Our School Newsletter 2011-2012

Compiled by Curravagh N.S Special thanks to Roisin Flanagan and Cailin McGovern and Thomas Fitzpatrick for their work on this newsletter! Welcome to our school newsletter 2011-2012. We’ve had a busy year.

Luathríona In October 2011 fourth, fifth and sixth classes performed Cinderella as Gaeilge -‘Luathríona’. The whole script was performed in Irish. The main characters were; Cinderella, the prince, the ugly sisters and the fairy godmother. Four groups worked on their own unique performance. In every group there was one of each of the characters and a leader or a director. We practised the plays every day until the big performance. When we were finished rehearsing we performed the play in front of the junior classes and all the staff. On our final performances we used props and we were all dressed up as our characters.

Egyptian Projects In November, we studied the ancient Egyptians, we read books and watched DVDs. We learned how Egyptians mummified their dead and all the preparations for the journey to enter the afterlife. We also learned about their special writing called hieroglyphics and about their young king, Tutankhamun. We were put into groups and we made a book or power point and presented it to the class. After all our hard work was complete we made papier maché mummies, gods and tombs. They were a great success. Ladies win Championship and visit our school.

Our Podcasts In October 2012 Peter Baxter came to our school from Dublin as part of the “Song School Project”. He came to our school every Friday for four weeks. During that time we worked with ipod’s, ipads and computers. We worked in groups of three or four to create our own podcasts. Some of the podcasts topics included; Glangevlin and its history, scary stories from Glangevlin, breaking news and a radio show. Everyone from 4th to 6th took part in the project. At the start of every session we had to talk about what we had completed the week before and what we needed to do. And then at the end of every session we would make up a song as part of the class. Our song was based on Halloween as it was that time of year! When all our projects were complete we made our own podcasts of our projects. We wrote out scripts and recorded them. After the four weeks we made a little DVD containing our podcasts and pictures and a video of the whole class. It was a brilliant four weeks of fun!

Shoe Box Appeal In November 2011, our school took part in the Shoe Box Appeal for children living in third world countries. Children put in an amazing effort to make up a box full of goodies to give other children a surprise for Christmas. Pen Pal Letters In September 2012 we wrote pen pal letters to a school in London. We picked names out of a hat to see who we would be writing to and then we began our letters about ourselves. We wrote about; our hobbies, our likes and dislikes, our families, our pets, our school, our homes and our friends Some people even drew pictures and designed their letters. The letters were all hand written and by the end of September they were sent. The excitement was great waiting for the letters but sadly they must have got lost in the post as they have not arrived yet. Our Project on Planets The senior classes did a project on the planets of the solar system. After watching DVD’s and power points on the planets of the solar system we each got into groups of two or three and we picked a planet from the nine planets which include; Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Saturn, Uranus. Everyone picked a different planet. When we had all our research completed we put all the information on our planet into a power point or a book. We also had to present our project to the rest of the groups and Miss Scott. Once our projects had been completed we got balloons and we made papier maché planets, we then painted them. We then put the planets and our projects up on display in our classroom for everyone to see.

A Christmas Carol Staff, students and parents were treated to a dramatised retelling of the perennial Christmas classic, A Christmas Carol. The staff and students worked hard on developing an audio visual interactive extravaganza, which vowed the audience. Oscar winning performances all round!

Our Infants Christmas Play! For Christmas 2012,infants to third class performed “The Christmas Story” for us. The cast included, Chloe McGovern as an angel and wise man, Laura McGovern as the guardian angel and messenger, Darragh Flanagan as the shepherd, Kazia Maguire- Bruce as an angel and messenger, Joanne Fitzpatrick as Mary, Daniel Fitzpatrick as the angel and shepherd, Gary McLoughlin as Joseph, Kai Maguire-Bruce as the donkey and Wiseman. For a few weeks before the performance, everyone put in big effort to prepare for the performance. Even though the snow did hassle us a bit! When all their hard work was completed we made invitations and all the parents came in to watch our performances. The performance lasted for about 15 minutes!

