Greystones Educate Together National School

Summer Newsletter 2019

Aisling and Sarah’s Classes:

We have had a busy year. We were lucky enough to work with a felt artist named Gina Faustino for our Craft Ed Project. We had great fun exploring wool and working as a team.

Julie's Senior In-fants: We have had so much fun this term! We grew potatoes and strawberries and learned how to make butter ahead of our school tour to Kia Ora Farm. We loved Sports Day and finished up the year with a Ted-dy Bear Picnic!"

Goodbye Rocky: We celebrated Rocky’s last

school outing on Tuesday

25 June. We’ll miss him lots and wish him all the best in

his new school.

Goodbye

Rocky, we

will miss

you.

Clothes Recycling:

€344.00 raised , big thank

you to everyone for your

continued support .

Junior infants:

We have had a wonderful end to our first

year in big school!

We have all worked super hard this term,

revising our sounds, exploring money

Maths and diving into our Under the Sea

theme in Aistear!

Over the last few weeks we have been to

the beach, Tick Tock Farm and have even

had a visit from a lobster! It was so ex-

citing!

We were very lucky to get a bus all the

way to the farm, where we played on mini tractors, fed baby lambs, held bunnies and hamsters and

spent the day exploring Farmer Jim’s farm and playing with our friends.

We have had a blast and we are so excited for our summer holidays!

Sports Day Seb Style!

Basketball with Ed !

Swimming:

Keya Neve Jogle-

kar: I participated

in a Swimming

Gala in Co Wex-

ford and I swam

200 meters (8

lengths) and won

the gold medal. I

also swam 200

meters freestyle

and won the silver

and 50 meters

Butterfly and won

bronze.

Keith’s & Jacqui’s First Classes: This year, First Class went on a school trip to Pine Forest. Here we

did so many different art activities and went on a fairy walk through the forest. We saw a hawthorn tree that we had been learning about in class and made wishes for the fairies to grant. We also learned how to identify a badger set. While on our walk we collected reeds for our art activities. We made can-dleholders in the shape of fish, we made book marks and also drew bird inspired pictures using stencils and colouring pencils. Both First Classes put on amazing assemblies this year. Keith’s First Class learned Irish Sign Language

(ISL) over the year and were able to have a small conversation in ISL . They learned their names, fa-vourite animals, foods and colours. They also learned how to sign about their families and pets. Jacqui’s class learned and performed a brilliant as-sembly about environ-mental conservation. They showed us simple swaps that can be made to re-duce our impact on the environment, some of which involved using a reusable water bottle, metal or bamboo straws and reducing your general

consumption of single use plastics where possible. Keith and Jacqui would like to wish everyone from this years First Class a lovely summer and thank you for contributing to an amazing year.

Esther’s 2nd Class:

We have had a great fun this term. Paul Weidenham-mer kindly visited us. He spoke to the class about Tanzania and shared his own personal stories with the class. We learned how to speak Swahili, listened to music, watched video clips and tried on some original garments on Africa!

Historical Walk to the Cove

2nd Class learned a lot about

Greystones and how it used to

be. We learned about the Or-

monde cinema, the Garda sta-

tion, how the harbour has

changed and how the transfor-

mation of ‘La Touche’ has begun.

We walked from our school to

the cove, stopping at important

historical buildings and areas. It was amazing to see how much has changed but also nice to see

that some buildings have-

n’t changed that much.

Greenan Maze:

We had a super time with

Tom’s class in Greenan

Maze. We found our way

through the giant maze,

played garden games such

as wheelbarrow races and

targeting practice. After

that we went on a nature

walk and learned all about

the different types of trees

and wildlife in the area.

Later on we visited the farm and the museum. A great day out for 2nd Class!

This year was the first year GETNS took part in the National Children’s Choir. The NCC is a school-based choral experience

leading to regional concerts for all participants and concerts in the National Concert Hall for some children from each par-

ticipating school.

Across Wicklow alone, nearly 800 children

participated with each school learning the

repertoire in their own school then coming

together for termly rehearsals and finally per-

forming together in Ravenswell school in Bray.

Our experience in NCC began with Teacher

Julie attending a summer course where the

musical directors teach the repertoire of songs

so the teachers can then take it back to their

schools. Teacher Julie and Teacher Ciara be-

gan teaching the songs to both 5th classes in

September.

The repertoire contained a mixture of choral,

contemporary and international songs containing alto and soprano parts, as well as a range of musical dynamics that made

the repertoire a rich learning experience. There were songs in English, Hebrew, Latin, Swahili and Gaeilge!

In May our school came together with the other participating schools in Greystones to have our own concert in Ravenswell.

On the night the children were accompanied by an orchestra which was a new and wonderful experience for all. The chil-

dren were magnificent, they sang beautifully, followed the musical director’s every lead and totally amazed the audience

with their talent.

The joy of singing together in a choir is the community aspect, it is not necessary to be a wonderful singer, more important

is to be a wonderful participant which our children were!

Seven of our children were then chosen to represent the school in the national concert at the NCH. They sang with children

from as far north as Donegal, as far south as Waterford and as far west as Mayo. The concert was a truly magnificent expe-

rience for all involved and one which we know the children will remember forever.

The National Children’s Choir 2019

Irish Young Philosopher’s Awards Ciara’s 5th class participated in the Irish Young Philosopher’s Awards for the first

time this year. The awards launched in 2018 are relatively new. They had an overwhelmingly high response this year with

schools from all over the country embracing philosophy as part of the curricu-

lum. The awards took place in UCD led by the Department of Philosophy.

