Welcome

We are delighted to welcome our three news students to the junior classroom. Anastasiia has joined junior infants, Mark has joined senior infants and Malachy Ross has come back to our school. He has rejoined 2nd class and his classmates are delighted to have him back again!

History Talk

Thank you to Raymond Good who came to speak to us about the West Cork Railway yesterday. We learned lots from Ray’s first hand account of working on the West Cork Line and he also brought in photos of the station house at Ballineen as well as tickets linked with the same route. He showed us his photo albums and told us interesting stories about the different routes and junctions.

Global Citizenship Schools Award

Before Easter, our senior classroom made one minute videos about the SDGs and global citizenship actions in our school. One group entered their video into a competition for primary schools and post-primary schools from the North and South of Ireland. The pupils who made the winning video were Elisa, Kayla, Leonie, Vivienne, Siún and Jonah. Our school is one of just 12 schools that have been selected to attend a celebration of the videos in Áras an Uachtarán in Dublin (The home of the President) on Thursday 23rd May. This is a wonderful achievement and a rare opportunity. They will be given a tour of the house and gardens followed by refreshments, speeches and photographs.

Unfortunately, only three pupils are invited to attend which is very disappointing for the other three pupils involved. We wanted to bring them all to Dublin to celebrate their success. This would involve half the class staying in school which also seemed unfair. Therefore we are organizing a school tour for the whole class to Dublin next Thursday. Thank you to Ms. Hawkins and Mrs. Hayes who have offered to give up their whole day to travel with us. Thank you to Global Citizenship Schools Ireland who have donated €200 towards the cost of our travel.

Senior School Tour

We will meet at Kent Train Station at 7:45, the train departs at 8a.m. We are asking families if they could organise their own transport to the station. We will arrive in Dublin at 10:45. We will travel around Dublin on the double decker buses to save time. In the morning they will visit Dublinia where they will explore the viking and medieval past of Dublin. After lunch we will travel to the Phoenix Park. Twelve students will visit Dublin Zoo for a workshop on different habitats that can be found in Africa and the special features of the animals that live there. On their African adventure, students will examine some of the conservation challenges African animals face and learn about what they can do to help protect them and their habitats. They will also have time to explore the rest of the zoo. The three students will visit Áras an Uachtarán at this time. They will all get dinner from Supermacs and we will return on the 5p.m. train from Dublin which will arrive in Cork at 7:29p.m. They will need to bring:

• A light bag that they can comfortably carry for the day

• A very large lunch to sustain them until 5pm, treats within reason will be permitted but no fizzy drinks.

• A water bottle which can be refilled at Heuston Station.

• Suncream.

• Sensible walking shoes.

• They may bring not bring any portable devices.

We are trying to keep the costs down as much as possible. Kayla and Elisa won a one for all voucher for the school last January which they are going to use to buy ice-cream for everybody. The total cost is €60 per child. Parents are asked to pay the school directly by bank transfer online. A/C Name: Ballymoney National School. IBAN: IE83 BOFI 9025 8139 0293 61 BIC: BOFIIE2D Please include your surname in the reference.

School lunches

Each child has been given a lunchbox to take home and a code to log in and order their meals. It was recommended that they order their meals by Friday evening. They should bring their lunch to school in that lunchbox on Monday.

School Photographs

The school photographs were sent home in your child’s schoolbag last week. If you wish to order them, please return the envelope to the school by Friday 24th May. There is also a school photograph, a photograph of junior infants and a photographs of 6th class in the entrance hall of the school if you would like to view it. Unfortunately two members of 6th class were absent at the time that the photograph was taken.

Lego

Ms. Sullivan would like some more lego for her classroom, not kits, general lego pieces. If any families have lego which they no longer play with, she would really appreciate it.

Dates for your Diary

Monday 20th May            School lunches begin

Tuesday 21st May           Senior classroom visiting Kilmurry Independence Museum

Thursday 23rd May         Senior classroom visit to Dublin

Friday 24th May               School Garden Competition Inspection

Friday 24th May               Visit by John White from DCU Changemaker Schools Network

Thursday 30th May          Cork City Sports Day (For the students who opted to enter)

Monday 3rd June             Bank Holiday

Friday 7th June                School Sports Day, for all students

Wednesday 12th June     Design for Change Awards in UCC (Senior classroom)

Thursday 13th June         Junior Classroom school tour

Thursday 13th June         Senior school tour to the Lifetime Laboratory

Friday 14th June              PTA Fundraising Clothes Collection

Monday 17th June           School Garden Awards ceremony (2 students)

Monday 24th June           End of Year Assembly and Pot Luck Supper at 6:30p.m.