne.

When they were cooked they were delicious. We all enjoyed them.