Santa’s Visit

Santa made sure that the bad flooding this year did not affect his visit to Ballygar National School.  He left the sleigh at home in the North Pole and arrived in a boat instead.  The children were very excited to see Santa and gave him a great welcome.  Santa brought some treats for all the girls and boys.

Christmas Carol Service

On Thursday 17th December, we held our annual carol service in St. Mary’s Church.  The service began with a beautiful performance be some of our 5th and 6th class pupils who played ‘Joy to the World’ on the tin whistle, violin and chime bars.    This was followed by some prayers and reflections to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.  Our 5th and 6th class pupils also acted out the story of the nativity.

All children from infants to 6th class then sung a number of well known Christmas carols with great passion.  They sang beautiful renditions of O Come All ye Faithful, O Holy Night, Silent Night, Westminster Carol, The First Noel, Away in a Manger before a lively upbeat version of Mary’s Boy Child.

Well done to all the pupils (and teachers!!) who took part.

A great night was had by all and we are already looking forward to next year.

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Fire Safety Talk

fire engineOn Monday 14th December, Noel O’ Brien visited our 3rd and 4th class to speak to the children about fire safety.  During this workshop the children learnt about the different ways they can stay safe both at home and in the local community.  Fire safety is an important topic especially during this festive season.  This visit was organised as part of our expansive Social, Personal and Health Education curriculum which allows our students many opportunities to explore various ways of keeping themselves safe in various different circumstances.

Christmas Shoebox Appeal

This term we have been promoting our annual Christmas Shoebox appeal. Over the years we have been hugely fortunate to have tremendous support from parents and students in promoting this hugely worthy cause. This year proved to be no exception as we had a huge donation of shoeboxes  (66 in total) which were collected from our school for Team Hope Ireland. We know that these small gifts will make a massive difference in the lives of the children that are less fortunate than ourselves. We would like to say a big thank you to all the families that supported this undertaking.

Infant Puppet Show

IMG-20151211-WA0001Our infants attended a variety show and enjoyed a great afternoon of entertainment in the Mattie McDonagh Centre on Wednesday 9th December.  First of all they participated in a sing-a-long and they all got into the spirit and showed off their dance moves.  This was followed by a magic show. Niall Dowd was chosen as the magicians assisant and helped the magican perform a number of tricks.  Finally the children were entertained by characters Granny Annie, Boris and the Wizard in a puppet show.

Thank you to the Parents and Toddlers group who organised the show for the children.

 

Our Magician's Assistant
Our Magician’s Assistant

 

Orphanage Presentation

 

Peter Daly visited 3rd-6th class on Friday 4th December.  Last year the children had a non-uniform day in order to raise money to improve the facilities for the children attending the orphanage in Vorontsovo, Russia.  Peter showed the children pictures of the projects which their generous donations went towards.  He also spoke to them about life in the orphanage and the living conditions which these children were living in prior to the project.

 

Enterprise Town Exhibition

Bank of Ireland held an ‘Enterprise Town’ exhibition in the Mattie McDonagh Centre on Saturday 28th November.  This was a community event which was aimed at raising awareness about local businesses, clubs and schools in the community.  As part of this event, the Bank held a photograph competition in which children were asked to take a photograph based on the theme of ‘My Community.’  All entries were displayed in the Mattie McDonagh Centre.  Well done to everyone who entered a photograph.  The standard across all of the local schools who participated was very high. We were extremely proud on the day as we won all 3

categories.  Well done to our winners

  • Megan Gately- Category A (infants),
  • Hayden Naughton – Category B (1st-3rd Class)
  • Zuzanna Kubien – Category C (4th-6th Class)

Here are some pictures of our displays in the Mattie McDonagh Centre.  Thank you to Ms. Hanley for coordinating the project

 

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Science Week 2015

 

National Science Week

All classes were very busy throughout science week this year (November 8th-15th).

A huge variety of experiments were undertaken by the boys and girls during the week. Our infant classes for example explored floating and sinking, while our senior classes investigated chromatography- the process of separating coloured inks.

