Monthly Archives: October 2016

  • -

A Spooktacular Halloween at St. Johns, 2016!

St. John’s was a very scary place to be on October 28th!  From gloomy ghosts to scary skeletons, we were carvin’ out the good times in wicked style!  Pupils and we’re sure parents as well put in a huge effort into making this year’s costume competition a great success in aid of Brú Columbanus which provides accommodation to relatives of patients in Cork hospital including the hospice and to relatives of sick children.  Even the staff got involved in the festivities!  It was frightfully delightful!!  This years winners were:

Junior Infants:         Elliot O’Neill

Senior Infants:        Orla O’Reilly

First Class:                Mary Munnelly

Second Class:           AnnaMai Rawson

Third Class:               Luka Norman

Fourth Class:            Ben O’Callaghan

Fifth Class:                Rachel O’Sullivan

Sixth Class:               Jack Downing

Staff Winner:           Nora Crowley

Well done to all our winners and a big thank you to all who took part and got into the real spirit of Halloween! 

Enjoy the midterm break!


  • -

Maths Week October 2016

Maths Week 2016 took place in St. Johns from the 17th to the 21st of October. The aim of the week was to promote awareness, appreciation and understanding of Maths and was a great opportunity for us to place an added emphasis on the importance of Maths through a variety of events and activities.

To celebrate Maths Week, classes took part in Maths games, quizzes, board games and online activities.  The sixth classes teamed up with the infants and took them on Maths trails around the school which showed great teamwork and inclusion of a variety of ages and abilities. 

A fun and exciting week was had by the whole school!


  • -

October 2016 Newsletter

logomedium

Upcoming School Closings:

Closed:  Monday, October 31th – Friday, November 4th – Mid-term break.

Traffic Management / Safety:

car

Please familiarise yourself with new road markings in the set down area.  Marking includes a new Zebra crossing at the entrance to the overflow car park,  markings for school bus plus new road markings which splits the traffic going left and right on exit from the set down area. 

We particularly ask you to be mindful of all children and pedestrians using the Zebra crossing points particularly at the very busy times at school opening and closing.  At these busy times also we ask you to be conscious of drivers setting down or reversing from parking spaces.  Your patience in this regard is appreciated.  We remind you also that parents are not permitted to use the staff car park for set down and collection purposes or for entry and exit at opening and closing times.

CCTV in operation:

We wish to inform you that we have upgraded our school CCTV system both internally and externally to cover our new extensions and play areas. 

camera

We hope that this upgrade to our system will enhance the security of all our school community. 

Supervised Homework Hour:

Accompanying this newsletter is an information sheet and application form for a proposed supervised homework hour for pupils from 2nd to 6th class due to commence in November 2016. If interested please complete the application form and return to class teacher before Wednesday, October 26th.

Halloween Dress up Day:

As is traditional to celebrate Halloween the children are being given the option of dressing up in their Halloween costume on Friday, October 28th. Children in Junior and Senior Infants may come to school dressed in costume while pupils in 1st – 6th class will get the opportunity to dress up at school.

witch

Prizes will be given in each class grouping for the best costume with preference being given to costumes which are home-made. All pupils are asked to bring in €2 on the day which will be donated to Brú Columbanus which provides accommodation to relatives of patients in Cork hospital including the hospice and especially to relatives of sick children.

Erasmus +:

erasmus

In 2012 – 14 St. John’s took part in a Comenius project entitled ‘Sharing Traditions Creating Unity’ with seven other European countries. In recent weeks we have received good news that we have been granted funding to take part in a new Erasmus project entitled ‘Euro Trading, Young Entrepreneurs on the move’.

We will be joined on the project by five of our original school partners from England, Germany, Spain, Poland and Greece. Pupils will begin working on the project in late November. Further detail on this project and others the school are currently involved in are available on our website at www.stjohnskenmare.ie 

Cumann na mBunscoil:

Well done to the boys’ football team on their wins so far against Scoil Mhuire N.S. Killorglin and the Presentation Monastery N.S. Killarney. We wish them continued success in the remainder of the tournament.

ball

MsReadathon:

Pupils in First and Fourth class are participating in the MsReadathon at present (October 8th – November 8th).

Children have sponsorship cards and all funds go to MS Ireland. Sponsorship cards and funds will be collected after mid-term break. Many thanks to all the children participating and also to parents and sponsors for all their support.

Dates for your Diary:

confirmation

Confirmation will take place in Holy Cross Church, Kenmare on Wednesday, March 15th at 3.30p.m.

First Communion will take place on Saturday, May 6th at 10.30a.m. in Holy Cross Church, Kenmare.

Active Schools:

after-schoolsSt. John’s N.S. are currently working on obtaining an Active Flag and becoming A Health Promoting School.  Teachers from the school have recently attended workshops on what is involved in both these areas.  The Active School Flag is awarded to schools who engage in a process of action planning and implementing projects in the school which encourage and develop physical activity in pupils and the school community.  The Health Promoting Schools (HPS) Flag is presented by the HSE to schools as an acknowledgement of their work in improving the health of their school communities.  The Health Promoting Schools programme supports schools to focus on health and wellbeing and involve all members of the school community.

Along with the regular physical activity such as P.E. classes, St. John’s N.S. offers a wide range of extra physical activity throughout the school year.  Sports activities such as athletics, gymnastics and football are already up and running with all children doing very well.  Spikeball will begin after Halloween with soccer and basketball beginning after Christmas.  As part of being a Health Promoting School the children in the senior classes will partake in Mindfulness classes after Halloween.  Pupils are encouraged to partake in physical activity during break times and internal competitions are run in a variety of activities.  In the final school term the school will run an “Active School Week” during which we aim to show that physical activity is good for you but it is also fun and a great way to spend time with your friends.  St. John’s also has strong links with a wide variety of local sporting community groups.

 

WE WOULD LIKE TO WISH ALL OUR PUPILS AND PARENTS A VERY HAPPY AND SAFE HALLOWEEN

 

Le gach dea ghuí,

Denis Courtney,

Principal & Staff.

halloween

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


  • -

  • -

  • -

Healthy Eating Week October 2016

Healthy Eating Week was held in St. John’s from Monday 3rd to Friday 7th October. We learned a great deal about healthy foods and made a big effort to pack healthy lunches every day.

Margaret McCarthy came to visit us and gave us loads of tips on healthy breakfasts and lunches. She told us all about sugars and which foods had hidden sugars! We were amazed to learn that some juices contain more sugar than coca cola! White bread even contains sugar! We will try to make a more conscious effort to choose natural foods after talking to Margaret!

She gave us quick breakfast and lunch ideas and even let us do some tasting! Yum! Thanks Margaret. I think it’s safe to say we’ll be thinking twice before reaching for fizzy drinks in the future!

We also had a Healthy Eating Colouring Competition with a winner from each class!  Here are our 8 class winners.

20161014_114805-min