Author Archives: Roisin O'Sullivan

Germany Erasmus+ Trip December 2017

In December, we embarked on the next step of our two year Erasmus+ Programme.  We flew to Germany where we got to know our partner countries – Poland, Spain, Germany, England and Greece.  It was a brilliant experience.  Below are four reports from the children who went on the trip as well as a gallery of pictures from the week.  To read more about the Erasmus+ Project, please go to the Projects section of the website.

My Trip to Germany by Gerald O’Sullivan

On Sunday 26^th November, we set off for Berlin from Farranfore Airport.  We arrived at about 2pm.  We got a taxi to Doberlug-Kirchhain and met our host families.  Then Darragh and I had a barbeque at my house.  The house was normal size and modern.  It was in an estate out in the country but the houses were spread out.  The next day, we got up at half 6 and went to school for 8 o clock.  When we arrived at the school, we got a tour with the other Erasmus+ students and we went to a bakery and baked bread and biscuits.  We came back to school and I had an English lesson.  The school finished at half 1.  Then we went to swimming pool complex kind of like the Aquadome.  It had four slides.  That was the best part of my trip to Germany.  I went to Darragh’s house one night for pizza.  On Tuesday, we went to a Monastery.  We had to dress up as Monks and used the pens that they used with ink.  That night we sold our Erasmus+ cups at the Christmas Fair in the school.  We met the Mayor.  We sold most of our cups.  The Ireland colours were the most popular.  The next day, we taught the German 6^th class how to play Gaelic football.  In the evening, we had a nerf gun battle in Darragh’s house.  It was great fun.  During the week, we had a lot of pizza and pasta and the families knew we liked it.  My family were very good at speaking English.  They were also very accommodating and very nice to me.  I shared a room with Konrad.  We also had a history tour or Martin Luther King and that night we went bowling.  On the last night, we went to Berlin and stayed in the Mercure Hotel.  We went to the Christmas Market and a shopping centre.  We got up at 5 am on Sunday morning and flew back home to Ireland.  Overall, I really enjoyed my week.  I would highly recommend it to people and I will visit again in the future.  I will keep in touch with my host family. 

My Trip to Germany by Darragh O’Sullivan

On Sunday, I took off from Farranfore airport and we arrived in Berlin airport.  My host family collected me.  My family were very nice.  There was a 10 year old boy and a 7 year old girl in the family.  I shared a room with Lorenze.  Their house was big and they were well off.  At 4.30 we went to Gerald’s house for a barbeque as they lived nearby.  It was tantalizing.  On Monday, we got up at 6.30.  We went to school and got a tour of the place.  The school was bigger than our school but they had less pupils.  They only have 1^st to 6^th class in their school.  The school was near a wood.  At lunchtime, they played soccer and basketball or you could stay in the canteen if you wanted.  We went to a bakery that day.  We did PE for an hour and a half.  We went to a place like the Aquadome for 3 hours.  Gerald came to my house for dinner.  Luckily my family and Gerald’s family were good friends so we spent time at each other’s houses.  On Tuesday we went to the Monastery and we made Shadow Puppets at a workshop.  We went to the Christmas Fair and sold cups.  We watched plays and got gifts of chocolate and advent calendars and books.  On Wednesday we got a bus to a Garden Centre and decorated pine cones.  We went back to school and taught 6^th class students how to play Gaelic football.  We went to Gerald’s house for dinner.  We did Ding Dong Ditch on other people’s houses and the parents were ok with it.  On Thursday we got a bus to Wittenberg and got a history tour about Martin Luther.  We went to the Panorama which is an indoor 360 degrees picture that changed colours and showed the video of Martin Luther.  We went to the Christmas markets.  I got a PS4 game called the Crew for 15 euro!  We went bowling and I won 5 euro from Mr. Hussey because I was the best.  That was my favourite part of the trip.  On Friday we got a bus to Dresden and a man did a fire experiment with us.  We went to a Maths Adventure Centre.  We went home and I played the Wii with Lorenze.  My family gave my 6 boardgames in one box and a small lamp for my Mom.  On Saturday, we got a taxi to Berlin.  We checked into the hotel.  We went to a shopping centre.  We went on two rides.  We went back to the hotel and Gerald set an alarm for 5 o clock in the morning.  Myself and Gerald were in the same room and the girls were in the room next door.  The alarm was going off for half an hour and eventually we woke up.  Gerald had a snapchat from Sylvia saying to turn off the alarm.  I got out of bed at 5.45 when Mr. Courtney knocked at the door.  We got a taxi to the airport and flew back to Ireland. 

