Chess by Seán Keane May/June 2012 This year Múinteoir Carmel decided to get Bernard Quigley in to teach fifth and sixth class chess. Some of the students already knew how to play but he still taught them new skills. Every Friday morning at about ten o'clock Bernard took us out two by two for a friendly game of chess. He would also help out if we were having a prob- lem or if we were well matched he would just inspect the game. New Quay Everybody enjoyed going out and now we are all chess fanatics. St. Colman’s National School news

500 year old body found at Moneen by Rachel Moloney The skull of the skeleton was found by cavers in June 2011, in a small cave in the Moneen Mountain near Bellharbour. . ’s National Museum Service carried out a ten-day excavation last August. The find includes pottery shards and animal bone. The cave, amazingly, had not been disturbed until now. The landowner knew that it was there, but it is very small. New Quay/Carron win the final— details inside Carbon dating shows the body was aged between 14 and 16 years and evidence suggests the youth crawled into the cave and died there, probably from malnourishment. Archaeologists suggest from these findings that Moneen Mountain was being used by Clare Green Flag Day School Tour people at one of the most violent periods in Irish history. Upcoming TuesdayEvents June 26th to Thomond Park Events The next parents’ committee meeting is on Wednesday 29th August. from 1pm Monday June Any parent / guardian is welcome to attend. If you are unable to attend but 25th would like to contribute please contact the secretary on [email protected] All Welcome! Junior Class Field Trip by Tom Nolan Junior infants and Senior infants, 1st and 2nd class went on a school tour to the The Football Final by Hannah Fahy Burren National Park interpretative centre in on Friday the 8th of June. At first the students were shown photos of flowers while a member On Monday the 18th of May of staff gave information on the photos. They were asked a question about the New Quay/Carron football the information they heard. About half way through that activity they con- team played a football final ducted an experiment on limestone. against Cranny/Cooleen in the The classes were shown three rocks, two of which were native limestone and Clare schools primary champi- the other one was sandstone. They had to guess which ones were limestone. onship division 4. Múinteoir Mary Once they guessed correctly the instructor poured a special liquid over the was the team coach. There three stones. The two limestone pieces dissolved and the sandstone was fine. were many cheerful supporters After that cool experiment, they watched a film and looked at photos about there from the New Quay/ bees and butterflies which was followed by a bat movie (Not Batman, sadly). Carron parish holding flags and Afterwards they took a stroll and ventured into a cottage filled with stuffed banners. animals . After lunch they went for a walk in a nearby woods. The game got off to an exciting start with Joey Droney scoring the first goal. During the first half the New Quay/Carron team had put the Cranny/Cooleen team under pressure with a smashing 5 goals and 4 points. By the end of the Sports Day by Caitlin O Halloran game the supporters were on the edge of their seats with so much excite- On 30th May, Sports day took place at GAA pitch. Our whole ment . The New Quay/Carron football team won the game by 6 goals. Next school took part along with , Ballyvaughan and Carron National year the New Quay/Carron football team will be in division 3 next year. We'll Schools. It was a lovely day and it was so much fun that the other schools be ready!! could take part also. The egg 'n' spoon race, sack race, three legged race, relay race, pen- alty shootout and much more hap- pened on that exiting day. One of my favourites was the wheel- barrow race. Some of our school's students won the "Tug of War". At the end of the day the students were thirsty, exhausted and re- warded with sweets. YUMMY!!! Green Flag Day by Nathan Fahy