The class suggested questions for our project and then voted on the one they

felt would lend itself to inquiry. The winning question was “Can personality

affect intellectual intelligence?”. The process involved the class naming their

initial thoughts on the question without input from each other, then

we had a class inquiry on the question, which led to people making and changing

their mind as they listened to each other. Then the class did a survey from 4th to

6th class to ask their opinions on the subject. Finally, the children drew a conclu-

sion from what they had discovered. This was translated into a visual thinking

display and a project which six children from the class took to the Award’s day.

On the day itself, the children were amazed at some of the other projects which

were on display and it offered an excellent opportunity to see how far they

could take their ideas in secondary school.

Laura & Jessica’s 6th Class Jessica's 6th Class have had another very busy term, they have been making the most of their last term in Greystones Educate Together. Both 6th classes attended an Irish Aid Workshop on May 7th. A very interesting day learning all about sustainable development in Africa. They also learned about Tanzani-an culture and had a chance to try their traditional clothing and play their traditional instruments. On 6th June both 6th classes competed in a Fun & Run Blitz in Newtown Mount Kennedy with Curtle-stown N.S. and students from St. Catherines. On the 20th May both 6th classes attended the Junior Entrepreneur Showcase in the RDS. It was a fan-tastic day where the students were able to showcase the work they did for JEP as well as getting to see all the other schools ideas and projects. The MC on the day was Marty Morrisey, a huge hit with all the students. School Tour to the Science Explorium in Sandyford - the students challenged their minds, tested their agility and fed their curiosity with more than 300 interactive science and STEM experiences as well as a fun-filled hour on the amazing climbing walls. Both 6th classes organised an extremely successful Jumble Sale, raising almost 800 euro. This money will go towards paying for their 6th class graduation and an amount will go to a charity of their choice. On June 14th a group of parents came in to do a full day project with the class. There was presenta-tions on sustainability and renewable energy, then the classes were mixed into groups and came up with their plan for a more sustainable Greystones. There were some fantastic ideas generated such as a community garden. We were privileged to have Councillor Mags Crean and The Happy Pear Sustaina-bility Manager Kris Tate come in as judges on our 'Polar Bears Den' panel. We finished off our year with one last trip, the class used their profits from Junior Entrepreneur to pay for a day out at Harbour Splash Dun Laoghaire, which was a brilliant day!

Write a Book Winner: On Monday 17th June our 6th Class Write a Book winner, Frances Simpson,

attended a ceremony to launch 'An Anthology of Stories from 6th Classes' in which Frances' story 'Diamonds in the Snow' was published. The book was launched by Minister of State for Higher Edu-cation, Mary Mitchell O' Connor. It was a very proud moment for Frances. Well done!

Well done to all the Write a Book Winners of 2019

Huge Goodbye to both

of our 6th classes.

6th Class End of Year Art The two 6th classes worked extremely hard planning, sketching and painting a mural on the back wall of the school. The mural has a very powerful message behind it. The War on Plastic - 'Don't Ride The Wave, Be The Change', a legacy left behind by this years 6th class after all their work cam-paigning for a more sustainable Greystones. A HUGE THANK YOU to, Vicki Kummer, Mona Fahy, Ciara O’Shea, Astrid Weidenhammer, Peter McMullan (past pupil) and our caretaker Vincent who helped out with this project.

PAC: The PAC would like to thank everyone who has given their time and made this years events possible. I would especially like to thank Shirley Farren, who has been the PAC treasurer for the last 3 years. I would also like to thank Marie Porter and Annette Vaucanson Kelly for all their hard work, time and support. I have come to the end of my three-year term as chair and would like to thank everyone who has supported me. I will continue on with the PAC working on the outdoor classroom project. We hope to start clearing the site of brambles this October. If you are interested in a committee role, please feel free to contact me for more information. Have a great summer. Caroline Win-stanley PAC Chair.

Principal's Thoughts:

Now the Summer is here and everyone is so ready for that lovely break! The children have had an exceptionally busy year between choirs, beaches, workshops, assemblies, visiting speakers, etc. We had some difficulties recruiting staff at the beginning of the year but as the year progressed we found some super teachers, who will now be leaving us and moving on. So we would like to thank Lillian, Siofra, Cian, Hannah and Natasha for their professionalism and the gentle way in which they interacted with the children. We are also losing two fantastic SNAs, Laura (who is going to train as a teacher) and Eimear, who has found a job closer to home. They are heartbroken to leave us and we are equally so, but we wish them all the best with their careers. We also said goodbye to our fantastic Chairperson, Liam Friel. He has been chairing Board meetings and assisting with interviews for five years or more now, in between flights to some country or other, fulfilling the demands of his 'day job'. On behalf of the school community we say a very big' Thank You' for his generosity of spirit and for all the many long hours he has devoted to the school's needs. John Callaghan has very kindly stepped up as Chairperson for the interim period between now and the election of a new Board in November. We will be interviewing for new teachers next week and when we are satisfied with the out-come of the recruitment process, we will let you know which teacher has been assigned to your class for next year. Thanks to Aideen and Liz in the front office for responding so willingly to the demands of an-other hectic year. Also, of course, to Caroline and the PA for their background support for all the various events. 6th classes had a great graduation day and they came back the following day to help the teachers. Wonderful students, and we wish them success and happiness in the next chapter of their education. Thank you all for your good wishes and the lovely emails and messages we have received over the past year. We look forward to a sunny Summer and an exciting new school year in September! Catherine

GETNS BOM sitting on the staff sofa that was

recently reupholstered by Stef. Thank you all for

your hard work over the past 4 years. From L—R

John Callaghan (Chairperson)

Laura Kavanagh (Teacher Nominee)

Barbara Campbell (Parent Nominee)

Karen Flynn (Patron Nominee)

Stef Schulmeistrat (Parent Nominee)