My Trip to Germany by Sylwia Grebowiec

On Sunday, I woke up at 6.45 and got ready for the airport.  At the airport, we set off for Berlin and we got a taxi to the hotel and met our host families.  The family was very nice and the house was very big.  Then, we went on a walk and they showed me the town.  When we came back I had potatoes with cottage cheese.  It was actually quite nice.  Then I watched the Voice of Germany and went to bed.  On Monday, we went to school and we got a tour of the school.  The school was big and the classrooms were colourful and they had Christmas decorations up.  Then we went to a bakery.  We baked cookies and bread.  When we got back I went to P.E. We played dodgeball.  The school was big.  The only bad thing was they didn’t have interactive whiteboards.  They only had blackboards.  The class was about the same size as our class at home.  On Tuesday, I went to school and soon after that, we went to a Monastery.  We made shadow puppets and we dressed up as monks to see how they lived.  We wrote with feather and ink which was easy but messy.  Then we went to a church and it was really beautiful.  Later on, we went selling our cups.  Lots of people liked the cups and we sold over half of them.  The other countries sold things like keyrings, cards and Christmas decorations.  They were really nice.  I thought the English teachers were really nice.  The German children in the classes were very friendly and included us in lessons and games.  Then on Wednesday, we got a bus and drove to a garden centre.  We made Christmas decorations with pine cones.  When we came back, we had a German class but I wrote in my diary.  After lunch, we went to the hall to set up equipment for our football training session.  The German children were good at it but we were better.  On Thursday, we went to Luther Stad Wittenburg.  It’s the town of Martin Luther King.  We got a guided tour and after we went to see a Panorama.  We went shopping and then we went to the Christmas market.  Gemma and I went on a ferris wheel.  It was really funny because when we stopped at the top, Gemma thought we were stuck.  We went bowling and I was winning but Darragh beat me in the last two rounds.  On Friday, we went to Dresden.  We watched a man show us tricks with fire.  Then we went to a Maths Adventure Centre.  I really enjoyed that because there was a lot of cool stuff like a spiral that you went in and came out the other side.  Later, we got Starbucks and we went back.  Leonie’s aunt picked me up.  Then we went back home and I started packing.  On Saturday, we said our goodbyes and got a taxi to Berlin.  We put our stuff in the hotel and went to a shopping centre.  When we came back, we went to our rooms.  About an hour later, Gerald and Darragh bought a board game in so we played it.  We went down to eat.  Then we took a tram to the Christmas market.  We had a look around and we went on a huge ferris wheel.  The views of Berlin were amazing.  We went on airplane chairs.  We took a tram back to the hotel and I went to bed.  On Sunday, we took off for the airport at 6.  When we got to the airport we got on the plane and went home.  My favourite part of the week was probably Berlin because it was great fun.  I really enjoyed the trip and it was a great experience.    