On Friday the 13th of November, in association with NUIG and Galway Science, Ms. Jane McLoughlin visited our school and conducted a number of science workshops with all children from 1st-6th class.  The children took part in various scientific experiments including making gloop, magical marbles, floating balls, the lazy coin, making a hovercraft and designing a boat fit for passengers.

Everyone had great fun participating in Science Week and can’t wait for next year!

Watch this short video to see pictures of the children participating in Science Week.

 

 

 

 

Author Visits

All children from 2nd-6th class visited the library for a story telling session last Thursday 15th October.  They met with Author Gerard Siggins who spoke to the children about the process of writing.  Gerard Siggins has written a number of children’s books including Rugby Spirit, Rugby Warrior and Rugby Rebel.   He spoke to the children about his children’s books and how he came up with the ideas for his stories.

 

School Wardens

School Wardens

Our school traffic wardens are back up and running once again this year.  We currently have two 6th class teams.

Teams are as follows:

Team A: Rachel McConn, Seamus Langan, Alanna Healy, Ciara Mulrooney, Brian Kelly, and Sara Mrozek.

 

Team B: James Connelly, Gerard Calligy, Patryk Ligeza, Ola Pyclik, Emilia Mrowiec, Edward Kilheeney and Zuzanna Kubien.

 

5th class are currently in training and we are hoping to have a 3rd team up and running soon.  A special word of thanks to Pat Regan who trains the teams and puts them through their paces and to Mrs. Watson who accompanies the teams each evening.

Mini 7’s Success

Sports News

Mini 7’s

The first round of the Cumann na mBunscol Mini 7’s boys hurling competition took place on Thursday 15th October.  The boys did extremely well. They bet off stiff competition from Mountbellow, Cappataggle and Moylough and came out on top of their group on the day.  This qualified them for a spot in the finals on Thursday 22nd October.   The boys did extremely well on finals day beating Oranmore B.N.S. and Carnmore N.S.  They narrowly missed out on being crowned group winners loosing only one match to…….

This years panel consists of Seamus Langan, Brian Kelly, Gerard Calligy, James Connelly, Edward Kilheeney,John Calligy, Cormac O Malley, Harry O Sullivan, Harry Holmes and Anthony Naughton.  Well done to all involved.

A special thank you to Mr. Naughton who returned to coach the boys this year and to Ms. Hanley for assisting Mr. Naughton on the day of the competition.

National Maths Week

From 12th – 16th October all our pupils participated in a range of activities for National Maths Week.  All pupils made a special effort during maths all week.  Based on these efforts one pupil from each class was chosen as Mathlete of the Week.  Well done to Riain Healy, Salman Khan, Eoghan Conroy, Hayden Naughton, Evan Doyle, Cassie Gately, Jonathon Dowd, Éabha McArdle and Sara Mrozek who were our Mathletes of the Week.

On Friday 3rd and 4th class took part in a maths trail around the school grounds.  They went ‘out and about’ in search of 2D shapes in our school surroundings. 5th and 6th class competed in a Maths Table Quiz on Friday.  They also conducted surveys in the other classes and constructed multiple bar charts illustrating their results in groups.

We also held a  ‘Guess How Many Sweets Are In The Jar’ competition, which proved to be one of the star attractions of Maths Week. We had some wide ranging guesses from the students.  Well done to Cathal Bury in Ms Flaherty’s class who was the only pupil in the school to guess correctly.

National Flag

As part of commemorative events organised by the government this year for the centenary celebrations of the 1916 Easter Rising, we had a very special visit from the Defence Forces on Thursday 8th October.  They spoke to the children about the significance of the Irish flag and the 1916 Easter Rising.  With the help of Gerard Calligy, Lieutenant Holmes read out the same Proclamation that Padraig Pearse read on the steps on the GPO in Dublin on Easter Monday 1916.  They then presented our school with a copy of the proclamation and a national flag.  James Connelly and Aoife Kelly accepted the proclamation and flag on behalf of the whole school community.  We all then joined together in song and sang our National Anthem.

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6 Nations Visit

We had a special visit from Wendy Hickey, Connaughts Women’s Rugby Development Officer on Friday 25th September.  Wendy brought the 6 nations cup which the Irish ladies rugby team won this year for us all to see.