Tuesday 23 June 2015

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:















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.

Thursday 11 June 2015

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.