Clothes Recycling We collected old clothes for recycling in our school in November and May. The organisation who took the old clothes was Lenrec. The first time we brought in 160 kg and five mobile phones raising €97.50 and in May 310kg raising €155.The money went toward the fee for our school tour. Everyone brought in bin bags full to the brim with clothes and when the person announced the total we all leapt for joy! We then received a certificate of thanks it was a great success. Credit Union Table Quiz In February Curravagh N.S. entered the Credit Union table quiz. We had studied for weeks and were ready. We entered the hall excited. As we took our seats we were handed our sheets and the first round began. The younger groups completed six rounds and the older ones completed eight. The questions varied from naming the planets to the largest mammal. All our teams did very well and one of our teams came fourth, just one point away from third! We also had winning entries for the Credit Union Art competition, Orla Flanagan, Megan Maguire Bruce and Roisin Flanagan.

The King of Copenhagen In March 2012, West Midland’s Theatre Group came to our school to perform the pantomime, “The King of Copenhagen”. It was about a seamstress and a tailor who were competing to make a suit for the king. The king was very fussy and only wanted the finest material. And whoever made the best suit got to be the king’s permanent seamstress or tailor. In the play, Roisin Flanagan, Megan Maguire Bruce, Caoimhán McGovern and Kevin McManus were picked from the audience and performed the role of seamstresses or a tailor’s assistants and also trees. The play was really good and everyone enjoyed it.

Circus In March, the McCormack’s family circus visited our school. They performed a wide variety of skills from, balancing acts, tug a war, a music display and even the strongest man competition. The circus lasted for approximately one hour. Some people in the audience were given roses by the youngest member of the circus! It was a fun filled afternoon and a real treat for all! School Tidy Up In May 2011, we received our second Green Flag from An Taisce. This year we have been working toward our third flag, the water flag. We have been doing daily litter checks. This year we had a big tidy up day and all the classes from 3rd to 6th cleaned up the whole school. Hopefully in the future we will go on to get all seven Green Flags!

Maths Workshop Blathnaid Sheridan, a D.I.T lecturer worked with fourth to sixth class for a ‘Maths For Fun Workshop’. During the workshops we did different brainstorming maths activities and games like Crack the Code, Unblock my Car. We worked on different Maths strategies and played computer games finding mathematical connections. We all had a brilliant day with Blathnaid!

Siobhan Dowd’s London Eye Mystery In November 2012 we started reading ‘’The London Eye Mystery’’. The author of this book was Siobhan Dowd. Fifth and sixth class wrote to her in the “One Cavan One Writer” letter writing competition, explaining how the book had inspired them. The book is about a boy named Ted who has Aspergers. For the main character, his Aspergers means that he can understand difficult theories on the weather and eventually help solve the location of his missing cousin. He cannot seem to understand phrases such as “storm in a tea cup” as he takes it literally. Ted’s cousin Salim disappears which leads Ted and his sister on “The London Eye Mystery”.

Easter Hunt 2012 On the last day before the Easter holidays, sixth class organised a special Treasure Hunt around the school for all classes and an Egg Hunt especially for junior classes. For the treasure hunt, clues had to be made and hid around the school. Once all the clues had been found and all the answers tallied it was time to announce the winners. Joint first place was awarded to Roisin McGovern, Aine McGovern, Nicole McGovern, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Cormac Fitzpatrick. All children received an Easter Egg!

Spelling Bee 2012 Congratulations to Roisin Flanagan who represented our school in the Eason’s Spelling Bee held in Scoil Bhride, , on Wednesday 18th April.

National Wildlife Park’s Visit In March 2012 we had a special visit from a member of the National Wildlife Parks. She brought different bugs and models of animals including foxes, mink, different birds and even a badger. She talked and showed us a power point on hedgerows. She had special telescopes which they use in the Wildlife Park and we used them to examine bugs. She talked about trees and the different leaves in the hedgerows from the shrub layer to the canopy. After that we went outside in teams for a special timed ‘Treetastic’ treasure hunt. We had different clues which we had to crack. After that we came in and went through the answers to find the winners. Confirmation 2012 On the 12th of May 2012 Thomas Fitzpatrick, Francis Fitzpatrick, Cailin McGovern, Roisin Flanagan and Roisin McGovern received the sacrament of Confirmation in St. Patrick’s Church, Killinagh along with children from and . The Confirmation class made diligent preparations for the sacrament. Scrap books were made and Fr. Mawn visited the class to talk to the children on their work. Even the weather stayed dry on the day!