My Trip to Germany by Gemma Meyer

On Sunday 26^th November, we woke up early and everyone met at Farranfore airport.  We boarded the plane and set off for Germany.  The flight was about 2 and a half hours.  When we landed in Berlin it was cold enough.  It was about 6 degrees Celsius.  We collected our baggage and met with the person who was taking us in the taxi.  From Berlin to Doberlug-Kirchhain it was about an hour and a half.  Germany is quite like Ireland.  In the countryside there is a lot of green fields.  When we arrived in Doberlug-Kirchhain, we met with our host families in the teacher’s hotel.  When I first met them they were very nice and welcoming.  They had their dog Charlie with them.  There was one girl Ella and her mother and father.  We went to their house and it was an apartment.  They owned about 3 floors.  It was right next to the town centre.  Her grandparents lived at the bottom of the apartment and she lived in the other two.  They had lovely interior in their home.  They had two chinchillas and a cat named Rocko.  She taught me a few of the basic German words and I taught her a few English words as well.  We were just talking for a while until we had dinner and we had German pasta with sausage.  About half an hour later, we went to bed and had a good nights sleep.  I was sharing a room with Ella.  The next morning, I woke up at 6a.m. which was very unusual for me because I normally wake up at half 7.  We got ready and walked to the bus stop and waited for 15 minutes.  We went to school and waited for half an hour for the school to open.  I played tag with their friends and before I knew it we had to go in for school.  The teacher was very nice and actually not strict at all.  We had a lot of breaks during the day.  We went to the bakery and baked cookies and pastries.  We got back just before the end of school and we did woodwork.  It was only the girls.  The boys were upstairs doing English.  We went home.  We went to a dancing class.  On Tuesday, we went to the town’s Monastery.  We had a tour.  We went to an abbey and then we went to a very decorative church.  We did a workshop on making shadow puppets and calligraphy with ink and feathers.  Her grandma dropped us back home and we sold our Erasmus+ cups at the school Christmas fair.  The Irish cups were the most popular and sold more than half what we brought.  They really liked the cups.  On Wednesday, we went to a garden centre and made Christmas ornaments out of pine cone and decorations.  When we got back, we did an English class and had lunch.  The food was nice.  There was a lot of sausages, rice and pasta.  On Thursday, we went on a bus for 2 hours to Wittenburg, Martin Luther King’s town.  We had a tour around the whole city and saw where he lived.  After that, we went to the Christmas fair.  They had a lot of beautiful Christmas gifts.  We had a tour outside of the palace where the tour guide told us there was a white fairy.  There were rumours that if you followed the white fairy, she would lead you into a secret dungeon and one night a man followed her and she led him into the secret dungeon where there was a large chest full of valuable jewels and gold.  She told him that if he told anyone something bad would happen.  One night, he had a feast and drank a lot of wine and told people about the jewels.  The white fairy knocked on his window three times and from then on, he had very bad luck and got very sick and passed away.  At the Christmas fair, we went on a ferris wheel.  At the top, it stopped so we could see the view and I thought it had broken down so I screamed.  On Friday, we went to Dresden, a very popular city and went to the Maths Adventure Centre and had a fire show with explosive experiments.  We stayed there for two hours and then we went to a Christmas Market.  We tasted some of their native food and drink.  We drank non-alcoholic Gluvine which is hot punch.  We went to a shopping mall and went to the Apple store and Starbucks.  They had the best caramel hot chocolate.  Ella gave me a book about Doberlug-Kirchhain and a picture in a frame of us.  On Saturday morning, we said our goodbyes and went in the taxi to Berlin.  When we arrived there, we went to the hotel and shopped in the mall.  When we got back, we played a few boardgames and at half 6, we had dinner in an Italian restaurant.  Italian restaurants are actually very popular there.  We went to a Christmas fair and went on a big ferris wheel and on a flying chair ride and had kinder punch.  The next morning, we got up at 5a.m. to get to the airport.  We got back to Ireland at half 10.  My friends were waiting for me and were very happy to see me.  It was a really enjoyable experience to live in a different culture for a week. 

KWD Talk to 3rd & 4th Class Nov 2017

KWD – Killarney Waste Disposal paid a visit to our school today and spoke to 3rd and 4th Class about the importance of recycling.  ‘KWD Kids Recycling’ helps to educate young people on how to recycle correctly.  They learned recycling habits and how to improve recycling quality so that less waste ends up in our landfills.