Our school was recently awarded our third Senior Class School Tour by Caitlin o Halloran Green Flag for Water. The 1st Flag was for nd On the 6th of June 2012 the senior clas- Recycling and the 2 Flag was for Energy. ses went on their school tour to the "Let's We have made lots of changes to make our Go" Summer Camp, in Galway City. At school a Green school. All our waste is recy- the camp there were many activities cled into various bins and we clean up the such as rock-climbing, swimming flaggy shore every year. All our bulbs are and zorbing. Zorbing is when you climb now energy saving bulbs. We have a new into an inflatable ball, strap yourself in plumbing system so that we don’t use as and roll down a slide. It was my favour- much water as before and we installed a ite. There were also blow up obstacle tank to harvest our rain water. The green courses, which were a lot of fun! schools inspector said that we used the least amount of water per pupil that he had At the end of the day we popped in to come across. the cafe for a treat, before returning to the bus for the journey back to New These Flags are internationally recognised awards and they are a great Quay. achievement for our school. We would like to thank Jennifer Daly and Imelda Mc Gann who are the The Blue Flag by Seán Keane green schools co-ordinators who have helped make this achievement possi- ble. You all have heard of the green flag but I bet that you have not heard of the blue flag? Have you? ...This flag is about being involved in Europe and finding To mark the event we are having a party at the school to celebrate on Tues- out more about our neighbouring countries. day 26th June at 1.00pm. We would be delighted if parents and the wider community could join us in this celebration. EVERYONE WELCOME!! All of the students in ranga II—VI took part in a project to find out more about Europe. Each student picked a country or two and did a project on it. We learned more facts about the countries. We also had a European day Europe Day by Nathan Fahy and we got to taste lots of yummy foods from the countries. Another task we On 9th of May Rang 2 to Rang 6 all participated in European day. (This was undertook was to have a Debate. Our topic was "Should Gaelic Football be part of our project to get the blue flag.) Everybody in Múinteoir Carmel’s the national sport for Europe?", and yes side won... class selected a European country (2nd class were given Ireland) and made By the end of the project we were all experts on Europe so Múinteoir Carmel food from their selected country for the European day. Everybody came in got Pat Breen the TD to come in and tell us how the European Parliament at four o’clock with their food. I selected Cyprus as my country. I made Mous- works. He told us how much Ireland does for Europe. He really emphasized saka. Seán Keane brought Belgian chocolate and Orla O’Dea brought how agriculture is a very important industry in Ireland, because we export a brownies. After everyone had sampled the European delights they left with a lot of the produce. As a result of all these projects and learning we were good taste for Euro 2012. awarded a Blue flag which will be raised on Tuesday 26th alongside the Green Flag. The Confirmation by Hannah Fahy

On the 23rd of May in St. Patricks Holy Communion by Rachel Moloney Church the boys and girls from New Quay, Carron, Ballyvaughan On May 29th second class made their First Holy Communion. For weeks before and Fanore made their Confirma- there was song learning, and first and second readings to go through. On the tion. Martin Drennan was the Bish- day everyone was nervous but everybody thought that we it was great!! All op for the cermony. Everyone looked super in their lovely outfits. the girls looked fabulous and Paddy Nolan looked dashing in his suit and tie! There was many hymns sung and Shonagh Farrell played a beautiful piece on the violin. 3rd to 6th class made up the readings were recited by the the choir. They sounded beautiful. children making their Confirmation. Everyone from the schools partici- Many thanks to Múinteoir Carmel for conducting the choir, Múinteoir Mary for pated in decorating the church. All helping the 2nd class, Father Clinton and Margaret Jordan for assisting all of of the confirmation students made us!!!!! a cover of a book with their faces in the middle of the cover and they were all hung in the church. There were many people there to witness the children. It was a won- derful day for the children and for their friends and family.

Australian Writer visits New Quay by Tom Nolan

Last month our school was visited by a very special author - Leonie Norring- ton. Leonie Norrington is a popular Australian author, who was visiting Ire- land. She decided to pop in for a visit last month. She told us all about her life and what it’s like being a writer in the Australian outback. When she was young she loved listening to stories that her father told her - especially the spooky ones, which involved monsters beyond your imagination. Leonie told us some of those stories and myths. She talked about her son and her nephew and niece. She told us she writes short sto- ries for them. She showed us some pictures of her house and the land around it on her iPad and read an extract from her latest story -which is not even published yet! Overall her visit was very exciting and she even gave us some books! I'm sure she inspired all of the class. School Closes for Summer School Reopens Wed 27th @ 12 pm Friday 31st August @ 9am