Fleadh Na Riochta From the 22nd of June to the 24th of June the school fundraiser, ‘Fleadh na Riochta’, took place in Glangevlin. Some of the events which were held included a screening in the Mobile cinema, Bonfire night, lots of music in Glan Bar, Sean Eamon Ruairi trail and a car treasure hunt. The mobile cinema was held on the Saturday with a film called ‘Megamind’ being shown. The movie really deserved five stars *****! The bonfire was lit that night with Music provided by local musicians from the school and around the area. Despite the bad weather there was still a big turnout. The bonfire was then lit while the musicians were playing in Glan Bar. On Sunday, the Sean Eamonn Ruairi walk took place. It lasted for up to two hours. Later that evening the car treasure hunt took place, with cars assembling at the starting point, Glan Bar. The car treasure hunt took approximately three hours. The Fleadh Grand Finale then took place that evening with traditional music in Glan Bar. It was a brilliant weekend with lots of traditional music and fun for people of all ages and tastes.

St. Mogue’s Computer Classes Every Friday for six weeks 4th to 6th class travelled to St.Mogue’s secondary school, for computer classes. We had our very own teacher Miss Smith. We had our own computer where we kept all our work for the duration of the classes. Some of the things we learned were; • How to use Word Document. • How to decorate our pages with borders and page colours etc. • How to speed type. • How to make power points. We typed out poems and stories. At the end of the six week class all our work was saved and printed and everyone will also receive a computer course certificate. Fair play World Cup 2012! On the 8th of June the Fair Play world cup was due to take place in the Cottage Meadows in Belcoo. Fourth and fifth class were representing Greece and Curravagh N.S. We had one team and Declan, Aine were the captains and Megan and Ross were the vice captains. We worked on a special project on our country Greece which is going on display in the Market House, Blacklion. The World Cup was really a fair play event which highlighted fair play in a sporty way with different awards for people who played the fairest and the best team participation and of course the winning teams and the runners up. Due to the unchanging bad weather the whole tournament had to be called off because of a waterlogged pitch and pouring rain. The tournament has been rescheduled to the 7th of September 2012. Good Luck to 4th and 5th class who will be taking part! Fr. Mc Padden It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Fr. Charles McPadden, our local curate, in January. He called often to our school and we really enjoyed his friendly chats. At his funeral, we made a guard of honour for him. Sports We took part in a sports day in Bawnboy, organised by St. Mogues College and Shaun Doherty, our football coach. We were treated to lunch in St. Mogues College canteen. We travelled to Breifne Park on the 14th of June for a football blitz. We played very well, won two games and drew the third. Sixth Class A very special mention to our sixth class students, Cailin McGovern, Roisin McGovern, Roisin Flanagan, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Francis Fitzpatrick who are moving on to secondary school in September. We wish them all very best in their future endeavours. Our Bus Driver Our bus driver, Justin retires from driving our school bus on the 27th of June. We will really miss his friendly smile and cheerful ways. Best wishes in your retirement. We will miss you.

A Christmas Carol Fourth, fifth and sixth classes all took part in a production of A Christmas Carol in December 2011. We practised for weeks and the final result was brilliant. Francis Fitzpatrick starred as Scrooge, Cormac Fitzpatrick as Bob Cratchet, Thomas Fitzpatrick as Marley’s ghost, Megan Maguire-Bruce as the ghost of Christmas past, Roisin McGovern as the ghost of Christmas present, Kevin McManus as the ghost of Christmas future. Patrick McGovern played the role of an old friend of Scrooge. Aoife McGovern played Mrs. Cratchit, Orla Flanagan played young Scrooge’s fiancée. Una played a chimney sweep and Cratchit’s daughter along with Nicole McGovern who also played Scrooge’s nephew’s wife. Stephen Fitzpatrick played a young Scrooge. Philip McGoldrick played Scrooge’s nephew. Ryan McGovern played the role of guest at Scrooge’s nephew’s party. Sean McHugh played the role of Tiny Tim. Caoimhan McGovern played the role of a middle aged Scrooge. The play consisted of many different backdrops and props and the talented stage crew pulled it off, Declan McLoughlin, Ross Keegan, Cailin McGovern, Roisin Flanagan, Aine McGovern were our narrators and stage crew. The costumes were put together and everyone contributed to the props. The end result was brilliant and the show was enjoyed by one and all.