The pupils really enjoyed the talk and they all got a lovely magazine and certificate for their efforts.  Thank you KWD for a very informative workshop!

4th Class BizWorld Project Nov 2017

_{On Monday 13th and Monday 20th November, Mr. Morley’s 4th class had a special visitor; Shane Enright Kerry Footballer and Bank Of Ireland official.  Shane delivered an enterprise workshop to the students over the two weeks called BizWorld. The children learned about different types of business, different roles in business, marketing, sales, finances, production and general entrepreneurship, financial and business skills.}

_{Over the course of the first day the children brainstormed and discussed different business ideas in groups of six.  In these groups the students decided on one business idea and created their own business, slogan, logo, design poster, leaflets and general information posters.  In each business the students assigned roles including; Managing Director, Director of Sales, Director of Marketing, Director of Production, Director of Design and Director of Finance.} 

_{On Monday last each business gave a presentation to Mr. O’ Sullivan/Ms. Spillane’s 4th class and received extra funding for their idea.  In the afternoon, Conor Brosnan, Branch Manager of Bank of Ireland Kenmare and Robert Whyte of Whytes Centra Kenmare were invited to be ‘Dragons’ in a ‘Dragons Den’ style show.  They offered each business ‘bizbuck’ money for shares in their business.  Both the children and the dragons thoroughly enjoyed the event.} 

_{Mr. Morley and all the 4th class would like to thank Mr. Courtney and also Shane and Conor from Bank of Ireland for setting up these workshops as well as Robert Whyte for also partaking.  The children are invited to display their ideas at Friday night’s Enterprise Event in Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine from 6pm.  As noted on the BizWorld website bizworldireland.org, “The skills children develop in BizWorld Ireland workshops are the most sought-after skills in the workforce today: creativity, collaboration, communication, teamwork and negotiation”.}

3rd Class Investigating Air Pressure for Science Week 2017

Today, for Science Week, 3^rd Class investigated if pressurised air could withstand force by placing a table on balloons and testing its strength.  All the children tried standing on the table but no one applied enough force to burst the balloons.  Then they had to bring out the big guns!  First Mr. Devane, then Master O’Sullivan and then Mr. O’Sullivan.  In the end, they tried both Mr. O’Sullivans together.  The balloons were put under serious pressure but miraculously, they never burst!  #TheBeautyOfScience!

Science Week Workshop with Mr. D November 2017

Today we had a visit from Mr. D, an Engineer and Scientist who did workshops with the pupils from 3^rd to 6^th Classes for Science Week 2017.  The children investigated a variety of Science concepts and skills.  Mr. D otherwise known as Chuck Delpier is from Science Adventures and believes in Investigative Science with a hands-on approach.  The children engaged in a variety of experiments and challenges including working with batteries, tools, mechanics, light energy, kinetic energy and electrical energy.  The workshop was very informative and interesting as well as being a lot of fun!  Thanks Mr. D!

Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal, 2017

Once again, St. John’s took part in the Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal.  This year, there were a total of 218 shoeboxes collected from the school, 50 more than last year’s 168!!  Thanks so much to everyone who took part in the campaign!  What an excellent outcome! 

Team Hope delivers over three million shoeboxes annually to children in some of the remotest and poorest parts of the world, to children who think they have been forgotten about.  But your kindness shows them that they haven’t.  Thank you to all those who helped fill the boxes and give those less fortunate than ourselves a chance to smile this Christmas! 

A Report on Tom Crean November 2017

Report on Tom Crean

By Lucy Johnson, Laura Wiley and Leona Delaney from Fourth Class.

Today, in school, Aileen Crean O’Brien and her partner Bill, came to speak to us about the legendary Tom Crean and their journey to complete the last treacherous leg of Aileen’s Grandfather Tom’s journey across the peaks and glaciers of South Georgia.    

Tom Crean was born in 1877.  When he was a 15 years old, he borrowed a suit and some money and joined the Royal British Navy under-age.  He was a member of three major expeditions to Antarctica.  His first expedition was called ‘The Discovery’ and was led by Robert Falcon Scott (also known as Scott of the Antarctic). 

On their second expedition to Terra Nova from 1911-1913, Robert Scott decided that when they were nearly at the South Pole, he would only send four men on with him and sent Tom Crean, Bill Lashly and Taff Evans back to base camp.  On his way back, Taff Evans suddenly collapsed as he was weak and had frost bite.  Tom Crean bravely chose to carry on back to base camp to get help.  Bill Lashly stayed with Evans.  Tom only had two biscuits and a bar of chocolate left and no water.  He had to climb mountains and go across treacherous frozen lakes for 56 kilometres.  He got help and saved the life of Evans which led him to receive the Albert Medal for Lifesaving. 

His third expedition was on a three-masted ship called ‘Endurance’  which sank and Tom and the crew spent 492 days drifting on the ice before a journey to Elephant Island.  He, then made a 1500km journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia to find help for the stranded party.  Tom Crean died in 1938.

Tom Crean’s granddaughter Aileen decided she wanted to follow Tom’s footsteps and try and complete the last treacherous leg of Tom’s journey to South Georgia.  In 2016, Aileen, Bill and son’s Morgan and Cian set off on their journey.  It took them a year to train which included going to Poland skiing.  Bill didn’t know how to ski so he had to learn.  They built up their core strength by pulling tyres, hiking up mountains, learning how to use ropes, tie knots, learned how to pull each other out of crevasses and learned about all the gear and how to use it. 

Five weeks into their journey, Aileen broke her leg tobogganing down a mountain.  She put out her foot to slow herself down and hit a rock.  They tied her to a sledge and brought her to the beach. The Navy came and brought her away but she wanted her sons to finish with Bill so they went on and she went to hospital.  She gave it her best shot.  They are back home now and they have written a book about their journey.

Thank you Aileen and Bill for sharing your story with us today. 

Mrs. O’Donoghue’s Retirement Oct 2017

Today in St. John’s, we marked the retirement of Mrs. Therese O’Donoghue with a lovely mass and presentation.  Therese spent all her teaching career here in Kenmare.  Her first appointment as Miss Hassett was in St. Clare’s Convent N.S. in 1983.  She moved to the newly built St. Clare’s Girls N.S. in December 1983 and later to St. John’s N.S. in 2012 where she taught up to the present day.  Mrs. O’Donoghue has a reputation for being a dedicated, hardworking and talented teacher.   During her time in Kenmare she taught all classes and worked in the area of Special Education for the past two years.  She was also a Deputy Principal in St. Clare’s Girls N.S.  All our pupils both past and present, fellow teachers and staff here in St. John’s will certainly miss her but will applaud the enormous contribution she has made to Primary Education in Kenmare.  From all the staff and students, both past and present, Parent’s Association and Board of Management, we wish you a long and healthy retirement Therese! ‘Go neirí an t-áth leat’.

Dogs Trust Ireland 3rd Class Talk Oct 2017

Today, third class attended a talk in the Carnegie Arts Centre by Dogs Trust Ireland about being responsible dog owners and how to take care of dogs.  Dogs Trust is Ireland’s largest dog welfare charity.  Dogs Trust believe that by educating children, we are enabling the next generation of dog owners to make informed decisions on owning a dog in the future. 

Guest speaker Dawn, discussed being ‘dog smart’ around dogs they are unfamiliar with and the best ways to be safe around dogs.  The pupils got to meet rescued dog ‘Odi’ and they discussed the benefits of adopting a rescue dog. 

Thanks to Dogs Trust Ireland for a very informative and educational talk about taking care of our dogs.